Maybe not Chicken Bones page

[Cryptocode]

Bone Broth and Lead Toxicity: Should You Be Concerned?

What do you think?

[specsAreGrok]

To find out, they prepared chicken broth (using organic chickens) three different ways:
■using chicken bones;
■using cooked chicken meat without the bones;
■using chicken skin and cartilage without the bones after the whole chicken had been cooked.

In each case the same tap water, cooking utensils, cookware and cooking time was used. They also included a fourth control preparation, where they followed the same procedure but used only tap water heated for the same length of time. The lead concentrations in the four different samples were as follows:
■chicken-bone broth: 7.01 µg/L
■bone broth from chicken meat (without bones): 2.3 µg/L
■bone broth made from skin and cartilage off the bone: 9.5 µg/L
■control (tap water): 0.89 µg/L

It's a shame they didn't do a 4th method using bones + skin + cartilage. That's how we usually make it.

[Mr. Koozie]

This story caught Chris Kresser's eye and he is doing a right-up on it as we speak. It's topical for me as I have some broth brewing on the stove right now.

[meeshar]

I caught Chris Kresser's investigation as well, and he pointed out that the amounts of lead in chicken stock were below standards for drinking water. One thing that I think was missing in the study was the source of the chickens. Urban chickens in particular have issues with lead because of their environment. I didn't find anything on Google about it, but I wonder if CAFO chickens may have those same issues--especially because we've seen arsenic already. While we eat some conventional meat because of our budget, I only make stock with local pastured birds, just like I only save fat from pastured pork or grass-fed beef. If toxins accumulate in fat (or bones, etc.) it only makes sense to use the best source possible for those.