Bone broth contains several nutrients that are broadly relevant to cardiovascular health, including glycine, other amino acids, and small amounts of minerals, but no clinical trial has directly tested whether drinking bone broth improves outcomes in people with heart disease. The honest answer is that it is neither a cardiac superfood nor something heart patients need to fear. For most people managing a heart condition, the practical concern is not the broth itself but what comes with it, especially sodium and, for those with heart failure, fluid volume.
What Is Actually in Bone Broth That Relates to the Heart
Bone broth is made by simmering animal bones, often with connective tissue and sometimes vinegar, for hours. The long cooking time draws out amino acids, minerals, and gelatin. A 2025 review covering both animal and human studies identified key amino acids in bone broth including glutamine, glycine, proline, histidine, and arginine, along with minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and zinc.1PubMed. Bone Broth Benefits: How Its Nutrients Fortify Gut Barrier in Health and Disease Detailed amino acid profiling of bovine bone broth has confirmed that glycine, proline, alanine, and glutamic acid are among the most abundant amino acids present.2Food Chemistry: X. Operational parameters and key characteristics of amino acids and flavor compounds profiles of bovine bone clear and white broths
Several of these nutrients have established ties to cardiovascular biology. Glycine, for instance, has anti-inflammatory properties that researchers have explored in animal models of aging hearts. Arginine is a precursor to nitric oxide, a molecule that helps blood vessels relax. Magnesium and potassium both play roles in maintaining normal heart rhythm and blood pressure. But the amounts you get from a cup of bone broth are modest. Mineral analyses have found that calcium and magnesium levels in homemade or commercial broths generally do not exceed a few tenths of a milligram per serving, well under five percent of daily recommended levels.3PubMed Central. Essential and toxic metals in animal bone broths So while bone broth is a source of these nutrients, it is not a concentrated one. You would need to look at the whole diet, not the broth alone, to move the needle on mineral intake.
Sodium Is the Real Conversation for Heart Patients
If you are managing high blood pressure, heart failure, or another cardiovascular condition, your cardiologist has probably talked to you about sodium. This is where bone broth gets complicated. A plain, homemade bone broth simmered with only water and bones contains relatively little sodium on its own. But the moment you add salt for flavor, or buy a commercial product, sodium levels can climb quickly. Store-bought bone broths routinely contain several hundred milligrams of sodium per serving, and some exceed 500 milligrams in a single cup. For someone on a sodium-restricted diet of 1,500 to 2,000 milligrams per day, that is a significant chunk from one food.
This matters because excess dietary sodium contributes to fluid retention, elevated blood pressure, and worsening symptoms in people with heart failure. Research on older patients with heart failure has identified excess sodium and fluid intake as risk factors for rehospitalization and disease progression.4PubMed Central. Cultural factors influencing dietary and fluid restriction behaviour: perceptions of older Chinese patients with heart failure That does not mean bone broth is off limits, but it does mean you cannot treat it as a free food. Reading labels or controlling what goes into your pot matters.
Can Bone Broth Actually Help Reduce Salt Intake
Here is where the story gets more interesting than a simple “watch the sodium” warning. Some researchers have explored whether the rich, umami flavor of bone broth can serve as a tool for cutting salt without sacrificing taste. A study presented at a hypertension conference found that soup made with bone broth rated significantly higher in both saltiness and palatability compared to a lower-salt control, suggesting that bone broth could help people eat less sodium while still enjoying their food.5Journal of Hypertension. PS-BPC11-6: USEFULNESS OF BONE BROTH SOUP FOR THE REDUCTION OF SALT INTAKE The idea is that the glutamate and other flavor compounds in bone broth trick the palate into perceiving more saltiness than the sodium content alone would deliver.
Separate work has pushed this concept further by exploring how adding a small amount of fat amplifies the salty perception. Researchers found that by adding a modest amount of sunflower seed oil to bone broth, they could reduce the sodium chloride content by about 20 percent without consumers noticing a drop in saltiness or overall acceptability.6PubMed. Enhancing saltiness perception in bone broth: the additive effect of oil and optimization of sodium-reduction formula for consumer acceptability For heart patients who struggle with bland low-sodium diets, this is genuinely useful information. A well-made bone broth, kept deliberately low in added salt, might make a restricted diet more sustainable than relying on other flavor substitutes.
That said, none of these studies tested whether using bone broth as a salt-reduction tool actually lowered blood pressure or reduced cardiac events. The logic is straightforward: less sodium in the diet is better for blood pressure, and bone broth might help people stick to less sodium. But the clinical endpoint data is not there yet.
What One Clinical Trial Found About Cholesterol and Triglycerides
The closest thing to direct clinical evidence comes from an open-label trial that put adults with obesity on a bone broth diet and tracked their blood markers. The trial was primarily about weight loss, not cardiovascular disease, but the metabolic data it collected is relevant. After the first phase of the bone broth diet, participants saw a drop in total cholesterol of about 0.68 mmol/L, a decrease in triglycerides of about 0.46 mmol/L, and a reduction in LDL cholesterol of roughly 0.31 mmol/L.7Clinical Nutrition Open Science. An open-label clinical trial to investigate the safety and efficacy of a bone broth diet on weight loss in adults with obesity Blood glucose also dropped significantly over the study period.
Those numbers look encouraging at first glance, but they come with major caveats. The trial was open-label, meaning participants knew what they were eating, and there was no control group eating a different diet. The bone broth diet also involved caloric restriction, which alone would be expected to improve lipid and glucose numbers regardless of whether the calories came from bone broth or anything else. After the second phase, some of the improvements reversed: total cholesterol and LDL actually ticked upward slightly, and HDL cholesterol, the so-called “good” cholesterol, dropped throughout the study. That HDL decline is not what you would want to see from a heart-health standpoint.
The takeaway is not that bone broth lowers cholesterol. It is that a calorie-restricted diet that includes bone broth can produce short-term metabolic improvements, as most calorie-restricted diets do, but the bone broth itself has not been isolated as the driver. This is a single small trial in a population selected for obesity, not cardiac disease. It is a starting point for further research, not something to build dietary decisions around.
Animal Research on Glycine and Heart Inflammation
Some of the most interesting cardiovascular research involving a nutrient abundant in bone broth centers on glycine, though the studies are in mice rather than people. A study in aged mice found that supplementing with a combination of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) and glycine reduced markers of heart inflammation and improved cardiovascular function. The combination downregulated several pro-inflammatory cytokines in old mouse hearts and upregulated the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10, an effect not seen with NAC supplementation alone.8The Journals of Gerontology: Series A. Improved Cardiovascular Function in Old Mice After N-Acetyl Cysteine and Glycine Supplemented Diet: Inflammation and Mitochondrial Factors Gene expression analysis showed significant reductions in MCP-1 and IL-6, two markers strongly linked to vascular inflammation and atherosclerosis.
This is compelling as basic science. Chronic low-grade inflammation is widely understood to drive the progression of heart disease, so anything that dials it down is worth investigating. But the glycine in this study was delivered as a purified supplement at controlled doses alongside NAC, not as a component of bone broth sipped at dinner. The leap from “glycine plus NAC improved inflammatory markers in old mice” to “bone broth is good for your heart” is enormous. It involves assuming that the glycine in bone broth reaches the relevant tissues in sufficient amounts, that it works without the NAC co-factor, and that mouse cardiovascular biology translates cleanly to humans. None of those assumptions have been tested.
Still, this line of research is why glycine keeps showing up in conversations about heart-healthy nutrients. It is not unfounded hype; there is a real biological rationale. It is just very early-stage evidence.
Heavy Metals in Bone Broth
A worry that circulates in online health communities is that bone broth concentrates heavy metals, particularly lead, from the animal’s bones into your cup. This concern is not entirely imaginary. A small, controlled study found that organic chicken bone broth contained lead at about 7 micrograms per liter, compared to 0.89 micrograms per liter in the tap water used to make it. Broth made from skin and cartilage was even higher, at around 9.5 micrograms per liter.9PubMed. The risk of lead contamination in bone broth diets That sounds alarming, especially for heart patients who are already managing multiple risk factors.
But context matters. A broader analysis of both homemade and commercial bone broths measured lead, cadmium, and aluminum across various animal sources and found that the doses ingested per serving were in the range of a few micrograms for lead and cadmium and a few hundred micrograms for aluminum. These levels fell well below established safety thresholds, producing hazard quotients generally below 0.002, which the researchers described as minimal risk with no assumed interactive effects among the metals.3PubMed Central. Essential and toxic metals in animal bone broths A 2024 analysis of broth elemental composition reached the same conclusion, finding that consumption of broths poses minimal risk from cadmium and lead.10European Food Research and Technology. Nutritional insights into broths in relation to elemental composition
For heart patients specifically, lead exposure is a legitimate concern because chronic lead exposure has been linked to hypertension. But the levels found in bone broth are low enough that occasional or even regular consumption is unlikely to move the dial on your lead burden meaningfully. If you are consuming bone broth daily in very large quantities, sourcing bones from pasture-raised animals and avoiding excessively long simmer times can reduce whatever trace contamination exists.
Purines, Uric Acid, and Gout Risk
Heart disease and gout often travel together. Elevated uric acid is associated with higher cardiovascular risk, and many heart patients take medications that affect uric acid levels. Bone broth, particularly chicken broth, contains purines, the compounds that break down into uric acid in the body. Researchers have developed sensitive methods to measure purines and uric acid in Chinese chicken broth specifically to support dietary management of gout and hyperuricemia.11PubMed Central. Simultaneous Determination of Purines and Uric Acid in Chinese Chicken Broth Using TFA/FA Hydrolysis Coupled with HPLC-VWD
The purine content of bone broth varies depending on the animal source, cooking time, and whether meat was left on the bones during simmering. Generally, broths made from bones alone contain fewer purines than those made with significant amounts of meat. If you have gout or are on uric acid-lowering therapy, this is worth paying attention to, though it is not unique to bone broth. Any meat-based soup or gravy will contribute purines. The practical move is to keep portions moderate and check with your doctor if you are on medications like allopurinol, since dietary purine intake interacts with how those drugs are dosed.
Fluid Restrictions and Heart Failure
For people with heart failure specifically, the conversation around bone broth involves an additional dimension beyond sodium. Many heart failure patients are on fluid restrictions, typically between 1.5 and 2 liters per day, because their weakened hearts struggle to manage normal fluid volumes. Every cup of bone broth counts toward that daily limit in the same way water, coffee, or juice does. A 240-milliliter cup is a meaningful portion of a restricted fluid allowance.
This does not mean heart failure patients cannot have bone broth. It means they need to account for it. A cup of broth used as a base for a meal is fine if it fits within the daily sodium and fluid targets set by the care team. Where people sometimes run into trouble is treating bone broth as a health supplement and sipping it throughout the day on top of their normal fluid intake. For someone without heart failure, that extra fluid is harmless. For someone whose heart cannot efficiently pump the volume it already has, it can contribute to swelling, shortness of breath, and fluid accumulation in the lungs.
Making Bone Broth Work on a Cardiac Diet
If you want to include bone broth in a heart-healthy eating plan, the key decisions are all about preparation. Homemade broth gives you the most control. You can simmer bones with aromatic vegetables and herbs, add vinegar to help extract minerals, and skip the salt entirely or add only a pinch. The resulting broth will still have its characteristic savory depth, especially if you use bones with connective tissue, which release gelatin and the umami-producing amino acids that make broth satisfying.
If you buy commercial bone broth, look for low-sodium versions. “Regular” commercial products often contain 300 to 600 milligrams of sodium per cup. Low-sodium versions typically run 100 to 200 milligrams, which is much easier to fit into a restricted diet. Be aware that labels saying “no salt added” can still contain naturally occurring sodium, so always check the nutrition facts panel rather than trusting front-of-package claims.
A few other practical points for heart patients considering bone broth:
- Portion size: One cup (about 240 mL) is a standard serving. Going beyond that increases sodium and fluid load without proportionally increasing the beneficial amino acids.
- Fat content: Bone broth can contain saturated fat, especially when made from beef or pork bones. Chilling the broth and skimming the solidified fat layer off the top is an easy way to reduce this.
- Cooking time: Longer simmering extracts more gelatin and amino acids but also more of whatever trace contaminants the bones contain. Somewhere between 8 and 24 hours for beef bones and 4 to 8 hours for chicken is a common range that balances extraction with practicality.
- Medication interactions: Bone broth is not known to interact with common cardiac medications such as beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, or statins. However, its potassium content, while modest, is worth mentioning to your doctor if you are on a potassium-sparing diuretic or have kidney issues where potassium intake needs monitoring.
Why the Hype Outpaces the Evidence
Bone broth sits in a frustrating space for anyone who wants clear dietary guidance. It contains real nutrients with real biological relevance to cardiovascular health. Glycine is anti-inflammatory. Arginine supports blood vessel function. The umami flavor profile can help people eat less salt. All of these things are true and documented. But none of them have been tested in the context of actual cardiac outcomes. No study has randomized heart patients to drink bone broth versus a control and measured heart attacks, hospitalizations, or survival.
The wellness industry has filled that evidence gap with enthusiasm, positioning bone broth as a healing elixir. The scientific literature is more measured. What it shows is a food that is nutritionally reasonable, carries low contamination risk when prepared sensibly, and could plausibly serve as part of a good dietary pattern for heart patients, particularly if it replaces higher-sodium alternatives or makes a restricted diet more enjoyable. That is a long way from “bone broth heals your heart,” but it is also a long way from “avoid it.” For most heart patients, the practical question is not whether to include bone broth but how to prepare or choose it in a way that respects their sodium and fluid limits.