Is bone broth good for gut health? What the evidence shows

What is bone broth, and how is it different from stock?

Bone broth is stock that has simmered longer. Harvard Health describes it as animal bones, usually chicken or beef, simmered in water for a long time, often with vegetables and a splash of vinegar.

Time is the main difference. Stocks generally simmer for a few hours, Harvard Health says, while bone broth recipes call for four to six hours or as much as a day or more. Cleveland Clinic sets six hours as the minimum for a quality broth and says that, chilled, it should turn gel-like.

The word on the carton does not settle it. Cleveland Clinic notes that companies can call a product bone broth as long as they used bones to make it, even if the bones and broth cooked together for only a few minutes.

What does bone broth provide? Nutrition per cup

Fluid, some protein and a fair amount of sodium, with no fiber and no live cultures. The table sets two USDA stock records next to a fermented food and a high-fiber food, one cup each.

Per cup, calculated from each USDA FoodData Central record's values per 100 g and its own cup size. Per 100 g as listed: chicken stock 2.52 g protein, 143 mg sodium, 0 g fiber; beef stock 1.97 g, 198 mg, 0 g; yogurt 3.47 g, 46 mg, 0 g; lentils 9.02 g, 2 mg, 7.9 g. Live cultures: ISAPP lists yogurt among foods with live microbes, and under 21 CFR 131.200 a yogurt processed after culturing to inactivate its microbes must say it "does not contain live and active cultures." Stock and lentils are cooked foods, not fermented ones under ISAPP's definition.

Three things stand out. Broth is mostly water: the chicken stock record lists 92.2 g of water in every 100 g, so a cup counts toward your fluids. It has no fiber, and Cleveland Clinic says a healthy balance of gut bacteria needs plenty of soluble fiber from foods like beans, oats and oranges. And bone does not hand over much of its mineral: a 2017 study found calcium and magnesium in home-made and commercial broths came to under 5% of daily recommended levels per serving.

Broth has no live cultures. Whether probiotic supplements, which do, help a healthy gut is a separate question, covered in do probiotics work?

Is there evidence that bone broth helps your gut?

Not from trials of broth itself. What exists is research on some of the nutrients in it, studied on their own or in animals.

"The list of health benefits associated with bone broth may be extensive, but there's still not much research on the stuff."

Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials

The gut example Cleveland Clinic gives is "a non-human study in 2021." The Canadian Digestive Health Foundation is blunter: "No one has done any real research on bone broth specifically when it comes to particular health issues."

A 2025 review by Mayo Clinic researchers argues from the parts. It gathers animal and human studies of amino acids found in broth, such as glutamine, glycine and proline, and of its minerals, and links them to the gut barrier. The benefits it describes are "documented for components in bone broth," and the authors write that they aim to encourage further research.

Then there is the dose. When researchers in Australia measured six amino acids in bone broths, levels varied widely between recipes, and a standard recipe delivered significantly less than the 20 g dose of collagen supplement used in research. Their conclusion: broth is unlikely to be "a consistently reliable source of key amino acids."

How does bone broth compare with fermented foods and fiber?

They do different jobs. Broth brings fluid and protein. Fermented foods can carry live cultures, and fiber-rich foods are what Cleveland Clinic points to for a healthy balance of gut bacteria.

In the table, yogurt is the only row with live cultures and lentils the only row with fiber, at 15.6 g a cup. Our read on fermented foods vs probiotic supplements covers which fermented foods still carry live cultures, and the 30-day gut habits checklist builds fiber and fluids into a month, and high-fiber foods for gut health lists fiber per serving for twelve foods, lentils among them. A cup of broth can sit alongside both; it does not replace either.

How do you choose a bone broth?

Start with the salt, then check how it was made.

1. 01

   Read the sodium line

   Look for low-sodium or reduced-sodium broth; some bone broths carry over 450 mg a cup.

   Harvard Health

   Each shop
2. 02

   Use the % Daily Value

   5% DV or less of sodium per serving is low, and 20% DV or more is high.

   FDA

   Each shop
3. 03

   Do not trust the name alone

   "Bone broth" on a label only means bones were used, not how long they cooked.

   Cleveland Clinic

   Each shop
4. 04

   Chill it and look

   A long-simmered broth turns gel-like in the fridge.

   Cleveland Clinic

   At home
5. 05

   Make it to set the salt

   Home-made broth lets you adjust the ingredients and salt to your taste.

   Harvard Health

   Weekend

More reads

• What is kefir? The cultures in it, how much a day, and kefir vs a probiotic

  A fermented milk, culture by culture.

• Do probiotics help with weight loss? What the trials measured

  What the trials measured, strain by strain.

• How to reset your gut: what studies show about how fast gut bacteria change

  How fast gut bacteria shift, and what cleanses do.

• Fermented foods vs probiotic supplements: what each one gives your gut

  Which foods keep live cultures, and the Stanford trial.

• What helps bloating fast, naturally? Habits first, then the supplements with evidence

  Quick steps, and the salt that adds to bloating.

• A 30-day gut habits checklist: fiber, fluids, meals and sleep

  Six habits for the month, each with its source.

• High-fiber foods for gut health: grams of fiber per serving

  Twelve foods, fiber per serving, from USDA records.

Sources

1. Harvard Health Publishing. Savoring the benefits of bone broth: Worth a taste? March 4, 2025. health.harvard.edu
2. Cleveland Clinic. Why bone broth is good for you (and how to make it). August 16, 2024. health.clevelandclinic.org
3. Canadian Digestive Health Foundation. Is bone broth healthy? cdhf.ca
4. U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central, SR Legacy records (April 2019): Soup, stock, chicken, home-prepared (172884), Soup, stock, beef, home-prepared (172883), Yogurt, plain, whole milk (171284), Lentils, mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt (172421)
5. Alcock RD, Shaw GC, Burke LM. Bone broth unlikely to provide reliable concentrations of collagen precursors compared with supplemental sources of collagen used in collagen research. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2019;29(3):265-272. PubMed 29893587
6. Matar A, Abdelnaem N, Camilleri M. Bone broth benefits: how its nutrients fortify gut barrier in health and disease. Dig Dis Sci. 2025;70(6):1951-1961. PubMed 40180691
7. Hsu DJ, Lee CW, Tsai WC, Chien YC. Essential and toxic metals in animal bone broths. Food Nutr Res. 2017;61(1):1347478. PMC5533136
8. Marco ML, Sanders ME, Hutkins R, et al. The International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) consensus statement on fermented foods. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2021;18(3):196-208. PMC7925329
9. Code of Federal Regulations. 21 CFR 131.200, Yogurt. ecfr.gov
10. FDA. Sodium in your diet. fda.gov
11. Cleveland Clinic. Fermented foods for gut health. health.clevelandclinic.org
12. MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. Abdominal bloating. Review date 4/27/2026. medlineplus.gov