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I know what you’re thinking.
What’s with the disgusting photo Sarah? Isn’t this post supposed to be about the benefits of gelatin?
Before you click away in haste, hear me out.
I agree. That is one nasty photo.
I decided to use it to help make a crucial dietary point, believe it or not.
The World Is a Toxic Place Even In Places Where It Should be Pristine
The point is that our world has become a toxic soup and the situation is getting worse by the day. I say this not to depress you (I am not depressed about it .. I am deeply concerned but not depressed), but to wake you up to reality if you think you are avoiding toxins in your everyday life.
Dioxin, the chemical by-product of numerous industrial processes that is toxic to the human body, is stored in body tissues and considered a persistent environmental pollutant, has been found at the North Pole. Think your seafood from Northern Waters is clean?
There is a large vortex of garbage roughly twice the size of Texas swirling out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that keeps growing with each passing year.
The grouper in the Gulf of Mexico are so deformed from the BP oil spill I’m told by fishermen friends that I have decided not to eat it anymore even though I just love grouper sandwiches.
Hike off many country roads in small towns or large – doesn’t seem to matter – and you will find garbage and illegally dumped chemicals everywhere that are no doubt seeping into the ground water.
I don’t want to even talk about Fukushima – it just breaks my heart too much having traveled extensively in that beautiful country and having some very dear friends who live not far from Reactor #4. I won’t even eat Pacific tuna anymore.
Get the idea?
How do we deal with the toxic soup we are forced to live in everyday?  You can certainly reduce your exposure by eating organic foods, clean grassfed meats and dairy and avoiding pesticides and other chemicals in and around your home, but there are still numerous other sources that you probably don’t even know about that are assaulting your system on a daily basis.
Now for the Good News
A very simple thing in your diet like lots of gelatin via homemade bone broths goes a long way toward helping your body deal with whatever toxins you are exposed to.
Bone broths help with detoxification?
Yes they do.  Bone broth is not just a boon to the entire digestive process. It is a huge help to the liver too!
Never heard of bone broth also commonly known as stock? Click here to see my numerous video lessons on the subject.
Natural Gelatin In Bone Broths Helps the Detoxification Process
The natural gelatin present in bone broths helps detoxify the body because it is loaded with the amino acid glycine which assists the liver with its housecleaning duties. Â The simplest of all the amino acids, glycine can be produced by the body and is therefore not considered essential, but the ease of the body in manufacturing the glycine that is needed to keep the detoxification process running effectively is probably highly contingent upon whether a person is in radiantly good health!
Since the ability of the liver to do its job sufficiently is limited by the amount of glycine that is available, it makes sense to provide the body with all the glycine it could possibly need!
Glycine in Gelatin Helps Normalize Liver Function
Gelatin not only helps the liver do its job effectively. It also helps the liver function normally if it is having problems.
Dr. Reuben Ottenberg in 1935 suggested in the Journal of the American Medical Association that patients with jaundice or other liver problems be administered 5-10 grams of gelatin per day as food or via a powdered gelatin supplement to supply additional glycine to the diet in order to encourage normalized hepatic function.
Consuming Lots of Gelatin is Must in Such a Toxic World
Given the toxicity of our world today and the high level of chemicals in our air, water, and food, a large amount of glycine in the diet is one very crucial and important way to assist the body with the nearly constant detoxification that is required to maintain health.
The best way to get lots of natural gelatin into your diet is to make bone broths and incorporate them into your diet on a frequent basis with sauces and soups.
If you don’t consume bone broths either alone or as part of soups and sauces nearly everyday, however, you may wish to consider a natural gelatin supplement.
Powdered gelatin can be added to smoothies which is a great option in hot weather when the thought of a steaming hot bowl of soup is not very appealing.  While protein powders are not healthy due to the high processing involved to make them, powdered gelatin is a wonderful alternative and it adds protein to a smoothie as well as plenty of glycine for detoxification.
Powdered gelatin can also be added to bone broth that hasn’t gelled very much to ensure that when the bone broth is used in soups and sauces, adequate gelatin is being consumed with each serving.
Be aware that powdered gelatin contains trace amounts of MSG, so if you are super sensitive you may need to avoid it. I myself am very sensitive to MSG and have not experienced any problems with powdered gelatin provided it is a quality source.
Where to Source Gelatin and Bone BrothÂ
Be aware that not all gelatin is created equal! There are quality sources of gelatin and those that are not as desirable. If you are going to go to the trouble of sourcing gelatin, make sure that the quality is sufficient to truly help you with your detoxification goals.
Please refer to my shopping guide for vendors of the highest grade of 100% pure gelatin and collagen peptides available that are tested for BSE/mad cow disease. They are also tested to be free of glyphosate residue. This is the same brand I have in my own pantry and have used for years.
You can also buy organic bone broth if you prefer actual food to a supplement. Â I would recommend only buying bone broth packaged in glass jars due to the toxicity issues from packaging in plastic or plastic lined aseptic cartons.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
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More Information
5 Reasons Your Stock Won’t Gel
Source:Â Gelatin in Nutrition and Medicine, N. R. Gotthoffer
I’ve been making small batches of bone broths every 2 – 3 days but did not realize that it has a protective and detoxing effect on the liver. Glad I’m doing something good for both my toddler and myself…..and this article reminds me that I need to drink more of it! =)
very interesting, might try it in the winter until then I will continue sleeping and doing power sessions on my wonderful BIOMAT
Glycine via gelatin is a powerful detox! Some people might need to start slow at first and ensure the bile is thin and free flowing before starting a powerful detox program!
I like the Great Lakes Gelatin brand.
I have been drinking bone broth every day. I started taking 1/16 tsp of gelatin the other day, & now my stomach feels awful. I am very sensitive to a lot of foods. Should I just try 1/16 tsp maybe every 3rd day or so, & see how I feel?
Above all else, listen to your body. If it feels awful (no matter how healthy it is) it may not be best for your body’s current state (and could do more harm than good). When digestion is weak (usually indicated by a slowed metabolism (waking body temp less than 97.8), digestive juices are in a sense “dialed down” and foods are not as easily digested. You may also be using a form a gelatin that is more difficult to digest (regular vs. collagen hydrolysate).
wow! what an eye-opening post! thanks for sharing! i eat a lot of wild-caught fish…this is quite alarming!
For the vegetarians and veganists among us: glycine is also found in wheat germ, peanuts and sesame. Sesame is also a great source for calcium.
Logic just hits you right in the face when you read that one…it’s like the biggest “Oh yeah! I know exactly what you are talking about!” Great piece.
I really want to add bone broth to my dog’s food every day, to help with arthritis and an elevated liver enzyme (ALT) count. Is there any reason I shouldn’t?
I give fish oil (salmon) to my dog for arthritis, he doesn’t have any pain. I also give him broth, but not for any particular reason and he loves it. He is a 12+ year old golden retriever and still acts like a puppy. 😉
I have some bone broth in the crockpot as I type.
Will giving your dog home made bone broth help with his teeth? My poor dear dog had to be put to sleep to have his teeth cleaned a couple of times in his life. That was traumatic and expensive. Broth helps with needed minerals and the calcium phosporous ratio. If that is good for people, I assume that it is good for dogs, too. I assume that sometimes their dental problems come from the unnatural food that we humans choose for them. (O…and onions are not supposed to be good for dogs, so I wouldn’t put onions in broth meant for a dog)
We give our dog raw meaty bones with the marrow still in them. Good for his teeth and belly, I also open a couple of acidophilus capsules and sprinkle that on his meaty bones as well as I add a little sea salt to his water once per day. When we give bone broth to him, I separate a small portion of it with lots of the fats and we don’t add any veggies to his broths, only to the stuff we humans are going to consume. Sometimes I boil down the broth especially for the dog, so it’s thicker and more gelatinous. He also loves slightly soured raw milk and cream. My brother is a vet and he said he wishes his kids were as healthy as that dog!
Prey Model (raw meat, organs, and soft bones) feeding keeps teeth clean – raw chicken with bones. The the very hard soup marrow bones can do damage to their teeth so it is not recommended. I normally scoop the marrow out of the bone then give it as a treat.
If you are feeding a canned or a kibble with grains this will cause bad teeth.
Although Prey Model does not allow kefir or broth, I still do it. Just makes sense to me.
Everyday we add either bone broth or kefir to our dogs food.
My son laughs at my never-ending broth pot; I just boil a set of bones till they are good and used up (take them out) then add more bones, water, and seasonings as needed. Sometimes I drink it straight or use it to make whole wheat couscous or mashed potatoes, or I cook rice or whole wheat pasta in it.
Great article which I’ve shared on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Learning-and-Yearning/229256057187940. Sarah, I have a question. I had a nutritionist appointment recently and we talked a bit about fats in the diet. My nutritionist highly recommends consuming fats, especially quality butter and olive oil. Because of the reasons that you have sited in this article – the fact that even the most remote places in the world are polluted – she does not recommend eating a lot of animal fat. Toxins, she says, are stored in fat. Since the time of Weston Price our world has become severely polluted. She does recommend eating meat. Dairy fat does not store toxics like meat fat, she says. I was wondering about your opinion on this. Thanks!
You MUST eat animal fat to be healthy. All 14 of Dr. Price’s traditional societies valued them as sacred foods necessary for health. Trying to avoid toxins by not eating them is a futile task that will lead to ill health. Get the cleanest sources you can and eat up! It’s like saying let’s not drink any water anymore because all the water is so polluted. There is no logic to the “don’t eat animal fats because of toxins” argument. If the only animal fat I could get or afford was SPAM, you can bet I would be eating SPAM.
I’m healing from Celiac’s disease and have been recommended making bone soups to help heal my intestinal walls by my naturopath. I also happen to have the herpes virus which I see after reading this blog, soups may cause an outbreak. I just started eating the broth two days ago (and 3 times a day because I’m following the intro to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet) , so I’ll let you know if I get a herpes outbreak.
Question: Why is every body buying the powdered form of gelatin instead of making your own stock? I was nauseous after going gluten free due to the leaky gut developed by celiac’s disease. I got off all supplements for two months and my nausea stopped almost immediately. I’ll try making my own broth first. What is the advantage of eating a store bought powdered form??
Second question, it feels like a real energy sucker cooking the bones on the stove for so many hours. How many hours would you cook chicken bones in a crock pot?
So… she recommends butter and meat, so which animal fats is she warning against? Perhaps you misspoke somewhere in there because what you said contradicts itself.
I apologize. As I said, she says that dairy fat does not store toxins like meat fat, so lots of butter is fine. I also love to eat the fat on meat, not just the meat itself, and that is what she recommends not doing.
That makes sense since the fat in the meat has been accumulated over the animals’ life. I suppose this would mean tallow and other rendered fats would be higher in toxins. Personally I hate chewing on the gristle in meat, and prefer very lean cuts like sirloin and filet mignon.
Sarah, do you particularly think it’s important to eat higher fat cuts of meat, or is eating lean cuts of beef, poultry, fish and cultured raw dairy products sufficient nutritionally in your mind?
I love bacon and sausage too, but have some reservations about eating pork, not only because piggies are so cute (feel the same way about ducks!), but also I don’t think it sits well digestive wise compared to other meats, and it is impossible to find pork that is grass fed. I can get milk and whey fed pork, but they feed the pigs corn too… same issue with poultry… near impossible to find poultry that isn’t fed any grains.
http://www.eatwild.com is a website that lists suppliers of grass-fed meat and dairy. it can be pricey, but if you get together a group of people, you can buy a whole animal together and cut costs considerably. It’s called cow-pooling. I always make sure I get some fat from such animals and render it for use in cooking. Fat from grass-fed animals has CLA, vitamins and other important nutrients.
hi olivia,
sorry for going off on a tangent here, but i just wanted to reply to something you said in your comment (that not everyone is aware of, so forgive me if you already are)…
the reason that you can’t find “grass-fed” pork is that pigs are omnivores… they can’t survive on grass… they do need supplementation with other foods, and grains (such as corn) are not bad for them, as long as they are not the main portion of their diet… traditionally, pigs were fed (as you mentioned) excess milk and whey, as well as other excess farm produce (including veggies, nuts, eggs, meat, etc), and yes, some corn and other grains….
the same goes for chickens… they are omnivores… so no, their entire diet should not be made up of grains… but have you ever seen a chicken jumping up to reach the seeds on a tall stem of grass? they go crazy for them… and that’s what grains are: the seeds of grasses and grass-like plants…
grains do not have the same digestive effects on pigs and chickens as the do on ruminants… and even for ruminants, grains are not an “unnatural” food in the normal amounts you would find in nature (our goats also go nuts for the grass seed-heads, for example… in the wild, that would be a natural part of their food…)
where we run into trouble is when they are fed *excessive amounts* of a food like that, where in their natural diet they would never be able to consume that much…
so, if you feel that you want to be eating pork and/or poultry, that milk and whey-fed pig that is supplemented with corn is probably quite delicious and healthy… same goes for the pastured chickens that are supplemented with grains…
okay, tangent over… 🙂
teri
Selina- thank you, that link was most helpful.
Teri- yes I am aware of this. I don’t have a problem with milk and whey fed pork and think it is good for pigs and chickens to have supplemental feed. (Though I’m sure they are resourceful and in the wild can live off of what they can find) My problem is that, yes, they’re fed much more grain than they should be, and that the grains they eat are pesticide laden GM corn and soy. I would love to find a farmer that feeds a totally organic, nutritionally dense supplemental feed to their omnivores, like flax, chia, kelp, organic food scraps, etc, and mostly just lets them run free in the woods and pasture.
Personally, I get my eggs from a farmer who doesn’t feed much grain. I haven’t even asked what grains he feeds or whether it’s organic because his eggs are obviously far superior to even the eggs I get from other local farmers who do feed organic grains. The yolks are deep orange and delicious. When I live in an area where I can have chickens and raise them the way I want… I definitely will.
Since pigs do not sweat they keep many toxins in their body (aside from what they can exhale, urinate, and eliminate). Also, White Oats Pasture is an awesome beef and poultry farm in Georgia. Their products are sold at Whole Foods (among other places) and can be ordered online.
About how much gelatin would you put in a smoothie?
Anywhere from 1-3 tsp.