Bone soup is an ancient building recipe for long-term illness and deficiency.  It is an excellent addition to the diet for pregnant moms, cancer patients, the elderly, anyone with a debilitating illness, and long-term exhaustion.  The recipe that follows is a guideline for you to adapt to your likes and personal medicinal needs.  Also remember that making your own medicine, or making it for a loved one, is healing in and of itself.

Bones               Be sure to find the best quality bones available.  Bones from deer or other wild animals are great, or you can get high-quality bones from natural butchers at places like Madison Market, PCC or your community butcher.  You can use chicken bones if you do not eat red meat.

Herbs

Astragalus - increases white blood cells.  Great for fatigue with loss of appetite and diarrhea.  Tastes good.  Astragalus is not recommended during the acute infection, it is especially helpful in keeping the immune system strong and ready to fight off infection.

Reishi -  this may not taste so good, but otherwise is a great medicinal mushroom to add.  It normalizes the immune response, so can therefore be used for immune deficiency or hyper-immune response, such as autoimmune conditions and allergies.   Reishi is helpful in reducing the effects of chronic stress, improving adrenal function, appetite and sleep quality.

Shiitake - This medicinal mushroom is going to taste great in your soup.  It is a general tonic for the circulation and immune system.

Maitake - also a tasty mushroom.  Studies have shown it to be helpful in immune stimulation, as well as cancer prevention and blood sugar support.

Panax ginseng - this root is used as a tonic, is immune modulating, cardio-tonic, cancer preventative and cognition enhancing.  It is often not recommended during acute infections, but is excellent in the convalescent stage.

Ginger - this rhizome is going to be warming and good for digestive complaints.  It is a peripheral circulatory stimulant and anti-inflammatory.

Schisandra berries - tastes strange, but good.  It is said to carry with it all 5 flavors.  This is a tonic and restorative herb, classified as an adaptogen.  It is hepatoprotective, protective and healing for the liver.

Ashwaganda - This root is also an adaptogen.  It is anti-inflammatory and calming to the nervous system.  It is used in chronic fatigue syndrome, anxiety, insomnia and in chronic inflammatory diseases.

Directions for Cooking

Add your herbs and bones into the biggest pot you can find, and cover with water.  Simmer this covered for 12-48 hours.  Add more water if necessary.

Strain out the bones and herbs and put the liquid back in the pot.  Add any vegetables, spices, garlic, onions, more mushrooms, etc.  Just like you were making soup from this broth, so it can take any form you prefer.

This soup will keep in the fridge for a few days.  You can also freeze it in small batches, or into ice cube trays.  Try to get a bit in each day, about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup.  For people having trouble eating, chewing an ice cube may be the best option.  This soup can be reheated, and added to any other food as well.  Or simply sipped from a cup at your desired temperature.

In China, food and culture are intertwined.

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“No people on earth are so engrossed in food as the Chinese, for whom it is not  just craft, pleasure and sustenance, but the fundamental building block of society,” writes Jeff Yang of sfgate.com. “So for the Chinese, tainted food is more than a health hazard — it’s a kind of sacrilege.”

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The U.S.  started using Chinese products and moving production to China, because it fit into our general open market philosophy of having an unlimited array of consumable items at affordable prices. Keeping prices low means that imported food ingredients and other products are not held to the same standards applied domestically; and several unfortunate (and in some cases tragic!) circumstances have arisen as a result, mostly involving China.

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People now paint this scenario — one that we in the U.S. have in essence created to support our consumer habits for cheap prices — as some sort of invasion by China with its tainted products. Several times, I’ve encountered customers who tell me, “I don’t want anything with ingredients from China.” Since Rainbow customers usually come here to be educated as well as buy products, I try and ask them, “Why?” and engage them in some discussion.

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For example, consider vitamin-C, which, this time of year, is one of our biggest sellers. It’s been said that 80% of all U.S-sold vitamin C comes from  China. Most vitamin-C comes in the form of ascorbic acid, and 95% of all ascorbic acid in the US comes from China. So, if you’re taking ascorbic acid vitamin C and paying the cheap prices, then you’re probably consuming a Chinese product. Statistically however, you’re more likely to suffer a fatal car accident than find yourself poisoned by Chinese-made ascorbic acid.

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Here’s a possible solution. Rather than spending a lot of time and energy making your life “China-Free”, why not demand that our government apply the same safety standards on imported products that they do on domestic? This will undoubtedly mean higher prices, but it might help us steer clear of future health crises. Better yet, avoid imports altogether, and spend the extra money on U.S. products you can rely on; and not because products from China are “bad,” but because buying closer to home means you save energy with less fuel burned.

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For example, Vibrant Health’s “Super Natural C” is a whole-food-based C, with no added ascorbic acid, and with an array of antioxidant herbs. Vibrant Health doesn’t skimp on ingredients and tests them all vigorously. So, it costs considerably more than your standard ascorbic acid-based C, but for something as helpful to your immune system in the winter-time, it’s well worth it.