If you’re doing the Whole30® Program, make sure to stock up on bone broth.

Recently, we’ve been receiving lots of inquiries about The Whole30® Program and the role of bone broth in the plan. We listened to fans rave about how great they felt on and after the program, and it became pretty clear to us that The Whole30® Program isn’t just a fad. We wanted to know more, so we did some investigating to give you the skinny on the clean eating plan and how bone broth can help support it...

According to their website, the program took off when Co-Founder, Melissa Hartwig, a Certified Sports Nutritionist, blogged about her life-changing 30-day food experiment in 2009, in which she cut out all sugar, grains, legumes, dairy, and alcohol in favor of whole, nutrient-dense foods, think veggies, fruits and high quality, organic protein. The result? More energy, better fitness, weight loss, even pain reduction, and the disappearance of cravings for the foods that made you feel crappy in the first place. Millions have since tried the plan all over the world and sing its praises for the results they experience.

The foods that are eliminated are those that tend to be inherently inflammatory, causing weight gain, fatigue, even pain, and worse, they may lead to several health conditions that science now suggests originating in the gut. Because health and nutrition have gotten pretty out of hand in the US with the current Standard American Diet, when it comes to making big lifestyle changes, it seems people often want a plan that will bring them back to baseline, so they can start with a clean slate; and The Whole30® is a promising way to achieve that. After 30 days of clean eating, the program promises to reset the body, reduce inflammation, curb cravings, and kickstart a healthier lifestyle for ongoing success.

The Whole30® recommends bone broth as a staple in the program to support gut health, improved digestion, and to maximize the benefits of the 30 days with additional nutrients and amino acids. As people clean up their lifestyles, and more specifically, their diets, bone broth has become an essential tool to support and maintain this process. It can help heal the body as it makes the transition away from inflammatory foods, and when it’s time to transition from the more stringent part of a plan into maintaining a healthy lifestyle, it continues to make people feel great, so they incorporate it into their everyday routines.

On top of being a great support for the Whole30® Program, bone broth has been touted for some pretty incredible benefits in its own right, including promoting joint health, reducing inflammation, supporting the gut, and helping to heal leaky gut syndrome, improving the strength and appearance of skin, hair and nails, benefitting the immune system, and more.

The thing about making good bone broth is it can be intimidating (and time-consuming!). Canned chicken soup isn’t going to cut it in this case... First, you’ll need some high-quality bones to work with. The easiest bare bones to come by are beef bones and chicken bones for beef and chicken bone broth, respectively. Chicken feet are also often used because they are comprised entirely of bones, cartilage, and tendons, which means they are chock full of nutrients and minerals. Cover the bones with plenty of water and add an acid like apple cider vinegar (mostly for beef bones), which helps break down the bones and extract nutrients during the cooking process. Throw in some veggies and spices, and then you wait!

Beef bone broth especially requires 24-48 hours of cook time on low heat or in a slow cooker to properly extract all of the essential nutrients from the bones. You can cut the time down significantly in an instant pot or pressure cooker, but we’re still talking hours. This unique cooking process extracts easily to absorb forms of magnesium, phosphorus, and calcium, and nutrients that are hard to find in abundance anywhere else but are packed in marrow, bones, and cartilage, including the amino acids proline and glycine, chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine, said to reduce inflammation, as well as collagen and gelatin.

There you have it! We hope that helped give you a bit more information on the diet craze you’re sure to have come across via friends, family, coworkers, or on social media! Have you tried The Whole30®? How did you feel after, and how did you work bone broth into your 30-day routine? Tell us about your experience in the comments!