No. Bone broth protein is not a complete protein, and that includes our Bone Broth Protein Mix. Most of its protein is collagen, which has almost no tryptophan, one of the nine essential amino acids. It still counts toward your daily protein, and if you eat eggs, dairy, meat, fish or soy at other points in the day, your diet as a whole covers every essential amino acid.
In this article
I'm spelling this out because "complete" gets used loosely on protein labels. I'm a nurse, I read labels closely, and I'd rather you know exactly what's in your mug.
What does "complete protein" mean?
Proteins are built from 20 amino acids. Nine are essential, meaning your body can't make them and you have to eat them: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine. A protein is called complete when a normal serving supplies all nine in the amounts your body needs. Eggs, milk, meat, fish and soy are the usual examples.
Protein quality is often scored with a method called PDCAAS, which looks for the essential amino acid that runs out first. For collagen, that's tryptophan, and there's essentially none (Paul and colleagues, 2019). USDA data for plain unsweetened gelatin, which is cooked collagen, lists tryptophan at or near zero too. No amount of scooping fixes that, because the amino acid simply isn't there.
Bone broth protein amino acid profile
Where collagen-rich protein is short on tryptophan, it's unusually high in a different set of amino acids. Per 100g, gelatin carries about 19g of glycine and 12g of proline according to USDA, plus hydroxyproline, an amino acid found almost only in collagen. Your body uses glycine, proline and hydroxyproline as raw material for its own collagen (Li and Wu, 2018). Most everyday protein foods have far less of them.
The flip side: collagen-type protein is lower than dairy or meat in leucine, the other branched-chain amino acids (isoleucine and valine) and lysine. I walk through every amino acid, with a table, in bone broth protein amino acids: what's in every scoop.
Does bone broth protein count toward daily protein?
Yes. The 14g of protein in each scoop of Bone Broth Protein Mix is real protein, and your body digests and uses it. The real question is whether it should be your only protein. It shouldn't, the same way white rice shouldn't be your only carbohydrate.
There's some reassuring research here. Paul and colleagues modeled a typical American diet and found collagen could make up about a third of total daily protein while the diet overall still met essential amino acid needs (2019). One or two scoops a day fits well inside that. Your body pools amino acids from everything you eat, so the eggs at breakfast and the chicken at dinner cover the tryptophan.
Is bone broth protein good for building muscle?
It helps with your total, but it isn't the most efficient muscle protein on its own. Leucine is the amino acid that most strongly switches on muscle protein synthesis, and collagen is low in it. In a randomized trial in healthy older women, whey protein raised muscle protein synthesis more than the same amount of collagen peptides (Oikawa and colleagues, 2020). In another study, 20g of dairy protein delivered roughly three times the leucine of 20g of collagen peptides (Alcock and colleagues, 2019).
If you lift and want every gram working toward muscle, eat leucine-rich protein at each meal and treat bone broth protein as an add-on, not a replacement. Total daily protein, spread through the day, matters most. One small study found adults who ate about 30g of protein at each meal had higher 24-hour muscle protein synthesis than when they saved most of it for dinner (Mamerow and colleagues, 2014). A morning mug is an easy way to move some protein earlier. For the full comparison, see bone broth protein vs whey.
What to eat with it: eggs, Greek yogurt, milk and meat
You're probably pairing it already without thinking about it. A few easy combinations that fill the gaps:
- Make it with dairy milk. One scoop whisked into 1 cup (8 oz) of dairy milk comes to about 22g of protein, and milk brings its own tryptophan and leucine.
- Add eggs. A mug of Classic Chocolate next to two eggs is one of the most balanced quick breakfasts I know.
- Stir it into Greek yogurt or oats. Our Chocolate Overnight Oats use yogurt and come to about 22g of protein a jar.
- Oat or almond milk make it creamy and dairy-free, but they add little protein, so lean on your other meals for the rest.
Meat, fish and poultry give you all nine essential amino acids in one food, plus iron, zinc and B12. Bone broth protein doesn't replace them. What it adds is a lot of glycine and proline, 10g+ of naturally occurring collagen per scoop, and something you can drink warm at 7 a.m. while getting everyone out the door. I think of it as filling the morning gap, not standing in for dinner.
“I don't think of my bone broth mug as my entire breakfast. I usually have it alongside something like eggs, fruit or yogurt.”
Skotie Rae, RN, founder
What this means for our label
One 21g scoop of grass-fed Bone Broth Protein Mix gives you 14g of protein, 10g+ of naturally occurring collagen and 0g sugar, at 80 calories (90 for Chai). It helps you reach your daily protein goal. It does not provide every essential amino acid by itself, so you won't see us call it a complete protein. Every nutrition number is on our Rae Basics at a glance page.
Quick answers
Is bone broth protein a complete protein?
No. It's very low in tryptophan, so it doesn't provide all nine essential amino acids on its own. If you eat eggs, dairy, meat, fish or soy during the day, your overall diet covers them.
Does bone broth protein count toward my daily protein?
Yes. The 14g in each scoop is real protein. Just make sure your other meals include foods that supply all the essential amino acids.
Is bone broth protein good for building muscle?
It adds to your daily total, which matters for muscle, but it's lower in leucine than whey or meat. Eat leucine-rich protein at each meal alongside it.
What should I eat with bone broth protein?
Eggs, Greek yogurt, dairy milk, cottage cheese, fish, chicken, tofu or soy milk. Any of them fills in the tryptophan that collagen lacks.
Is collagen protein bad quality?
It's incomplete, not bad. It supplies amino acids many diets are low in, like glycine and proline, and research suggests it can make up about a third of daily protein while your diet still meets essential amino acid needs.
Sources
- Paul C, Leser S, Oesser S. Significant amounts of functional collagen peptides can be incorporated in the diet while maintaining indispensable amino acid balance. Nutrients. 2019;11(5):1079.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central. Gelatins, dry powder, unsweetened (FDC ID 169599).
- Li P, Wu G. Roles of dietary glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline in collagen synthesis and animal growth. Amino Acids. 2018;50(1):29-38.
- Oikawa SY, Kamal MJ, Webb EK, et al. Whey protein but not collagen peptides stimulate acute and longer-term muscle protein synthesis with and without resistance exercise in healthy older women: a randomized controlled trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2020;111(3):708-718.
- Alcock RD, Shaw GC, Tee N, Burke LM. Plasma amino acid concentrations after the ingestion of dairy and collagen proteins, in healthy active males. Front Nutr. 2019;6:163.
- Mamerow MM, Mettler JA, English KL, et al. Dietary protein distribution positively influences 24-h muscle protein synthesis in healthy adults. J Nutr. 2014;144(6):876-880.
