Prolonged calorie restricted diets or intermittent fasting is becoming mainstream in the search for health and longevity. The 4 main reasons people fast as part of their weekly routine are:

• Weight loss
• Anti-ageing
• Gut health
• Reduce inflammation & improved immune function

Fasting can help with all of these things but the right protocol needs to be followed- fasting isn’t just not eating for a few hours, and done incorrectly, it can be dangerous.

There are many different fasting protocols, and we recommend adding Bone Broth to what is known as a water fast. A water fast is where for a period of time, you consume only water and non-caffeine herbal teas (without milk or any form of sweetener, artificial or natural). We think that adding Bone Broth is an easier way to get the benefits of a pure water fast.

Many Reasons to Use Bone Broth During Your Fast.

1. Preservation of muscle

The amino acids found in bone broth, such as glycine, have shown to increase preservation of lean mass such as muscle in obese mice fed a calorie restricted diet for several weeks. There is a risk with fasting that you lose muscle mass, which could slow your metabolic rate. Preserving muscle during fasting also allows for movement function to be maintained. Staying active during a fast is important, and adding Bone Broth to your fast will help with that.

2. Increased weight loss

In the same study as above, mice on a calorie restricted diet supplemented with glycine also lost significantly more fat mass than the control mice that didn’t take glycine. This is what we want: more fat lost but more muscle maintained. Glycine is one of the most abundant amino acids in bone broth.

3. Anti-ageing

Mitochondria are the energy factories of the body. You want your mitochondria to be healthy and well-functioning. Adding glycine from Bone Broth helps old mitochondria return to a young, and more efficient state. Rats who received a glycine supplement lived 27% longer than those who didn't receive glycine. This raises the possibility that a similar effect could induced in humans. Much more work needs to be done, but we are confident that adding glycine from Bone Broth combined with fasting helps increase your health-span, if not also your lifespan. Your health-span is how long you live a healthy and active life.

4. Reduce Feeling of Hunger

Lots of studies have demonstrated the positive effects of collagen and gelatin supplements in controlling feelings of hunger in humans on calorie-controlled diets. The supplements allowed the participants to stick to the reduced calorie diets. Eating protein whilst dieting is always positive but especially proteins like collagen and gelatin. And where do we find collagen and gelatin? That’s right, bone broth.

5. Improved Gut Health

One of the main reasons people try fasting is because of the benefits to gut health from giving the gut a prolonged rest from digestion. Bone broth also has a reputation for healing gut problems and for very good reason. First bone broth is rich in glutamine, and the cells lining the gut use glutamine as their primary fuel. If we don’t have abundant glutamine in the diet the gut cells are unlikely to function well, meaning poor barrier function and malabsorption of nutrients.

Glucosmine and hyaluronic acid are glycoproteins (glycosaminoglycans) found abundantly in bone broth. They are also the building blocks of the mucus that lines all the internal tissues of the body, and gives a home to the bacteria that support our health. An inadequate supply of these nutrients means the mucus can break down which is the first sign of trouble in gut issues like IBS and Crohn’s disease. Healthy mucus production is also the first line of defence of our immune system so when this starts to breakdown, we are prone to many types of infection.

Combining Bone Broth with a fast has a healing effects on gut when it is at rest (not digesting due to the fast), and at a time when it can repair and reduce any inflammation.

Next week we will go through more reasons to incorporate bone broth into your fasting protocol. Please email with any questions or leave comments below and share your experience of bone broth, fasting or bone broth fasting.

For part 2 click HERE

Thanks for reading.