Ancient Nutrition Review 2026: Why Collagen Scores Zero on Protein Quality, and What the Lawsuits Allege

Ancient Nutrition (ancientnutrition.com) is one of the largest collagen and bone broth supplement brands in the US, built around Multi Collagen Protein, Bone Broth Protein and SBO Probiotics, and closely associated with co-founder Josh Axe. It was acquired by Wellful, Inc. in January 2025, so it is no longer founder-owned, though the founder's persona remains central to how it is marketed. We researched it on July 29, 2026. This review contains affiliate links; the assessment is our own. It is informational only and not medical advice. Two things dominate this review: a measurement that explains what collagen protein can and cannot do, and the active litigation built on it.

Collagen's Protein Score Is Zero. Literally.

Protein quality is measured by PDCAAS—the Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score—which runs from 0.0 to 1.0 and accounts for both digestibility and whether a protein supplies all nine essential amino acids. Hydrolysed collagen has a PDCAAS of **0.0**. That is not a rhetorical flourish. The score works by identifying the limiting essential amino acid, and collagen contains no tryptophan at all. When any single essential amino acid is zero, the entire score becomes zero, however much of the others are present. Collagen is protein by chemical definition and scores zero on the standard measure of protein quality. The regulatory consequence is concrete: because of that score, collagen cannot legally count toward the percent Daily Value for protein on a nutrition label. The protein Daily Value is 50 grams, and collagen contributes nothing to it. To be fair about what this does and does not mean: collagen is not useless in the diet. Research indicates collagen peptides can make up roughly 30% to 36% of total daily protein intake while the diet still meets all essential amino acid requirements—provided the rest of your protein comes from complete sources. Collagen has genuine, if modest, evidence for skin and connective tissue. What it cannot be is your protein.

This is the single most useful thing to know when shopping this category. If a tub says "20g protein" and the protein is collagen, that number is grams of a substance that scores zero for protein quality and cannot count toward your protein Daily Value. It is not a lie about the weight; it is a claim that means far less than a shopper reasonably assumes. Check whether the protein source is collagen or a complete protein before comparing any two tubs on protein content.

What the Class Actions Allege

Ancient Nutrition faces multiple consumer class actions concerning exactly this issue—including Bush et al. v. Ancient Brands, LLC (case 5:21-cv-00390) and Viera v. Ancient Brands in the Eastern District of New York. The allegations, as pleaded, are that Bone Broth Protein labels do not disclose that the protein is largely indigestible in the sense that matters, that the company has misrepresented the nature and quality of its bone broth protein powders, and that because the main protein source is collagen—with the amino acid score described in the filings as zero—the percentage Daily Value a consumer would infer is far higher than a PDCAAS-based calculation would support. One filing also notes that the company's website does not identify where its founders obtained their degrees or the nature of those degrees. We need to be precise about status. These are allegations in active litigation, not findings. As of March 2026 no consumer class action settlement had been finalised and the cases remained live. Ancient Nutrition has not been found liable, and we found no FDA warning letter issued to the company. What makes the litigation worth reporting anyway is that its central technical premise—collagen's PDCAAS of zero and its exclusion from the protein Daily Value—is not in dispute. That is settled nutritional science and settled labelling practice. Whether this company's specific labels crossed a legal line is for a court; whether a shopper should discount collagen "protein" claims is not.

Do not treat a collagen-based protein powder as interchangeable with whey, casein, egg, soy or a complete plant blend. If you are trying to preserve or build muscle—during resistance training, during weight loss, while recovering from illness, or in older age when sarcopenia risk rises—collagen will not do that job, because muscle protein synthesis depends on leucine and a complete essential amino acid profile that collagen lacks. Buy a complete protein for protein, and treat collagen as an addition if you want it for other reasons.

What "Dr." Means Here

Ancient Nutrition's marketing has long leaned on its co-founder's title, and it is worth being clear what the credential is. Josh Axe holds a Doctor of Chiropractic and describes himself as a doctor of natural medicine (DNM). Chiropractic is a licensed, regulated profession in the US; it is not medical school, and a DC is not a physician. "Doctor of Natural Medicine" is not a recognised medical credential and carries no licensure to practise medicine. One of the class action filings specifically notes that the company's website does not identify where the founders' degrees were obtained or what those degrees are. None of this means the products are unsafe or that the founder is acting in bad faith. It means that when a supplement is marketed with a doctor's authority, the nature of that authority is material information for a buyer—and in this case "Dr." does not indicate medical qualification. There is a second wrinkle: the brand is no longer founder-owned. Wellful, Inc. acquired Ancient Nutrition in January 2025, with Kainos Capital involved in the ownership structure. Products marketed on a founder's personal credibility are now sold by a private-equity-backed consumer health group, which is not improper but is worth knowing when the founder's face is the trust signal.

Whenever a supplement is sold on a founder's clinical authority, look up the actual degree and the licence it confers. DC (chiropractic), ND (naturopathic), DNM (natural medicine) and DO (osteopathic medicine) are very different things—only DO and MD are physician credentials in the US. This is not snobbery about titles; it is the difference between a clinician trained to diagnose and prescribe and someone who is not.

What We Could and Couldn't Verify on Price

We were not able to verify product prices from Ancient Nutrition's own store. Its product JSON and .js endpoints returned nothing to our tooling, and the collection page did not surface prices in the content we could read. Rather than quote figures we could not confirm at source, we are leaving them out—and telling you why. What we could verify from the site is the commercial structure, which is arguably more useful:

A stated 35% off your first subscription order, then 15% off every delivery after
A 30-day money-back guarantee
Free shipping on orders over $49
A published customer service telephone number, +1 855-803-1275
A Regenerative Organic Certified® claim on part of the range, with a certifications page
Core lines are Multi Collagen Protein, Bone Broth Protein and SBO Probiotics, alongside sports nutrition and gut health products

The deep first-order discount followed by a smaller ongoing one is a standard subscription funnel: the introductory price is not the price you will pay from month two. Work out the 15% figure on the full price before deciding whether the subscription is worth it, and note the 30-day guarantee is a genuine protection—use it as a trial window rather than letting deliveries accumulate.

The Bone Broth Question

Bone broth as a food has a reasonable claim on being nourishing, and as a category it is unobjectionable. The question with a powder is what survives the processing and what the label is really describing. Bone broth protein powder is produced by dehydrating and concentrating broth, and the protein it yields is predominantly collagen—which returns us to the PDCAAS of zero. The popular claims made for bone broth beyond that, particularly around "gut healing" and leaky gut, rest on mechanistic reasoning about glycine, glutamine and gelatin rather than on controlled human trials showing those outcomes. Glycine and glutamine are real amino acids with real roles; that does not establish that drinking or drinking-powdered broth repairs an intestinal barrier in humans. One practical note that applies to any bone-derived product: bones concentrate lead, and studies of bone broth have reported measurable lead content, though generally at levels below regulatory limits of concern. This is a reason to want published heavy-metal testing on any bone broth product, particularly if it is being given to children or consumed daily in quantity. We could not locate batch-level heavy metal certificates for this brand.

If you like bone broth, drink bone broth—it is food, it is inexpensive to make, and nobody has to make claims for it. Where the powdered supplement version earns its price is convenience and protein-per-scoop; just do not buy it expecting the protein to count like whey, or the gut claims to be established.

Safety, Eligibility and Who Should Not Use This

No supplement here is FDA-approved to treat, prevent or cure anything, and US supplements are not reviewed for efficacy before sale. Collagen is generally well tolerated. The practical cautions: it is a protein load, so anyone with kidney disease should take medical advice before daily use; it is high in hydroxyproline, which is metabolised partly to oxalate, which matters if you have a history of kidney stones; and marine-derived collagen is unsuitable for anyone with a fish allergy while bovine collagen is unsuitable for those avoiding beef. The SBO Probiotics line uses soil-based organisms, typically Bacillus species. These are spore-formers and are generally robust and well tolerated, but as live organisms they carry the same exclusion as any probiotic: people who are severely immunocompromised, critically ill, or have central venous catheters should not take live-organism supplements without clinical clearance, because invasive infections have occurred in those settings.

Speak to your clinician before daily collagen if you have kidney disease or a history of kidney stones. Avoid marine collagen with a fish allergy. Do not take live probiotics, including soil-based organisms, if you are severely immunocompromised, undergoing chemotherapy, critically ill or have a central line, without medical clearance. And if you are relying on a collagen product to meet protein needs during weight loss, illness recovery, or in older age, that is a nutritional gap worth raising with a dietitian—collagen cannot fill it.

How It Compares

Two collagen brands now in this series, and the comparison is instructive because they make the same claim with different consequences. All assessments as of July 29, 2026:

Ancient Nutrition — Multi Collagen and Bone Broth Protein, 35% off first subscription then 15%, 30-day guarantee, free shipping over $49, published phone number · facing active unresolved class actions over protein labelling · founder's "Dr." is a chiropractic and natural-medicine doctorate · owned by Wellful since January 2025 · prices not verifiable from its store
Ancient + Brave (our review: 6.0/10) — the same collagen-is-not-protein issue, but no litigation we found, verified USD pricing, and genuine skin-evidence framing rather than protein framing
Whey, casein, egg, soy or a complete plant blend — PDCAAS at or near 1.0, counts toward your protein Daily Value, and supports muscle protein synthesis · what to buy if protein is the goal
Bulk hydrolysed collagen peptides — the same Type I peptide the skin evidence used, far cheaper, without the protein framing
Bone broth made at home — food rather than supplement, inexpensive, and nobody needs to make a claim about it

The two collagen brands in this series differ mainly in what they sell the product as. Ancient + Brave leans on skin, which is where the evidence actually is. Ancient Nutrition leans on protein, which is where the evidence and the labelling rules are against it—and where the litigation sits. That difference in framing is the whole story.

Honest Pros and Cons

What we would tell a friend, in both directions:

Pro — a large, established brand with wide retail distribution and a substantial product range
Pro — publishes a customer service telephone number, which a surprising number of brands in this series do not
Pro — a stated 30-day money-back guarantee and free shipping over $49
Pro — a Regenerative Organic Certified® claim on part of the range, which is a real third-party certification scheme
Pro — no FDA warning letter to the company found in our checks
Pro — collagen itself has genuine if modest evidence for skin and connective tissue, and can legitimately form part of total dietary protein alongside complete sources
Con — facing multiple active class actions alleging its Bone Broth Protein labelling misrepresents protein content and quality
Con — the technical premise behind those claims is not in dispute: collagen's PDCAAS is 0.0 and it cannot count toward the protein Daily Value
Con — the founder's "Dr." denotes a Doctor of Chiropractic and a natural-medicine doctorate, not a medical qualification
Con — a class action filing notes the site does not identify where the founders' degrees were obtained
Con — still marketed on founder credibility though owned by Wellful, Inc. since January 2025
Con — gut-healing claims for bone broth rest on mechanism rather than controlled human trials, and we found no batch heavy-metal certificates for a bone-derived product
Con — we could not verify prices from the company's own store

Who Should Pick It—and Who Should Look Elsewhere

Ancient Nutrition fits someone who wants collagen for skin, hair, nail or joint reasons, likes the convenience and retail availability of a large brand, and understands they are buying collagen rather than protein. The 30-day guarantee and published phone number make it a low-friction purchase, and collagen used as an addition to a diet with complete protein is a perfectly reasonable thing to buy. Look elsewhere if you are buying it for protein. That is the crux of this review: PDCAAS 0.0 is not a marketing quibble, it is the reason collagen cannot count toward your protein Daily Value, and it is what the litigation is about. Anyone training, losing weight, recovering from illness, or older and worried about muscle should buy a complete protein instead. Look elsewhere if unresolved consumer litigation over labelling would bother you. And if the "Dr." endorsement is what persuaded you, know that it denotes chiropractic rather than medical training—and that the founder no longer owns the company.

Common Questions

Quick answers to what buyers actually search:

Is Ancient Nutrition being sued? — Yes. It faces multiple consumer class actions, including Bush et al. v. Ancient Brands, LLC (5:21-cv-00390) and Viera v. Ancient Brands, alleging its Bone Broth Protein labelling misrepresents protein content and quality. These are allegations in active litigation; as of March 2026 no settlement had been finalised and no liability found.
Does collagen count as protein? — Not for labelling purposes. Hydrolysed collagen has a PDCAAS of 0.0 because it contains no tryptophan, and it cannot legally count toward the 50g protein Daily Value. Research suggests it can make up roughly 30-36% of total dietary protein provided the rest comes from complete sources.
Is Dr. Josh Axe a medical doctor? — No. He holds a Doctor of Chiropractic and describes himself as a doctor of natural medicine. Neither is a physician credential in the US.
Who owns Ancient Nutrition? — Wellful, Inc., which acquired the brand in January 2025, with Kainos Capital involved in the ownership structure. It is no longer founder-owned.
How much does it cost? — We could not verify prices from the company's own store, as its product data endpoints returned nothing to us. We can confirm 35% off a first subscription order then 15% off subsequent deliveries, a 30-day money-back guarantee and free shipping over $49.
Is bone broth protein good for you? — It is predominantly collagen, so the protein caveats above apply. Popular gut-healing claims rest on mechanistic reasoning about glycine and glutamine rather than controlled human trials.
Are there heavy metals in bone broth? — Bones concentrate lead, and studies of bone broth have reported measurable lead, generally below regulatory limits of concern. That is a reason to want published heavy-metal testing, which we could not locate for this brand.
Should I take collagen or whey? — Whey if you want protein: it has a PDCAAS at or near 1.0, counts toward your protein Daily Value and drives muscle protein synthesis. Collagen if you want it for skin or connective tissue, alongside real protein.
Who should avoid it? — Take medical advice first if you have kidney disease or a history of kidney stones. Avoid marine collagen with a fish allergy, and avoid live probiotics including soil-based organisms if you are immunocompromised or have a central line.

The Bottom Line

Verdict: 5.2/10—an established brand selling a legitimate ingredient under a framing that is the subject of active litigation, and a technical point that framing cannot survive. The substance is straightforward and not really contestable: hydrolysed collagen has a PDCAAS of 0.0 because it contains no tryptophan, and consequently it cannot legally count toward the 50-gram protein Daily Value. Ancient Nutrition markets collagen and bone broth protein heavily on protein, and it faces multiple consumer class actions—including Bush et al. v. Ancient Brands and Viera v. Ancient Brands—alleging its labelling misrepresents protein content and quality. Those are unproven allegations in live cases and the company has not been found liable, but the science underneath them is settled. Add a "Dr." that denotes a chiropractic and natural-medicine doctorate rather than a medical one, a filing noting the site does not say where those degrees came from, ownership that passed to Wellful, Inc. in January 2025 while the founder's persona still sells the products, no batch heavy-metal certificates for a bone-derived product, and prices we could not verify from the company's own store. It does publish a phone number, offer a 30-day guarantee and hold a Regenerative Organic certification on part of the range, and collagen itself is a reasonable thing to take for skin. Buy it for skin if you want it. Do not buy it for protein. This review is informational only and not medical advice; consult a clinician before daily collagen if you have kidney disease or kidney stones, and speak to a dietitian if you are relying on any supplement to meet protein needs. Checked July 29, 2026; terms and litigation status change.

Sources & References

Ancient Nutrition — Official Site
Ancient Nutrition — collection pages, stated subscription discounts, guarantee and shipping terms (checked July 29, 2026)
Bush et al. v. Ancient Brands, LLC, case 5:21-cv-00390 — class action complaint
Viera v. Ancient Brands, LLC, Eastern District of New York — class action complaint (via Truth in Advertising)
Published nutritional science on PDCAAS methodology and hydrolysed collagen's score of 0.0 due to absent tryptophan
"Significant Amounts of Functional Collagen Peptides Can Be Incorporated in the Diet While Maintaining Indispensable Amino Acid Balance" (PMC6566836)
FDA — protein Daily Value and PDCAAS-based %DV labelling requirements
Reporting on Wellful, Inc.'s January 2025 acquisition of Ancient Nutrition