Why you should consider giving your dog bone broth as a standard supplement to their food

Written by Ann-Kristin Meyer, cand.scient. in Animal Science from the University of Copenhagen, specialized in dog nutrition, owner of HundeFoderNørden

Fondue, bone soup, bone broth - dear child has many names. Common to these terms is that they describe the liquid that remains when bones from various animals have been cooked for a long time, e.g. chicken, beef, lamb or turkey in a little water, possibly along with some vegetables. But the liquid that remains is much more than just a little boiling water. It is full of nutrients that have been released from the bone tissue by the prolonged cooking. Along with the nutrients glucosamine and chondroitin, which are structural parts of cartilage tissue and thus extremely important for joint health, collagen is probably the most important nutrient that after several hours – or even days – on the stove is concentrated in the boiling water.

Collagen is a structural protein that most people probably know from human beauty products, as it provides elasticity to both connective tissue and skin. But collagen also has another very important task. It supports both muscles, bones, tendons and joints - a bit like the load-bearing walls of a house. If these are not stable enough, the whole house collapses. Collagen is extremely important for the musculoskeletal system to function properly. And precisely this is also the reason why many dog ​​owners have opened their eyes to bone broth. The liquid is ideal as a daily supplement to provide the dog with an extra portion of collagen, glucosamine and chondroitin, all three of which can have a health-promoting effect on the dog's musculoskeletal system.

But collagen can do more than "just" stabilize the musculoskeletal system and make the connective tissue and skin elastic. Collagen is an important player when it comes to the dog's intestinal health! Collagen is, as already mentioned, a protein consisting of many different amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and the sequence of the different amino acids, or - put another way - the amino acid profile is unique for the individual types of proteins. The protein collagen consists mainly of the amino acids glycine, proline and hydroxyproline, but also contains significant amounts of other amino acids, including glutamine and arginine. Before I can get into why the above-mentioned amino acids – and thus collagen – can be health-promoting for the dog's intestines, a little background knowledge is necessary.

Dogs live in a dangerous world - here there are both bacteria, viruses, toxins and other things that can make the dog sick if it enters the dog's body. To prevent this from happening, the dog is protected on the outside via the skin barrier and on the inside via the intestinal barrier. The skin and the intestines are the potential entry points for external foreign particles and microorganisms. Just as the skin can get damaged and become permeable to potentially dangerous substances/organisms, the intestinal barrier can also get "holes" and pave a direct path for foreign particles into the dog's blood circulation. The condition when the intestinal barrier gets holes is also called "leaky gut". "Leaky gut" can have many different consequences, including immune reactions, such as allergies and food hypersensitivity, inflammatory conditions throughout the body, gastrointestinal diseases, skin diseases, a weakened immune system and behavioral changes. Yes, the list is long. And it clearly shows how important an intact intestinal barrier is.

One of the causes of "leaky gut" is a lack of the amino acid glutamine, which is one of the main nutrients for maintaining the intestinal barrier. And glutamine is precisely one of the amino acids in the protein collagen. Providing the dog with glutamine via the diet, e.g. in the form of bone broth, can therefore reduce the permeability of the intestinal wall for unwanted foreign particles and thus prevent the health-damaging consequences mentioned above. However, it is not only glutamine that can have a positive effect on intestinal health. A study with mice suffering from colitis, a chronic intestinal inflammation, showed that the amino acids glycine and prolyl-hydroxyproline given as an oral dose can have an anti-inflammatory effect on the intestines. Both amino acids are major components of collagen.
The amino acid arginine, which is also a component of collagen, can also have an anti-inflammatory effect. A scientific study with mice suffering from asthma showed that arginine, given as an oral dose, had an anti-inflammatory effect on the airways and reduced the symptoms of the asthma disease. Another study with rats suggests that arginine may have an anti-inflammatory effect in obese individuals suffering from obesity-related inflammatory conditions.

Bone broth has the potential to be able to do so much more than – thanks to its good taste – to camouflage various supplementary products and get small-eating dogs to consume sufficient amounts of feed. Therefore, bone broth has its justification as a fixed supplement to the dog's food.


Sources

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25884286/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6021736/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4040816/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27749689/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31076401/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5350494/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4454082/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4377861/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4899898/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5356289/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6891674/

Translated from Danish: https://www.bonebroth.dog/pages/bone-broth