A few years ago I watched as a girlfriend of mine noticeably slimmed down with a considerable loss of cellulite in her legs.  At the time we lived in Texas and these changes were easy to observe as she was always in shorts.

I finally got the gumption to ask the woman – “how DO you keep such a lovely figure?”

(What I really meant was, “where’s YOUR cellulite?”)

She began to humbly tell me about her moderate exercise routine and another fascinating secret she attributes to legs that look like a woman ten, or even twenty years younger than her.

That fascinating secret: bone broth.

Huh.

So I did a little research and here’s what I found out…

Evidence suggests that bone broth was literally used by cavemen.  Yes, it’s definitely Paleo!

Over 2,500 years ago, Chinese doctors used bone broth to support digestion, strengthen kidneys, and to help fortify the blood.  Jewish penicillin?  Well there’s some truth to that.  In the 12th century, there is evidence that physicians prescribed chicken soup to heal colds and asthma.

Benefits of Bone Broth

Look, anybody telling you they can erase cellulite is probably trying to sell you something.  And let’s be honest, if we could actually erase cellulite, wrinkles, or teething pain in children who wake up every thirty minutes for their first two years of life; somebody would be a gazillionaire.

But bone broth is actually a small miracle in and of itself.   For starters, it’s chalk full of vitamins that we miss out on when we eat our chicken, beef, lamb, or even bison while discarding the bones.  The bones house some of the most nutritiously dense part of the food.  In the case of mammals, the essential vitamins and minerals are found in the bones.

When you go to your butcher – ask for bones for stock or bone broth.  He or she will know what you’re looking for because people have been making stock with bones for centuries.  Coincidentally, the best bones are “knuckle bones”, or bones with joints.  So ask for those ones.

The Key Ingredient to Getting Rid of Cellulite with Bone Broth

Now let’s move on from this colorful talk about vitamins and get to the meat of the matter: cellulite.  In order to fight cellulite with bone broth, you need to get the collagen from your bones.  To do this, you’ll want to use Marrow, Knuckle, and Feet bones.

Still with me?  Good, I’m just making sure you don’t have a weak stomach for pigs feet, beef marrow, lamb knuckles, or anything else you’re going to roast for your broth.

Now, before you boil your bones, roast them to a crisp.  Crank your oven up to 450 degrees and let ‘er rip.  Roast them until they look like they’re going to burn too much.  Then lovingly scrape every last browned bit of bovine off your tray and put it in your stockpot of water.  These otherwise burned bits are going to add flavor to your broth.

There’s no reason you shouldn’t have flavor in your bone broth just because it’s healthy.  I think God is too good to have made so many healthy things without the expectation that we’ll enjoy them, too!  Life can’t be exclusively sacrifice!

Before You Boil: How To Get Rid Of Cellulite With Bone Broth

Okay, you’ve selected your bones and you’re ready to roast, right?

Well, almost.  Make sure you have a pot that’s big enough for your bones.  And I don’t mean a pot that technically fits your bones, but if you have huge bones like a femur, you want to make sure you use a stockpot and not a sauce pan.

I like to sauté my aromatics before putting the water and bones in the pot, but some chefs actually add the bones to water with a few herbs and call it a day.  (Below you’ll see my exact recipe.)

Remember that if you are using chicken bones to make a stock – these small bones are fine boiling in a few hours or even overnight.  But if you’re using marrow or knuckle bones from a larger animal, feel free to let it simmer for up to three whole days.  I typically boil my bones for 48-72 hours because I want to get every last nutrient from the materials that I can… and the resulting broth is much more delicious to boot!

But remember: once you take your bone broth off the fire you have one goal in life: to cool that puppy off and get it into your fridge once it’s room temperature.  If you stick it in the fridge while hot, it can grow bacteria and contaminate your fridge.  Also, it can cause everything in your fridge to spoil because boiling hot bone broth will effectively warm up the temperature in your refrigerator!  Most importantly, don’t leave your broth sitting out cooling for hours.  This, too, can be a breeding ground for unhealthy bacteria.

I like to immediately put my broth into glass containers with no lids, add ice and then refrigerate it.  Every week you see me go into the fridge or freezer for a precious quart of my special stock with the biggest smile on my face.  I always have some thawed to add to pasta sauce, sautéed vegetables, and just about anything else you cook with fire.

How You’ll Know You Did It Right

When your broth is chilled, it will solidify because of the collagen you’ve extracted from your bones.  If you’re my mother in-law, you’ll slap the gelatinous solidified broth on a salting with a slice of lemon and eat it like an after-school snack.  If you don’t get a solidified broth that appears like a halloween Jell-O mold when chilled, you haven’t extracted that precious collagen.

I’ll be honest, the first time I saw this it freaked me out – I thought it was because of fat content!  Watching mom smear that goop on crackers helped calm my fears.  Still, to this day I can’t eat my bone broth cold.  Rather, I put in in a cup and enjoy drinking it while driving early in the morning.  Even if my car is freezing, the bone broth warms me up and makes everything around me smell amazing.

When I travel I love finding bone broth in large cities, often at trendy coffee shops or even Vietnamese restaurants.  When I can get it to-go in a coffee cup I ask to purchase an entire gallon.  Coincidentally, it’s one of the most well-received and thoughtful gifts you can offer to a pregnant woman on the planet.

Why Bone Broth Fights Cellulite

Back to the cellulite, okay?  

How bone broth fights cellulite is through collagen that you pull out of the bones when you roast and then boil them.  Collagen is a protein your body uses to create connective tissue in your skin, tendons, ligaments, and blood vessels.

Collagen is a protein that is part of the process in your body to create connective tissue in your skin, tendons, ligaments, and blood vessels.

One of the reasons some doctors say that people like runners are so prone to cellulite is because they literally put so much stress “jiggling” their body that the connective tissue tends to separate.  Hmm… something to think about!

Sometimes losing weight actually makes cellulite MORE apparent because the changes you’ve undergone in weight loss actually make your skin more thin.  This causes cellulite to simple become more visible.

To the best of our knowledge, eating collagen will help reconnect fat tissues and get rid of cellulite in your body.  

As a woman who always struggled with cellulite in my thighs and bottom, the introduction of bone broth to my diet has literally changed my life.  This year I spent nearly every week day at the pool with my son and never once did I think about cellulite.  I focused on playing, splashing, and soaking up my little one.

What’s the best part of being truly fit and healthy?  Not thinking about your body and just plunging headfirst into all life has to offer.  Hands down, head first, with a huge smile on your face.

Benefits of Bone Broth

Collagen isn’t the only benefit of bone broth.

It also:

1. Repairs and restores your gut.
2. Provides tons of calcium
   
3. Improves health and vibrancy of hair, teeth and nails
4. Promotes detoxification
5. May help reduce wrinkles
6. Improves skin tissue connectivity, i.e. helps fight cellulite

How To Make Bone Broth

Here’s my recipe…

You’ll Need:

• Mammal bones (2 lbs)
• 1 Onion
• 4 Stalks Celery
• 3+ Carrots (how sweet do you want the broth to be?)
• 1-2 bulbs Garlic
• Black Peppercorn
• 1/8 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
• Filtered Water

How To Cook Bone Broth

1. Bones:  Roast the bones on high heat until well-browned before adding them to the water and aromatics.
2. Veggies:  While you’re blistering your bones, sauté one white onion and one or two whole, peeled bulbs of garlic in a pan, generally in avocado or coconut oil.  Once the onions are transluscent, I add chopped carrots and celery, apple cider vinegar.   The vinegar is used to break up the bones and release their nutrients and marrow into the broth.  The vinegar is a critical part of the soup!  Add some oregano, thyme, or another aromatic if you’d like.  I stick to oregano and/or thyme but you can also use rosemary and the like.  I don’t generally add too many spices because I sometimes make milder soups like Avgolemono.
3. Water: When adding the celery & carrots, I also add my filtered water (cold).  Add the bones when they’re done roasting.  I try to let my stock simmer for about 3 days.  

Bon Apetit!