Did you know that even when you’re eating healthy foods, your body may not be soaking up the nutrients? 🤔
It’s true: looking and feeling your best isn’t always about what you eat, but your body’s ability to absorb it.
Scientists call this bioavailability –– the proportion of nutrients which enter the bloodstream after you eat and have an active effect.
Bioavailability is a big deal, and we take intentional steps to make Broth Masters as bioavailable as possible.
If you’re using bone broth to support digestive issues like acid reflux, IBS, IBD, or leaky gut (or you just want as much nutrition as you can get) we think these steps are worth knowing about.
First let’s look at bioavailability in a little more detail.
Then we’ll share (some of) what we do to make Broth Masters maximally bioavailable.
When you eat, your digestive system breaks the food down into smaller, more usable components that are bioavailable.
Nutrients from plants (or other foods that take longer to digest like corn or meat) are less bioavailable than nutrients in foods with simpler tissue structures. And they need to be broken down in order for certain micronutrients to reach your bloodstream.
So how can you best improve the nutrient absorption of what you consume?
One effective way is through intentional food preparation.
At Broth Masters, we mindfully and scientifically break down the complex tissue structures in select bones, vegetables, and spices.
And we do it in a way that RETAINS their nutritional value.
The ingredients we put into the pot are not only nutritious but work together to feed your body.
Black peppercorn, for example, is added not simply for its antioxidant properties, but also because it can enhance the absorption and function of other nutrients and beneficial compounds in our broth.
A paper in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition says that “the key alkaloid components” of black pepper “boost nutrient absorption and improve gastrointestinal functionality.” Fascinatingly, the researchers even say that the “free-radical scavenging activity of black pepper and its active ingredients might be helpful in chemoprevention and controlling progression of tumor growth.” (Chemoprevention, if you weren’t sure, means using a substance to help lower a person’s risk of cancer or keep it from coming back.)
A study in the Journal of Functional Foods says that, in particular, peppercorn “significantly enhances” the absorption of beta carotene–– which is great, because our broth has lots of carrots!
Why all the carrots? The human body converts beta carotene into Vitamin A (retinol) which our bodies need for healthy skin, mucus membranes, immunity, good eye health, and vision.
Beta carotene is just the start –– we doubt you’ll find broth with higher amounts of bioavailable magnesium, phosphorus, or calcium either.
We can’t reveal every secret, but rest assured that all our ingredients (bay leaves, garlic, carrots, onions, celery, peppercorns, pasture raised chicken bones, and grassfed beef bones) are added at specific times and temps to preserve their nutritional value and increase the absorbable nutrients
As always, we’re not saying that bone broth cures any diseases or disorders. Consider, however, some of the statements in Nourishing Broth: An Old-Fashioned Remedy For The Modern World.
The author –– Sally Fallon Morell –– is president of The Weston A. Price Foundation, who (like we do) touts nutritious whole foods as the key to health.
At the beginning of her chapter on digestive disorders, Sally writes:
“When digestion suffers, the whole body suffers.”
She’s right: digestive disorders make your food less bioavailable, which can lead to nutrient deficiencies and a whole host of health problems.
Interestingly, though, bone broth has a long history of making food more bioavailable. As Sally writes in Nourishing Broth:
“In the nineteenth century, broth and gelatin were widely prescribed for convalescents who lacked the strength to digest and assimilate food properly. In that era broth was thought to “increase appetite” and “finely distribute the nutrients in food”, meaning increase their digestion, assimilation, and utilization in the body.”
She adds that broth and gelatin were popular remedies for acid reflux and peptic ulcers because they were thought to “stop excess gastric secretion” or “fix a good deal of hydrochloric acid” during digestion.
Gelatin is abundant in Broth Masters, although Sally points out that “many components in broth contribute to its digestive power” such GAGS:
“Properly prepared broths, made from bones, cartilage, and skin are rich in glycosaminoglycans (GAGS), the best known of which are glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate. These provide the raw ingredients needed for the body to produce the healing mucus required throughout the digestive system.”
This healing mucus, Sally adds, “lubricates the passage of food, nourishes good bacteria, blocks bad bacteria, and plays key roles in immune response.”
Before moving on to other digestion-friendly agents in bone broth, Sally asks: “Why does broth heal the gut?” Her answer: “Primarily by feeding its cells the protein sugars known as glycosaminoglycans, or GAGs.”
A big reason we cook our broth for 48 hours is to gently break down the bones and cartilage and get as many GAGS into the broth as we can. Broths with shorter cook times (which is most of them) don’t have the same amount.
A university researcher who tested the nutrient levels in Broth Masters told us: “I understand why this broth helped with your daughter’s Chohn’s, because it has a significant amount of GAGs, and those can really help with inflammation.”
Glycine gets high marks from Sally as well, who writes that “the high glycine content of broth and gelatin aids digestion by enhancing gastric acid secretion.”
That’s important, because a lack of stomach acid makes it hard for your body to break down food and extract the nutrients.
Rounding out her nutrient rundown, Sally says that “broth’s high glutamine content is also critical for gut health” since glutamine is “the primary nutrient for enterocytes, the cells that absorb digested food from the lumen and transport the nutrients into the bloodstream.”
Amazingly, glutamine seems to promote digestion even under extreme duress:
“Glutamine furthermore stems the loss of electrolytes and water from the intestines during either acute or chronic diarrhea, and has greatly benefited patients with IBS, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and other severe bowel diseases. Patients who have experienced surgical removal of parts of their small intestines are less likely to suffer malnutrition from short bowel syndrome if tube-fed glutamine along with their other nutrients.”
So with all of this in mind, what’s our “bottom line” view on bone broth and bioavailability?
Laya and I believe that food is our original form of medicine. And we look at Broth Masters as a nutritional power-up for healing diets.
Many people with digestive disorders don’t even know they have one. They simply suffer from symptoms like fatigue, heartburn, bloating, irritation, and constipation that seem to have no obvious cause.
Even if you’re a clean eater today, you may still have digestive stress from eating poorly in the past.
Try drinking some broth before your first meal of the day. Or even as your first meal. By giving your stomach some soothing nutritional support, you might absorb more vitamins and minerals from everything you eat.
(See Also: Collagen Your Body Can Absorb | Is Bone Broth Really Calcium Rich?)
According to Sally, bone broth “went out of fashion” once antacids, anticholinergics, gastrin antagonists, and other pharmaceuticals became more widely available.
And she closes her digestive disorders chapter with a sentiment that we 100% share!
“It’s time to trust our guts and know in our hearts that nourishing broth can heal body and soul.”
–– Sally Fallon Morell, President of Weston A. Price Foundation
Broth Masters is real, authentic bone broth for wellness. Each steamy mug floods your cells with bioactive nutrition.
We aren’t allowed to call it medicinal, but however medicinal it’s possible for broth to be, that’s what we’re shooting for.
We slow simmer for 48 hours and ship it frozen, teeming with beneficial compounds that shelf-stable broths are missing.
Customers leave reviews like these on a regular basis:
If you want maximum nutrition in your life, try our hearty Chicken or Beef + Chicken broths.
You’ll feel great, love the taste, and it’s perfect for fall!
Warmly,
-Dorothy & Laya