Bone broth contains collagen in the form of gelatin, drawn out of bones and connective tissue as they simmer, but the amount depends on the recipe. A 2019 analysis found broths made to a fixed recipe carried significantly less glycine, proline and hydroxyproline than a 20 g collagen supplement, while broths made without one varied widely. A powder with a declared serving is the only way to know a dose like 15 g.
So the answer to “does bone broth have collagen” is yes, and the answer to “how much” is that nobody knows for a given bowl, including, in one study, the researchers who served it. Both answers come from the same Australian research group, which measured broths in a laboratory and then fed one to volunteers, and both are set out below with their numbers.
Does bone broth have collagen in it?
Yes, as gelatin: collagen that heat has unwound and partly broken down, which is why broth often sets when chilled. Gelatin melts and sets at temperatures below body temperature (Boran and Regenstein, Adv Food Nutr Res 2010). In a 2019 trial, 300 mL of a cafe-made broth raised blood glycine to a peak of 666 micromoles per litre, against 674 after 20 g of gelatin powder (Alcock and colleagues, Front Nutr 2019). The amount, though, varies with the recipe.
Gelatin is the same material a gelatin supplement contains, and the broth in that trial behaved like a collagen source in the blood: glycine, the amino acid collagen carries most of, rose to a similar height as after the powders. What it did not do was arrive at the same speed, and it did not arrive in a known amount. Those two differences are the whole of this comparison. How gelatin itself compares with collagen peptides is covered in collagen peptides vs gelatin.
How much collagen is in bone broth?
It depends on the pot. Alcock, Shaw and Burke, Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab 2019, measured glycine, proline, hydroxyproline, lysine, leucine and hydroxylysine in commercial and laboratory-made broths. Broths made to a fixed recipe carried significantly less of the collagen amino acids than a 20 g collagen supplement; among those, commercial broths carried less than home-made ones; and broths made without a fixed recipe varied widely, with cafe-made versions the highest of all.
One finding in that study cuts the other way and belongs here: broths made repeatedly to the same fixed recipe did not differ significantly from each other. That suggests a household making the same broth the same way gets roughly the same amount each time. What it cannot know is what that amount is, because the recipe sets it and nothing at home measures it. The authors concluded that broth is unlikely to be a consistently reliable source of these amino acids.
Is bone broth as good as collagen powder?
It can carry more, unpredictably. The cafe broth Alcock and colleagues served in their 2019 trial turned out, when analysed afterwards, to hold 52.2 g of protein in 300 mL, against about 19.3 g in each 20 g powder serve. The same group’s earlier analysis found broths made to a fixed recipe below a 20 g supplement dose. A bowl can land on either side of a powder, and nobody knows which side without a laboratory.
The researchers chose that broth because their earlier work had found it richer than the other broths they assessed, and its protein still came out, in their words, “considerably higher than expected.” They had mixed five litres and divided it into 300 mL serves, so every volunteer drank the same broth; they simply could not know its content until the trial was over. That is the dose problem in its cleanest form, and it was run by people who measure amino acids for a living.
| Factor | Bone broth | Collagen powder |
|---|---|---|
| What carries the collagen | Gelatin drawn out in the pot | Peptides or gelatin, in a measured serving |
| Amount per serving | Varies by recipe; fixed-recipe broths below a 20 g supplement; one cafe broth at 52.2 g protein per 300 mL | Stated on the panel |
| Consistency | Same recipe, similar amount; different recipes, wide spread; commercial below home-made | Set by the declared serving |
| Dose control | Not possible without laboratory analysis | Scoop or weigh the stated serving |
| Glycine peak in blood, one trial | 88 minutes, still raised at 3 hours | 48 to 71 minutes |
| Convenience | Hours of simmering, or a carton; 300 mL a serve | A scoop in a drink |
The variability and consistency rows are from Alcock, Shaw and Burke, 2019. The blood row is from the 2019 trial in Front Nutr, in which 15 recreationally active men drank each source warm, in 300 mL of fluid, in random order at least 48 hours apart, with blood drawn every 20 minutes for three hours.
Can you get 15 g of collagen from bone broth?
Possibly, but you cannot know that you have. A pot of broth arrives with no measured figure, and the one served broth that researchers analysed afterwards held more than twice the protein of a 20 g powder serve. A supplement panel, by contrast, has to state the serving size and the “quantitative amount by weight per serving” of each dietary ingredient, in the words of FDA’s labeling guide. That requirement is what lets 15 g be reached on purpose.
Fifteen grams is the dose in the 2017 gelatin trial most collagen dosing advice traces back to, and it carries its own limits. That trial, Shaw and colleagues, Am J Clin Nutr 2017, gave 5 g or 15 g of vitamin-C-enriched gelatin to eight healthy men an hour before rope-skipping, and the 15 g dose roughly doubled a blood marker, PINP; it measured blood, not a tendon. Balshaw and colleagues, Med Sci Sports Exerc 2023, randomised 39 men to 15 g of collagen peptides or placebo a day for 15 weeks of training, imaged the tendon by MRI, and found no between-group difference. A dose can be measured exactly and still rest on thin evidence. The arithmetic of 15 g against a tub is worked through in how many doses are in the tub.
Should you drink bone broth or take collagen powder?
For a known dose at a known time, the powder; for a meal, the broth. In the one trial that compared them, broth delivered its amino acids more slowly, with glycine peaking at 88 minutes against 48 to 71 for gelatin and peptide powders, and its proline and glycine were still raised at three hours (Alcock and colleagues, Front Nutr 2019). A dose timed before a session needs a stated amount and a predictable arrival, which a measured powder gives and a bowl does not.
The trial’s authors suggest why broth was slower: its fat may slow how fast the stomach empties. That is their interpretation rather than something they measured. Broth is food, and nothing here argues against eating it; the point is narrower. Whoever wants a number needs a product that prints one, and the place it is printed is the serving line, which the supplement label glossary and how to choose a collagen supplement both start from.
What the research does not show
- Any tissue effect of broth. No trial named here gave broth and measured a tendon or any other tissue. The evidence is a composition analysis and one blood study.
- A typical broth. The broth in the blood study was chosen because it was the richest the group had found, and it still exceeded expectations. A home-made or carton broth may carry far less.
- That a higher blood peak means more. Broth, gelatin and peptides raised glycine to similar heights in 15 men. Whether the slower curve after broth matters anywhere in the body was not examined.
- That the powder side is settled. The 15 g figure comes from a three-day blood-marker study in eight men, and the 15-week MRI trial at 15 g found no difference from placebo.
Where Under Load sits
Under Load sits on the measured side of this comparison: collagen peptides, bovine, Type I and III, one ingredient, 350 g. The declared serving is 10 g, two 5 g scoops, 35 servings. Its certificate, run by ViaCore, the manufacturer’s own laboratory, on lot 121125450, gives protein as 9.8 g measured per 10 g serving; 1.5 servings is 14.7 g by arithmetic. The protocol on this site is a directions statement: 15 g, three scoops, 30 to 60 minutes before training, with 50 to 100 mg of vitamin C, which is 23 whole doses per tub.
More in this cluster: bovine vs marine collagen, collagen types explained, the collagen research, summarised and every supplement form compared.
Sources
- Alcock RD, Shaw GC, Burke LM. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab 2019;29(3):265-272. PubMed 29893587
- Alcock RD, Shaw GC, Tee N, Burke LM. Front Nutr 2019;6:163. PubMed 31681789
- Boran G, Regenstein JM. Adv Food Nutr Res 2010;60:119-143. PubMed 20691955
- US Food and Drug Administration. Dietary Supplement Labeling Guide: Chapter IV. Nutrition Labeling. fda.gov
- Shaw G, Lee-Barthel A, Ross ML, et al. Am J Clin Nutr 2017;105(1):136-143. PubMed 27852613
- Balshaw TG, Funnell MP, McDermott EJ, et al. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2023;55(11):2083-2095. PubMed 37436929