Beauty Bone Broth

What beauty secrets do farmer’s know?

Ask any farmer this question: Who feeds the plants? Their response will be unanimous. The soil feeds the plants! Healthy soil provides all the nutrients, minerals and moisture to grow every fruit and vegetable that we put on our plate.

But who feeds the soil? Farmers feed the soil and the soil feeds the plants!

What does soil have to do with a healthy beautiful body?

Like healthy soil, our digestive system plays host to a plethora of bacteria whose job is simply to break down organic matter into a more absorbable form. These bacteria have positive effects on your body and mind when properly balanced. So who feeds our bodies? The bacteria in our gut feeds our bodies! But who feeds the gut? We feed the bacteria and the bacteria feeds our body!

According to scientific studies:

• “Somewhere between 300 and 1000 different species live in the gut, with most estimates at about 500.
• Roughly 99% of the bacteria come from about 30 or 40 species.”

The problem with our modern food choices is that many of these choices are designed for speed, flavor, and portability, rather than boosting absorption, providing a full spectrum of nutrients, and maintaining the balance of gut flora. Therefore, what we eat, tends to feed some bacteria more than others. Once our gut flora is out of balance, so begins a chain of events that lead to problems, such as yeast infections, food allergies, premature aging, weight gain and even neurological disorders.

Luckily there are some steps you can take, to give your gut what it needs to make you look, and feel, beautiful and healthy such as:

• Eating organic
• Avoiding fast food
• Avoiding processed food
• Avoiding foods laden with sugar and dangerous artificial sweeteners
• Minimizing caffeine and alcohol intake
• Maximizing quality water intake
• Adding raw food to your diet
• Take digestive enzymes regularly
• Eat and drink fermented products
• Take probiotics regularly
• Minimize polluted areas, replace with nature time

But the crown jewel of taking care of your delicate digestive system is incorporating bone broth regularly into your diet.

Bone broth is a hot and tasty fountain of youth!

I’ve incorporated a simple recipe below for chicken based bone broth, but basically, bone broth is made by boiling the bones and cartilage of beef, pork, chicken or fish. My preference is chicken broth, because my family doesn’t eat red meat and I’ve been told by health practitioners that my qi required land animal in my diet. If you’re vegan or vegetarian, I recommend my vegan beauty broth. Trust me, bone broth was the only exception for my very strict vegan diet and only because my adrenals were fatigued. I am so much healthier after taking the bone broth challenge from my physician and have now incorporated it as part of my regular diet. As an agriculture expert, I knew too many dirty bird facts like 25 percent of chicken sold in stores is contaminated with salmonella. So, I found a trusted local source for organic pasture-raised organic chicken and this made me feel comfortable with trying this solution for optimal health recovery.

Regardless of what type of bones you choose, please do not use conventional factory-farmed bones for your broth. Look for the highest quality organic, pasture-raised, grass-fed, locally sourced meat. Ideally, find a farmer you know and trust. Livestock animals absorb whatever chemicals they consume and whatever antibiotics they are injected with. When fed conventionally produced feed, the cascade of chemicals used in its cultivation, GMO crops such as corn, soy, cottonseed, gin trash, are all stored in their flesh and bone. As bone broth is prepared, these chemicals are passed on to our gut flora. So, if you look at this broth as medicine you should use the highest quality ingredients possible.

Bone broth provides a wide spectrum of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and enzymes needed to balance our gut flora. In addition, bone broth provides gelatin into the diet. Gelatin contains collagen, which is found in a great degree in our skin, nails, hair, and joints. So basically, bone broth makes you look and feel young and beautiful. This broth is nature’s beauty cream, nature’s botox, so please, don’t inject or smear a toxic substance on your beautiful face.

Try this beauty bone broth recipe instead of toxic creams and injections:

Creator: I Am Zuri

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 48 hours

Serving: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 whole organic pasture-raised chicken
• 1 organic onion
• ½ organic celery stalk
• 3-4 large organic carrots
• 1 cup organic apple cider vinegar
• ¼ cup organic chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon Himalayan salt
• 1 tablespoon organic cayenne
• 1 tablespoon organic garlic powder
• (See seasoning note below)
• Filtered or spring water

Instructions: Fill a 16-20 quart pot with filtered water and set to boil. As the water is heating up, place the whole chicken, or if pieces, place in a pot with meat, bone, skin, fat, etc. Chop up the onion, celery and carrots and place it in the pot. Bring to boil, cover and reduce heat to high simmer for 2 hours. After two hours, carefully pull out the chicken leaving the veggies. Separate the meat from the rest, (which will be easy to do) and do what you wish with the meat. I use it in place of canned dog food (gag) in order to keep my pup’s gut healthy! After separating the meat, place the remains back in the pot, add the Apple Cider Vinegar and bring to a high simmer for 12-24 hours. Check it regularly to make sure you aren’t running too low on water. After preferred cook time, strain the veggies and chicken remains and compost. At this point, most of the nutrients have been leached out of the veggies and chicken; therefore repurposing them for a meal is not necessary but some people like to make soup with it.

Season the broth or leave it unseasoned if you’d like to add that as you eat it. I end up making different versions of the broth so I don’t burn out on the flavor. You can make Italian, Thai, or Spanish style broth with a few different spices. Use these organic spices to achieve the taste you’re looking for.

• Spanish broth: Cumin, oregano, coriander, garlic powder, salt and black pepper to taste.
• Italian broth: Basil, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, salt, a dash of olive oil and crushed pepper to taste.
• Asian: Garlic powder, sriracha, tamari, basil, astragalus, salt and lemongrass to taste.

Once you’ve decided to season or leave unseasoned transfer broth into storage containers, let cool, and place them in the fridge, or prep them for freezing. I prefer using glass mason jars for storing bone broth. If you freeze in the mason jar leave an inch from the top to avoid overfilling and breaking the glass. Bone broth will keep in the fridge for up to 6 days, and frozen up to 6 months.

Magic Sauce Beauty Tip:

You will notice that there is some sediment swirling around your broth, a thick layer of gel that accumulates as it cools. Do not discard this! This is the magic sauce that has all the goods, we’re talking collagen and gelatin that make your skin plump, coat your digestive tract, and cushion your joints. This broth is loaded with vitamins, minerals, amino acids and enzymes and although it may look odd, your gut will love you for it.

Now that you have your broth complete, season to taste and drink a cup a day, or use it as a base for soups. I also make it with a little sriracha and rice noodles when I am craving comfort food. (Think hot ramen while crunching for finals during college but WAY healthier.) Bone broth is great for rehydrating the body, warding off colds, warming the body on a cold day and above all, healing and sealing your gut!

Drink, regenerate and stay young as long as possible!

NOTE: Alternatively for meat eaters, you can simply save your meat bones in the freezer and make a broth once you have enough. Just be sure you use the elbows and joints because that is where the good stuff resides. Alternatively, you can have your butcher save some bones for your broth but again they must be from organically produced meat.

Slow Cooker Hack: Also, you can make this recipe in a slow cooker if you aren’t going to be home to monitor the water content. Simply follow the same instructions but let cook for 48-72 hours to get the same results.

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