If this blog post is the first you have heard of Butter Coffee, then your initial reaction may look something like this:
Coffee, in general, has a lot of fans for a number of different reasons: the taste, the caffeine kick or even just the routine. As soon as you have your coffee, you know it’s time to kick your brain into gear.
The thing about a normal cup of coffee though is that it sometimes does bad things to good people. A caffeine-induced pick-up can often throw us back down just as quickly as it picks us up. The added milk, sugar or cream can leave their mark around the waist. The sugar spike and fall leaves us craving more sugar or cravings that we don’t really need…
This is where butter coffee comes into the fray and what has been taking the health and fitness world by storm: a (surprisingly) tasty cup of coffee with none of those aforementioned side effects.
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What is Butter Coffee?
Butter coffee consists of three ingredients: coffee, grass-fed butter and coconut oil.
A simple coffee maker to make the hot coffee and a blender to blend all of the ingredients are the only tools you will need to make this healthy, frothy concoction.
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Butter Coffee Benefits
As it turns out, butter coffee has LOADS of benefits over regular coffee varieties:
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Healthy Fats – More energy and fat loss
The whole ‘fats are bad for you’ statement has long been debunked. Fat isn’t what the body naturally turns to for energy, it’s the glucose that comes from carbohydrates and sugar. Therefore, when we limit carbohydrate intake and replace it with fats such as coconut oil and grass-fed butter, the body then turns to fat instead for its energy source. Not only does burning fat provide the body and you with more energy throughout the day, but it induces fat-loss since you are burning fat and not glucose from the carbs and sugars.
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Blending method
The process of blending the coffee with the butter and coconut oil help to mix the fats within the coffee and create a much smoother and enjoyable brew. On top of this, caffeine is fat soluble, meaning it gets absorbed into the coconut oil and butter in coffee instead of directly into your bloodstream. This has been linked to preventing the caffeine spike and crash that we associate with normal coffee.
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Prevents cravings
The high fats and low sugar content of butter coffee keep the body’s sugar content at a stable level, leading to fewer cravings for sugary foods and snacks. If you have a sugar-rich breakfast or coffee, they damn sure taste good but within a few hours, you find yourself craving a juicy doughnut, biscuit or even another coffee. This is because of the initial sugar intake, which spiked levels in your body and on the fall, you want more to get back on that sugar high. Butter coffee takes away the bitterness but doesn’t cause cravings.
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Increases Metabolism
This part is mostly down to the coconut oil. The oil contains Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs) which are metabolised faster than long-chain triglycerides which are found in most fats. The faster your body can process the content, the higher your metabolism. A higher metabolism leads to more fat loss and an all-round healthier human body to be living in!
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Other Benefits
Coconut oil has antibacterial benefits, organic butter fats are good for your skin, it’s cheaper than any other cup of coffee you would find in a café, it’s healthier than any cup of coffee you would find in a café and still gives you the boost and satisfaction! Judge this one for yourself.
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Butter coffee recipe
Here is a short video showing you how it is made. The guy in the video uses ghee, a clarified butter, but as long as your normal butter is good quality (preferably unsalted), you won’t have any problems.
Video credit: Homegrounds Co.
Butter coffee is similar to the infamous Bulletproof coffee created by Dave Asprey but uses coconut oil instead of MCT oil (or ‘Brain Octane Oil’, as it has been coined on bulletproof.com), and normal coffee beans instead of ‘specialised’ coffee. In my opinion, butter coffee is a much more economical version of bulletproof coffee but with the same benefits.
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Butter Coffee – Final Notes
- Don’t add too much oil too soon – not only with the taste be affected, but you will be making more trips to the bathroom than you would otherwise like. Stick to one or two tablespoons of the stuff.
- Vary when you take it – most people use it as a substitute for breakfast and have had great results with fat-loss, boosted energy levels etc. But at the end of the day, it is just coffee. Change up your breakfasts every now and then to get all your vitamins and nutrients! Also, change up when you have the butter coffee: upon waking, mid-morning, early afternoon…Keep it fresh!
- Take time off coffee – this includes all types of coffee, not just butter. Coffee should be the tasty warm drink that gives you a much-needed boost and edge, not the necessity that you need to get yourself back to baseline. If you feel like this, take a few days off it. You’ll feel great for it.
- Give it a go! – You’ve seen the benefits and its deliciousness, give the coffee shop a skip and save a few pounds on the body and in the purse!
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