Bone broth had a moment. Around 2015, the food media discovered what traditional cultures had known for centuries: slow-simmered bones produce a nutritious, collagen-rich liquid that supports joint health, gut integrity, skin elasticity, and general wellbeing. Broth bars opened. Companies started selling expensive little cartons of the stuff. The internet declared it a superfood.
None of that was wrong. Bone broth is genuinely nutritious. But somewhere in the marketing, something important got lost: bone broth is just the beginning. The traditional cultures that relied on broth didn't stop at bones. They put herbs in the pot.
What Bone Broth Actually Does Well
To be fair to the humble simmered bone: the nutritional profile is real.
- Collagen and gelatin: The breakdown of connective tissue, cartilage, and skin during long simmering produces gelatin — the cooked form of collagen. This supports gut lining integrity, joint cushioning, skin hydration, and tendon strength.
- Glycine: One of the most abundant amino acids in collagen, glycine is conditionally essential and supports liver detoxification, creatine synthesis, neurotransmitter production, and sleep quality.
- Minerals: Calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and trace minerals leach from bones into the broth — though in amounts that vary considerably based on bone quality, acidity of the liquid, and cooking time.
- Proline and hydroxyproline: Structural amino acids that support the extracellular matrix — the scaffolding of every tissue in your body.
That's a solid baseline. But it's a structural support profile. It doesn't address the kidney Jing your stress-filled 50-hour weeks are depleting. It doesn't rebuild blood. It doesn't modulate the HPA axis. It doesn't tonify yang or restore essence.
"The broth is the vehicle. The herbs are the medicine. Neither is complete without the other."
What Herbal Decoction Adds
Traditional Chinese Medicine's pharmacopeia includes hundreds of herbs — and the classical method of administering them is decoction: long simmering in water, often with a small amount of acidity to enhance extraction. When you add these herbs to a broth base, something synergistic happens:
The gelatin in the broth increases the bioavailability of fat-soluble herb compounds. The mineral content of the broth provides cofactors that activate certain phytochemicals. The slow heat extracts polysaccharides and glycosides that would be lost in a quick steep. And the vehicle of warm liquid means the active compounds reach the gut in a form the body can absorb immediately.
You're not just drinking two things. You're drinking something more than the sum of its parts.
| Benefit | Bone Broth | Herbal Broth |
|---|---|---|
| Gut lining support | Strong (gelatin) | Strong (gelatin + adaptogenic support) |
| Joint & connective tissue | Strong (collagen) | Strong (collagen + anti-inflammatory herbs) |
| Kidney Jing restoration | Minimal | Strong (He Shou Wu, Eucommia, Rehmannia) |
| Blood building | Minimal (iron from marrow) | Strong (Dang Gui, Goji, Longan) |
| HPA axis / stress | None | Strong (Schisandra, Ginseng) |
| Hormonal support | None | Moderate (Eucommia, Morinda, He Shou Wu) |
| Adaptogenic capacity | None | Strong (multiple herbs) |
| Cognitive support | Minimal (glycine) | Strong (Ginseng, Schisandra) |
The Method Matters
This is where most people go wrong with herbal supplements: they take a capsule with a glass of water and expect something to happen. Occasionally it works. More often, the bioavailability is mediocre, the synergies are absent, and the experience reinforces the belief that herbs are placebo.
The decoction method — simmering herbs in liquid for 30–45 minutes — is the foundation of Chinese herbal medicine for good reason. Heat is required to break down polysaccharide walls. Acidity from the cooking process (or added vinegar) helps leach minerals and enhances extraction of alkaloids. The resulting liquid is a genuine extraction, not a powder thrown in a capsule.
When you simmer TCM herbs in broth specifically, you get an additional advantage: the fat-soluble compounds from the herbs become more bioavailable in the presence of the gelatin and trace fats in the broth. Compounds that would pass through poorly absorbed in an aqueous solution are carried by the collagen matrix.
This is not a marketing claim. It's basic extraction chemistry combined with traditional food science that has been empirically validated over thousands of years of consistent use.
How to Do This at Home
You don't need special equipment. You need a pot, a stove, water (or pre-made bone broth), and the herbs.
The JING protocol:
- Start with 6–8 cups of water or bone broth in a large pot.
- Add the JING herbal blend sachet (or your own prepared herbs).
- Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce to a low simmer.
- Simmer for 45 minutes, partially covered.
- Strain and drink immediately, or store in the fridge for up to 3 days.
The result is a full-spectrum herbal broth — the structural benefits of the bone base combined with the therapeutic depth of the herbs. Something your great-great-grandmother would have recognized immediately, even if she wouldn't have had the biochemical vocabulary to explain why it worked.
Check out the JING Cookbook for full recipes built around this method — dishes from the retreat kitchen that have fed 1,000+ men and earned the same question every time: "What was in that broth?"