Many patients ask me about how they can change their diet to restore good health. In the past I have often looked a little blank-faced, as I considered what options they might have to revitalize and counter symptoms of ill health by eating food.
For sure, too many patients take little time to prepare their foods, opting for fast food, consuming fat-laden calories, foods prepared in lard or similar unsavory fats, heavy in sugar, or just too many colas and empty calories.
A change to a "prudent heart diet" with attention to eating vegetables and fruits, whole grains, good quality fish and fowl— all prepared in a pleasing dinner environment—would undoubtedly improve the health of most ill individuals.
However, as much as healthy lifestyle is beneficial to preventing ill health, it is a little questionable whether it would dramatically alter the course of one's illness. Some have questioned whether food allergies play a role in ill health. Assuredly, the avoidance and abstinence from allergy-provoking foods has played an important role in restoring health to many individuals.
This is especially important for foods we eat most often, including dairy, gluten, eggs, corn, rice, soy and citrus. Still a healthy lifestyle and avoidance of food allergens may not alter our dis-ease, our general feeling of devitalized health.
In the February/March 2005 issue (#259/260) of the Townsend Letter, Allison Siebecker, a naturopathic doctor student at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon hypothesizes that there may be one food which truly fits the bill for restoring health – that food would be BONE BROTH!
For her review of the use of bone broth, including its use in naturopathic healing, its role in traditional cooking and how bone broth is correctly prepared, the Townsend Letter awarded Siebecker our award for "Best of Naturopathy."Siebecker remarks that broth is a "valuable food and a valuable medicine, much too valuable to be forgotten or discounted in our modern times…."
The method to prepare a broth is remarkably simple: "the ingredients are as follows: bones from an animal, with or without meat and skin, enough water to just cover the bones, a splash of vinegar, and optional assorted vegetables or their scraps. Making broth requires almost no work, just put the bones in a pot, add water and vinegar, bring it to a simmer and walk away. No chopping or tending is needed."
Siebecker details how the constituents of bone and bone marrow, particularly collagen and gelatin are provided in home-prepared broth. Store-bought broths often are not prepared from bone and are not replete with minerals.
If some are dismissive of broth as being hardly of any value, consider what Siebecker's research has noted in broth's ability to restore health. Broth is beneficial for: allergies, anxiety, brittle nails, constipation, diabetes, diarrhea, gastritis, hypertension, immune deficiency, inflammation, kidney stones, muscle cramping, osteoarthritis, periodontal disease, weight loss due to illness, and wound healing.
(This is a partial list; it would be difficult to find a condition that would not be benefited by bone broth.) Siebecker provides a very good recipe in detail of how the broth is prepared in her paper, Traditional Bone Broth in Modern Health and Disease.
Other award-winning papers published in the February/March 2005 (#259/260) printed Townsend Letter include: "Safe Therapy for Anxiety Disorders," "Dietary Supplement Effectiveness on Natural Killer Cell Activity," "Lunar Cycles and Menstruation," and "Naturopathic Medicine Research Without Animal Experimentation." These papers are all available in the printed February/March issue for $6 plus $2 S/H. Extra charges apply for international shipments.
Use our "Order Back Issues" form or the contact info below.
360.385.6021 info@townsendletter.com
Checks may be mailed to:911 Tyler StreetPort Townsend, WA 98368
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