Hey everyone! I am suffering from a major case of jet lag (got 4 hours of sleep last night, been up since 5:00am and am running on empty) and am also dealing with getting back on my feet at work (literally, because of that stupid ankle injury - and figuratively, as being out of the office for 3 weeks makes for quite the return, haha). Today's afternoon post is by YBC's Marketing and Events Director, Lauren Wotherspoon. She did a five day experiment last week drinking bone broth and is here to share the details. I promise yoga related posts will resume very soon, but until then, hope you'll enjoy this post or this crazy discussion on the Yoga Forum. xo Candace
When Candace reached out to see if I’d be up for doing another Weird Health Trends: Would you or Wouldn’t you post for the blog, I jumped on board the second I learned it would involve drinking broth from Bare Bones Broth, who had sent some broth our way. I had the pleasure of interviewing one of the founders, Kate Harvey, for our Brand To Know feature in the YBC weekly newsletter (if you don’t receive our newsletter you should seriously get on board! You're missing out!) Anyway, she’s so fantastic and in the interview I learned that their broths are created by her husband Ryan Harvey, who is a classically trained chef and health nut. The broths are simmered for 24-48 hours and arrive frozen. They make it pretty easy for those of us who don't have a lot of time to make our own. All I had to do was defrost the broth by running the packet under hot water. I was really eager to see how the broth would taste!
Bare Bones Broth
Before doing this ‘challenge’ I learned that bone broth is considered to be both a food and a medicine. It’s been known to heal the skin, gut, GI tract, aid in digestion and helps to kick those lingering colds, just to name a few. Over the course of 5 days, I drank 1 cup (8oz) of Chicken Bare Bones Broth per day and recorded any noticeable changes I felt throughout the week. It was super easy to prepare too – just bring it to a simmer over the stove (I avoided bringing mine to the boiling point) and drink up.
I don’t have many memories of my grandparents so the ones I do have are pretty special to me. My dad’s mother passed before my parents even married and his father passed when I was really young. My mom’s parents were Acadian Canadian and from the most adorable small lobster fishing town right on the ocean called Shediac, New Brunswick (we actually still spend time up there during the summers). My grandmother’s first and primary language was French and she rarely spoke English, unless it was to yell at us kids when we were out of line haha #sorrygrams! Because of this, we didn’t have your typical grandmother/granddaughter relationship – and so the way my grandmother and I bonded was through cooking. Some of my earliest memories are in the kitchen with her. She grew up pretty poor and always ate what they could afford/get their hands on, which made for some pretty interesting meals. Even as an adult my grandmother hated wasting food and would prepare almost anything she could find at local butcher shops and grocery stores. Going to her house and opening the fridge to find a cow’s tongue, deer heart or some sort of animal head was not out of the ordinary. I was always fascinated (and semi-grossed out) by her ability to successfully prepare these bizarre foods for the family – needless to say, the thought of drinking bone broth didn’t even make me cringe- bring it on! And since my Grandmother passed away a few years ago, I thought it would be a nice way to reconnect with my childhood memories of cooking with her in the kitchen. Okay here we go…
Day 1: I prepared my first cup of warm chicken broth and as I raised it up to take my first sip I have to admit the aroma wasn’t the most appealing but the moment I took that first sip I knew I was going to be hooked – it was SO good! I honestly wanted to drink everything I had portioned out for the week right away – thank goodness I have some self-control. About 25-30 minutes after drinking my first cup I felt more energized and focused – it definitely gave me a boost of energy I didn’t expect. Although, I wasn’t sure if it was the broth of the 2 cups of coffee I drank before that (oops)!
Day 2: I decided to skip the coffee and go straight for the broth. To my surprise, I still felt that added boost of energy but not like that jittery energy you get from drinking coffee, this was a more controlled non-jittery boost – just noticeable enough but not too disruptive, ya know?
Day 3: The third day didn’t bring any new noticeable effects.
Day 4: I did notice that I was able to focus a bit better on the forth day. Usually I’m the type of person who starts a million things at once, bouncing back and forth between everything throughout the day and oddly I found myself completing one task after the other, which left me feeling super accomplished. I also noticed I was able to fall asleep rather quickly. It takes me a good 45 minutes to fall asleep on any given night so I was shocked when I was able to fall asleep within 10-15 minutes (this NEVER ever happens, btw)
Day 5: Aside from the effects I already mentioned, the 5th day didn’t bring anything new but I still consider this ‘challenge’ to be a success, I feel incredible!
So would I or wouldn’t I drink bone broth again? Well, that’s a no brainer! I’ve decided to stick to this routine for a few months because I’d love to experience the long-term side effects of drinking bone broth. Bare Bones Broth is absolutely perfect for those who want to reap the magical benefits of bone broth but don’t want to handle the bones or don’t have the time to make it from scratch at home. I’ll probably try my hand at making my own broth in the future but it’s always good to know Bare Bones Broth has my back if I need the extra assistance!
How about you, would you or wouldn’t you drink bone broth?!
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