How can we create healthy skin without a healthy gut? Without a healthy gut that is intact and working optimally, it is virtually impossible to have healthy skin.  The skin is a reflection of what is going on inside the body, whether that is rosacea, eczema, inflammation, redness, sensitivity or acne and spots.  If you took the inside of your small intestine and turned it inside out, that would be what your skin reflects.

And, remember that the skin is one of the last places to detox, so once the skin shows signs of distress, you will know that this ‘condition’ has been going on for quite some time.  So what is the first step?  Healing the Gut!!!

I like to start with a chicken or meat stock (only homemade will do)!  And please note, it is a meat stock and not a broth.  There is a big difference.  Here are the differences:

MEAT STOCK

• Short cooked
• It is a gelatinous stock made from joints, chicken feet, meaty bones and the whole chicken.
• A meat stock should gel when cooled
• It is full of collagen and glycine
• More suitable for people with allergies and intolerances, especially histamines

BONE BROTH

• Long cooked
• Bones are used and it is long cooked to break down the bone and release the minerals from the bones
• Usually liquid, although some broths do gel if gelatinous joints or meaty bones have been used
• More concentrated due to it being long cooked and therefore higher in histamines
• Suitable for people who have healed their gut or have a healthy, intact gut

I would generally advise people to start with meat stocks and work their way to bone broths, but once you start having meat stock daily, you find that it is so easy to prepare and delicious, that most people don’t move onto bone broths.

So, why are meat stocks so nutritious?  Well, meat is full of amino acids, which are the proteins that heal the body.  Every cell in our body is made up of protein and requires amino acids to survive.  There are essential amino acids, which the body cannot produce and there are non-essential amino acids which the body can produce.  One of the most healing amino acids for the gut is GLYCINE.

Glycine is:

• A key component of collagen – which our joints, skin, muscles, bone and connective tissue are made up of.
• It is important as a role in nerve signal transmission and clearing toxins from the body.
• It stimulates the production of the feel good hormone, serotonin.

You can get Glycine in supplement form, but I prefer to get nutrition through food.   I feel that the body recognises the nutrients in food form, rather than from a supplement made in a laboratory.  Not enough research has been done to prove that supplements made in a laboratory are as beneficial to the body as the food source, or how they might interact with other supplements or medications.  This is how nature intended it to be.

Side note:  If you do choose to take supplements, try and find ones that use food sources.  This way your body will be able to recognise what you are feeding it and use it appropriately.

So, collagen is most important for healthy skin and you can get it from food sources, as well as infusing your skin with pure collagen in products.  In our salon, we use a pure collagen mask with LED light therapy – the only mask that allows the lights to penetrate through it, which we source from Korea.  You can visibly see the skin absorbing the collagen and plumping up the skin cells.

We use the mask after microdermabrasion and using the hydra facial machine, which allows the products to be absorbed into the deeper layers of the epidermis because we have removed all the dead skin cells.  The results are amazing, and coupled with your daily intake of chicken or meat stock, the results are 10 fold within 28 days (this is how long it takes for skin cells to regenerate and move up to the surface of the skin).  The older you get, the longer this process takes.

Here is a meat stock recipe for you to try.

You should drink at least one cup of chicken or meat stock per day, otherwise you can have a cup of stock with each meal.  It will help with digestion and add nutrients to your meals.

If you do make a chicken or meat stock, please take photos and send them to me on Instagram to share.

Let’s heal the gut and produce healthy skin and a healthy body together!