Recently, a growing number of people have begun incorporating bone broths or stocks, into their regular diet. The idea is that the bone broth allows you to consume protein and other nutrients found in the bones. This nutrient-rich broth can now be found in several stores, sometimes in jarred or liquid form, but mainly as powders that you can mix.

Photo courtesy of Cave Kettle

However, it's much more beneficial to make your own bone broth at home to ensure the optimal extraction of nutrients, since many of the powdered bone broths will be missing or diluting these key minerals and protein.

"I get that pre-packaged options can be a lot more convenient, but it's hard to determine how watered down pre-packaged ingredients are," Daniel Murphy, the co-founder of bone broth machine startup Cave Kettle, told Foodbeast. "People say they taste good, but they're still loaded with preservatives... they have to be to have a long shelf life."

An important thing to note is that several powdered or prepackaged broths lack a USDA inspection or certification label. The USDA requires that all products containing 3% or more animal products by weight must be inspected and labeled as a result. While prepackaged bone broth is predominantly water, it still can show a lack of animal protein, especially in powdered or bone broth mix products.

While it may not seem like the most convenient option, making bone broth at home gives you control over the process and allows you to extract as many nutrients as possible. It can take hours and involve a lot of stirring and steps, but it is worth the benefits. Alternatively, Cave Kettle, which is on Kickstarter right now, can make the bone broth for you and even has automated capabilities to stir and rearrange the bones to ensure the best nutrition.

Regardless of how you make bone broth, cooking it at home is nutritionally superior to store-bought. If you're into the trend, might as well get as much as you can out of it.