Why Grandma’s Soup Was The Best

By Travis Wade

Holy the benefits of soup! Grandma is the best! She makes the best soups doesn’t she? The benefits of soup are endless and so are the flavours!

How Grandma Made Soup

Allow me to fill you in on how grandma made the best soup. First she started with a base from boiling the bones of an animal that grandpa shot. Back in the day, nothing got wasted. They used the entire animal tip to tail. That’s why the broth was so good and nutritious. The hardest to digest and least nutritious part of the animal is the muscle. I know, it tastes the best which is why we all eat it like kings.

On a side note, all of the studies showing that red meat is bad for you are studies using meat that has hormones, antibiotics, and fed genetically modified grains. This meat is bad for you. Grass fed or wild meat is extremely beneficial to your health. Enjoy your Walmart steak (sarcastic). Some places around Edmonton that sell grass fed meat are listed in this article.

The Asians got it right again. Not only do they work harder, study harder, and have faster reflexes, they eat meat better too. They eat all the nutritious parts we cringe at. I’m not going to try to talk you into eating testicles or tongue, but throw all those weird organs and parts into the soup base. Grandma did…

Boil your base for at least 12 hours. Grandma would boil it for at least that long and usually closer to 24 hours. Sometimes for days actually. That’s where the song came from, “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot, 9 days old”. As long as you’re boiling it, it will keep. No bacteria will grow in those temperatures.

Anyway, boil your carcasses for about 24 hours. You’ll need to invest in a giant soup pot because you don’t want to be doing this every day. You’ll need a couple of them and a giant stainless steel colander that fits around the rim of the second giant soup pot. Strain the carcasses from the broth and throw out all those bones and organs. Don’t feed the bones to your dog. They will be brittle and get stuck in the dog’s’ throat.

Let the broth cool off. The fat rises to the top and after it sits in the fridge it hardens. Break off the fat and keep it for cooking with. Now you have a gelatin full of collagen, L-glutamine, proline, glycine, zinc and all kinds of nutrients that makes your body strong.

It doesn’t take much to make it taste good. Salt, pepper, onion, and garlic make it taste delicious. Grandma would put all the most nutritious strengthening foods in it like turmeric (if grandma was part Asian), cayenne pepper, basil, oregano, garlic, cabbage, onion, tomato, celery, squash, carrots… the list is very long here.

The Benefits

One benefit I need to mention grandma had in mind with her soup is that it strengthens the gut lining. Your connective tissue is made up of mostly collagen. Where are you getting collagen in your diet? Your gut lining is made up of collagen as well and unfortunately, today’s SAD or Standard American Diet is really good at breaking down the gut lining. Inasmuch, the SAD doesn’t have much to build the gut back up.

Hippocrates said that all chronic diseases start in the gut and many doctors believe he was right. Every autoimmune disease is caused by a broken down gut lining. Many things break down the gut lining, but the good news is bone broth builds it back up.

Leaky Gut Syndrome

Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride is a Russian neuroscientist that created the GAPS diet and has seen thousands of patients get better with a soup diet and psychology. She teaches her methods to other practitioners and they also have seen thousands of patients get better with her methods.

I know a lot of skeptics say why isn’t everybody doing it if it works. For one it’s hard to monetize, but Dr. Josh Axe has done that now. He has created his bone broth protein powder and you can buy it online for around $45. Dave Asprey, the Bulletproof guy, also sells collagen powder.

The other thing is it takes approximately 18 years for scientist discoveries to become mainstream. The issue I’m writing about right now is called leaky gut syndrome and it affects us all to some degree unless you are doing something about it. A drug is in the works to help with the problem. Once the pharmaceutical companies can monetize this issue you will be hearing all about it in the mainstream, but for now a lot of conventional doctors are denying it even exists.

Don’t take the drug because it doesn’t fix what is causing the problem. Do what doctor Josh Axe recommends and eat the one pot diet. He says the crock pot is the key to a healthy gut. He talked about how the gut is a lot like your skin and when you get an abrasion and you keep irritating that abrasion it’ll take a long time to heal. The same is with your gut when you eat hard to digest foods. If you eat crock pot or one pot foods your food is soft and easy to digest giving your gut the chance to heal. Dr. Axe recommends at least 3 cups of broth per day to heal the gut lining.

Dr. Natasha Campbell Mcbride says “Soup for breakfast, soup for lunch, soup for dinner and soup in between. Soup, soup, soup, soup!” 2 weeks to 2 months of nothing but soup to strengthen the gut lining. She’s a Russian grandma.

Maintaining a healthy gut is so highly underrated. As an EMT half the medical patients I saw had gut issues. Half of those patients left the hospital undiagnosed. In all autoimmune diseases you will find leaky gut syndrome. Do all chronic diseases start in the gut?

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

Want To Get Started On A New Lifstyle Right Away?

Or

Would You Like A Plan To Achieve Your Fitness Goals?

Learn More!

Sign Up For Online Personal Training!

Online Personal Training!

Why Do Most People Call An Ambulance? Besides Loneliness

By Travis Wade

I have worked as an EMT for over 17 years. I have seen all kinds of health problems and it’s hard to watch when I know how to prevent health problems. The most common problem I’ve seen is abdominal pain. About half of the abdominal problems leave the hospital undiagnosed. You have to wonder why.

My full time job now is personal training and I am still helping people, but in a preventative way. That’s why I just want to go over some of the most common problems people have that I’ve seen and why.

Abdominal Pain

You can’t exercise your intestines the same way you can exercise your biceps. The number one nutrient I recommend to people is not even on the list of highest nutrient deficiencies in North America. It is soup broth. The types of food most people will eat these days does so much damage to their intestinal wall and most people don’t do anything to improve it. Your intestinal wall is made up of mostly collagen. How are you getting collagen in your diet?

Soup broth not only has collagen, but it has the amino acids proline, glycine, L-glutamine, and it has zinc, iron, magnesium, and lots of other nutrients your body needs. All of these are recommended to build up your gut lining. Also, you just don’t get the same effect if you use supplements; you need to eat properly with high nutrients and lots of fibre.

Heart Problems

Atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis are generally the causes. The most common causes of atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis was not on the list of nutrients to prevent heart disease that I just read, but it is on the list of most common nutrient deficiencies. It comes in third behind vitamin D and Omega 3s. Vitamin K2 is what reroutes calcium to its proper destinations like in the bones to prevent osteoporosis.

It also prevents the calcium (plaque), building up in your vasculature preventing diseases like heart attacks, stroke, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and pulmonary embolisms. It also prevents the incredibly painful kidney stones and gallstones. Fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchee have vitamin K2.

Diabetes

Caused by sugar, but even more by sweeteners including stevia, sucralose or Splenda, aspartame, and anything diet. Artificial sweeteners are even more addictive than sugar and produce diabetes faster. This may be intentional. Food companies want you buying as much of their addictive food as possible and a side bonus is they can get you on medication too.

Depression

Caused by many things, but a huge contributing factor is gut problems. Serotonin, dopamine, and other neurotransmitters regulating your mood are created in your gut. Take care of your gut with soup first, then find out what is in your microbiome. You might be able to manipulate your gut bacteria with natural methods or you might have to take a medication to get rid of severe pathogens under the guidance of a medical practitioner of course. Then take the steps to build a good strong microbiome with sauerkraut, sources of fibre, rice starch, and probiotics.

Autoimmune Diseases

Again this is caused by gut problems. The weakened gut lining allows bigger molecules to pass through the lining which your body doesn’t recognize and attacks. These molecules and inflammation along with the toxins being produced are what cause the autoimmune diseases. In every autoimmune disease you will find leaky gut syndrome. Some of the things that contribute to leaky gut syndrome are genetically modified foods, gluten, dairy, and lectin found in beans.

Thyroid Problems

Gluten is the protein in bread or flour that binds it like glue and one of the molecules that will pass through a weakened gut lining. Your body doesn’t recognize gluten and will produce antigens against it. Your thyroid has proteins that are very similar to gluten. The gluten antigens also attack the thyroid. Once you fix your weakened gut with soup, you can add some gluten back to your diet, however, gluten is one of the proteins that cause a weakened gut.

Another very common problem for the thyroid is everyday chronic stress. It creates an overactive adrenal gland and when cortisol is high, thyroid hormone is low. Experts don’t know which causes which but adrenal problems and thyroid problems go hand in hand.

Toxins

Toxins need an honourable mention here. I was talking to someone about mycotoxins in their coffee and they wanted to show me an article that said the mycotoxins in our coffee was under the legal limit and considered safe. The article also talked about how there was mycotoxins in dairy, peanuts, grains, and is even found in breast milk. All of the above are things I recommend avoiding in your diet for reasons much more than the mycotoxins. All except the breast milk which I highly recommend.

How did the mycotoxins get in the breast milk? Like a lot of toxins, mycotoxins are difficult to eliminate and end up in breast milk. This is another really good reason to reduce your toxic load. You are exposed to over 200 toxins before you’re born and if your mom wasn’t careful it’s in her breast milk. I am not saying you have to avoid everything that has toxins, but you have to take care to reduce your toxic load.

The mycotoxins in your coffee, along with the milk in your cereal, the grains in your cereal, the sugar… how much toxins have you swallowed at breakfast? By the end of the day? Week? Month? They accumulate and are very hard to eliminate. Is the accumulation below the legal limit? The legal limit isn’t a standard you want to follow by the way. I’m going to stop there.

Toxins = The external sources include air, water, diet, drugs, organic pollutants, heavy metals, radiation, and physical or psychological stressors. Internal processes include inflammation, free radical production and oxidative stress, allergens, infections, and even gut flora.