Despite the fanfare, bone broth is no more a novelty than sliced bread—both are simply marketing variations of a dietary staple. Bone broth is just soup stock prepared the same way it has been for millennia: by boiling animal or fish bones until they liquefy and release minerals, gelatin, and collagen. The main difference between bone broth and soup stock is that the former is cooked longer, or for at least 12 hours, which some believe causes less degradation of nutrients and makes the broth a beneficial healing food. But, as NPR reported in February, there’s no scientific consensus yet, and some studies about bone broth’s benefits are “probably overblown.” The first company to make a commercial packaged bone broth was Pacific Natural Foods, which introduced five flavors of organic bone broth to supermarket shelves last August. Since then, the product has flown off shelves, despite no obnoxious labels like “Great for the Paleo Diet!” or endorsement deals from the dozen or so A-listers who swear by it like Gwenyth Paltrow and Kobe Bryant. Pacific’s success has also left dozens of other broth manufacturers scrambling to launch similar products (we’re still waiting for them to hit stores). Interestingly enough, Pacific didn’t develop a bone broth because it was looking to become a trendsetter, but because, after years of development, Pacific cofounder Chuck Eggert finally found something he liked. Long before bone broth made Chef Marco Canora of New York City’s Brodo into an Internet food celebrity, Eggert began tinkering with hundreds of broth recipes. His goal was to create a “sipping broth” that would have no added sodium or flavors and be high in protein. The best way to do this seemed to be to return to traditional methods, “the way you would make it at home,” which involved slowly boiling the bones. Seven years later, Eggert’s bone broth went to stores as the first widely commercially sold bone broth, each flavor boasting 9 g protein per cup. Whether the great bone broth breakthrough of 2015 will prove to be just another food fad—anybody still on the cabbage diet?—or a permanent shift in culinary trends remains to be seen. Of course, if bone broth really is that good for us, maybe scientists will discover it can cure the common cold. And then that might be worth a whole new era in health food.
