The Healing Power of Connective Tissue in Animal and Human Diets
A THANK YOU to the Chi Institute and Connie for this as follows:
I think connective tissue is sorely missing in animal diets, as well as our own. In food therapy class we make hoof soup, which I can tell you from personal experience can work magic. I lost all the cartilage in my left thumb joint and medial index finger about 9 years ago after a nasty cat bite in the joint went bad. It took 4 months for Shaolin Deng to get the infection out, then a surgeon went in and freed up all the adhered nerves and took out all the rotten cartilage. He said he took it all. I lost all the muscle mass of the thumb and the joint had just one big click when I tried to move it, really sickening bone on bone click. A few days after the surgery we were teaching at NAVC and Xuisheng Xie took us out to dinner and ordered us tendon soup. After the first few sips, I almost stuffed my head into the bowl. I had 3 huge bowls full and literally had no pain that night for the first time since the cat first bit me. I got a recipe from Xie's wife and ate it non-stop for months. I popped a few Adequans as well, and I can say that was helpful too but hurts like hell. I have a joint that glides nice now, and the whole thing still excites me.
I think connective tissue is sorely missing in animal diets, as well as our own. In food therapy class we make hoof soup, which I can tell you from personal experience can work magic. I lost all the cartilage in my left thumb joint and medial index finger about 9 years ago after a nasty cat bite in the joint went bad. It took 4 months for Shaolin Deng to get the infection out, then a surgeon went in and freed up all the adhered nerves and took out all the rotten cartilage. He said he took it all. I lost all the muscle mass of the thumb and the joint had just one big click when I tried to move it, really sickening bone on bone click. A few days after the surgery we were teaching at NAVC and Xuisheng Xie took us out to dinner and ordered us tendon soup. After the first few sips, I almost stuffed my head into the bowl. I had 3 huge bowls full and literally had no pain that night for the first time since the cat first bit me. I got a recipe from Xie's wife and ate it non-stop for months. I popped a few Adequans as well, and I can say that was helpful too but hurts like hell. I have a joint that glides nice now, and the whole thing still excites me.
Here's one recipe:
Get 2-3 kg of hooves and/or tendons. Usually you can find the flexor tendons plus the inner parts of hooves. Lamb and goats are superior because they are the best climbers, then cows, and last pigs (the most sedentary). Put them in a big pot or a pressure cooker and cover with water, plus 3 tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar and bring to a boil. Let it boil a few minutes and remove all the scum that rises to the top. If you add the spices right away, you can't get the scum out without removing spices as well. Add garlic, some ginger, and a bunch of tamari sauce. In class we add a cinnamon stick, a few star anise, 2 cloves, some Szechuan pepper, and some fennel seed. To cheat, just add some Chinese 5 spice but the real spices are better. Plus they help a bit in masking the barmy odour that may permeate the house-oops - did I mention the smell.
The spices and pungents help the stomach digest the heavy richness of this dish. Cook for many hours until the tendons have fallen off the bones. Discard any bones as they are sharp and dangerous, and feed the broth and tendons. It cools into gelatine. It is hard on the Spleen so is not a great food for a hot wet summer. It is a QI and Blood tonic, and can break you into a sweat if you eat enough. The spices also make it a Yang tonic and they move Stagnation. It is easily frozen and can be dolloped out by the 1/2 tablespoon for little dogs and cats up to 1/3-1/2 cup daily for big guys, though less is fine, and start very low for animals with weak GI. Goat is the easiest on the stomach usually.
Another option is to just add a piece of hoof/tendon to a pot of whatever else is cooking and leach the essence into the whole dish. Anyone who loves osso bucco or oxtail soup knows the effect of this.
Vitamin C at 45mg per kg twice daily for bad hips, OR Rose Hip powder 1/2 tsp. /10-20 kg twice daily and alfalfa, or spirulina for trace minerals can be added.
Fast growing long legged hip dysplastic prone pup that comes into my clinic on Calcium ascorbate, 50-100mg at 9 or 10 weeks, 200-250 BID third month, 400 to 500 from 6 months to 9 months.
Bone appetite!
Get 2-3 kg of hooves and/or tendons. Usually you can find the flexor tendons plus the inner parts of hooves. Lamb and goats are superior because they are the best climbers, then cows, and last pigs (the most sedentary). Put them in a big pot or a pressure cooker and cover with water, plus 3 tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar and bring to a boil. Let it boil a few minutes and remove all the scum that rises to the top. If you add the spices right away, you can't get the scum out without removing spices as well. Add garlic, some ginger, and a bunch of tamari sauce. In class we add a cinnamon stick, a few star anise, 2 cloves, some Szechuan pepper, and some fennel seed. To cheat, just add some Chinese 5 spice but the real spices are better. Plus they help a bit in masking the barmy odour that may permeate the house-oops - did I mention the smell.
The spices and pungents help the stomach digest the heavy richness of this dish. Cook for many hours until the tendons have fallen off the bones. Discard any bones as they are sharp and dangerous, and feed the broth and tendons. It cools into gelatine. It is hard on the Spleen so is not a great food for a hot wet summer. It is a QI and Blood tonic, and can break you into a sweat if you eat enough. The spices also make it a Yang tonic and they move Stagnation. It is easily frozen and can be dolloped out by the 1/2 tablespoon for little dogs and cats up to 1/3-1/2 cup daily for big guys, though less is fine, and start very low for animals with weak GI. Goat is the easiest on the stomach usually.
Another option is to just add a piece of hoof/tendon to a pot of whatever else is cooking and leach the essence into the whole dish. Anyone who loves osso bucco or oxtail soup knows the effect of this.
Vitamin C at 45mg per kg twice daily for bad hips, OR Rose Hip powder 1/2 tsp. /10-20 kg twice daily and alfalfa, or spirulina for trace minerals can be added.
Fast growing long legged hip dysplastic prone pup that comes into my clinic on Calcium ascorbate, 50-100mg at 9 or 10 weeks, 200-250 BID third month, 400 to 500 from 6 months to 9 months.
Bone appetite!