The Health Benefits of Eggshell Bone Broth
The Health benefits of bone broth are numerous. Adding eggshells to your recipe just makes the list of health attributes even larger. This addition is a game-changer and makes perfect sense. Let me explain.
First of all, let’s talk about bone broth.
Bone broth is a great source of protein, minerals, and vitamins that support the immune system, help with digestion, boost energy levels, and more!
Cooking bones over several hours pulls out all of its nutrients which makes it perfect for homemade stock or soup base.
The nutrients from bone include collagen, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, zinc, vitamin K2, B12, D3, E & iron.
The best way to get these nutrients into your body is through cooking bones slowly until they break down and release their goodness into the water. You will notice that most commercial broths have added salt and other preservatives such as MSG.
Adding eggshells to your bone broth makes perfect sense since they are a great source of calcium and other minerals. The eggshell membrane is rich in collagen which has many health benefits(see below).
The calcium that comes from eggshells is one of the most absorbable form of calcium to our body and some folks grind eggshells or soak them in water to make their own calcium supplement.
In animal and human tests, eggshell calcium demonstrated increased bone density, decreased arthritic pain, and even stimulated the growth of cartilage. You can read more about it here.
Health Benefits of Calcium
- Build strong teeth and bones
- Reduces inflammation throughout the entire digestive tract
- Promotes healthy skin and hair
- Protects against osteoporosis
- Prevents cancerous cell development
- Improves blood clotting
- Protects cardiac muscles
- Weight loss
- Calcium also helps regulate hormones like estrogen and testosterone. It’s important to note that when you consume dairy products there is an increase in estrogen production. So if you want to avoid this side effect then choose non-dairy sources of calcium instead. For example-Eggshell powder, leafy greens, sardines, salmon, and eggshell bone broth.
Eggshells contain high amounts of choline, an essential nutrient needed by our bodies to produce neurotransmitters like serotonin and acetylcholine.
Health Benefits of Choline
1. Helps maintain healthy brain function
2. Supports proper liver functioning
3. Promotes normal growth and development of children
4. Improves memory and learning ability
5. Boosts metabolism
6. Lowers cholesterol level
7. Protects against heart disease
8. Reduces risk of stroke
9. Prevents cancer cell formation
10. May prevent Alzheimer’s Disease
11. Can improve mood
12. Enhances mental clarity
13. Increases endurance during exercise
Health Benefits of Collagen
- Builds strong nails and hair
- Keep skin supple and elastic
- Help heal wounds faster
- Reduce scarring after surgery
- Improve blood circulation
- Prevent wrinkles
- Strengthen ligaments and tendons
- Increase joint health and flexibility
- Can improve arthritis symptoms
- Maintain muscle tone
- Enhance wound healing
- Repair damaged tissue
- Provide nutrition to cells
The Health benefits of phosphorus
1. Phosphorus helps maintain proper muscle mass and strength
2. It aids in building stronger bones
3. It supports normal growth and development
4. It promotes good sleep patterns
5. It improves overall well-being
6. It reduces stress
7. It increases metabolism
8. It enhances immunity
9. It provides relief from joint pain
10. It prevents osteoporosis
11. It strengthens hair follicles
12. It protects against cancerous cells
The Health Benefits of Magnesium
1. Magnesium plays a role in hundreds of metabolic processes within the human body.
2.It’s involved in maintaining fluid balance in the body.
3. Necessary for nerve transmission.
4. Required for DNA synthesis.
5. Important for heart rhythm regulation.
6. Vital for skeletal muscles contraction.
7. Critical for regulating insulin secretion.
8. Crucial for cell division.
Health Benefits of Potassium
- Essential mineral required for life.
- Key component of cellular membranes.
- Involved in carbohydrate metabolism.
- Regulates heartbeat.
- Plays a key role in nervous system activity.
- Aids in acid–base homeostasis.
- An important electrolyte necessary for muscular contractions.
- Provides structural integrity to nerves and muscles.
- Used in production of ATP.
Health Benefits of Zinc
- Essential element found in all living organisms.
- Involved in over 300 enzymatic reactions.
- Plays a critical role in immune response.
- Aids in wound repair.
- Regulates gene expression.
- Protects against oxidative damage.
- May be beneficial in treating diabetes mellitus type 2.
- Prevents premature aging.
- Antioxidant properties may help prevent cardiovascular disease.
- Anti-inflammatory effects
It’s also easy to make at home using ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen. Here’s how:
Ingredients
- Chicken, or beef- as many as you have to fill a pot. Beef should be grass-fed and chickens with no hormones or antibiotics
- Chicken feet. (Full of nourishing gelatin/collagen)
- 1-2tbsp Peppercorns
- 1-2tbsp Apple Cider vinegar Vinegar assists in pulling nutrients from the bones and eggshells
- Vegetables of your choice like carrots, celery, onions, parsley stems, etc. (I save my vegetable scraps and freeze them until ready to make my bone broth)
- 1-2Bay leaves
- 6-8 Chicken eggshells- from raw or cooked shells As many as you have saved that will fit in the pot with the bones and veggies
- Filtered water- enough to cover the above ingredients. Filtered water removes chlorine, fluoride, and other contaminants found in tap water.
Instructions
You should have something that looks like amber-colored gelatin.
Now you can warm it and enjoy it.
Tips
I like to add a little miso and sea vegetable (great for your thyroid health). Or just a little sea salt. Try to consume 1 cup daily for maximum health benefits.
For longer storage, I like to freeze my bone broth in these silicone muffin molds. Once the cubes are frozen, I package them up in a large Ziploc bag. Each cube is about 1/3 cup of broth. If I need to thaw some bone broth quickly, it’s easy to just pop a few of these cubes into a small saucepan or into a microwave to thaw them quickly. It’s much faster than thawing an entire mason jar of bone broth.
You might enjoy 10 Amazing Health Benefits of Eating Green Apples You Never Knew
Or my recipe for 5 Minute Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients
- Chicken, or beef- as many as you have to fill a pot Beef should be grass-fed and chickens with no hormones or antibiotics
- Chicken feet Full of nourishing gelatin/collagen
- 1-2 tbsp Peppercorns
- 1-2 tbsp Apple Cider vinegar Vinegar assists in pulling nutrients from the bones and eggshells
- Vegetables of your choice Carrots, celery, onions, parsley stems, etc
- 1-2 Bay leaves
- 6-8 Eggshells- from raw or cooked shells As many as you have saved that will fit in the pot with the bones and veggies
- Filtered water- enough to cover the above ingredients Filtered water removes chlorine, fluoride, and other contaminants found in tap water.
Instructions
- Place everything into your crock-pot (you can also use a stock-pot on the stove or your instant pot. (I like the crock-pot because it holds a large amount and I don’t have to keep an eye on it. It is also basically self-watering so I am not losing volume).
- Start it on high and cook for 1 hour, skim off the foam which are the impurities from the bones. Turn it down on low and let it go for about 24 hours. I start it in the morning and then let it go all day and all night and then the next morning I shut it off and let it set for a bit to cool down.
- Pull the bones, veggies, and shells out and discard.
- Using a fine mesh colander strain the broth and refrigerate. This will allow you to scrape the fat off the top once cooled.
You should have something that looks like amber colored gelatin.
Now you can warm it and enjoy it.
I like to add a little miso and sea vegetable(great for your thyroid health). Or just a little sea salt. Try to consume 1 cup daily for maximum health benefits.
Notes
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If you are allergic to eggs, can you injest bone broth made with egg shells? Thanking you in advance for your response.
Hi Sue,
I am sorry for the delay in my response. I did not know the answer to your question so I did some research. Looks like there are different kinds of proteins in the egg that are most likely responsible for the allergic reaction most folks see. One protein is destroyed by heat so cooking it in the broth for a long period of time would most likely eliminate this as a problem. The other protein however is not destroyed by heat. So this still leaves us to question the egg shell. There is not a lot of information regarding the components of the shell and whether they contain anything that is responsible for the allergy. I may try dig a little deeper at some point but for now I would not feel comfortable telling you it is safe. I would recommend you discuss with your allergist or your MD. If you do learn more about it I hope you will share with me so I can include it in my article for others. Thanks so much for reaching out. Best regards, Lisa
Have just recently started making my own bone broth including organic egg shell broth. I freeze my broth in ice cube trays and add to lots of different dishes.
Hey John, that is a great idea! I am always trying to figure out ways to incorporate more broth into my diet and this would be an easy solution. Thanks so much for sharing.
I have a set of 12 jumbo silicone cupcake liners, which I use to line two 6-cupcake trays. I freeze my broth in this way (it makes roughly a heavy cup) to use in recipes. I just finished freezing a batch of 30. I use them for a lot of cooking, but mostly for my daily miso soup. Just thaw in a tiny pot with about another cup of water and swirl in the miso. 😉 Gonna try adding egg shells, thank you!
Hi Ariana,
What a fantastic idea! The ice cube trays work great but rarely provide enough broth for what I need. I also love to enjoy a cup with miso and some sea vegetable. Or make a healthy version of ramen using shirataki noodles. I am going to get some silicone liners and start this right away. I am also going to share your idea on my Facebook page. Thank you so much for sharing your tip. 🙂
I love to make bone broth. I have never used egg shells in my bone broth though, but think it sounds like a good idea. Please tell more about the egg shells. Should the shells be from raw uncooked eggs? Or should the shells be from eggs that have been hard boiled? Or perhaps both? Thanks so much. All Best, Belinda
Hi Belinda, I save my eggshells in a ziplock bag and store them in the freezer along with celery, carrot, and onion pieces, etc. I typically use the shells that I have cracked open from raw eggs. They cook in the stock for a very long time so no concern over any bacteria from the raw egg. I always use fresh pasture-raised eggs as well as they are so much healthier. I certainly think you would get the same benefits from shells off of hard-boiled eggs as well. Let me know how it goes when you make your next batch. 🙂
What kind of liquid? No noted in your recipe!
Cover with filtered water. I will revise the recipe to include this. Thank you for pointing out.
I assume these are fresh shells and not from eggs that have been boiled? Or is either just as nutritious?
Hi Jan, I use fresh shells. I would think you would still get benefit from shells that have been cooked already but some of the calcium may be leached out. I wouldn’t think too much would be lost however since hard-boiling does not take very long. I hope that is helpful. Thank you for reaching out and asking. Good question.