Last week I tried making my first cup of Bulletproof Coffee, and I have been enjoying it every day since.  I learned about this method of making coffee several months ago when I was researching fitness and natural healthy beverages to help with weight loss.  I found it on several Paleo diet websites and blogs.  To be honest with you, it sounded gross, so I never made it. Those ingredients are expensive, and I didn’t want to make something that possibly tasted gross and then have to throw it out.  Boy was I wrong!  This method of making coffee is delicious!

Bulletproof Coffee
(Makes 1 Serving.  Bulletproof Coffee from the Bulletproof Executive)

16 oz prepared coffee using Upgraded Bulletproof Coffee beans
2 Tbsp of grass fed unsalted butter (like Kerrigold)
2 Tbsp of high grade MCT oil (concentrated coconut oil)

Blend all in a blender until frothy.  Drink on an empty stomach.  Enjoy!

Basically, the method to make “bulletproof coffee” is to add grass fed butter and high grade MCT coconut oil (six times more potent than regular coconut oil, or even higher concentrations up to 18 times stronger than regular coconut oil) to organic “mold free” and low acid black coffee (easier on the digestive system), blend it all up and drink it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. 

At first, this method sounded “Yuck”!  It doesn’t sound good at all if you are just learning about this for the first time.   It is supposed to sustain you with energy for 4 to 5 hours until you are ready for lunch.  The point of this coffee is to continue to help the body burn fats for fuel early in the morning, as it did while you were sleeping, and feed the brain with healthy fat for maximum cognitive processes.  The cells of the brain only use fat and oxygen in the blood stream for fuel.  When you add in carbs, the body sends out insulin to regulate the sugar in the blood stream.  This often results in brain fog for many people.  Bulletproof Coffee is supposed to feed the brain and help you avoid the pitfalls of carbs for breakfast.

The Bulletproof Executive guy, Dave Asprey, invented Bullet Proof Coffee.  He has all the scientific proof of how good it is for you.  Could he know something I don’t know?  Perhaps.  I think after seeing his results, and the results of numerous people who have used this method, that he must have tapped into some biological secrets for improving health.  He was able to raise his IQ by 20 additional points, lower his weight by 100 lbs without dieting or exercise, and overall improve his health with a few improvements or “upgrades” to his food consumption and lifestyle. You can read more about Dave Asprey on his website and he sells all the UPGRADED ingredients for you to make the best cup of coffee too. 

Dave Asprey has also developed a FREE Bulletproof Food Sense app for your iphone to help you identify foods you are sensitive too.  Learning what foods you are sensitive too by monitoring your biological and psychological reactions to them, and reducing or eliminating them from your diet can potentially help you have a healthier life.  Dave refers to this process of figuring out your body as “bio hacking”.  He has learned to “bio hack” his own body and maximize his physical and mental potential. 


Just My 2 Cents: 

Dave Asprey is an interesting person, and I am in the process of learning more about him and his research.  I don’t know if I agree with everything he has to say, so I am not recommending his teaching and videos to the homeschool community.  But I am willing to learn and investigate it more before I decide to follow much of his advice beyond his coffee method.  I would encourage you to investigate it too before just diving in to all of his recommendations.  I have seen a lot of people report that they incorporated his suggestions with a Paleo eating plan and it helped them loose weight and regain their health and reach their peak performance.  My personal hesitation is that I am concerned first and foremost if he is or is not a follower of Christ and that his teachings could contradict the scriptures.  He may or may not be concerned with faith when it comes to faith in God, and his place of man in relationship to God and acceptance of Christ.  That is his personal choice.  But from what I have read so far, I think he may have a mix of New Age and Humanism in his teachings, so I want to proceed with caution.   Lets get one thing straight right now…Man is not God!   I don’t want to follow a man who might be really smart, but is spiritually lost because of his rejection of God and worship of the human body.  It is too soon for me to decide if some of what I am reading leans toward this.  He is very smart, he is an athlete, and he is a scientific researcher on the human body.  So it stands to reason that a lot of his recommendations are slanted toward athletes and body builders, etc..  I think there is a lot of scientific merrit to his research and its application to the human body in what I have read so far.  So I plan to read and learn more, with my usual caution, and always comparing his advice to scripture and prayer.  What you do is up to you, but this is just my word of caution and my 2 cents!


My Experience:

For me to enjoy coffee, I have to put in lots of milk, cream, and sugar.  I want sweet creamy flavor!!! Give me cream, and give me either vanilla or chocolate !!!  My favorite coffee drinks have lots of chocolate!  So since I know lots of sugar is not so good for me, I usually just go without coffee and only splurge on it maybe once a week or less.

Though I didn’t think Bulletproof Coffee was going to be something I would like, and I had already formed my opinion about it, I started seeing “bulletproof coffee” notes showing up on some of my friends blogs.  They were starting their day with it.  They are not athletic.  They are not Paleo die hards, and many have never even heard about the Paleo diet. Could it be the same “bulletproof coffee” I was reading about from Dave Asprey?  My immediate thoughts were “how can they drink this flavorless, oily brew and enjoy it?”  “How can they drink this every day and still loose weight?” every time I saw it mentioned.

I am slowly trying to make adjustments in my nutritional habits.  I have made huge strides overall this year towards better health for me and my family.  Check out some of my Walk and Talk Wednesday posts for healthy fitness lifestyle tips. But recently my weight is not budging at this time.  I lost 17lbs when I did the 28 day Fa
st Metabolism Diet (FMD) challenge a few months ago, but I have not been able to repeat that success since.  I do not know why. 

A lot of my blogging friends have used the Trim Healthy Mama (THM) program with ongoing success.  So I have recently purchased the Trim Healthy Mama book to see what it is all about.  I am still following the FMD recommendations as I read through the 600+ pages of THM.  I am impressed how they encourage the “Whole Mama” in every area of your life (spiritually, physically, mentally, intimately).  I am making even more adjustments in my food choices.  I’ll tell you more about the benefits of these different food programs in future stories. But for now, I am still in the learning phase and don’t have it all figured out.  While I am reading the big book, I am trying out some of their recipes especially for beverages as I know I don’t drink enough fluids.  I am continually looking for easy make beverages to add to my day.  I am learning to like a few of their suggestions such as NuNaturals Pure White Stevia to sweeten foods without the use of sugar. 

So I gave some more serious thought to this bulletproof method.  I have added coconut oil to my coffee and hot tea before, because it is recommend by the Weston A Price Foundation and Mary Enig from Eat Fat Loose Fat for good healthy habits.  I learned about this method over 10 years ago and love adding coconut oil to my hot herbal tea.  I normally make hot herbal tea, 1 tsp coconut oil, and 1 tsp+ raw honey.  The coconut oil does rise to the top, and it took a while to get used to drinking hot tea this way in the beginning.   It is good, satisfying, and the oil slick on top of the tea doesn’t bother me if I use about a teaspoon. 

Now add the addition of butter too?   This was a bit of a dilemma for me.  I have always enjoyed adding butter into my cooking.  It is healthy and nutritious and the Weston A Price Foundation has a huge amount of scientific research to support using it.  But I did agree to abstain from dairy while on the FMD.  The FMD does not encourage the use of dairy while on their program, and it was really hard for me to follow that protocol.  But since I am reading the THM and slowly switching some things over, they do recommend some grass fed dairy, such as butter, Greek yogurt, and cottage cheese, etc. in moderation.  With a little more thinking on this, I decided that since butter is basically cream with the whey removed, and I believe butter is good for you anyways, I might be able to drink this in my coffee.  I have made butter many times.  It is the same every time.  To make fresh butter, I take fresh cream, shake it up or mix it up until the fat and whey (protein and water) separates.  Then I drain off the whey and wallah, I have butter!!!  I have also whipped cream for desert before and let it go to long and made butter by accident too.  So why not use butter in coffee if it is just a form of condensed cream?  The idea of adding butter to a hot drink became more and more appealing to me when I looked at it from this point of view.


Revisions:

My REVISIONS and experiments I did to make the “bullet proof coffee” method into a no carb and low carb comfort food and very satisfying are posted below.  First of all I sweetened it with a carb free natural sweetener.  Second I am using a good quality organic virgin coconut oil instead of MCT.  It is what I have on hand at this time.   



I  also reduced a serving to 1 cup rather than the original 2 cups in Dave Asprey’s recipe.  If you want 2 cups then just double the ingredients.  I call it the “Sustain Latte”, or just “Sustain” for short.  Lattes are comfort food, kind of like desert, and this reminds me of that. 

Also because I don’t want to go for 5 hours without eating, I am only drinking one cup in the morning.  I am trying to heal my metabolism and thyroid, and eating every two to three hours is my goal at this time.  So I am just consuming one cup of this each morning on an empty stomach and waiting two hours or so before I eat.  One morning I went ahead and drank it with my breakfast, but found it really filled me up more than I wanted.  This was a Phase 3 FMD breakfast of boiled eggs, bacon, califlower hashbrowns, and blueberries with my Sustain Mocha Latte.



I have tried drinking a cup of it in the late afternoon occasionally as a desert too.  When I make it in the afternoon, I add an additional 1/4 of a cup of unsweetened almond milk to the mix.  Prepared either way, this would make a great cup of coffee to serve your afternoon guests for tea time too.

If your are doing the THM program, this drink would be used for S beverages and S snacks (S is for satisfying).  I still have a ways to go learning the THM program, so I don’t know if this drink can be used during other meal types.  There are several meal and snack types in the THM and it is a big learning curve for me, so I will defer to others with more knowledge about it than me until I understand the program fully.  I have read a few chapters and I hope to finish the book in the next week or so.  I want to start implementing the THM program soon.   

If you are doing the FMD program, this drink would be used for Phase 3 of the week (Each week has 3 phases.  P1 is two days that focus on unrefined carbs and lean proteins, P2 is two days that focus on lean proteins, and P3 is three days that focus on healthy fats in addition to low glycemic foods and protiens in the diet). 

If you are on a Paleo program, or a Paleo / Primal program, this drink can be used everyday.


My One Goal:

I was determined last two weeks to avoid sugar so I could reduce my blood insulin levels and reduce my cravings for sweets.  I tried to avoid all added sugar and refined carbs in any form in my diet.   I have not been perfect and have had a few sweet treats.  But overall, I have made a lot of progress toward this goal.  I decided if I could sweeten the bulletproof coffee without sugar, and still give it flavor, without anything artificial, and yet not break the rules of this one goal to live without added sugar, I would try it. 
 
Now I can tell you, this “bulletproof coffee method” is a game changer!  It is a real comfort food!  It is helping me reach my goal.  I have drank it several times already the past two weeks.  It tastes better than Starbucks!  It really has sustained me on the mornings I have incorporated it into my day.  Sometimes I am rushed in the mornings to get the kids and dad fed, and start our schoolwork for day.   I don’t always get to eat first thing when I get up (even though this is recommended by the Fast Metabolism Diet), and it might be 10 am or later before I get to eat breakfast.  By then it is almost time to start making lunch for the rest of the fam
ily and I often feel defeated by TIME!

I drank the original “bulletproof coffee” recipe for several days adding only NuNaturals stevia to sweeten it, and I have fell in LOVE with coffee!  I have also tried adding Just Like Sugar chicory and it is even more awesome with no aftertaste.  My husband is a purist and likes his coffee VERY black.  He agreed to try the coffee too, and he likes the bulletproof coffee with just black coffee and butter.  He did not prefer the coconut oil or stevia sweetener.  He said bulletproof coffee tastes like cappuccino from a gourmet coffee house. 

You can read more about Chicory and about Stevia as sweeteners from Wikipedia (the online encyclopedia).  Here are pictures of the brands I am using:

 

So far, I have made several comforting and sustaining lattes with the “bulletproof coffee method”, several different flavors and they are ALL delicious and carb free and sugar free!  You can adjust the sweetness to your liking.  You can also create delicious sugar free and carb free ice cream by using your blended coffee mix and freezing it in ice cube trays, then re-blending until it makes ice cream.  Or use the liquid blended coffee in an ice cream maker too. But I just use the blender. I let the coffee cubes just start to thaw so the will blend nicely.  Or if I am in a hurry, I add just a little water to get it to blend easily in to a frappe!  If you want to, add some coconut milk or nutmilk to make it even more creamy. This is so delicious!  I just love coffee ice cream!  If you are like me, you just have to give this method a try!



Sustain Latte
Makes 1 serving (multiply if you want more servings).

6 oz coffee
1 Tbsp to 2 Tbsp unsalted butter (grassfed butter has more nutrient value)
1 tsp coconut oil (MCT coconut oil has more concentrated nutrient value)
1/8 tsp Nunaturals Pure White Stevia powder or 1 tsp Just Like Sugar (ground chicory root)

(Optional: 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk changes it from carb free to low carb with 1 gram carb coming from fiber.  It also makes it even more delicious and creamy.  I am leaving it out in my morning cup to prolong the body’s fat burn, but adding it to my afternoon cup to boost my metabolism and level of satisfaction).

Blend together in a blender until frothy, about 1 minute. Drink hot, or pour over ice and drink cold. Delicious both ways.




Vanilla Sustain Latte
Makes 1 serving (multiply if you want more servings).

6 oz coffee
1 Tbsp to 2 Tbsp unsalted butter (grassfed butter has more nutrient value) 
1 tsp coconut oil (MCT coconut oil has more concentrated nutrient value)
1/8 tsp Nunaturals Pure White Stevia powder or 1 tsp Just Like Sugar (ground chicory root)
1 tsp vanilla extract

(Optional: 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk changes it from carb free to low carb with 1 gram carb coming from fiber.  It also makes it even more delicious and creamy.   I am leaving it out in my morning cup to prolong the body’s fat burn, but adding it to my afternoon cup to boost my metabolism and level of satisfaction).

Blend together in a blender until frothy, about 1 minute. Drink hot, or pour over ice and drink cold. Delicious both ways.


Mocha Sustain Latte
Makes 1 serving (multiply if you want more servings).

6 oz coffee



1 Tbsp to 2 Tbsp unsalted butter (grassfed butter has more nutrient value)
1 tsp coconut oil (MCT coconut oil has more concentrated nutrient value)
1/8 tsp Nunaturals Pure White Stevia powder or 1 tsp Just Like Sugar (ground chicory root)
1/2 tsp organic vanilla extract
1 tsp or more of natural or raw cocoa powder (raw cocoa has more nutrient value)



Here you can see how the oil and butter start to rise to the top of the hot coffee before blending them together.



Blend together in a blender until frothy, about 1 minute.



Drink hot, or pour over ice and drink cold. Be sure it is well blended if pouring over ice as the fat in the drink will solidify.  This mocha latte is satisfying and delicious both ways.



(Optional: 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk changes it from carb free to low carb with 1 gram carb coming from fiber.  It also makes it even more delicious and creamy.  I am leaving it out in my morning cup to prolong the body’s fat burn, but adding it to my afternoon cup to boost my metabolism and level of satisfaction).

I plan to post more recipe variations like pumpkin spice and chai and more pictures soon.  Stay tuned as I share my health and fitness journey stories along the way!

Whether you buy Dave’s “upgraded” Bulletproof ingredients for your cup of coffee, or make do with similar quality ingredients available locally as I have done, I think you will agree his bulletproof method of using unsalted butter and coconut oil to make a creamy frothy and super healthy gourmet coffee at home is AWESOME!
 
Finally, I can enjoy a great cup of creamy comforting sweet coffee and I don’t feel guilty about drinking it!   It really does sustain me, it is yummy, and I hope it results in healthy weight loss too.   I am happy, happy, happy!


This post will be linked up with:
Raising Homemakers
Sharing Time
Change 3 Things Challenge 
Walk and Talk Wednesday