Is bone broth actually healthy? The primal truth about boiled bones

The bone broth industry is worth millions. Broth bars, collagen supplements, and "ancestral" cooking blogs all promote prolonged bone boiling as a health practice. Aajonus Vonderplanitz disagreed: fundamentally.

Why Aajonus rejected bone broth

His objection was biochemical. When bones are boiled, the minerals within them, primarily calcium and phosphorus, undergo a process he called cauterization. Heat destroys the ionic bonds that make these minerals biologically active. The result, he argued, is minerals that have become structurally similar to glass or ceramic: rigid, inert, and impossible for the body to absorb or utilize.

He was equally concerned about what boiling releases. A 2013 study published in PLOS ONE (Monro et al.) found that chicken bone broth prepared by typical methods contained lead concentrations significantly above the EPA's threshold for drinking water. The lead leaches from the animal's bones during cooking, bones store approximately 90% of the body's lead burden.

Raw bone marrow: the alternative

What Aajonus prescribed instead was raw bone marrow, scooped directly from fresh, organic, grass-fed bones without any heat application. He considered marrow the supreme regenerative food because it is rich in stem cell precursors, contains intact bioavailable minerals in their natural ionic form, provides fat-soluble vitamins in their native state, and does not require cooking to be digestible.

Sourcing raw marrow requires bones cut specifically for extraction. Farms that sell these are listed in our organ meats and grass-fed beef categories.

PrimalFinder documents this position without prescribing. If you choose to consume bone broth, source bones from verified grass-fed farms. If you follow the primal protocol strictly, raw marrow is the unheated alternative.