Fact not fad: the health benefits of bone broth

The health food market is booming. Enter your typical health food store and you’ll find all sorts of powdery concoctions, daunting green juices and something made of rice that is desperately trying to pose as cake. For the most part we’d advise staying well away (unless you fancy flushing more than just your hard-earned money down the toilet) but occasionally, something hits the market that is worth its celestial status.

Bone broth is not your typical powdered health food – lacking any true feeling of nourishment despite nutritional claims. Wildly, bone broth actually tastes good, it’s something you can look forward to, and, as part of a balanced meal, it can make you feel satiated and content (as opposed to inducing misery for the dogged hope of ‘health’).

So what exactly is bone broth? Simply put, it’s a broth that’s made from bones. Admittedly there aren’t many distinguishing features from a good old-fashioned stock, but crucially, a bone broth is simmered for 24 hours or longer – allowing time for the bones to break down and release various compounds into the cooking liquid. As you drink the cooking liquid, the idea is that you then go on to consume these beneficial compounds, including minerals like calcium, iron and selenium, and various types of protein.

Now we must be clear, health claims relating to bone broth verge on absurdity at times, and over-stating health claims is highly ill-advised. Doing so only gives false hope, fuels cynicism about conventional medicine and fundamentally, risks tainting the entirety of the reputation in question (so much so that staunch opposers are strictly pitted against it, rather than quietly enjoying a bowl of bone broth as they may have done otherwise). Bone broth is not going to cure you of arthritis or heal your chronic gut condition, but it can offer a nutritious enhancement to an already balanced diet.

The biggest winner for bone broth is its protein content. Protein is one of the three essential macronutrients that form the foundation of a balanced diet (the other two being carbohydrates and fat). Typically we consider protein in the context of muscle-building, which is of course true, but the uses for protein actually extend much further than many people give credit. We need adequate protein to support our immune system, for healthy hormones and to form essential enzymes, such as those necessary for digestion (amongst many other functions). Protein is also considered to be a satiating nutrient – i.e. we tend to feel fuller when a quality source of protein is included with a meal or snack.

Bone broth can be a great way to increase protein intake in lower protein meals. Take soup for example – hailed as the epitome of health and tucked into while feeling virtuous throughout – but vegetable soups in particular are almost entirely devoid of a quality source of protein (with the exception of a few, such as lentil-based soups). Swapping vegetable stock for bone broth immediately increases protein content, contributing the final part to the puzzle in creating a healthful, balanced meal. The form of protein in bone broth is also what we call ‘complete’, meaning it contains all of the essential amino acids that we are required to consume.

Mineral content of bone broth is another regularly cited reason for its health benefits. Slightly more contentious than protein, the mineral content is likely to vary significantly between different bone broths – and even then, the quantity may not be huge. Factors that can cause discrepancies include acidity, simmering time and temperature, to name a few. That’s not to say that it can’t be a brilliant way to enhance your diet, but relying on bone broth to consume all of your essential minerals is not generally recommended.

Bone broth is, however, a vehicle for other highly nutritious foods. In this way you can most definitely boost your intake of various essential nutrients – and make it tasty in the process. Blitz your bone broth with spinach and lentils for a boost of iron, try using it as a base for chicken laksa with coriander, garlic and ginger for beneficial plant phytochemicals, or stir it into a slow-cooked beef minestrone for a meal that’s rich in zinc, folate and fibre (with grated parmesan on top for calcium). There are countless ways you can use bone broth in cooking, encouraging us to eat an abundance of nutritious foods that we might not have eaten in such great quantity were it not for the bone broth acting as the perfect base.

Intuitively, a cup of warming soup made with a rich bone broth will also feel nourishing. This can’t be backed up with scientific studies or gold standard trials, but anecdotally this feeling is reported (and as we know, bone broth has been used as a traditional form of medicine for centuries). When you consider this ‘feeling’ factor, we are easily reminded that not everything requires justification. Food is as much about how it makes us feel as the nutrients it actually contains – so take the wild bone broth claims with a pinch of salt, but view it as a beneficial source of protein, a vehicle for increasing your intake of other nutrient rich foods, and a food that sparks a feeling of nourishment (a health benefit in itself).

Molly is a Registered Nutritional Therapist.

The nerdy bit:
1. Hsu, D., Lee, C., et al. (2017). ‘Essential and toxic metals in animal bone broths’, Food & Nutrition Research, 61(1).
2. Lonnie, M., Hooker, E., et al. (2018). ‘Protein for Life: Review of Optimal Protein Intake, Sustainable Dietary Sources and the Effect on Appetite in Ageing Adults’, Nutrients, 10(3).