When the bone broth movement began several years ago, it was a celebration of a return to traditional, nutrient-dense, healing foods.

Many of us began to recognize that the rise of disease and lack of optimal health, happiness, and energy that we're experiencing is a product of the processed, inferior foods we're buying into. So we began ditching our microwaves, TV dinners, and processed foods in favor of real, ancestral foods once again.

But, as the old adage says, history repeats itself. This is evident in the genesis of products like powdered bone broth and K-cup bone broth. That is, an attempt to take a healing, REAL food and turn it into a processed convenience food.

Here's the problem: all of the studies on the power and benefits of bone broth are done on traditionally prepared broth, not processed versions. By deconstructing bone broth, you lose the very essence of what makes it the nourishing, healing food that it is. Properly prepared bone broth is more than its individual properties:

• bioavailable collagen
• abundant amino acids
• vitamins and minerals
• glucosaminoglycans
• healthy fats and much more!

Bone broth is a synergy of all its properties working together. Add to that the aroma, warmth, deliciousness, energy, love, and nostalgia, and you begin to understand that real bone broth is an EXPERIENCE: you can actually FEEL it nourishing your cells. I dare say you miss that experience when you drink powdered water from a blender cup in your car!

I'm not going to say there are no shortcuts in life. There are some. But bone broth is not one of them. We could take shortcuts and powder our broth. Charge less, and make a huge profit. But integrity does not allow it. In the case of bone broth, you do get what you pay for.

If you're in the market for bone broth, then you likely value your health and wellness. So do your research. Ask questions. How is it being made? Who is making it? Look at reviews and credentials.

While I do sometimes supplement with probiotics or use green powders (from companies that I've researched and vetted for myself), I do so with full knowledge that it isn't providing the same benefits as eating fermented foods or real vegetables. If a green powder manufacturer claimed I would never have to eat another vegetable again if I used their product every day, I would seriously question their ethics.

Bone broth is not a fad. It's a traditional, healing FOOD. And, if done right, it tastes really good!

To learn more about the health benefits of bone broth soup, read my book, Kristina Amelong's Ten Days to Optimal Health.

For those who don't eat meat, find it unpleasant to work with the bones, or do not consume bone broth for other reasons, alternatively I recommend one daily scoop of Ortho CollaGEN Powder dissolved in 8 oz of water. This supplement is formulated to nutritionally support cartilage, tendons, ligaments, fascia, and skin.

Labels: bone broth soup, collagen, food as medicine, healthy fats, nourishment, probiotics, processed food, vitamins

by Stephanie Carnes
OHN Contributor

Scientists have concluded that cancer "is purely man-made" after finding almost no trace of disease in Egyptian mummies.

Author Fiona Macrae discusses some of the scientific findings: "Tumours were rare until recent times when pollution and poor diet became issues, the review of mummies, fossils and classical literature found. A greater understanding of its origins could lead to treatments for the disease, which claims more than 150,000 lives a year in the UK."

Michael Zimmerman, a visiting professor at Manchester University, said: "In an ancient society lacking surgical intervention, evidence of cancer should remain in all cases. The virtual absence of malignancies in mummies must be interpreted as indicating their rarity in antiquity, indicating that cancer-causing factors are limited to societies affected by modern industrialisation."

"In industrialised societies, cancer is second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of death. But in ancient times, it was extremely rare," said Professor David, who presented the findings to Professor Mike Richards, the UK's cancer tsar and other oncologists at a conference earlier this year.

"There is nothing in the natural environment that can cause cancer. So it has to be a man-made disease, down to pollution and changes to our diet and lifestyle."

SOURCE: Mail Online-Science & Tech - 15 October 2010

The Origin of Disease

In 1949, Linus Pauling, the founding father of molecular biology, and author of Vitamin C and the Common Cold, Cancer and Vitamin C and How to Live Longer and Feel Better, made public his theory that the origin of disease is based on specific changes in genetic materials due to environmental influences, which in turn modify physiological function.

In addition to an increase in environmental toxins and chemicals found in our polluted air and water, each year the FDA approves more and more chemicals for use in foods. These chemicals increase shelf life, kill bacteria, improve taste, replace fats, replace carbohydrates, and replace protein. The main goal of food is to supply our bodies with a natural healing capacity through nutrient rich sources. However, many of us now eat chemicals for our nourishment instead of vital macronutrients. To our food suppliers, profit is the key factor in food production.

Unfortunately, for the consumer of these fancy foods, food additives are often neurotoxic and/or carcinogenic. Thousands of the processed foods on the market are loaded with synthetic chemicals, which inside your body overload your organs of elimination. These chemicals are then stored in your cells, where they cause damage. Where the chemicals are stored is different in every individual. This is why one person might end up with cancer and another with irritable bowel.
Here are a few items on the market today that are widespread contributors to ill health:

Processed meats – Full of synthetic chemicals that weaken our bodies creating toxicity and a demand for extra nutrients just to cope. Lead, aluminum, and mercury are used in conventional processing.

Pasteurized dairy - There is also evidence that pasteurized dairy consumption causes immune-system reactions that trigger arthritis, atherosclerosis, type I diabetes, and increased risk for cancer.

Sugar and unnatural sugar alternatives – Too much causes the digestive tract to slow down and creates an overly acid body that can lead to chronic heart burn and the wearing down of all body systems. The more sugar you eat, the more nutrients are required to keep your body in balance!

Refined or denatured foods – Protein powders, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and white flour.

MSG or monosodium glutamate – This increases your chance of obesity and can permanently shift neural mechanisms in your brain that will alter mood.

Table salt – Strains your body due to being highly refined by drying at over 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. This changes its chemical structure and strips all nutrients.

It is important to realize that all diseases have their root in toxicity and cellular malnutrition! The above food facts are not meant to scare. Rather, they touch on the simple reality that eating healthy, non-toxic foods will assist our bodies to be able to fight disease naturally instead of creating an environment that leads to disease.

Dietary changes and detoxification are two main focuses of the Optimal Health Network. Colon cleansing, along with diet and lifestyle changes, will assist your body in eliminating stored toxins and can be a valuable tool in optimizing health and well-being.

SOURCE: Ten Days to Optimal Health (Amelong 2006)

Labels: cancer, diet and lifestyle, environmental toxins, MSG, processed food