I am an #IBD survivor. I have been suffering for a very long time. My daughter was just three years old at the time of the onset of my illness. She had been watching me since my first severe flare up. For the last 5 years she had been really concerned as my Emergency Room visits increased significantly. I originally had three to four painful flareups a year, which had gradually increased to every month, twice a month, and three times in the month of October 2015 .
She decided to take charge and started going to every doctor’s appointment with me. I had been severely anemic and had suffered numerous blockages resulting in blood loss around that time. My condition was so bad that I was being given blood transfusions every three months which needed some serious thinking. Looking for a solution, My daughter started searching for related information on the internet and listening to health related podcasts.
She came across “the model health show” by Shawn Stevenson. One day she was randomly listening to his podcast and heard that day’s guest Dr. Kellyann talking about Bone Broth and it’s numerous benefits. Dr. Kellyann was promoting her book called “Bone Broth Diet – lose up to 15 pounds 4 inches in JUST 21 DAYS” in that episode. It was mainly about losing weight. My daughter bought the book from amazon, and was so excited that she finished reading it in two days.
She was very confident that this could help as she had listened to Dr. Kellyann talking about bone broth soup’s benefits. It was supposed to have positive effects on the gut, on weight, the immune system, migraines, anti cancer, etc. Bone broth had been a very basic soup for ages. During the old times, Grandmothers of every family fed this soup when someone in the family was sick or weak. They perhaps knew the nutritional benefits this rich soup contained.
My own mother, although being a strict vegetarian, used to make me chicken soup with bones which was called “ yakhni” in Hindi or Urdu. I remember having had Typhoid two or three times during my childhood, and my mother used to give me that chicken soup as wholesome food for recovery and energy. Now after reading the book by Dr. Kellyann it was clear that we could try the soup not for weight loss or weight control, but for healing my gut making it healthier and stronger.
ー November 2016 ー
When my daughter and I decide on something, it does not take long for us to put it in action. I went to the supermarket to buy the bones, but to my surprise I could not find any store that sold bones, and I had checked at least three stores. A little disappointed I decided to forget about it that day. While I was about to leave the supermarket, I changed my mind and went ahead to get cut chicken pieces with bones. I bought a lot of chicken, de-boned it , froze the meat and used the bones, which was just a handful. I searched the internet for a basic bone broth recipe in which I didn’t have to get anything special. I wanted to make it with the ingredients I usually had in the kitchen.
ーMy “Chicken Bone Broth”ー
Here is the recipe of chicken bone broth for you:-
- Chicken bones : 1 kg
- Onions : 250 gms or one big pc
- Carrot: 200 gms or one big pc
- Celery: 80 gms or one stalk
- Apple vinegar: 100 cc
- Salt : 15 gms or one small spoon
- Black pepper whole: 15 gms or one small spoon
- Bay leaf: one big leaf
- Water : 2 liters or cover ingredients with water +2cms level
Put everything in pressure cooker, bring it to full pressure and bring down the flame to lowest possible and cook for 12 to 14 hrs . Longer the better. Better cook it overnight . Filter the contents through a cheesecloth n squeeze the soup . Let it cool down and then place in the refrigerator in a pan or bowl . Skim off the fat layer which forms after 6 hrs cooling . Now can store in bottles . Will make about 1.5 to 2 liters of soup.
I cooked it for ten hrs on the smallest flame possible, so that the water didn’t evaporate too much. I was good at using the pressure cooker as I had used it all my adult life for Indian cooking, which is usually very time consuming. While cooking for 10 hrs, it had been very smelly in the kitchen. I had been thinking whether I could take that smell everyday in the house and above that drink it too. I was afraid and at the same time very anxious to open the cooker and see the result.
Wow , it had turned out nice , the smell was bad but tolerable. I filtered it through a cheesecloth. After filtering and throwing away the residual bones , I realized the smell was gone. The end result was a clear but a slightly thick soup. It was time to taste it. My first cup of steaming hot chicken bone broth soup was in front of me. I added a small spoon of powder pottage soup to the broth. I was afraid of the taste and I didn’t want to reject it, but it turned out tastier than expected.
I really enjoyed the soup. I was totally satisfied with it’s taste and smell. That night I had multiple bathroom visits. Immediately it struck me that I didn’t scrape the fat layer which could only form if I had put the soup for some six hrs in the fridge. Realizing my mistake I again made the broth the next day not forgetting to scrape off the fat layer. I could not take any oils or fats because of my weak digestive system and #IBD.
Now the problem was where to buy the bones and only bones , not the whole chicken. I didn’t want to keep on storing the meat. Dr Kellyann was right, I had to make friends with some butcher nearby. I asked around and was lucky enough to get the bones from one of my daughter’s friend, who was running a chicken meat packing factory. They had been discarding the bones as waste. I have become their regular end-user of bones for over a year and half now. I make the broth every fourth day. I have learned to time the making of the broth (cooking overnight, cooling throughout the next day and by evening it is ready for scraping of the fat when it has become a solid thick layer over the soup). Chicken Bone Broth is ready by dinner time. I have learned to make it tastier by adding different vegetables and condiments like tomato paste , fried onions , or add to any thick gravy like curry, cook rice in half broth and half water. Broth can be added to many different things to suit one’s taste.
ーBenefitsー
Now that I have been able to make and take my chicken bone broth soup without any hesitation( smell or taste) for about a year and half, I am noticing some very interesting things about my body. Before starting the Broth, I had been suffering from several health problems for years -severe blockages,anemia,weakness,insomnia, headaches,very severe pain in my hips, elbows, toes and back aches etc . I may be forgetting a few more of my problems as a human brain is trained to forget the pain when it’s over. Yes, I have been taking many vitamins and minerals too for a long time now , but my body has not been able to absorb these things and the nutrients effectively because of my weak gut. I can really see some positive changes now, but I don’t want to put it into words that it has cured me as nothing can cure #IBD . It has slightly improved the quality of my life now.
I am better at keeping my blockages under control . During 2017 I did have minor blockages three times, which perhaps lasted for two to three hrs and with vomiting only once. I don’t have severe pain in my hips anymore. It’s become less frequent and less intense. It has been a big relief and a reason to believe in the soup. It’s believed to be good for bones and skin as it is full of collagen and amino acids.
No more headaches, I can’t remember when I had my last headaches. It helps with migraines too. I am sleeping better. This was the first positive result I saw in a very few days of taking the broth. It is perhaps the source of all necessary minerals and amino acids. All this is written in Dr. Kellyann’s book and other literature on the same topic. As for Migraines, my 32 year old niece had been suffering from the utterly painful migraines since the age of 11. She has suffered throughout her teenage years till recently. She used to have it very frequently. Three to four times a month always with vomiting. It was painful to watch her in such a state and not being able to help her.
As I had been taking my bone broth soup for about four months, at this point I started to feel better and energetic, but could not pinpoint how and which part of my body was better. Somehow I wanted to be positive about it, and it was too early for any results anyway. I told my sister in law about it and suggested her to start the soup for her daughter, my niece who had been suffering from severe migraines for about 20 years .
I presented her with the material for the very first Chicken Bone Broth she was going to make. She followed my recipe . She made it by the next evening. My niece started taking it in the March of 2017. She has not missed it a day. Her migraines which had been giving her hard times ever since she was a young teenager, started to slowly become less frequent and less intense. I was very happy to see this progress with her migraines. Now after one year she is having the migraines only once at the time of her periods, and that too not very intense or intolerable and no vomiting in recent months. This was an achievement and I felt I should write it in a post and help spread the word about this wonderful soup. Bone broth has been there for ages, but just needed to be recognized again and taken religiously to get the desired results. Now my sister in law is very busy everyday making the bone broth as every member of the family wants to have it. Isn’t it wonderful to enjoy dinner with bone broth soup and be healthy together as a family.
It seems bothersome, but if one has a target or a goal to achieve for a member of the family, it is worth all the hassle. Taking the soup everyday religiously for some years or even few months can do wonders to a tired and sick body. Good health means happiness. This word stands true for all people suffering from any type of pain. We are lucky to have come across Shawn Stevenson’s “ the model health show” and Dr. Kellyann’s talk on one of his episodes.
