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Bone Broth Diet - Benefits + Weight Loss

A Bone Broth Diet for weight loss plus other benefits

 

This is a bone broth diet recommended by Dr Kellyann Petrucci, a Bone Broth Diet that blends a low-carb, paleo diet with intermittent fasting.

Bone broth is a staple of the diet and allowed foods including whole, low carb, unprocessed or minimally processed foods including meat, poultry, fish, eggs, non-starchy vegetables, healthy fats, and bone broth are the focus of the diet.

The Bone Broth Diet

The 21-day Bone Broth Diet was created by Kellyann Petrucci, a naturopath who published a book on the diet. It is a diet for which five days a week, you consume low-carb, paleo-style meals which includes meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and non startchy vegetables as well as healthy fats and bone broth and 2 days of mini fasting with Bone Broth.

Two days a week, you include modified fasts rather than complete fasts of which you are able to consume bone broth either store bought or made at home by simmering animal bones for up to 24 hours to release nutrients such as minerals, collagen, and amino acids. LinkThe two days of mini fasting of which you consume bone broth are non-consecutive an tthe last meal or snack  each day should be consumed by 7pm.

In her book the Bone Broth Diet there  are sample menus and recipes and also guideline for portion sizes, for example, meat and fish should be about the size and thickness of the palm of your hand, fruit should be a closed handful or half a piece. 

The 21-day diet recommends foods claimed to reduce inflammation, support gut health, and increase fat burning and avoid certain foods and beverages, including all grains, dairy, legumes, added sugars, and alcohol

Other claims made by the Bone Broth Diet include blood sugar control, skin wrinkle reduction, gut health, inflammation, and joint pain of which, their validity can be judged by looking at research on individual elements of the diet and components of bone broth separately.

Mini-Fast Days

During the mini fast days, you have two options of which you consume only 300-500 calories each day.

  • Option 1. Drink six 1-cup (237-ml or 8-ounce) portions of bone broth.
  • Option 2. Drink five portions of bone broth, then end the day with a snack containing protein, nonstarchy vegetables and good fats.

Non-Fasting Days

On non-fasting days, you choose from lists of allowed foods that fit into categories of protein, vegetables, fruit, and fat. Carbs, including fruit and starchy vegetables are very limited to encourage fat burning or ketosis. Dr Kellyann does discourage calorie counting and does not specify what calories should be consumed ion these days

  • Breakfast: one portion of protein, one portion fat, one portion fruit
  • Lunch: one portion protein, two portions vegetables, one portion fat
  • Dinner: one portion protein, two portions vegetables, one portion fat
  • Snacks: a one-cup portion of bone broth twice a day

80/20 Maintenance Plan

After 21 days, you may shift to the 80/20 plan to help maintain your weight (if you want to know your approximate maintenance calories, you can use a calorie calculator). This means you eat approved foods 80% of the time and the remaining 20% of the time you can stray from the diet and if you wish continue the mini-fasts.

Allowed Foods

On non-fasting days, you choose from a range of whole and minimally processed foods such as:

  • Proteins: beef, chicken, fish, eggs
  • Bone Broth
  • Vegetables: non-starchy vegetables, such as asparagus, broccoli, greens, tomatoes, and summer squash.
  • Fruits: Just one portion daily - apples, berries, melons, citrus fruits, kiwi
  • Healthy fats: avocados, coconut oil, nuts, olive oil and ghee or clarified butter.
  • Condiments: salt, other spices, vinegar, salsa.
  • Flours: almond flour, coconut flour.
  • Beverages: coffee, tea, water.

Foods to Avoid

  • Grains: wheat, rye, barley, and other glgluten-containingrains, as well as gluten free grains, such as corn, rice, quinoa, and oats
  • Refined fats: common vegetable fats, such as canola oil and margarine
  • Processed fruit:  Fruit juice, dried fruits and sweetened fruit
  • Sugar: all forms of refined sugars, such as table sugar, honey, and maple syrup
  • Sugar substitutes: artificial sweeteners well as natural sugar substitutes, including stevia
  • Potatoes: all potatoes except sweet potatoes
  • Legumes: beans, soy products, peanuts, and peanut butter
  • Dairy products: milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, and butter
  • Beverages:alcoholic beverages and soda

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The  Weight Loss

Kellyann Petrucci, author of books about the diet, set up three unpublished 21-day studies run by different health professionals and reports the participants lost up to 15 pounds and up to 4 inches in their measurements. This diet is based on a combination of other approaches that have been studied such as the Low carb, Paleo and intermittent fasting approaches which also suggest they assist in weight loss.(1). 

  • Paleo diet. In a three-week study, healthy-weight people on a paleo diet lost 5 pounds (2.3 kg) and 1/4 inch (0.5 cm) from their waistline. Other studies report no difference between paleo and standard reduced-calorie diets (23).
  • Intermittent fasting. In a review of five studies, two showed greater weight loss in overweight people using intermittent fasting compared to continuous calorie restriction, while three showed similar weight loss with each method (4).

Sample Menu

Here are examples of what you may eat on a typical mini-fast or non-fasting day.

Mini-Fast Day

The menu for a mini-fast day is:

  • Breakfast: 1 cup (237 ml ) of bone broth
  • Morning snack: 1 cup of bone broth
  • Lunch: 1 cup of bone broth
  • Afternoon snack: 1 cup of bone broth
  • Dinner: 1 cup of bone broth
  • Evening snack: 1 cup of bone broth or an allowed snack, such as scrambled eggs with ghee and sautéed greens

Non-Fasting Day

A sample menu for a non-fasting day is:

  • Breakfast: scrambled eggs with ghee and non starchy vegetables, and one portion of berries
  • Lunch: roasted chicken breast sliced over garden salad with vinaigrette salad dressing
  • Afternoon snack: 1 cup (237 ml) of bone broth
  • Dinner: grilled salmon, grilled asparagus, and cauliflower rice with ghee
  • Evening snack: 1 cup of bone broth

 

Blood Sugar Control

Weight loss itself tends to improve blood sugar as well as restricting carbs as required in the Bone Broth Diet may add to this effect.

Low-carb diets especially low carb reduced calorie diets are effective blood sugar control and reducing medications for type 2 diabetes .(5) (67).

Younger Looking Skin

Bone Broth is high in collagen which in turn can aid the body to produce more collagen. (1011). Studies suggest collagen supplementation may noticeably reduce skin wrinkles.(89) (12).

Improved Gut Health

Some evidence shows that the amino acids glycine and glutamine — may promote gut health by strengthening the mucosal lining of your digestive tract (131415).

Reduced Inflammation

Obesity is linked to an increased release of inflammatory compounds. Therefore, a weight loss diet, such as the Bone Broth Diet, may help reduce inflammation (16).

Additionally, eating healthier foods such as the antioxidant rich vegetables and omega-3-rich fish recommended on the Bone Broth Diet and fasting may also help reduce inflammation (17). (1819).

Reduced Joint Pain

Collagen is a major component of cartilage, which cushions knees and other joints.

Human studies suggest that collagen supplementation may also help decrease joint pain and slow the progression of arthritis (2122).

Add to that the weight loss factor which can reduce extra strain and also a reduction in joint pain (20).