My morning ritual takes about ninety seconds to prepare. One tablespoon of Superfeast Jing, one tablespoon of I AM GAIA, one heaped tablespoon of bone broth concentrate, twenty grams of collagen powder, hot water. I have been doing it almost every morning for two years.

The change has been one of the quieter, more profound things to happen to my body in the last decade. My ferritin, which used to run stubbornly low despite supplementation, has restored itself. My hair has grown thicker, my sleep is deeper. My nervous system has the steadier, longer-fuse quality I associate with people who actually feel safe in their own physiology. My energy is not the wired, caffeinated, borrowed energy I used to run on. It is what I now think of as deep reserve energy — the kind that does not crash, does not require constant inputs, and does not feel like it is being mined out of an already-depleted account.

Patients who try a version of this stack describe the same thing back to me, in slightly different language. "I feel nourished." "It feels grounding." "My cells feel like they are being fed." "I feel calmer in a way I cannot explain." A few have described it as feeling, for the first time in years, not depleted.

With winter coming and bone broth becoming the seasonal obsession it deserves to be, I want to walk you through why a tablespoon of something so unglamorous can be doing this much work. Because the mechanism is not folkloric. It is precise — and it explains why this is one of the most consistent and disproportionate clinical responses I see.

The Diagnosis Almost No One Names: Overfed, Cellularly Undernourished

The starting point is a quiet truth: a great many people in the modern Western world are technically overfed and structurally undernourished. They eat enough calories — frequently too many — but their cells are running short on the specific raw materials those cells need to repair, regulate, and renew themselves.

This shows up in clinic as the cluster I see almost every day: fatigue that does not respond to sleep, hair that thins for no clear reason, skin that has lost its bounce, nails that split, sleep that has lost its depth, a nervous system that runs hot, recovery that takes longer than it should, ferritin that won't budge, and a sense — often inexpressible — of being depleted in a way that food is not fixing.

You can be eating "well," in the way contemporary nutrition culture defines it — lean protein, vegetables, healthy fats, calorie-conscious — and still be quietly running on empty at the cellular level. Modern food is muscle-meat dominant. Muscle meat is rich in methionine, the branched-chain amino acids, tryptophan, cysteine. It is poor in the structural and regulatory amino acids that historically came from the rest of the animal — connective tissue, skin, marrow, cartilage, tendons, slow-cooked bones.

When humans ate "nose to tail," we ate the entire amino acid spectrum in balance. When we stopped, we kept the protein curve and lost the structure curve. Bone broth puts the structure curve back.

Glycine — The Amino Acid Doing the Most Quietly

If I had to name a single nutrient that I think is most commonly under-supplied in modern eating, glycine would be near the top of the list. It is one of the simplest amino acids, frequently dismissed as "non-essential" because the body can synthesise small amounts of it. The catch is that the body's synthesis capacity does not match its requirement — particularly under any kind of stress, inflammation, or repair load.

Bone broth and collagen are concentrated sources of glycine. And what glycine actually does in the body, when supplied in adequate quantity, is remarkable:

• It is an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brainstem and spinal cord — a natural brake on a nervous system that has spent years stuck in the accelerator. People with sympathetic-dominant, "wired but tired" physiology often respond to consistent glycine intake with a deepening of sleep, a steadying of mood, and a quieting of the internal buzz. This is the most commonly reported effect — and the one that often shows up first.
• It is one of the three amino acids that make glutathione (alongside cysteine and glutamic acid). Glutathione is the body's master antioxidant and a central player in detoxification, immune resilience, and mitochondrial function. Chronic stress, inflammation, infection, environmental burden, and ageing all deplete glutathione. Restoring glycine availability is one of the most underrated ways to support its synthesis.
• It is required for bile acid conjugation — the chemistry that lets the liver clear estrogens, toxins, and lipophilic waste through the gut. Patients with sluggish bile flow, estrogen-dominant patterns, or compromised liver detoxification frequently improve when glycine intake rises.
• It is essential for collagen synthesis itself. About a third of the body's collagen is glycine. Without enough glycine, every connective tissue in the body — skin, fascia, joint cartilage, blood vessel walls, gut lining, hair shaft anchoring — is being built short of one of its core ingredients.
• It supports insulin sensitivity, sleep architecture, and the kynurenine pathway (the metabolic route that, when dysregulated, contributes to inflammation and low mood).

When I see a patient described — by themselves or by another practitioner — as "anxious," "wired," "running hot," "depleted," "fragile," or "dry," I am almost always looking at, among other things, a glycine-poor physiology. A consistent daily intake of bone broth concentrate plus collagen — together delivering somewhere in the region of 8–12 grams of glycine — quietly rebuilds that floor.

The Gut Wall Is Not a Metaphor 

The intestinal lining turns over roughly every three to five days. That makes it one of the most metabolically demanding tissues in the body. It is also the tissue most exposed to the modern stressors that erode it — alcohol, antibiotics, NSAIDs, chronic stress, low-grade infection, ultra-processed food, environmental toxins, and the inflammatory diet patterns most people drift into between life events.

Glutamine, glycine, and proline — all generously present in bone broth — are the preferred fuel and structural raw materials of the enterocyte and the connective tissue that supports it. When you supply them consistently, you are not "supplementing" the gut. You are giving the gut the substrates it has been trying to do its repair work without.

This is why people with leaky gut patterns, IBS, food sensitivities, post-antibiotic gut fragility, or simply long-running low-grade gut inflammation often describe a quiet softening of their symptoms within a few weeks of consistent bone broth intake. The mucin layer thickens. Tight junctions tighten. Inflammatory tone falls. The whole architecture begins to behave again.

If you are working through any version of the Five Rs gut protocol — Remove, Restore, Repair, Repopulate, Re-feed — bone broth sits firmly inside the Repair stage, alongside L-glutamine, zinc carnosine, mucilaginous herbs, and butyrate.

The Extracellular Matrix: The Communication Network Almost Nobody Talks About

Here is the piece I want more people to understand. Connective tissue is not scaffolding. It is communication. The extracellular matrix — the web of collagen, elastin, glycosaminoglycans, fluid, and signalling molecules that sits between every cell in your body — is the medium through which mechanical force, oxygen, nutrients, immune signals, lymphatic drainage, and hormonal messages travel.

When the matrix is depleted, dehydrated, or under-built, everything communicates poorly. Circulation suffers. Lymphatic flow slows. Skin loses bounce. Joints stiffen. Recovery slows. Mitochondria, which depend on oxygen delivery through this matrix, work harder for less return. People describe themselves as "stiff," "dry," "tight," "brittle." Most have no idea their connective tissue is part of the picture.

Collagen and bone broth — together — replenish the raw materials the body uses to rebuild this network. Over months, you can feel the difference. Hair sits in its follicle better. Skin holds water. Joints stop creaking. Lymph drains more freely. Recovery from exercise and illness gets faster. The matrix is doing its job again, and the body is talking to itself in a way it had stopped doing.

Why the Nervous System Responds So Profoundly

Most people frame nervous system regulation psychologically — meditation, breathwork, vagus nerve stimulation, therapy. Those things are real and valuable. But the nervous system is also profoundly biochemical, and most of the conversation has missed this.

A stable, parasympathetic-dominant, well-regulated nervous system needs:

• Adequate glycine for inhibitory tone
• Adequate magnesium for NMDA receptor calming
• Adequate minerals for autonomic stability
• Adequate amino acid availability for neurotransmitter synthesis
• A gut that is not screaming inflammatory signals up the vagus nerve
• Mitochondria producing enough ATP to keep the cells of the nervous system metabolically resourced

A morning practice of bone broth, collagen, mushrooms, and tonic herbs hits all six of these levers at once. Patients are not imagining the calm they feel. Their physiology is genuinely shifting toward parasympathetic dominance — not because of a single ingredient, but because the body is finally being given the materials it needs to keep its braking system functional.

The Evolutionary and Psychological Layer

There is one more thing worth saying, because I think it is part of why this practice feels so disproportionately profound.

Humans evolved consuming bone broths during illness, postpartum recovery, winter, healing, and communal eating. Across virtually every traditional culture — Chinese, Jewish, African, Andean, European — slow-cooked mineral-rich collagenous broths are associated with restoration, safety, nourishment, and recovery. They are what your great-grandmother made when someone was sick.

Your nervous system reads this. A warm, mineral-rich, collagenous liquid signals to the body — beneath conscious thought — that there are resources, that the environment is providing, that survival is not in question. It is, in effect, a biological signal of abundance. And a body that perceives abundance does fundamentally different work than a body that perceives scarcity. Scarcity bodies prioritise survival: cortisol up, reproductive function down, hair growth down, immune surveillance down, repair postponed. Abundance bodies prioritise restoration: hair grows in, skin holds water, sleep deepens, immune system calibrates, repair accelerates.

A daily tablespoon of bone broth concentrate, taken consistently, is — among other things — a quiet repeating signal to your body that it is safe to thrive rather than just to survive.

The Stack I Personally Use, and Why

For full transparency, my own morning ritual:

• 1 tablespoon of Superfeast Jing — the TCM-derived adaptogenic blend traditionally aimed at rebuilding foundational reserve capacity. The Jing concept in Chinese medicine maps remarkably well onto what Western physiology would call mitochondrial reserve, neuroendocrine resilience, and constitutional vitality. The herbs in this formula are deeply restorative rather than stimulating.
• 1 tablespoon of Superfeast I AM GAIA — a medicinal mushroom-and-herb blend formulated for women. Medicinal mushrooms (reishi, chaga, cordyceps, lion's mane, turkey tail and others depending on the formula) are immunomodulatory, neurotrophic, anti-inflammatory, and mitochondrial-supportive. Many women describe feeling more "centred" or "emotionally buffered" on consistent mushroom intake, and the mechanism is real — reduced inflammatory signalling and improved neuroimmune communication.
• 1 heaped tablespoon of bone broth concentrate — I personally use Best of the Bone, an Australian concentrate that genuinely tastes like the slow-simmered article rather than a flavouring. Concentrated forms are practical, shelf-stable, and dose-able.
• 20 grams of collagen powder — for the additional glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline load. Bone broth alone provides meaningful amounts; collagen at this dose meaningfully amplifies the connective tissue and glycine effect.

Hot water, stir, drink. Total preparation time under two minutes. I sometimes add cordyceps if I have a heavier physical day. 

What this combination does — and what it has done for me over two years — is layered:

• Structural repair (collagen, bone broth → ECM, hair, skin, joints, gut wall)
• Neuroendocrine regulation (Jing herbs, glycine, mineral load → HPA axis, cortisol curve, parasympathetic tone)
• Mitochondrial support (Jing herbs, cordyceps, glycine → ATP production, mitochondrial biogenesis)
• Stress adaptation (adaptogenic herbs → HPA resilience under load)
• Mineral replenishment (broth's bioavailable mineral matrix → adrenal stability, nervous system tone)
• Immune calibration (mushrooms, glutathione precursors → inflammatory tone reduction, immune surveillance improvement)
• Mucosal repair (glutamine, glycine, proline → gut barrier integrity)

This is why the effect feels cumulative rather than acute. There is no caffeine-style spike. There is no "first hit feels best" pattern. It just gets better. The first month feels like nothing in particular. The third month, friends start asking what you are doing. The first year, your bloods shift. The second year, you cannot remember the version of yourself who used to feel chronically depleted.

A Note on Who This Is For — and Who Should Be Cautious

Bone broth concentrate is, for most people, one of the safest and most generous interventions in functional nutrition. That said, a few important notes:

• People with histamine intolerance or active mast cell activation can sometimes react to long-simmered broths (histamine rises with cook time). If this is you, start with a smaller dose, source a low-histamine concentrate, and work with someone who can read your mast cell picture.
• Glutamate-sensitive patients may need to introduce slowly. The amino acid profile of long-cooked broths includes some free glutamate.
• Kidney disease patients should discuss any meaningful increase in protein intake with their clinician.
• Quality matters enormously — choose a concentrate or broth from grass-fed, pasture-raised animals, slow-simmered, and free of additives. Cheap commercial broths are mostly flavouring and contribute almost none of the benefits described above.

The Take-Home

If you are feeling depleted in a way food is not fixing — and especially with winter coming, when the body's demand for warming, mineral-rich, deeply nourishing inputs is at its highest — bone broth concentrate is one of the most quietly transformative practices I can recommend.

It is not glamorous. It is not new. It is not patentable. It is, in many ways, what your great-grandmother would have given you. And the reason it works is exactly the reason it has worked for thousands of years: it delivers, in one warm, easily absorbed serving, the structural amino acids, minerals, glutathione precursors, and biological abundance signals that the modern diet has quietly stripped out.

Start with a tablespoon. Stack it with collagen if you can. Add the tonic herbs and mushrooms if you want the full ritual. Do it for three months and pay attention to what changes.

Most people, in my experience, do not need to be told twice.

This article is intended as educational content and does not replace personalised medical advice. If you have a chronic illness, kidney disease, or histamine-related condition, please discuss any dietary additions with a qualified clinician familiar with your individual situation.

References & Further Reading

• Razak M.A. et al. — Multifarious Beneficial Effect of Nonessential Amino Acid, Glycine: A Review — Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity
• Meléndez-Hevia E. et al. — A weak link in metabolism: the metabolic capacity for glycine biosynthesis does not satisfy the need for collagen synthesis — Journal of Biosciences
• Bannai M. & Kawai N. — New therapeutic strategy for amino acid medicine: glycine improves the quality of sleep — Journal of Pharmacological Sciences
• Wang W. et al. — Glycine metabolism in animals and humans: implications for nutrition and health — Amino Acids
• Wu G. — Functional amino acids in growth, reproduction, and health — Advances in Nutrition
• Daneault A. et al. — Biological effect of hydrolyzed collagen on bone metabolism — Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition
• Proksch E. et al. — Oral supplementation of specific collagen peptides has beneficial effects on human skin physiology — Skin Pharmacology and Physiology
• Stamets P. & Zwickey H. — Medicinal mushrooms: ancient remedies meet modern science — Integrative Medicine
• Wachtel-Galor S. et al. — Ganoderma lucidum (Lingzhi or Reishi): A Medicinal Mushroom — in Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects