Meat Stock vs. Bone Broth

Although bone broth is commonly recommended for gut healing diets, I always recommend healing meat stocks in lieu of bone broth. Although the terms “bone broth” and “meat stock” are often used interchangeably, there are notable differences in their nutritional profiles. Bone broth cooks for a very long time — typically 24 to 48 hours in a slow cooker set on a low setting. Although some people will buy bones specifically to simmer for their bone broth, others will save bones in the freezer from previously cooked chickens or bony beef cuts. This long cooking time is said to extract minerals from the bones and some recipes call for adding apple cider vinegar to help “pull” the minerals from their bones. Some people will also add vegetable scraps, herbs and of course, salt is required for taste. No matter what specific recipe you follow, bone broth is always simmered on low for many, many hours. This cooking method brings ease of compliance for some folks because they can “set it and forget it” but long cooking times also ushers in HIGH HISTAMINE!

Histamine is a hot topic in holistic health circles for good reason. Histamine is an important chemical naturally occurring in the human body. However, some people are susceptible to high levels of histamine in their mast cells which can contribute to a myriad of negative symptoms such as bloating, diarrhea, itching with exercise or sun exposure, severe reactions to bug bites, hives, seasonal allergies, and headaches — just to name a few symptoms. High histamine and histamine intolerance goes hand in hand with poor gut health, which logically brings us back to bone broth. If the goal is to improve gut health, many people find drinking bone broth exacerbates their health issues, rather than bringing relief.

Meat stock is typically cooked on the stove top for much shorter cooking times than bone broth, dramatically reducing histamine exposure as compared to bone broth. Chicken stock simmers for about 2 hours and red meat (beef, lamb, etc.) cooks for about 3 hours. Rather than just using bones, meat stock calls for meaty cuts with the bone included. Choosing cuts of meat next to the bone has the benefit of simmering gelatinous, connective tissues into your stock. Collagen for the win! These gooey connective tissues are very similar in composition to the inner lining of the gut. Given enough time and support from other nutritional interventions, meat stock can play a big role in using food as medicine to heal leaky gut.

For chicken stock, the best cuts to choose are legs, thighs, leg quarters and backs. Adding chicken feet to your bony chicken cuts increases the collagen and guarantees meat stock that will gel beautifully in the fridge. For beef stock - shanks, oxtail, cheek meat, neck bones, joints, etc. are great choices for a rich gelatinous stock. Adding beef marrow bones also increases the nutritional value of your beef stock.

This blog post does not cover the nuances of properly preparing meat stock, rather this post serves to differentiate between meat stock and bone broth — and set my case for recommending meat stock to support gut healing.

Remember: meat stock’s purpose is to bring collagen, healthy fats and delicious (low-histamine) nourishment into our bodies to support healing our ailments from the inside out. Bone broth might be helpful for some folks in their healing journey but meat stock is always my recommendation.