Why You Probably Aren't Drinking Bulletproof Coffee Even If You Think You Are.

One of our VibeTribe members brought in an interesting article penned by Denis Faye titled “Should You Be Drinking Bulletproof Coffee?” and asked what we thought about the criticisms it laid out.

First off, we don’t drink Bulletproof coffee. If you know us, your jaw might have just dropped because you’ve seen us each and every morning start the day with a cup of coffee, blended with butter and MCT oil, of course we drink bulletproof coffee, right?! The truth is we don’t. Bulletproof coffee is a brand of coffee, just like Folgers or our Vibetality favorite Picacho Coffee. 

The Bulletproof brand is the brainchild of notable Silicon Valley exec and self-proclaimed bio-hacker Dave Asprey. Asprey has done an incredible job branding, marketing and turning Bulletproof coffee into the eponym for coffee with butter and MCT oil, but in all actuality Bulletproof Coffee is just a catchy name printed on a bag of coffee sold by Asprey. Coffee blended with butter and MCT oil is just a simple recipe to make a great tasting and beneficial morning drink.

In Denis Faye’s carefully written and rather misleading criticism of “Bulletproof Coffee” (where he actually means the recipe for coffee with butter and MCT oil) Faye never once addresses any of the specific claims Asprey makes about his brand of coffee (which are many) but instead chooses to address the recipe of coffee blended with butter and MCT oil as if it were “Bulletproof Coffee.” Right off the bat, this throws up a huge red flag for us. When an author misses something that large in a criticism we begin to wonder what else he might have gotten wrong.  In this article, it is plenty.

In the intro to the article Faye talks about a time in his life where he was in Nepal, he writes,

“The Nepalese were magnificent, gracious people who insisted on sharing a cup of chai with us wherever we went. The tea was strong stuff, heavy on the milk and sugared to the point of being crunchy. As not to insult my hosts, I drank 10–15 cups a day. Between the sleep deprivation, exercise, and the lack of other calories, those little cracked cups of sweet, creamy caffeinated goodness were the only thing that kept me standing—a true miracle beverage.

So as a nutrition consultant, do I recommend you start filling your hot beverages with refined sugar because, for one brief moment of hard living in an exotic country, it gave me a boost? Um, no.”

Neat story, great advice! Unfortunately, it doesn't have anything to do with coffee, butter or MTC oil so you have to wonder why Faye would choose to reference this drink as a point of comparison. The recipe Faye is criticizing has 3 ingredients- coffee, butter and MCT oil, that’s it. You’ll notice it very clearly doesn’t say anything about being “sugared to the point of being crunchy” and there is a reason for this, because sugar ruins the benefits of the drink. Faye doubles down on this grossly misleading point in the next section of the article when he says,“Warm Yoo-hoo with a dollop of Crisco would have done the same thing.”

Faye is either not understanding the 3 ingredient recipe, intentionally misleading his readers, or using the common but incredibly wrong theory that all calories are equal. If that’s the case I’d welcome Faye or anyone else to try consuming 2,000 calories of refined sugar and Crisco everyday and report back on how it was equal to eating real food. If it is either of the first two possibilities, you have to question anything Faye says from this point forward.

Faye goes deeper into his sugar addiction in the “Butter Vs Cream” section when he states that both cream and yogurt would be better options when compared to butter. Unfortunately for Faye he must have completely forgotten about lactose or milk sugar. The average cup of low fat yogurt has 13 grams and a tablespoon of light cream has 1 gram. Compare that to a tablespoon of butter which contains .01 grams.

Faye goes on to discuss how cream’s calcium benefits significantly outweigh the benefits of butter. Since Faye has stated he is a “nutritional consultant” you have to wonder why he isn’t aware of the current information about milk, its minimal calcium benefits, and its possible detrimental effects on bone health.

Interestingly enough Faye sites only one published medical study in his entire article, that one study happens to show that MTC oil offers benefits in weight loss.

After carefully reading the article written by Denis Faye, it becomes very clear that there are some serious gaps in his knowledge, understanding and/or his honesty in his writing that left us scratching our heads.

We certainly don’t agree with everything Dave Asprey says or promotes, and if you want to criticize him, he gives you plenty of easy targets (maybe most notably to us the fact that he sells his “upgraded" MTC oil in a plastic bottle). His coffee recipe however is not a good target. Especially if you don’t have your facts correct and don't understand the benefits of the ingredients.

One good call out that Faye does make is that very few people actually follow this simple recipe. So we are going to lay out the recipe we use each morning.

Ingredients 1-3

1 Cup French pressed single estate coffee

·      Being French pressed is important, because when coffee is put though paper filters many of the beneficial coffee compounds are removed.

·       Being single estate is also important as is limits the potential for harmful mold toxins

1 Tablespoon of grass-fed butter.

·    Being grass-fed is important. 

          Grass-fed butter has high quantities of butyric acid (shown to help with the regeneration of damaged intestinal cells) CLA (shown to lower body fat and control insulin levels) and equal amounts of omega-3 and omega-6. The ideal ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats is 1:1, but the typical Western diet is between 1:20 and 1:50, grass-fed butter helps reduce this.  

1 Tablespoon MTC oil.

·    Being stored in a glass bottle is important, studies have found that most plastic bottles leach chemicals.

Combine the hot coffee, butter and MTC oil in a blender and blend on high until frothy.

·    Being blended is important because it creates tiny fat cells called micelles that are easily absorbed by the body.

If you are looking for a sweeter taste just add a little stevia.

If you are looking for more information on adding butter and MTC oil to your coffee here are a few great trusted resources:

Dr. Weil

Mind Body Green

Men’s Health

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