traditional diet

Bone broth is one of my favorite foods. I eat it as breakfast sometimes, or as a snack. I use it as a treasured ingredient in braises, soups and sauces. I use it as a preventative measure against colds and a treatment for sore throats and the flu. It is, in my opinion, liquid gold, and a foundational part of kitchen skill and traditional nutrition wisdom.

I first learned about the magic that is bone broth a couple of summers ago, when I first got into reading about nutrition. I was home from college and staying with my parents on the farm, where our garden was full to bursting and the pastures were ripe with hay for reaping. It was a beautiful setting in which to devour such books as Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Sally Fallon’s cookbook/nutritional manifesto, Nourishing Traditions. The NT cookbook turned my world upside-down. Much of what I’d learned about how to eat and be healthy came from sources of conventional wisdom – women’s magazines, new studies on heart health and cholesterol, and morning television – but I was fortunate enough to come from a long line of good cooks, plus a long line of country people. What Fallon was championing in her tome was familiar, in a sense, because I had grown up tasting fatback and buttermilk and homemade canned sauerkraut at my grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ dinner tables. (Read more about traditional nutrition here.)

And thus began the enormous and gradual overhaul of my nutritional understanding.

One of Fallon’s most recommended nutrient-dense foods is bone broth, otherwise known as stock, or bouillon in French cuisine. Made from the slow simmering of marrow- and collagen-rich bones, the result is a savory liquid rich in minerals and fats to build strong bones, healthy joints, and strengthen the immune system.

Adding vegetables like celery, carrots, onions and garlic improve the flavor and the nutritional profile, as do bay leaves, peppercorns and sea salt. A little acid splashed in with the rest helps to leach the bones of the valuable minerals, and adds a pleasant tang to the broth. This is also a great use for vegetable scraps – kale stems, asparagus ends, lemon rinds, etc – and so instead of throwing them away they go into the soup pot for flavor.

The tricky part about making bone broth is that it should, ideally, simmer for at least 24 hours, or up to a couple of days. The nutritional profile and the flavor will only be improved the longer it cooks, but few of us have the time or resources to watch a bubbling pot for an entire day. Enter the slow-cooker, the kitchen miracle and savior. Put everything in, set it on low, and check back when you remember. If you have a small house like I do, it won’t be easy to forget. The savory, roasty aromas will fill every corridor, and probably every dream you have that night.

Once you go through the draining and fat-skimming portion of the preparation, you will know you’ve hit the bone broth jackpot when your stuff gels. If it gets thick and gloopy and almost solid, like Jell-O, that’s when you can tangibly see the gelatin from the bones now infused into your magic tonic. Gelatin is an incredible superfood, assisting your body in everything from healthy digestion to radiant skin tone and texture. The gelatin and collagen in bone broth sooth arthritis and other problems of joint inflammation, and can be very beneficial to athletes whose ligaments and tendons need extra protection.

One of my new favorite books, Deep Nutrition by Catharine Shanahan, MD, identifies bone broth or stock as one of the pillars of traditional cuisine and, therefore, a foundational aspect of overall heath and wellness. Shanahan writes of bone broth, collagen, and glucosamine (a glycosaminoglycan molecule): “Veterinarians have been using glucosamine supplements to treat arthritic pets for decades. But physicians dismissed the practice as a waste of time, assuming that, since glucosamine is a protein, the digestive system would break it down into its component amino acids. Nobody can explain how, but studies have shown that glucosamine is somehow able to resist digestion and pass through the intestinal wall intact. Once it gets into your bloodstream, ‘…glucosamine has a special tropism for cartilage.’ (That’s techno-speak for ‘somehow, it knows just where to go.’) Even more amazing, glucosamine can actually stimulate the growth of new, healthy collagen and help repair damaged joints. And collagen isn’t just in your joints; it’s in bone, and skin, and arteries, and hair, and just about everywhere in between. This means that glucosamine-rich broth is a kind of youth serum, capable of rejuvinating your body, no matter what your age.“

Plus, it’s delicious. Warmed on the stove, with some greens thrown in to wilt, it is a protein- and mineral-rich snack, just as satisfying or moreso than a boring salad. Added to a skillet after grilling meat, the broth can deglaze the pan and make a flavorful sauce or gravy. Simmered with a poached egg, bone broth is a nourishing and satisfying thing to sip on cold mornings, when it seems like all that stands between you and a cold is one more sneeze.

For more comprehensive information about bone broth, check out this article by Sally Fallon, archived on the Weston A. Price Foundation website. Various traditional foods bloggers like The Healthy Home Economist and Nourished Kitchen often wax poetic about broth, and now many paleo foodies are getting on the bone broth bandwagon. And you? Do you think you’d brave the nasty bits to get to the end result of bone broth, a delicious nutritional powerhouse?

Bone Broth

2-3 lbs. beef marrow bones, oxtail, shanks, etc.

1 roast chicken carcass, with necks, chicken backs, feet, etc.

3 large carrots, washed + chopped

4 stalks celery, washed + chopped

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, peeled

2 bay leaves

1 Tbsp. whole black peppercorns

1 Tbsp. real sea salt (rich in minerals!)

1 dash Red Boat Fish Sauce

1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Fresh or dried parsley, if you have it

Additional vegetables, as desired

Enough filtered water to cover

Chop vegetables and place half in the bottom of the slow cooker. Arrange bones over the bottom layer and top with remaining vegetables, spices and seasonings. Cover with water, put the lid on, and let simmer on low for 24-48 hours.

A note on bones: when using beef parts, take 10 minutes or so to roast the meaty bones, like the shanks or marrow bones. If using oxtail, this isn’t necessary, nor is it necessary to cook again when using a chicken carcass.

Once broth has simmered for at least 24 hours and is fragrant and golden, remove from slow-cooker to cool. Pour contents of slow-cooker through a large sieve into a large bowl, letting all of the valuable juices drain from bones and vegetables. Discard. Place bowl-ful of broth in the refrigerator for a couple of hours until the fat solidifies and rises to the top. Using a spoon, skim off the fat and discard. Bottle the broth in airtight containers and keep in the fridge or freezer.

Discussion of food has become such an integral part of our social fiber. There are all of these buzzwords — local/organic/sustainable/vegan/non-GMO — that serve to categorize and to separate people and their beliefs. Diets have become a fad that drive our dollars and our emotions to astonishingly dangerous heights, that dictate the patterns of our lives, and often that destroy our relationships with others and, most often, with food. Food is political, food is social, food is not as simple as it once was. Bacon is never just bacon — it’s full of nitrates and sulfates, it’s industrially farmed, it’s humanely slaughtered, it’s artisan, it’s on sale…

In the midst of all of this, I have tried to fashion a place for my tastes and my metabolism and my beliefs that shies away from the extremes. I love to eat and I love to cook. Being in the kitchen is a creative exercise, and one that was passed down through many generations of women on both sides of my family. Cooking for others is my love language, and a means of social collection between myself and family and friends.

I’ve tried diets and they’re weird. Low-carb, low-fat, high-protein, dairy-free…what’s with all of the restriction? I do best with fewer grains and carbohydrates, but not without any entirely. My mornings are brightened with a bowl of steel-cut oats or some nutty, sprouted toast. I do best on a low or sugar-free regimen, although I will never be able to eradicate my adoration for good quality chocolate. My high metabolism is kept in check by a good amount of healthy saturated fats, and I favor more vegetables than protein but always plenty of eggs and butter.

So you can see how I would have a hard time fitting into any pre-fab modern diet. Atkin’s, South Beach, Jenny Craig? No way. I prefer a more balanced, natural approach, and I found my best option with Nourishing Traditions, a book about traditional nutrition with plenty of wholesome science and research to back it all up.

Nourishing Traditions practitioners favor soaked, sprouted grains and grain products, made from whole grains like spelt or kamut. The practice of soaking or sprouting grains or flour before mixing it all into breads, pancakes, porridges or salads neutralizes the harmful phytic acid found in whole grains, a substance that makes digesting whole grains difficult. With the phytic acid neutralized, the whole grain not only becomes more palatable, but also more nutritious. So when I want to make oatmeal or waffles, I soak my oats and my freshly ground flour in water and a tablespoon of whey overnight. The oats cook faster, the batter blends softer, and the end result is a delicious and nutritious meal that feels more like a treat. Certainly, carbohydrates don’t make up the majority of my diet, but they are a key component of a balanced diet and provide plenty of long-lasting energy for a relatively inexpensive cost.

In the realm of proteins, Nourishing Traditions practitioners favor grass-fed meats and dairy — not because this is a fashionable label, but because cattle raised on grass have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids in their body composition, thereby imparting more of those good fats to our bodies. So grass-fed burgers, grass-fed butter, and pastured bacon are all encouraged. Pastured eggs — with chickens who can roam, pecking grass and bugs, getting lots of protein and exercise — are also higher in omega-3s, without any additives like most commercial eggs. Dairy also benefits from a pastured background, and also benefits from culturing, a process by which good bacteria grow to promote healthy digestion and immunity. This includes raw milk, with complete proteins and enzyme, cultured foods like kefir, yogurt, kombucha, cultured butter, and fermented condiments. That means sauerkraut, traditionally fermented pickles and kimchi. Bone broth is another key part of the Nourishing Traditions philosophy. A long-simmered pot of broth, with the beneficial gelatin and vitamins leached from the bones, marrow, and organ meats of a chicken or fish, imparts lots of good nutrients to the human body, nutrients that give glossy hair, strong bones, healthy joints, and a strong immune system.

Whole fruits and veggies are the crux of a healthy diet, no matter what philosophy an eater follows, and so I eat plenty of fresh salads and antioxidant-rich berries and stone fruits. One traditional method of eating greens like kale, collards, spinach, or mustard greens is to cook them in butter (pastured, cultured butter is preferred, of course) — this, much like soaking grains, neutralizes harmful acids and makes the nutritional profile of the greens more easily absorbed. And, additionally, more delicious. I drink plenty of green smoothies made with coconut water and spinach, blended with fruit, and also try my hand at juicing here and there.

I don’t do a ton of baking, but when I do I limit my sweeteners to maple syrup, local honey when I can get it, and Rapadura/Sucanat. This is dehydrated cane juice, and is one of the least processed and most natural forms of sugar available on the market. It looks and tastes much like brown sugar, and adds a rich depth to the flavor of goodies like banana bread or brownies. I also limit my alcohol intake — I’m not as young as I once was! — but I still have plenty of fun.

Whole fats are my favorite: coconut oil, palm oil, cold-pressed olive oil, flaxseed oil, and macadamia nut oil. Whole nuts, raw almond butter, bacon, crispy skin off a roast chicken, and best-quality butter all make it to the top of my favorite foods list, and help me to feel full and energized longer. Plus, saturated fats often help with the absorption of nutrients from other foods, as seen in the example of cooking greens in butter. Fat — the good kind, that is — is my friend!

Following a Nourishing Traditions philosophy of cooking and eating is not easy or instinctive, at least compared to the conventional, modern methods available. Soaking, culturing, souring and sprouting all take plenty of time and planning, but a few mental readjustments were all it took for me to get into a good rhythm. I feel more balanced when I follow a NT pattern of eating, and although I don’t always follow it to a “T” I strive to make the best nutritional choices I can — not just so I can feel better about myself, but because what and how I eat is a lasting investment in my overall health, and I value this immensely.

For more information, check out the Weston A. Price Foundation online — they are the publishers of the Nourishing Traditions book/cookbook, and there is a whole community of bloggers and real-life families who follow this food philosophy. Come back tomorrow to see my round-up of my essential nutrition and cooking books that speak to my foodie philosophy. And in the meantime, happy feasting!

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Photos: most taken with my iPhone of meals and ingredients that I’ve enjoyed most. The top two are of a recent farmer’s market/family garden haul; the brussel sprouts were a part of my man salad recipe; the Lambrucha was a fun Lambic beer-kombucha tea mix that I drank almost entirely on my own; take-out poke from our honeymoon in Hawaii; a rainbow meal of Cobb salad and fresh fruit from last month.

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