What to Look For In a Store Bought Bone Broth

Bone broth helps the overall gut healing that’s required as a major part of postpartum healing and is the real key to then allowing the gut to absorb nutrients from other foods better, including other nutrient dense milk-boosting ‘galactagogues’, and these are the nutrients that in turn can help increase your breast milk supply.
So consuming bone broth is something that all breastfeeding mothers should try to incorporate into their way of eating regularly.

While it will always be best to use homemade bone broth that's prepared in the correct way so it's real bone broth and not just ordinary broth or stock, mum life IS busy, so it IS hard to find the time to make our own bone broth from scratch. However, finding a good store bought, pre-prepared bone broth will be better than consuming nothing and will still help with the gut healing that allows for better nutrient absorption which helps milk boosting foods to work best in your body.
There are some really great bone broths around on the market if you know what to look for!

• INGREDIENTS NEED TO BE CERTIFIED ORGANIC:

  To be able to gain benefit from drinking bone broth, the animal from which the bones came must be healthy. Feed lot cattle are given hormones, antibiotics and are fed an unnatural diet. Bones, and especially the marrow, hold all the toxins from this treatment and this will be coming through into your bone broth. If it is not organic or from grass fed animals, you may well be doing more harm than good!

• LOOK OUR FOR FILLER INGREDIENTS:
  Common filler ingredients that sound innocent but are not what they really seem are ingredients like Yeast Extract (which is actually MSG a chemical taste enhancer that triggers a lot of problems for many people) and also Maltodextrin which is a thickener and shelf life extender but it's highly processed and made from starches that can cause lots of real havoc on our bodies, especially when it comes to gut reactions and affecting overall gut health, which is what we are trying to overcome in the first place, so maltodextrin is not something you need to be consuming in the postpartum period at all!Some bone broth products will also include other premade broth in their recipes which creates a more watered down broth that isn't as effective as a true bone broth made in the correct way. Things to look for on ingredients lists are ones that as well as saying they are made from Organic Chicken Bone Broth, might also include words like Concentrated Bone Broth, which in effect is like a stock, added to the actual bone broth that lessens its effectiveness.
  
  
• LOOK AT THE TEXTURE:
  

  A sign that a bone broth is a real one and full of the good fats and collagen that's needed for healing to occur is it's texture when refrigerated. While it may not completely solidify, it should be thick and gelatinous in it's texture and not just a watery liquid. 

• HOW IS IT STORED BEFORE USE:
  Always look for a frozen bone broth or refrigerated as these will have the most preserved nutrients in them.

The best brands we've found are the ones in the frozen or refrigerated health food section of the supermarket or from health food shops and your health is worth spending the time to investigate the ingredients lists of pre-prepared, store bought bone broth before consuming them.