Bone Broth vs Collagen Peptides: What's the Difference?

Collagen peptides are isolated collagen: one protein, cut into small pieces so it dissolves easily. Bone broth protein is made from the whole broth, so collagen comes along naturally as a big share of the protein. One scoop of Rae Basics Bone Broth Protein Mix has 14g of protein and 10g+ of naturally occurring collagen, so you get both in one cup.

If you've stood in the supplement aisle with a tub of collagen in one hand and a bag of bone broth protein in the other, this one's for you. I'll go through how each is made, what the research does and doesn't say, and how I'd choose.

Bone broth protein vs collagen peptides at a glance

Look at the amino acid row. Neither option covers all nine essential amino acids by itself, because collagen has almost no tryptophan. That's fine as long as the rest of your day includes eggs, dairy, meat, fish, soy or beans. I go into what that means in my answer on bone broth protein and essential amino acids.

How each one is made

Collagen peptides

Manufacturers start with collagen-rich raw material, usually cattle hides, pig skin or fish skin, and extract the collagen. Enzymes then cut the long collagen chains into short pieces called peptides. That step, hydrolysis, is why collagen peptides dissolve in cold water and taste like almost nothing. You end up with one very pure protein.

Bone broth protein

Bone broth is made the way you'd make it at home, only much bigger. Bones and connective tissue simmer for a long time, and the heat and water pull collagen and other proteins into the liquid. That broth is then concentrated and dried. Ours starts with grass-fed beef bone broth, and then we turn it into something you'd actually want to drink every morning. In the chocolate flavors that means organic cocoa, organic coconut and oat milk, monk fruit and a pinch of Redmond's pink salt. My husband Josh is a food scientist, and he made the first batch in our own kitchen, for me.

How much collagen is in bone broth protein?

It depends on the product, and homemade broth varies the most. When researchers measured the key collagen amino acids in bone broths made different ways, the amounts swung widely from batch to batch and recipe to recipe. A standardized homemade broth delivered far less than the 20g dose used in a lot of collagen research (Alcock and colleagues, 2019). A cup of soup isn't a reliable collagen dose.

A dried, standardized product gets around that. Every 21g scoop of our Mix has 10g+ of naturally occurring collagen, printed on the label, inside 14g of total protein. That's comparable to some collagen peptide servings, with a warm drink built around it.

Gut, skin and joints: what the evidence supports

This is where marketing tends to run ahead of the research, so I'll explain it the way I would to a patient.

Skin

Skin has the best evidence. A 2021 meta-analysis of 19 randomized trials, with more than 1,100 participants who were mostly women, found that hydrolyzed collagen supplements were associated with better skin hydration and elasticity than placebo (de Miranda and colleagues, 2021). Those trials used specific collagen peptides at set doses, usually for about 90 days. So they tell us about collagen in general, not about any single product, ours included.

Joints

The evidence here is thinner. In one 24-week study, athletes with activity-related joint discomfort who took 10g of collagen hydrolysate a day reported improvements compared with placebo (Clark and colleagues, 2008). It's interesting, but it's one group of people at one dose. Collagen is a structural protein in cartilage, tendons and ligaments. What it does for your knees in particular is still being studied.

Gut

Gut health gets the loudest claims online and has the weakest evidence of the three. Bone broth and collagen are rich in glycine and proline, and your body uses glycine, proline and hydroxyproline to build its own collagen (Li and Wu, 2018). That's a real, plausible reason to include them. But the research doesn't support "heals your gut," and I'd be wary of anyone who says it. What I can tell you is that a lot of women tell us they switched to bone broth protein because it sits more comfortably than whey or milk-based shakes.

Bone broth vs gelatin vs collagen

These are three forms of the same protein family.

• Collagen is the long, rope-like protein in your skin, bones and connective tissue.
• Gelatin is collagen that's been partly broken down by cooking. It dissolves in hot water and sets into a gel as it cools, which is why a good homemade broth wobbles in the fridge.
• Collagen peptides are broken down further, so they dissolve in cold liquid and never gel.

Their amino acid profiles are nearly the same. USDA data for plain gelatin shows about 19g of glycine and 12g of proline per 100g, with essentially no tryptophan. Bone broth has some of all three forms, depending on how it was cooked and processed.

Which should you choose?

Collagen peptides make more sense if

• you want a flavorless powder to stir into food and drinks you already make
• you want the highest dose of collagen specifically
• you already have a morning drink you love and just want to add to it

Bone broth protein makes more sense if

• you want protein and collagen in the same scoop
• you want the drink itself to be the ritual, whether that's hot chocolate, a mocha or a chai
• you're replacing something sugary, like a coffee-shop drink or a packet of cocoa
• you avoid dairy

“I personally reach for bone broth protein because I want the added protein along with the benefits that make bone broth so appealing, rather than using collagen alone.”

Skotie Rae, RN, founder

Can you take collagen and bone broth together?

You can. Both are food proteins, and they count toward your daily total the same way chicken or eggs do. There's no known reason healthy adults can't combine them, but check with your clinician first if you have kidney disease or have been told to limit protein. In practice, most people don't need both, since one scoop of grass-fed Bone Broth Protein Mix already brings 10g+ of collagen. If you do want to double up, a coffee made with a scoop of the Mix, like our Morning Boost, is an easy place to stir in your usual collagen too.

What's in one scoop of Bone Broth Protein Mix

One 21g scoop has 80 calories (90 for Chai), 14g of protein, 10g+ of naturally occurring collagen and 0g sugar. Carbs are 3g for Classic Chocolate, Mocha and Caffeinated Chocolate, and 4g for Chai. It's sweetened with monk fruit, dairy-free and gluten-free, and it contains coconut. Every number lives on our Rae Basics at a glance page. If you're weighing whey too, read bone broth protein vs whey.

Quick answers

Sources

1. 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.
2. de Miranda RB, Weimer P, Rossi RC. Effects of hydrolyzed collagen supplementation on skin aging: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Dermatol. 2021;60(12):1449-1461.
3. Clark KL, Sebastianelli W, Flechsenhar KR, et al. 24-week study on the use of collagen hydrolysate as a dietary supplement in athletes with activity-related joint pain. Curr Med Res Opin. 2008;24(5):1485-1496.
4. Li P, Wu G. Roles of dietary glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline in collagen synthesis and animal growth. Amino Acids. 2018;50(1):29-38.
5. 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.
6. U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central. Gelatins, dry powder, unsweetened (FDC ID 169599).