Chicken Stock For Gut Health
“A good broth will resurrect the dead,” so says an ancient South American proverb. With research supporting the link between healthy gut bacteria and prevention of a host of chronic diseases, it may be that ancient cultures understood the link between a healthy gut and the consumption of good chicken stock.
Your grandmother was likely not a microbiologist, but she may have intuitively sensed the connection between chicken stock and the immune system housed primarily in your gut. There’s a lot of research supporting the connection between healthy gut bacteria and disease prevention. Chicken stock provides essential nutrients that support healthy gut bacteria, but we’re making intelligent guesses as to how exactly it prevents disease. The most promising connection is the effect of chicken stock in support of healthy gut bacteria.
Trillions of bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and other microbes form a community of interdependent microscopic organisms inhabit the human intestinal tract. This “gut community”, dubbed the “microbiome”, inside each of us, weighs between 2 and 3 pounds and functions to aid digestion, protect the lining of the gut from inflammatory diseases, and prevent toxic compounds and inflammatory protein markers from escaping the gut and entering the blood stream where their painful and destructive work is exported to organs and joints as far away as toes and fingers.
These healthful microbial organisms play an essential role in the prevention of skin and joint inflammation, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, as well as psychological disorders like depression, learning disorders, hyperactivity, and also impact neurologic function associated with dementia and alzhiemer’s.
If you’re struggling to reduce body fat. If you experience general fatigue. Lack energy. Suffer from obesity. If you’ve got skin or joint inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, or psoriatic arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, IBS, lupus, type II diabetes, chronic skin conditions, kidney and urinary conditions, allergies or if you want to reduce your heart disease, arterial sclerosis, and cancer risks, one important step is optimizing your gut microbiome.
When important families of microbes are eliminated from the gut through frequent or extended antibiotic use, extreme diets where carbs are overly restricted, exposure to chemicals and pesticides, or when pathogenic bacteria take hold, chronic disease often follows. Restoration of healthy microbes can be achieved by reintroducing them through the consumption of fermented foods like greek yogurt, kefir, and hard cheeses or fermented vegetables like sauerkraut. Redcuing the consumption of simple sugars found in candy, and carbs low in fiber reduces the availability of the type of foods unhealthy pathogens thrive on. Here at Fittur we say, “Hit your fiber target and exercise max to make sure you’re eating a whole food diet and support a healthy gut.”
One of the fundamental prevantatiive and restorative foods for healthy gut function may be chicken stock. Chicken BROTH is the “soup” left after boiling a whole chicken for an hour. Chicken STOCK, on the other hand, is the “soup” left after simmering bones in a water bath for up to 24 hours. Broth may have some healing benefits, but stock (what is often referred to as bone broth from simmering cow, chicken, or fish bones for many hours) is likely the real powerhouse.
Since there’s a lot less research available on the direct effects of chicken stock on disease prevention, this the point where we make intelligent assumptions as to just how powerful of a powerhouse chicken stock can be for gut health.
Chicken stock contains important nutrients including calcium and magnesium that support bone health as well as phosphorus, silicon, sulfur and trace minerals that may aid in “sealing” the gut lining and may also help prevent inflammatory diseases. Bone broth contains chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, which may help manage the effects of joint inflammation. Chicken stock also contains the amino acids glycine, proline, and arginine which act as anti-inflammatories. The glycine in bone broth may help you sleep better. We do know that the gelatin in chicken stock aids in protecting the gut lining and also provides the amino acids essential for the growth of skin, nails, and hair.
At Fittur we reccomned you get 1-2 cups of chicken stock at least every other day in soups, sauces, or any other recipes and foods that are part of a regular diet. You can make your own chicken stock, or you can buy chicken stock at your local grocery store. Here are three commercial chicken stock brands.