For those of us who eat meat it has become common practice to pretty much stick with the muscle meats. I would say it's fairly rare to hear from my clients that they are including bones, marrow, organ meats or the more gelantious cuts in their diet. Traditionally, humans would have eaten 'nose to tail' i.e. the whole animal. This means our ancesters consumed A LOT more gelatin than we do now. Eating gelatin boosts our collagen levels and collagen is found almost everywhere in our bodies including our skin, bones, tendons and ligaments. I describe it as the glue that holds us together. By only eating the muscle meat we are missing out on the gelatin and a lot of the quality nutrients found in the rest of the animal.
First and foremost I'd recommend trying some different cuts of meat, maybe making your own broths from bones, eating the bone marrow, slow cooking the tougher cuts and also trying some organs (liver, kidney, heart etc). It's actually not as scary as it sounds and a
quick google search will give you some recipe ideas. Try these hidden liver meatballs by Jordie Pie or making a chicken liver pate such as this one by "Quirky" Jo Whitton.
You can also buy gelatin as a powder and use it to make delcious things like gummies, jelly and panna cotta. You can add it to soups, stews or baked goods or mix it into hot drinks to create a creamy froth! Adding gelatin to warm drinks is one of my favourite ways to use it. You can stir a teaspoon or so of gelatin into herbal tea (it doesn't have much of a flavour) or you can "bloom" the gelatin and blend it into a milky drink to give it a creamy, frothy top. Who doesn't love a frothy coffee!? Whichever way you decide to use it, adding gelatin to a warm drink is particularly nourishing to consume postpartum while all those tissues are healing and to help the skin retain its shape. It's also useful when recovering from injury to ensure the body is getting the right amino acids to rebuild and heal. I like to consume gelatin as a way of getting a little more protein in my diet, particularly while I'm breastfeeding.
To create a frothy drink, make your warm drink however you normally would. Think coffee, turmeric latte, matcha latte, dandelion chai etc. While your drink is warming up, bloom the gelatin. To do this, add 2 teaspoons of gelatin to a small bowel or cup and pour over just enough water to cover. Quickly stir the gelatin to create a thick paste with no powder left. Once your drink is made you'll need to blend in the gelatin mixture with a high speed blender for about 30 seconds. You could use a stick blender, electric whisk, bench top blender (providing it can take hot liquids) or a thermomix. Pour it out into your favourite cup (boobs optional) and sip slowly!