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Diet

10 Reasons Homemade Broth Should Be Part of Your Diet

January 9, 2014 by KimiHarris 9 Comments

10 reasons broth should be a regular part of your diet

The Jewish penicillin, the gut-healing golden liquid, the frugal kitchen’s star, the gourmet’s canvas, healthy homemade broths and stocks are incredibly worthy of your time, and certainly worthy to be on your table.

I know that I circle around to how great homemade broth is a lot on this blog , but could I really ignore the topic in my 21 steps to a nourishing diet series? Absolutely not! Considering that I am the type of person to write an entire book on soups ( affiliate link),  you better believe that I think that broth’s are valuable.

Today I thought I’d gather together ten great reasons making broth should be high in your priorities when switching to a nourishing diet. And don’t worry. Broth making  is one of the easiest methods to learn in the kitchen. I have a couple links at the end of this post for recipes.

1. Homemade broth is delicious!

Homemade broths (stocks) have been the cornerstone of many different traditional diets, and have been held  in high regard for their health promoting aspects and how delicious they make food. Not only can you make delicious hot soups (who doesn’t like Chicken Noodle Soup?!), but you can also use them for delicious sauces, to moisten stir fried dishes, and even use them in gravies! I made a dairy-free sausage gravy with homemade chicken broth the other day, and it was delicious. The point it this,  we can find many delicious ways to use broth.

2. Making broth respects the death of an animal

We have chosen not to be vegan as we feel that animal products are necessary for our health and well being. But that doesn’t mean we take the death of animals lightly. We respect and honor their sacrifice. One of the ways we do that is by making sure that all parts of the animal are used. When making broth, you are making sure that none is being wasted.

3. Homemade broth is a frugal practice

Do you like making roasted chicken or chicken drumstick dishes? Absolutely save those bones for homemade broth! I can squeeze so many more meals out of a strict grocery budget when I am making broths and using them in meals. Beef broth is also frugal to make. To take frugal to the next level, reuse the bones following this method, or my own version of it in my cookbook, Ladled: Nourishing Soups for all Seasons. (aff link)

4. Homemade broths made with bones are a good source of minerals, including calcium

When you make broths in slightly acidic water (by the addition of vinegar) and slow cook it for hours, the minerals in the bones start drifting into the broth creating a mineral rich food for you. The higher the bone-to-water ratio, the more mineral rich it will be. Since we have found that we can’t rely on dairy for calcium, homemade broths fit the bill nicely for us. Some may remember that soup made with homemade broth was part of Dr. Price’s body and teeth building protocol. 

5. Homemade broths are a good source of proline

Proline could help support our nervous system, and is being researched as a possible treatment for neurodegenerative diseases, meaning it could help protect our brains! Some are considering it an essential amino acid.

6. The glycine in broth could help with detoxification

As was explained so well in The Healing Power of Broth, “Another vital function [of glycine] is detoxification. The human body requires copious amounts of glycine for detoxification after exposure to chemicals…”

Unfortunately, we are often exposed to chemicals in our environment. Regular servings of high quality broth could help our bodies deal with that real stress.

7. Glycine in broth could help your digestion

Once again quoting, The Healing Power of Broth, “Glycine also helps digestion by enhancing gastric acid secretion. Research published in 1976 established that only proteins stimulate gastric acid secretion, but apparently not all amino acids do so. Glycine is one of those that do, a fact that was known in 1925.”

I’m sure that many of you have heard of the research showing how abnormal our stomach acid levels are. Glycine (and more broadly) the gelatin in broth could help balance that out for us, which is vital for proper digestion, and gut health. Gut issues are really much more common than many know. Because so much of our health starts in the gut (even our bodies ability to respond to allergens!), keeping out gut healthy is vital, and homemade broth is full of elements that are gut healthy – one being glycine.

8. Gelatin in homemade broth helps you digest protein from meat and plant sources

Homemade broth can be a wonderful source of natural gelatin, which has many benefits. One of which is that it was found to increase the digestion of protein from wheat, oats, barley, beans, and meat. If you are on a stricter budget that doesn’t allow higher amounts of protein foods, homemade broth or gelatin could help you absorb and use more of the protein you do eat!

9. Homemade broth is an excellent food for those recovering from illness

Homemade broth was especially valued for those who were sick traditionally, and some studies did show that those who consumed gelatin (one of the main parts of broth) did indeed heal and recover faster. Ever wonder why Jello was served so often at hospitals? Now you know (and I would actually eat it if it was made with fruit juice or kombucha!).

10. Homemade broth is a rich source of a variety of nutrients

There is always a danger in turning to supplements of this or that for healing and nutrition. A single substance could have many benefits, but it is also more likely to have side effects or throw out of balance other nutrients in the body. However, when eating them in food form, other balancing nutrients are also present. This allows the body to be well nourished across the board, instead of simply getting high doses of one thing. Homemade broth is an excellent source of many important minerals, amino acids, and health building gelatin, and as such, can be an excellent addition to your diet.

Posts on Making Broth:

  • Homemade Chicken Broth
  • Homemade Beef Broth 
  • Taking Frugal Bone Broths to a New Level 
  • How to make chicken broth for practically free

Filed Under: 52 ways to save money on a healthy diet, Health, Nourishing Practices, Nutrient Dense Foods Tagged With: 10 Reasons, Beef Broth, Broth, Chicken Broth, Chicken Soup, Diet, Gelatin, Glycine, Stock, Your Diet

What Difference Can a Healthy Diet Make?

January 8, 2014 by KimiHarris 16 Comments

Discussing what a healthy diet can and cannot do for you!

I am completely fascinated with the healing natural world around us. I think that it is crazy that we find cancer preventing elements in funny shaped roots such as turmeric, and tree shapes vegetables such as broccoli. I’ve been impressed with the relationship apparent between food swarming with bacteria (like yogurt and sauerkraut) and the health of our own digestive tract. Or how coconut oil can do so many body building things, yet is only one food substance.

And as someone impressed with these sorts of things, I often encounter two reactions to eating a nourishing, healthy diet. One is the voice of skepticism. This type of person (and I’ve been there myself) has a sort of fatalistic viewpoint on life. The viewpoint that says bad things will happen no matter what I eat, so I might as well eat whatever is most convenient. Studies showing this or that benefit, personal stories of dramatic recovery, or even their own experience is often not enough to make an impression or real change in eating habits. It’s good to be skeptical, and if I wasn’t a skeptical person on at least some levels, this blog would have never been born ( that’s another story for another day), but it can also lead us to ignore the realities of how we reap what we sow.

The other voice I hear often is the voice of a fanatic. This is the person who feels that a good diet will literally make the world a perfect place, or at least, almost perfect. This is the person whose whole world view would be crushed to smithereens if they, or a close friend who also ate well, ever had to deal with cancer, or any other serious health issue. Because, after all, that friend had regularly eaten broccoli, and shouldn’t they have escaped the curse of cancer?

I thought it would be helpful to share at the start of our series, 21 days to a nourishing diet, what I personally think the benefits of eating a healthy diet are. It may be different than you think.

What a healthy diet can do for you

A nourishing diet can nourish you. I know, profound. But stay with me here.

Dr. Price’s research into a nourishing diet was based on the concept that our diet can have a direct effect on our dental health, our overall health, and our mental health. Those are big promises.

He found that when a diet was high in vitamins such as A, D, and K2, and in minerals such as calcium and magnesium, that the diet was better able to support healthy teeth. He even found that he was able to halt the quickly decaying teeth of malnourished children of his time by giving them a generously nourishing midday meal.

That’s pretty promising research.

He also found that those who ate traditional diets had general better health, had healthier babies, easier labors, and he became convinced that our nourishment also had a relationship with our mental health.

More modern research has backed some of those claims, such as linking certain vitamin deficiencies to birth defects. They’ve even found that the traditional view that men’s health could have effect on their children also to be true. Being well nourished before conception shows promise of better chances of having healthy children. That’s enough to influence how I eat!

A growing body of research supports the idea that proper nutrition could also help protect us from depression and something as simple as Vitamin D could be helpful to look into when dealing with psychiatric illnesses. Dr. Price was ahead of his time in many ways.

Whether it’s about growing babies, recovering from depression, or having enough energy to enjoy life, food holds promise to be helpful to us in many, many ways.

But it can’t take away the fact that we live in an imperfect world.

What a healthy diet can’t always do for you

I think that it would be naive to think that eating well will mean that we will never deal with any health issues. I know loads of lovely people who have had their lives changed in amazing, life saving ways through diet and supplements. Their stories inspire me. But not all of them can say that they live trouble-free, health perfect lives. Their lives are greatly improved, but not always perfect. Some of my friends who have worked through terrible depression with natural methods, have not been able to solve other pressing health issues. Some of those who ate lots of cancer-preventing foods, still got cancer in the end. It does happen (And one should always be aware of the fact that cancer-preventing diets are about getting better chances of not getting cancer – it’s not a guarantee. Plus, there are other factors in play as well – some of which we can’t control.).

As someone who has lost a baby to a birth defect, I’m well aware of the hope that a nutrient dense diet has for helping nourishing our unborn baby, but also the need to acknowledge that our world is imperfect and that diet doesn’t control everything, or guarantee anything. Pre-modern days may have seen birth defects less common, but they were not absolutely unknown. Dr. Price may have seen dramatic improvements with dental health, but that doesn’t mean he thought that no tribal person had ever suffered from dental decay.

I think about the Native Americans and how entire tribes were decimated by the common colds and viruses Europeans brought over with them. Think of how much purer their diets were in comparison to our diet (or the Europeans of the time, for that matter),  and how nutrient-rich their food was, and how much physical activity was part of their norm.  They probably had really healthy babies, little cancer, and perfect blood sugar, but a common cold may have killed them in the end. Were their lives absolutely better because of their excellent diets? Of course. Would have a junk food diet improved their chances? Absolutely not. But their nutrient dense diet didn’t prevent them from ever getting seriously sick from viruses that hadn’t had the chance to be built through their tribe’s immune systems.

So, if a nutrient-rich diet holds such hope, but guarantees so little, should we bother?

In my opinion, absolutely yes. My personal experience has been that eating well has life changing, daily benefits. If I were to die of cancer, I’d be thankful that so many of my pre-cancer days were spent with better energy, better mental clarify, less low spirits, and better ability to enjoy the days I had. (And just to clarify, I find the amazing world of disease fighting research fascinating and helpful, and think that there is real help with expert alternative health care practitioners who treat as well as help prevent cancer, heart disease and diabetes through natural means).

Can a diet control all of the other toxins in our world that we were even daily exposed too? No, but it can give our body an edge in dealing with them. Can we guarantee ourselves healthy long lives with healthy long living children? No, but we can certainly give ourselves a fighting chance for those things. Why not fight for health with the many tools we know and have already? It would be silly to not try just because we have no guarantees or because we don’t know everything.

There is a tension we need to find. A good tension that allows us to balance between the real hope a good diet gives us, and the reality that it may not solve everything every time. If we don’t have realistic expectations, we could grow discouraged. But if we find peace living in an imperfect world, while still being able to fight for a better understanding of how we can grow healthier, I think we can find a happy medium to stay in.

A find that happy medium by enjoying beautiful foods that also just happen to be body-building. In case you were wondering, the pictures above are of local organic strawberries from summer served with chocolate coconut milk whipped cream. With food like this, why not enjoy healthy foods as well as their benefits?

Filed Under: Health, Nourishing Practices, Nutrient Dense Foods Tagged With: A Healthy Diet, Diet, Eating A Healthy Diet, Healthy, Healthy Babies, Healthy Diet, Healthy Teeth, Nutrient Diet

21 Steps to a Nourishing Diet (A New Series )

January 7, 2014 by KimiHarris 6 Comments

221 steps to a nourishing diet

It’s a beautiful (and cold) new year, and I find my mind brewing new ideas and goals about getting ourselves back on track with eating the best, healthiest diet we can. I know a lot of you are doing the same thing as well, with many questioning how they can eat a healthy diet while balancing the rest of life. Eating a healthy, nourishing diet is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions people make, and also one of the most failed resolutions.

But it doesn’t have to be, and I would love for my blog to help make a healthy diet a practical, doable goal for more of my readers. So, in light of that goal, I’ve decided to take the next two months to sharing tips and recipes for getting on track with a nourishing diet as part of this series. I’m excited this year to have my contributing writers also involved in the series, allowing you to get more than one perspective on this important topic!

I am really excited about this series as it allows us to focus on not just the basics, but also the practical recipes and thoughts that make our eating habits realistic and delicious. It’s going to be a good two months. This series, as we will go more into soon, is based on a traditional diet using traditional ingredients. Like my blog as a whole, it is inspired by Sally Fallon’s book, Nourishing Traditions (affiliate links) and Dr. Price’s book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. To get more information quickly, get them from the library or buy them! They are life-changing books, for sure.

Since I am still mapping out next month’s posts for this series, I’d love to hear any suggestions or questions you’d like answered! Let me know in the comments below.

Meanwhile, you may find the following past posts helpful: 

  • How NOT to save money on a healthy diet 
  • Easy Gluten-free Pizza (pictured above) 🙂
  • Are you really eating a nourishing diet? 
  • The diet that heals cavities 

 

Filed Under: For the Love of Food and Books, Health, Nourishing Practices, Nutrient Dense Foods Tagged With: A Healthy Diet, Diet, Healthy, Healthy Diet, How To Eat Healthy, Meet Your Goals, Nourish

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The information you find here at The Nourishing Gourmet is meant to help you become a better cook! This site is primarily for sharing family friendly recipes. It's not meant to give medical advice or to make any health claims on the prevention or curing of diseases.This site is only for informational and educational purposes. Please discuss with your own, qualified health care provider before adding in supplements or making any changes in your diet. Also, any links to sponsors or affiliates (including Amazon) may give me a percentage of the sale or a pay per click. Thank you for supporting this site.

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