Taking Stock of Your Health: Bone and Vegetable Broth Recipe

Long considered a fix-all, generations of grandmothers have made broth from the bones of chicken, fish, or beef to nurture the sick and put a vigor in the step of life. For chefs, bone broth is the magic ingredient for soul-warming soups and matchless sauces. For cancer healers, bone broth is an excellent supplemental nutritional source that is easy to digest and supports the healing process.

There are many benefits of introducing bone broth to your diet, whether you’re healing from cancer or not:

1. Heal and seal your gut
2. Protect your joints
3. Look younger
4. Sleep better
5. Support your Immune system
6. Build strong bones

Science validates what grandmothers have always known. Stock contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily: calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, silicon, sulfur and trace minerals. It also contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, which can help arthritis and joint pain.

At Hope4Cancer Treatment Centers, we provide bone broth to our patients all day long. We often make three or four batches a day, so our patients can consume multiple cups per day. The broth is warm and inviting, and it’s easy to gain key nutrients that support the cancer healing process by improving gut health.

Enjoy this recipe from Heal Your Gut Cookbook, by Mary G. Brackett and Hilary Boynton at home, and keep some on hand to drink daily.

Bone Broth

Ingredients:

3-4 pounds beef marrow and knuckle bones
2 pounds meaty bones such as short ribs
½ cup raw apple cider vinegar
4 quarts filtered water
3 celery stalks, halved
3 carrots, halved
3 onions, quartered
Handful of fresh parsley
Sea salt to taste

Method:

1. Place bones in a pot or a Crock-Pot, add apple cider vinegar and water, and let the mixture sit for 1 hour so the vinegar can leach the mineral out of the bones.
2. Add more water if needed to cover the bones.
3. Add the vegetables, bring to a boil and skim the scum from the top and discard.
4. Reduce to a low simmer, cover and cook for 24-72 hours. (If you’re not comfortable leaving the pot to simmer overnight, turn off the heat and let it sit overnight, then turn it back on and let simmer all day the next day.)
5. During the last 10 minutes of cooking, throw in a handful of fresh parsley for added flavor and minerals.
6. Let the broth cool and strain it, making sure all marrow is knocked out of the marrow bones and into the broth.
7. Add sea salt to taste and drink the broth as is, or store in fridge up to 5 to 7 days or freezer up to 6 months for use in soups or stew.