Bone Broth: A Cure for Cellulite?

This post was written by Melissa at The Cellulite Investigation blog. I love her blog and I know you will, too.

When Ann Marie asked me to write a guest post for her bone broth challenge, I didn’t know where to begin.  Daily consumption of bone broth is the most plausible anti-cellulite treatment I’ve uncovered since I started blogging about cellulite nearly two years ago.   I’ve come to this conclusion from two different angles.

Clue #1: The Cellulite Solution by Dr. Howard Murad

I first started to suspect bone broth as a cellulite cure after reading The Cellulite Solution by Dr. Howard Murad.  Dr. Murad is a dermatologist with thirty years of experience in the healthcare profession.   He is also one of the few physicians who spent a significant amount of his career studying cellulite and helping women treat cellulite through nutrition.

According to Dr. Murad, supplements are the most important part of a cellulite recovery plan, especially Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs), glucosamine, and related nutrients that help repair damaged connective tissue.  At one point he even redraws the food pyramid to include supplements at the apex.

Oddly, the nutrients he recommends for cellulite are glaringly absent from the recommended meal plans in his book.  Instead, he prescribes a low-fat diet with vegetable broth in place of bone broth, limited animal products, and only 1-2 eggs per week.

The discrepancies between the supplements Dr. Murad prescribes for his patients and the meal plans he recommends in his book are explained in the acknowledgments section where he thanks Dr. John Westerdahl (an outspoken advocate of a vegetarian diet) for his advice on nutrition.  Knowing this, I suspect the meal plan section of The Cellulite Solution is based primarily on Dr. Westerdahl’s input.  It does not reflect Dr. Murad’s successful work with cellulite patients.  It doesn’t even incorporate his groundbreaking research on cellulite and nutrition.

Clue #2: Bone Broth and Fluoride Detox

The second angle that led me to bone broth as an effective anti cellulite treatment is more complicated to explain.  Because of my research on the lymphatic system with The Cellulite Investigation, I figured out that fluoride was the source of my chronic cystic acne, a condition known as fluoroderma.

After curing my acne by limiting my fluoride exposure, I began to search for a way to detoxify stored fluoride from my body.   Fluoride is known to accumulate in bone, skin, and connective tissue (hence the cellulite connection).  I hypothesized that my body would release fluoride from these areas if I gave it healthy raw material made from these same elements.

The first type of broth I used to test to my theory was shrimp stock.  Not only are shrimp shells one of the richest sources of glucosamine, but shrimp stock is also high in iodine which is known for its ability to displace fluoride (see The Iodine Project).   The shrimp stock provoked a strong fluoroderma-like reaction in my skin.  Could it be a sign that the fluoride in my body was on its way out?  Would my cellulite be next?

For the past several months, I’ve been using pastured lamb and beef broth instead of shrimp stock to test the theory that traditional bone broth can detox fluoride and heal cellulite.  It is too early to tell if the theory is valid.  I am still unable to drink broth on a daily basis without seeing a reaction on my skin, but the connection between bone broth and cellulite continues to gain credence the more I learn about fluoride and its effect on collagen and connective tissue.

I’m hoping Ann Marie’s bone broth challenge will bring a few more cellulite success stories to add to our growing collection.

Share Your Experience

For those of you who are participating, have you noticed any changes in your cellulite situation, or any symptoms of detox in general? I’m looking forward to reading about your observations in the comments section below!