Nutrients in broth

Skin, bone and cartilage are all used in broth cooking, and their main constituents are collagen proteins. When bones are simmered for many hours, collagen is slowly broken down to smaller proteins that form gelatin. Gelatin is the jelly-forming component of the final bone broth when cooled.

Gelatin contains amino acids - vital building blocks our body makes use of when forming proteins. Bone broth is a valuable source of these building blocks, because bone contains many of the amino acids our body needs to build new proteins. If the supply of amino acids in your diet is low, your body can suffer a protein deficit, and broth can be a useful source of replenishment.

building blocks

Slow-cooked bone broth has many of the constituents required to retain and replenish skin, bone and cartilage. Studies that have measured the effect of added collagen and gelatin in the diet, have shown that such components can increase skin elasticity [1], protect against sunburn [2] and increase the skin's ability to renew and repair itself [3]. The latter applies to the inside of our bodies as well as the outside.

The surface of your intestines is your most important shield of protection against microbial attack from the outer world. Your ability to withstand disease depends on an intact intestinal layer. Glutamine, an amino acid abundant in broth, is important for intestinal cells to remain healthy [4].

building blocks

bone marrow

The marrow inside bones is also rich in minerals such as potassium, magnesium, iron, copper and phosphorus, and last, but not least, calcium. The calcium in marrow can be transferred from the bone to the broth by cooking [5]. Studies investigating the amounts of minerals in broth underlined that the duration of cooking is crucial to extract minerals from bones [6,7]. For this reason, slow-cooked bone broth has a higher content of minerals than rapidly cooked broth.

bone marrow

health effects

Measuring the health effects of bone broth in nutritional studies is a difficult task. It is neither healthy nor possible to restrict study volunteers to an exclusive diet of broth. But when broth makes up only a part of a more varied diet, its beneficial effect can be diluted by the combined health impact of the rest of the diet. No studies have yet been able to analyse the effect of slow-cooked bone broth consumption in a population. It is not possible today to conclude a prolonged health effect of broth on a strictly scientific basis.

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health effects

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