The Healing Benefits of Bone Broth from Dr. Joseph Mercola, at www.mercola.com . People have known for centuries that bone broth is good for you: it helps heal your gut and aids digestion, it inhibits infection and reduces joint pain and inflammation. Dr. Mercola writes, “According to an old South American proverb, ‘good broth will resurrect the dead.’ While that’s undoubtedly an exaggeration, it speaks to the value placed on this wholesome food, going back through the annals of time.”

From his website: the featured article by Dr. Amy Myers lists 10 health benefits of bone broth.

Sally Fallon with the Weston A. Price Foundation has previously published information about this healing food as well.

First and foremost, homemade bone broth is excellent for speeding healing and recuperation from illness. You’ve undoubtedly heard the old adage that chicken soup will help cure a cold, and there’s scientific support for such a statement.

For starters, chicken contains a natural amino acid called cysteine, which can thin the mucus in your lungs and make it less sticky so you can expel it more easily. Processed, canned soups will not work as well as the homemade version made from slow-cooked bone broth.

For best results, you really need to make up a fresh batch yourself (or ask a friend or family member to do so). If combating a cold, make the soup hot and spicy with plenty of pepper. The spices will trigger a sudden release of watery fluids in your mouth, throat, and lungs, which will help thin down the respiratory mucus so it’s easier to expel.

But the benefits of broth don’t end there. As explained by Sally Fallon:

“Stock contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily–not just calcium but also magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur and trace minerals. It contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons–stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain.”

The Healing Influence of Broth on Your Gut:

In later years, medical scientists have discovered that your health is in large part dependent on the health of your intestinal tract. Many of our modern diseases appear to be rooted in an unbalanced mix of microorganisms in your digestive system, courtesy of an inappropriate and unbalanced diet that is too high in sugars and too low in healthful fats and beneficial bacteria.

Bone broth is excellent for “healing and sealing” your gut, to use Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride term. Dr. Campbell’s GAPS Nutritional Protocol, described in her book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome(GAPS), centers around the concept of “healing and sealing” your gut through your diet.

Broth or “stock” plays an important role as it’s easily digestible, helps heal the lining of your gut, and contains valuable nutrients. Abnormalities in your immune system are a common outcome of GAPS, and such immune abnormalities can then allow for the development of virtually any degenerative disease…

As the featured article states, there are many reasons for incorporating good-old-fashioned bone broth into your diet. The following health benefits attest to its status as “good medicine.”

Click here for more information or go to www.mercola.com

Click here for recipes and a tutorial on making Bone Broth

For a slow cooker version, try: http://nomnompaleo.com/post/3615609338/slow-cooker-beef-bone-broth

For another great article on the benefits of bone broth, check out this article on  www.healthambition.com