One common healing food that is now being recognized for its incredible health benefits is bone broth. It contains so many benefits that it’s being called THE homemade miracle food, as a matter of fact.

Health scientists are concluding bone broth is the number 1 thing you can consume to:

• Treat leaky gut syndrome

• Overcome food intolerances and allergies

• Improve joint health

• Reduce cellulite

• Boost immune system

Bone broth is rich in flavor, easy to digest, and easy to make. It was the way our ancestors made use of every part of an animal. Bones and marrow, skin and feet, tendons and ligaments that you can’t eat directly can be boiled and then simmered over a period of days. This simmering causes the bones and ligaments to release healing compounds like collagen, proline, glycine, glutamine, and marrow that have the power to transform your health.

Nutrition researchers Sally Fallon and Kaayla Daniel of the Weston A. Price Foundation explain that bone broths contain minerals in forms that your body can easily absorb: calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and others. They also contain chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine, the compounds sold as pricey supplements to reduce inflammation, arthritis and joint pain.

It’s important to know that most of today’s store-bought “stocks and “broths” aren’t REAL. These are mostly lab-produced meat flavors infused with monosodium glutamate (MSG), which is recognized as a meat flavor but in reality is a neurotoxin.

If you want real bone broth packed with real bone broth benefits, your best bet it to make it yourself at home. There are a few important basics to consider when making good broth. While you can make bone broth with animal components alone, the combination of animal products and vegetables seemed to have synergistic effects, working together to be more beneficial than either alone.

The essentials as bones, vegetables and water. And you’ll want to add a bit of apple cider vinegar to your pot to help draw the minerals from the bones. Here are the basics:

• Place bones into a large stock pot and cover with water (leave plenty of room for water to boil). I use my large slow cooker.

• Add two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to water prior to cooking.

• Add roughly chopped or sliced vegetables, such as onions, garlic, carrots and celery, for added nutrient value.

• Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer; simmer at least six hours, but 24 hours is best. The longer the broth simmers, the more minerals are extracted. Remove scum if you get any.

• Cook slow and at low heat. Chicken bones can cook for 24 hours. Beef bones can cook for 48 hours. A low and slow cook time is necessary in order to fully extract the nutrients in and around the bone.

After cooking, the broth will cool and a layer of what looks like fat will harden on top. This layer isn’t actually fat. It’s marrow. This is considered GOLD to die-hard bone broth makers. Warm your broth and stir this layer in as best you can before consuming. Never throw it away!

You can also add chicken feet, poultry skin, and calves hooves to get gelatin (another sources of powerful health benefits).

If you like this idea of a cost-effective and easy way to drastically improve your health, then here’s a typical bone broth recipe to try:

TRADITIONAL BONE BROTH (yield: approximately 4 quarts)

2 pounds raw bones (buffalo, beef, lamb, pork, poultry, or game, or a combination)

4 quarts water

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon unrefined salt

1 onion, peeled and coarsely chopped (include the onion skins)

1 carrot, coarsely chopped

1 celery stalk with leaves, coarsely chopped

1 to 3 garlic cloves

2 bay leaves

Place all ingredients in a 6- to 8-quart nonreactive stockpot or slow cooker. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes with the lid off. Skim off and discard any foam that rises to the surface. Add the vinegar and salt. Return to a simmer, then reduce the heat to the lowest setting so the broth is at a bare simmer and cook for about 24 hours for poultry and/or smaller bones. If using large, denser bones, simmer for up to 48 hours.

When the broth is cool enough to work with, remove the bones with tongs or a slotted spoon. Set aside bones that are still firm and use them for subsequent batches until they start to crumble. Discard the vegetables and strain the broth through a fine sieve or a strainer lined with a double layer of cheesecloth into a heatproof bowl. Pour into containers and refrigerate, tightly covered, for up to five days, or freeze for up to several months.

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