"Nourishing Traditions" written by Sally Fallon who is influenced by the work of Weston A Price (a dentist from Philadelphia who studied traditional diets) states the various health benefits of using gelatin:
- Supports skin, hair and nail growth
- Good for joints and can help joint recovery
- Can help tighten loose skin
- Can improve digestion since it naturally binds to water and helps food move more easily though the digestive track
- Great source of dietary collagen (collagen is too large to be absorbed by the skin)
- Minor source of protein but its specific amino acids can help build muscle.
Bone broth is the only genuine article for gelatin and though not particularly labour-intensive to prepare, requires many hours of slow simmering to become an almost magical, healing liquid. My beef bone broth is slowly simmered for 3 days - chicken stock needs less than 12 hours.
The gelatin-rich, complexly flavoured broth used as the base of a soup is made from the bones, feet, heads, tough cuts of meat, cartilage and so on from various animals. This broth is not only flavourful, but easy to digest, as gelatin attracts digestive fluids in the stomach.
A very informative article on Gelatin
YouTube video on gelatin
Pottenger, of cat study fame, found that the only way mammals can eat cooked foods is if they consume gelatin along with the cooked food. The gelatin particularly helps with digestion, making our stomach enzymes and acids more effective.
The darker coloured jelly was made with pomegranate juice (no added sugar), water kefir and lemon juice with a tiny 1/2 teaspoon of honey and 2 tablespoons of gelatin.
The lighter coloured jelly was made with Licorice Spice Tulsi tea and water kefir and 2 tablespoons gelatin. I dissolve the gelatin in some slightly warm water before I add to tea/juice.
You can also add a probiotic capsule to the mix along with kombucha (more cultured liquids). You can add to coconut milk to make marshmallows or fermented coconut water etc. Get the idea?
Do not add gelatin powder to things with fresh pineapple, kiwi or pawpaw (papaya), as it will inactivate the thickening properties and don’t boil gelatin, as it will lose its thickening ability.
