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Is drinking coffee laced with butter and oil the key to easy weight loss?
Company boss Angela swears it is (but find out what the health experts say)
Butter coffee, otherwise known as bulletproof coffee, was developed in America (no surprises there, perhaps) but what could be more surprising is its effects on weight loss.
Butter coffee, otherwise known as bulletproof coffee, was developed in America (no surprises there) but what is surprising is its effects on weightloss
WHAT ON EARTH IS BULLETPROOF COFFEE?
The drink was invented in America, perhaps unsurprisingly, by 43-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur Dave Asprey after he ‘felt amazing’ when drinking a traditional yak-butter tea on a trek in Tibet.
On his return to the U.S., he made his own version of the high-fat drink using coffee, a special oil and butter — and found that by drinking the mixture instead of eating breakfast, he lost weight easily.
That’s despite the fact that one cup of Bulletproof coffee contains up to 500 calories and around 51g of fat (women are recommended to consume 36g to 62g of this a day), of which more than 70 per cent is saturated — the most harmful to our health.
Asprey claims it works thanks to the coffee boosting your metabolism, while the oil forces the body into a fat-burning mode which melts away a muffin-top or unwanted tummy quickly.
So committed to the drink is he that he gives his two young children an espresso-cup measure every morning ‘because the oil turns off their hunger’. He has now reportedly shed around 7st by drinking the coffee.
It stopped my middle aged spread in its tracks
Angela Middleton, 55, company founder and chairwoman of apprenticeship consultancy firm MiddletonMurray, brews a pot of Bulletproof coffee every morning in her West London home and insists it’s been instrumental in her losing 1st 10lb since December.
She claims she’s proof it works because she doesn’t entertain what she calls ‘silly, faddy diets’ and credits the concoction with keeping her figure trim and giving her mental clarity.
She started drinking it after she happened upon a talk Dave Asprey was giving at a business event last year and decided to see if his claims lived up to the hype.
‘It coincided with me planning an overhaul of my health,’ says Angela, who is a married mother of two children in their 20s.
‘I’ve run marathons, was reasonably fit and wasn’t exactly huge at 5ft 2in and 9st 1lb, but I was finding it hard to keep middle-aged spread at bay.
‘It’s proved to be transformative. Ten months on, I now weigh 7st 5lb, eat 2,000 calories a day including carbs, fat and protein and am in better shape than I was even in my 20s.
‘It was an adjustment to give up the flat white coffee that I loved for the acquired taste of something that’s much more dense and fatty,’ admits Angela, who usually eats what she describes as a ‘boring’ diet of steak, fish and chicken with vegetables.
But, she says, the biggest lesson she learned was the need to slowly build up the amount of MCT-rich oil, starting with a teaspoon until you’re hardy enough to stomach a tablespoon.
‘A few times I’ve been a bit too liberal with the oil and I’ve ended up with a dodgy stomach. I’ve now learned to be precise with measurements and start low again if I have a few days off.’
CAN I MAKE IT AT HOME?
The recipe is certainly simple, if decidedly strange.
First, Asprey recommends combining a cup of freshly brewed coffee (from beans, as they have more antioxidants than instant powder) with two tablespoons of unsalted butter, which contains brain-boosting omega-3 and butyrate, a type of fatty acid that keeps us fuller for longer.
He then adds two tablespoons of an oil that is rich in a compound known as medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs).
Many devotees use coconut oil here as it comprises up to 60 per cent MCTs, though health shops also sell pure MCT oil, which some say is even better for you and which Aspray recommends.
Stick the lot in a blender and whizz until it has a foamy top layer — just stirring will leave oily lumps — and, hey presto!
Simply make a cup of freshly brewed coffee, from beans not instant, with two teaspoons of unsalted butter
Asprey claims it will be the ‘creamiest coffee you’ve ever tasted’. Fans say it has the flavour of a rich latte and leaves a pleasant, oily feeling in the mouth.
Critics, however, find it revoltingly rich and just too much to handle at breakfast.
Certainly, Vicky Charles, a mother of one from Wiltshire, wasn’t a fan at first. ‘I read about it several years ago and attempted to make my own version by stirring normal butter into normal coffee,’ says training consultant Vicky, 36. ‘But I didn’t like the taste.
‘Then, about two years ago, I started drinking Bulletproof whenever I needed to drop a few pounds for a special occasion or an important business event.’
She recently lost 10lb in two months ‘with very little effort’.
‘I’ve never been a fan of low-fat diets and have always drunk high-quality, organic coffee with cream.
‘I’ve tried every silly diet going over the years, but drinking this for breakfast and then eating normally for the rest of the day is so much easier.’
IS THERE ANY SCIENCE BEHIND IT?
Yes, mostly in the MCT-rich oil — though many of the claims are disputed.
Devotees say this oil’s chemical make-up means it’s broken down so quickly by the liver that’s it is speedily accessible to the brain as energy. That’s why Bulletproof drinkers say they feel clear-headed, and also the reason the body doesn’t get the chance to build up extra fat.
‘At almost 500 calories a cup, you’re certainly not consuming fewer calories than you would eating a normal breakfast,’ says Dr Trudi Deakin, a consultant to the NHS on the prevention and management of diabetes.
‘But because Bulletproof doesn’t contain carbohydrates, it means that your body doesn’t trigger an insulin response which tells the body to store fat.’
Put simply, without access to sugar or carbohydrates, the body will instead burn existing fat stores for energy — think muffin-top or saddlebags — a process known as ketosis.
This effect continues until you consume carbohydrates — potentially not for several hours if you don’t eat again until lunch.
Fans believe the caffeine in coffee helps the process by speeding up our metabolisms, while the butter keeps you feeling full.
This will be ringing bells with anyone who has tried the Atkins diet or intermittent fasting, as both of these regimens are based on the same principle of a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet.
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