With coffee menus at cafes and restaurants now almost as long as the wine lists, the choices and variety available should keep any coffee-drinking palate excited. Different brews, different kinds of milk, with or without sugar, added butter……
hang on, added butter (grass-fed mind you)… Since when did BUTTER find a place front and centre on the barista’s bench?
What is it?
Bulletproof coffee is not new, but has grown in popularity with the increased interest in low-carb/high-fat ketogenic style-diet. Bulletproof coffee is basically brewed coffee with grass-fed butter and Medium-Chain-Triglyceride (MCT) oil or coconut oil added. Where the reference to bulletproof comes from who knows, but is it a passing fad or a new staple on the standard coffee menu, and who should be drinking it?
The theory goes something like this – bulletproof coffee, with its caffeine and high-fat content, can provide energy and fuel for a person following a low-carb/high-fat diet. This only works if you don’t eat any carbs, otherwise, the carbohydrate will be the preferred fuel used.
What are the benefits?
It is proposed that bulletproof coffee can help with weight loss, however, this would only be effective if it is consumed as part of a ketogenic dietary approach. Not so helpful for weight loss if you are having it with a pastry (ie. the carbohydrate effect).
Some of the recipes recommend 3-4tbsp or more of butter/MCT oil/coconut oil which is 80g+ – that is a lot of fat in one hit.
That’s why it is recommended as a meal replacement rather than a between meal boost – drink a few of these instead of your regular long black and you will be loosening your belt a few notches in no time.
The recommendation to use bulletproof coffee as a breakfast replacement is common for keto followers
But what about nutrition?
Not too many vitamins, minerals and fibre in a buttered coffee breakfast!
Yes, it might fill you up with such a bit hit of fat, and the coffee will give you a morning caffeine boost, but in terms of nutrition, it won’t give you much more.
There would potentially be more value in having a black coffee with a serve of avocado and smoked salmon if you are keto keen – healthy fats but also some fiber and other nutrients.
Bulletproof Coffee Recipe
To give it a try, just combine the following in a blender:
1 cup black coffee (filter, plunger, long espresso)
1 tbs unsalted grass-fed butter
1 MCT or Brain Octane oil
