Tier 4 — mechanistic

Bone Broth Unlikely to Provide Reliable Concentrations of Collagen Precursors Compared With Supplemental Sources of Collagen Used in Collagen Research

Rebekah D. Alcock, Gregory C. Shaw, Louise M. Burke
International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism 2019 29(3):265–272

Bibliography

PubMed
PMID 29893587
DOI
10.1123/ijsnem.2018-0139
Funding
No external grant funding statement in the extracted data. Authors were affiliated with the Australian Institute of Sport (Bruce, Canberra, ACT), Mary Mackillop Institute for Health Research at Australian Catholic University, and Brumbies Rugby (Bruce, Canberra, ACT).
Competing interests
Competing interests statement (verbatim): "The authors declare no conflict of interest." Lead author Rebekah D. Alcock affiliated with Brumbies Rugby (professional sports team) in addition to academic institution. Co-author Louise M. Burke is a highly-published sports nutrition researcher at the Australian Institute of Sport. No commercial ties to a specific bone broth or collagen manufacturer surfaced.

Study snapshot

DesignAnalytical laboratory comparison — quantification of collagen-precursor amino acids across multiple bone broth preparations and standard collagen supplement products
ModelNot applicable — analytical study of food and supplement products
SampleNot applicable — multiple bone broth batches (chicken bone, beef bone, home-prepared with and without vinegar, commercial powder-form) compared to standard collagen hydrolysate research doses
InterventionAnalytical comparison of commercial and laboratory-prepared bone broths made with standardized and nonstandardized protocols against the amino-acid contribution from a potentially therapeutic 20 g dose of reference collagen supplements.
DurationNot applicable
EndpointsHydroxyproline content per serving; Glycine content per serving; Proline content per serving; Hydroxylysine content per serving; Lysine content per serving; Leucine content per serving

What the study showed, in plain terms

This 2019 laboratory study asked whether bone broth reliably supplies the same collagen-related amino acids as the standardized collagen doses used in research.

The researchers analyzed commercial and laboratory-prepared bone broths made with both standardized and variable recipes. They measured glycine, lysine, proline, leucine, hydroxyproline and hydroxylysine, then compared those concentrations with the amounts supplied by a potentially therapeutic 20 g dose of reference collagen supplements.

Bone broth made to a standardized recipe supplied significantly lower concentrations of all six measured amino acids than the 20 g reference collagen dose. Nonstandardized preparations varied substantially, making bone broth an unreliable way to reproduce the amino-acid exposure used in collagen research. This is a composition study only; it does not test absorption or clinical outcomes.

Key findings

  • Standardized bone broth contained significantly lower concentrations of hydroxyproline, glycine and proline than a 20 g reference collagen-supplement dose (p=.003).
  • Hydroxylysine, leucine and lysine were also significantly lower in standardized bone broth than in the 20 g reference collagen dose (p=.004).
  • Amino-acid content varied substantially across nonstandardized bone-broth preparations, so a serving of bone broth cannot be assigned one reliable collagen-equivalent dose.
  • The study compared composition, not human bioavailability, tissue delivery or clinical efficacy.
  • The paper's conclusion is that bone broth is unlikely to provide consistently reliable concentrations of collagen precursors comparable with the supplemental doses used in collagen research.

What this study can and cannot tell us

  • This was a composition study, not a human absorption or clinical-outcome trial. Measured amino-acid content cannot establish bioavailability or efficacy.
  • Only a limited set of commercial and laboratory-prepared broths was analysed; bone-broth composition varies substantially by recipe and product.
  • The results should not be converted into a fixed collagen-equivalent dose per cup for all bone broths.
  • The study did not compare bone broth with the full range of collagen-containing whole foods.
  • Other nutritional properties of bone broth, including fluid and micronutrient contribution, were outside the study's scope.
  • The study measured selected collagen-precursor amino acids rather than demonstrating that bone broth reproduces the peptide profile of a standardized hydrolysate.

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