Food For Migraine
How To Make The Best Chicken Bone Broth

Written and verified by Holly Hazen

Bone broth, imo, is considered food for migraine because it's neuroprotective and it can help balance your electrolytes. So does this mean it will help stop your migraines... eliminate them all together?

It could... but probably not. It does however, have proven health benefits and it will put another tool in your prevention tool kit. 

Bone broth could help reduce migraine attacks by protecting your neurons from injury or degeneration. Your neurons carry messages between your brain and other parts of your body forming the basic unit of your nervous system.

Our nerves over stimulate and over excite with migraines.

It also helps to heal your gut lining which can be affected by all the medications you may have to take to help abort attacks.

Below is my favorite recipe for a healing chicken bone broth. You can drink a cup up to three times a day should you wish to test the benefits.

Bone broth has been around since the Stone Age and has traditionally been used to cure many illnesses throughout the ages. Both the Paleo and GAPS diet says that drinking bone broth is one of the single most important things you can do to encourage optimum health. And they list migraines as one of the ailments it helps.

The Benefits of Chicken Bone Broth

It's Easier to Digest

All varieties of bone broth (beef, chicken, lamb, pork) are considered to be more easily digestible thanks to the long simmer and cooking time. Of all of them, chicken bone broth is easiest to digest making it a better choice for those of us with weakened digestive systems.

It Cooks a Little Faster

The longer you cook your bone broth, the more concentrated in nutrients it becomes. When it comes to cooking time, beef bones are much thicker and heartier than chicken bones, so for optimal benefits, they require a longer cooking time and should be simmered for at least 24 hours (closer to the 36-hour mark would be even better).

Chicken bones are lighter and thinner, and can get away with a shorter cook time (18-24 hours). However, a 24-hour cook time is always recommended to help break down the connective tissue and bones enough to release as many amino acids and minerals, and as much collagen and gelatin, as possible.

It's Rich in Minerals and Amino Acids

Chicken bone broth contains minerals such as magnesium that promote long-lasting energy.

Many migraineurs are deficient in magnesium and this can often mean calcium too.

Making this bone broth as food for migraine with organic or grass fed bones will supply your body with these much needed minerals as well as: phosphorous, sodium, potassium, silicon and other trace minerals.

It is essential that you add plain white vinegar or apple cider vinegar to your cold water before cooking in order for the minerals to leach from the bones.

"The amino acids that will be in your homemade broth are: glycine, proline, glutamine and the more familiar protein sugars - glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate." _[2]

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Food For Migraine
Chicken Bone Broth Recipe

Ingredients

Stock Pot Instructions

1. Place the chicken pieces in a stockpot, add 6 litres of cold water and the vinegar. Let that stand for one hour to help draw out the nutrients from the bones. Then add the veggies: onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms, leek, fennel, radish, garlic and bay leaves. 
   
   
2. Place the pot over medium-high heat and bring to the boil, skimming off the scum that forms on the surface. Reduce the heat to low and simmer 12-24 hours. The longer you cook the broth, the richer and more flavourful it will be. About 10 minutes before the broth is ready, add the parsley stalks.
   
   
3. Strain the broth through a fine sieve into a large storage container, cover and place in the fridge overnight so that the fat rises to the top and congeals. Remove the fat and reserve for cooking, it will keep in the fridge for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
   
   
4. The broth below the fat layer should be thick and gelatinous. The longer you cook the bones for, the more gelatinous it will become. Put the broth to smaller airtight containers and place in the fridge or, for long-term storage, the freezer. The broth can be stored in the fridge for 3-4 days or frozen for up to 3 months.
   
   

Slow Cooker Instructions

1. Place raw or roasted bones into a large slow cooker.
   
   
2. Add two tablespoons of organic apple cider vinegar to cold water one hour prior to cooking. This helps to pull out important nutrients from the bones into the water. You can use up to ¼ cup of vinegar if you don’t mind the taste.
   
   
3. Add the other ingredients and fill your crock pot with filtered water or natural spring water (not tap water). You should use between 2 to 3 liters of water depending on the size of your crock pot. Only add enough water to cover everything.
   
   
4. Cover and cook on low for 12 to 24 hours. The more you can manage is really the best. This long slow cooking time gets all the nutrients from the bones and marrow into the water along with collagen. The collagen is an important part of healing the gut.
   


5. When it's finished cooking, allow it to cool slightly and strain using a fine colander, put the liquid into a large storage container. 
   
   
6. When it’s cool enough to touch, place it all in the fridge overnight.
   
   
7. The fat will rise to the top and form a protective layer. Leave it there until you are ready to use it. This is actually really important. I'll tell you why in more detail on the tips page.
   
   
8. Transfer the broth to smaller containers that you can store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

In the winter you can add:

• 5-inch piece of fresh ginger, sliced
  
  

Other things I love to add are:

• 1 small pumpkin or squash with skin, seeded and cut into chunks

• 2 x 5-inch strips of dried Kombu (seaweed)

 If you don’t have kombu, you can substitute with other edible seaweeds such as dulse or wakame.

A Few More Food For Migraine Broth Tips

Because this is a lot of food for migraine ingredients going into the pot, I like to get a little extra out of the slow cooker.

Organic everything can be expensive... so here's a food for migraine broth tip...

After 12 hours (overnight) of cooking I remove 1 liter of water and replace a liter and leave it on for another 12 or 15 hours. The first batch is always best, but you'll only get a couple of liters from the batch.

Another option is that once you have prepared all the ingredients, you can use half for batch one, keep the bones and do another batch 2 with fresh ingredients.

Last food for migraine broth tip - the bones should crush easily when all of their goodness is in your broth. If they are still strong, you can use them again.

I hope you've enjoyed this article and recipe. Do take care.

Stay strong,

Holly

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Food For Migraine: How To Make The Best Chicken Bone Broth Reference:
1. Evans, Pete (2017) The Complete Gut Health Cookbook. Plum Publications Australia. ( p. 116).
2. Beef Bone Broth vs. Chicken Bone Broth. Available [online] at: https://blog.kettleandfire.com/beef-vs-chicken-bone-broth/

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