5 Best Bone Broths To Buy Of 2024, According to A Dietitian

Taking care of yourself includes keeping a healthy diet all year round, and some foods may have incredible health benefits for your physical and mental health. Bone broth is full of collagen, it’s nutrient-rich, and has a variety of positive effects on your body, from lowering^[1] inflammation and promoting healthy joints to aiding your digestive system and supporting a healthy gut. 

Just like with any other food, it’s essential to make sure you’re getting high-quality bone broths made from organic and grass-fed animals, so you get the maximum benefit while reducing inflammation. Bone broths are rich in protein, that’s the primary building block of your entire body.

Bone broths are easy to make and even easier to store. All you have to do is gather bones, joints, and cartilage from chicken or beef and cook them in water for 24-36 hours. You can decide to leave the broth pure or add vegetables, spices, herbs, and a citrus component (or another acidic factor like vinegar). The acid helps extract nutrients from the bone marrow found within the boiling bones and helps break down other tissues into the water, dissolving more vitamins, minerals, and collagen. 

Drinking bone broths has been praised for their high nutritional value and many health benefits. The broths are used to:

• Improve skin elasticity^[2] 
• Reduce signs of aging
• Support neuroprotection^[3]
• Enhance digestion 
• Boost^[4] collagen 
• Reduce chronic inflammation
• Enhance sleep ^[5]
• Support treatment^[6] for heart disease
• Support joint health
• Stimulate weight loss^[7]

5 Best Bone Broths Powders in 2024

Health Benefits Of Bone Broths

Collagen from bone broths is often considered the most abundant and important structural protein in your body, with almost every one of us benefiting from its supplementation. It forms molecules that help support your skin, tendons, hair, nails, and muscles, connecting the soft tissues with the skeleton. 

Collagen comes in five main types:

• Type I – the most^[11] abundant and strongest collagen type. It’s especially important in building your bones, skin, and connective tissue. It’s usually found in most collagen supplements as well as a natural part of bone broths. 
• Type II – mostly^[12] found in cartilage, collagen type II is usually found in chicken bone broth powders and chicken stock. 
• Type III – it’s the second^[13] most abundant collagen type in the human body, and it’s also known as fibrillar collagen. Collagen type III is crucial for our skin, bones, and organs. It almost always comes in pair with collagen type I. 
• Type V – helps form interstitial^[14] collagen fibers within the connective tissue as well as the placenta of pregnant women.
• Type X – present in joint cartilage, collagen type X^[15] is usually found in eggshell membrane. 

Supplementing your body with collagen and bone broths, whether made by boiling chicken bones or beef bones, brings various health benefits to the table. It helps improve the health of your skin, nails, hair, and muscles and promotes your joints’ health. The gelatin in bone broth breaks down into collagen, helps protect^[4] your joints from stress, and reduces osteoarthritis and joint pain symptoms. 

In addition to collagen, the amino acids in broths can have a massive positive effect on your body as well:

• Sleep aid – Bone broth is rich^[5] in the amino acid glycine, helping improve the quality and duration of your sleep.
• Anti-inflammatory and gut-healing – bone broth is also rich in glutamine, an amino acid that’s proven^[16] to help with conditions like leaky gut as it heals and strengthens the intestinal barrier, preventing diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease. 
• Stimulates weight loss – bone broths are high in protein, thus suppressing your appetite, promoting weight loss, and increasing lean muscle mass.
• Supports immune function – both glutamine and glycine help improve the function of your immune system, especially through healing your intestinal barrier and reducing intestinal permeability^[17].
• Rich in nutrients – bone broths are incredibly rich in vitamins and minerals, especially calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. Bone marrow is rich in vitamin A, E, omega-3, omega-6, vitamins B2 and B12, zinc, iron, and selenium.  Many broths on the market add vegetables to their products to add even more micronutrients into the mix, making the bone broths more nutritious. 

Effects That Bone Broths Have On Your Body

Broths made from bone can tremendously affect your body through their high protein content and ability to break down into collagen. Aging makes you lose collagen, and getting it from a natural source will always be more beneficial than adding it artificially to your diet. 

If you’re keeping a healthy diet, organic chicken bone broths or beef broths can be very beneficial in helping you lose weight and keeping it off.  It’s also known to help increase your lean muscle mass and keep your joints healthy and functional for years to come. Bone broths are thought to be even more beneficial when paired with physical activity. 

How To Pick The Best Bone Broths

When it comes to choosing the most suitable broth for you and your particular health goals, there are a few important factors to consider:

• If possible, choose the organic version of broths- organic chicken broths, beef broths, or fish broths increase the overall quality of your bone broths as it ensures good manufacturing and treatment practices of the animals used to make the broths. 
• Choose grass-fed or pasture-raised bone broths – the bone broths to buy will have grass-fed and pasture-raised labels. These ensure that the animals made in the bone broths aren’t filled with GMOs or treated with antibiotics, thus showcasing high quality, purity, and nutrient richness. 
• When possible, make your own – homemade bone broths will undoubtedly always be the best possible option as you can fully control what goes into making the broths. Get animal bones from a trusted source that carries the label organic and grass-fed (for beef and chicken bone broths) and either make it by solely boiling animal bones or adding some nutritious, organic vegetables and herbs into the mix. You can add carrots, celery, garlic, onion, bell pepper, rosemary, thyme, oregano, or others. 
• Protein powder – if you’re looking to increase your lean muscle mass, get the bone broths protein powder with an even higher amino acid profile than usual, promoting muscle gain and fat loss while supplying you with collagen. It will also be a better choice for weight loss as it will actively help you burn fat while gaining lean muscle.  
• Price – the price will always be an important factor, and even though most broths are expensive, many bone broths brands offer discounts if buying in bulk or choosing to subscribe monthly or bi-monthly.
• Bone broth reviews – before getting yourself the first broths you see in the store, read the reviews and testimonials. People usually either rave about a product or point out the negatives, so the better bone broths will have a high rating. 
• Third-party tested – this ensures purity and lack of toxic chemicals, heavy metals, or mold.
• Choose low-sodium and no MSG – many bone broths are high in sodium, MSG, or other sources of glutamate, which could be harmful and cause hypersensitivity and allergies^[18] in some people. Additionally, it’s important to pay attention to your sodium intake and keep it moderate avoiding all added salt.

Conclusion

Consuming bone broths is an incredible way of supporting the health of your skin, nails, hair, muscle, and joints, especially when made from organic ingredients. Those who drink bone broths swear on its powerful effects, which can be seen when taken consistently. The most usual bone broths are nutrient-dense and made from chicken bones, beef bones, or pork bones. Choose the ones with an organic and grass-fed label, look for third-party lab testing for quality assurance, and read reviews before making your purchase.

Frequently Asked Questions

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