7/19/2017 0 Comments Debunking The Paleo Diet![]() Debunking the Hot Buttered Hype. People are putting butter in their coffee. And hey, if you're just craving a new flavor experience, more power to you. ![]() ![]() The problem is that Bulletproof Coffee, the company behind the trend, is claiming that drinking a mug of fatty joe every morning instead of eating breakfast is a secret shortcut to weight loss and mental superpowers, and now the butter coffee has developed a cult of highly caffeinated, shiny- lipped adherents. So now we have to talk about it. Welcome to Fitmodo, Gizmodo's gym for your brain and backbone. Don't suffer through life as a sniveling, sickly weakling—brace up and get the blood pumping! Check back for the latest in fitness science, workout gear, exercise techniques, and enough vim and vigor to whip you into shape. What the hack is Bulletproof Coffee? Bulletproof Coffee is, essentially, a hot coffee, plus two tablespoons of butter, plus a tablespoon of MCT oil (that's medium chain triglyceride oil, which we'll talk more about in a minute). Then you stick it in a blender until it's all emulsified. Then you drink it. Depending what level of the Bulletproof Diet you adhere to (yes, there's a whole diet that goes with this), that is generally your entire breakfast. According to Bulletproof, you should reeeeally be buying its outrageously overpriced !
Bulletproof Coffee was started by Silicon Valley investor/entrepreneur Dave Asprey, who calls himself . Because everything is a hack. One of the key components to reinvention, he claims, was his buttery coffee breakfast, which he was inspired to create this after having some traditional yak- butter tea in Tibet. Okay, that's all fine. Where things get dodgy is when we get into Dave's claims for what this coffee does. The most dubious one is that starting your day off like this turns your body into a fat- burning machine. That it promotes healthy weight loss. That it eliminates hunger pangs. But wait, there's more! He also insists that it's the secret formula for improving mental focus and brain power. That it's a way to improve the effectiveness of coffee, making it jitter- free and eliminating spikes and crashes. And also that it's delicious. There are a ton of very bold claims to dig into. Some are extrapolated from nuggets of truth. The common kitchen spice can offset the health pitfalls of a fat-heavy diet, per new study findings. The authors indicate that a typical chimpanzee diet is of 75% ripe fruit and 25% pith. For some reason nutrients percentage numbers by weight pervade the ancestral. Bulletproof Coffee was started by Silicon Valley investor/entrepreneur Dave Asprey, who calls himself "The Bulletproof Executive." The lore goes something like, Dave. Some are wildly baseless. Let's start off with a very important lesson we learned from All The President's Men. Follow the money. Okay, so you're an entrepreneur and you've come up with this idea that adding butter and MCT oil to your coffee is the secret to all kinds of good stuff. You've still got a problem: You can't monetize a three- ingredient recipe. There's got to be some way you can get rich off telling people to do this. Enter the Bulletproof product line. They sell a ton of dubious health products at a significant markup, but let's focus on the stuff that goes into the coffee. First up is Bulletproof's Upgraded Coffee Beans. One of the boldest claims Asprey makes is that most coffee is loaded with . Mycotoxins are, basically, mold, and it's true that many of them are bad for you, inflammatory, and maybe even cancer causing. Asprey claims that his Upgraded beans undergo a secret, proprietary process that all but eliminates mycotoxins. He also claims that mycotoxins are the reason you coffee is bitter. This is almost entirely bullshit. For starters, while mycotoxins can grow on coffee beans, the coffee industry has known about this for decades. This is why wet- processing was developed; a technique employed by nearly every roaster in the world, wherein the beans are washed, and nearly all mycotoxins are eliminated. ![]() This is something that is regulated both internationally and in the U. S. In fact, one Spanish study found that people who drank four cups of coffee a day (and this is any brand of coffee, regardless of price and quality) had only 2- percent of what is considered a safe level of mycotoxins. In other words, you could drink 1. Further, mycotoxins are everywhere, including human breast milk, and a lot of the meats Asprey recommends in his own Bulletproof Diet. There is also absolutely zero evidence to support Asprey's claims that his coffee has fewer toxins or provides better performance. Also, just what the hell does ? What is clear, however, is that Asprey charges more than $2. To its credit, it is a tasty cup of coffee, but I've had cups that were just as tasty, and . If you want to learn more about mycotoxins in coffee, this is a very good read. Then we have the Brain Octane, Bulletproof's version of MCT oil. Let's be clear here: It's just MCT oil. There's nothing special about it. Bulletproof claims that while other oils have an ! Great, except that any decent MCT oil you buy won't taste like anything. So what's the difference, besides the name? Well, Bulletproof sells 1. Brain Octane for $2. In contrast, I was able to buy the 3. Now Foods brand (which I've found to be quite reliable) at Whole Foods for the same price. Yes, at Whole Foods—the store often dubbed . Go online, and you can find the 3. Brain Octane. Get the picture? I have tried Bulletproof Coffee with their beans and their MCT oil, and I've tried it with some coffee I bought at a local caf. There was no detectable difference. Large claims court. Okay, we've tackled the Bulletproof branded products, but let's dive into some of the other claims. Conversely, the majority of the studies Asprey sites for his diet were done on rats and mice. Some were four decades old. Some used humans, but in incredibly small numbers. One study's entire sample consisted of two people. One was just on rats with an auto- immune kidney disease. This is what's known as confirmation bias. For those unfamiliar with the concept, it's when you start with a conclusion and then go looking for evidence to support it, generally ignoring evidence that may contradict it. It is the opposite of good science. You can lose a pound a day on this diet. This may be true, but that doesn't mean it's a good thing or that it's good for you. Hell, I lost six pounds in four days by eating nothing but ice cream. And then I gained literally all of that weight back that very weekend. This is the problem with these extreme diets that promise rapid results: They aren't sustainable. You can lose weight on just about any diet (Paleo, Atkins, South Beach, 4 Hour Body, etc), but the number one reason that extreme diets fail is that they are very hard to stick with over time. And make no mistake, the Bulletproof Coffee Diet is most definitely extreme. Between the two tablespoons of butter and one tablespoon of MCT oil in your morning coffee, you are consuming 1. RDA for saturated fat before you have taken a single bite of real food. As for the rest of the diet, it's basically a high- fat riff on the Paleo Diet (which is, itself, highly controversial). Bulletproof recommends that you get 5. While nutritional science has definitely come around on fat, it hasn't come around that much. Saturated fat may no longer be the villain it once was, but that doesn't mean it should make up more than half of your diet. Most nutritionists, who recommend a balanced diet, would put that number around 2. While no one diet is a perfect fit for everyone, some conventional wisdom has stood the test of time. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, increase the amount of calories you burn by becoming more active, and then find a way to reduce the calories you consume until you're burning a bit more than you consume. Say, 1. 00 more a day. Find a way that feels right to you, so you don't feel like you're starving, and so you get all the nutrients you need. The pounds won't just . For a crash- course in fat, read this. If you're anything like over sixty percent of Americans, you've got a few pounds of fat. Got to hand it to them here, buttery coffee is indeed pretty damn tasty. And though it sounds strange, it shouldn't really be so surprising. For starters, it's butter. Butter makes everything taste better. Secondly, you don't think it's so weird that people put cream in their coffee, right? Well, what is butter but cream that has been churned? When you thoroughly blend it with the hot coffee it does a pretty good job of emulsifying the fat, and the end result looks and tastes much like a latte. But you really notice the fat on your lips after you take a sip. It feels like you put too much lip- gloss on. But still, tasty, yes. MCT oil as a miracle food. So, here's the short and very high- level explanation on MCT oil. Most of the fats in the foods we eat are primarily composed of long chain triglycerides (LCT), but a few foods, such as coconut and palm oils contain higher amounts of medium chain triglycerides (MCTs). Because LCTs are longer, they have to go through more digestive processes before our bodies can use them as energy. Because MCTs are much shorter, they represent more rapidly accessible energy. This, in theory, means that our bodies use them more like a carb. MCT oil, which is extracted from coconut and palm oils, has been used in hospitals for a long time for patients whose digestive systems aren't working properly but still need to ingest fats to maintain health (commonly AIDS patients). There are still very few peer reviewed studies on the effectiveness of MCT oil for weight loss, but there are some, and there are some more that use coconut oil. It would be a stretch to call these conclusions solid, but it appears that MCT oil may contribute to a small amount of fat loss for overweight men. We're talking 4 pounds over 1. For women results were even less certain. A lot more research needs to be done before it can be billed as a miracle cure. The best distillation of the research that's been thus far can be found here. As far as MCT oil improving brain function, that's not a call that can be made yet (sorry Bulletproof). There was a study that used MCT oil to treat people with Type 1 Diabetes and another that used it for Alzheimer's patients, and both studies found that MCT oil helped to repair some cognitive function. Cinnamon Cuts Heart Disease Risk, Says Study. When Hippocrates famously said “Let food by thy medicine and medicine be they food,” he could easily have been talking about cinnamon. On top of its many known health benefits—including protecting against oxidative damage and inflammation, reducing risk of cancer, improving sensitivity to the hormone insulin, and more—research has now found that this common kitchen spice can also reduce the harms of a high- fat diet. L. F/shutterstock. In the study, presented at the American Heart Association’s Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology/Peripheral Vascular Disease 2. Scientific Sessions, held in Minneapolis, MN, rats fed a high- fat diet supplemented with cinnamon for 1. The cinnamon group also had healthier blood levels of fat, sugar, and insulin. A diet high in fat—such as Paleo and Atkins—is a major contributor to heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, killing about 6. CDC data, which is 1 in every 4 deaths. Though people tend to adopt those particular diets to lose weight, eating high- fat foods such as bacon, steak, and full- fat dairy, can lead to weight gain, diabetes, high cholesterol, and various other harmful conditions. Incorporating cinnamon into your diet, according to the new study, may be able to offset some of this risk. Co- author Vijaya Juturu, Ph. D, of Omni. Active Health Technologies Inc in Morristown, NJ, says that cinnamon’s ability to lower cardiovascular risk factors associated with a poor diet comes from a polyphenol that is rich in anti- inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Dr. Juturu and colleagues found that, along with the cinnamon group having less weight gain and abdominal fat, they also had healthier blood glucose and insulin concentrations, as well as better lipid profiles, than the controls. The cinnamon group even had fewer molecules linked with the storing of fat, as well as higher levels of anti- inflammatory and antioxidant molecules. Mara. Ze/shutterstock. Antioxidants play a vital role in heart health as they protect against oxidative stress—an imbalance of free radicals linked with heart disease, among other health conditions. While it is safe to consume up to 1/2 cup of ground cinnamon each day, it’s more realistic to consider adding 1 teaspoon to an array of foods, like oatmeal, and drinks, like coffee, and aim for 2 teaspoons each day. It’s important to note, however, that consuming a teaspoon of ground cinnamon without mixing or blending with other foods can cause the powder to enter your lungs, resulting in throat irritation and difficulty breathing. To prevent injury, mix your cinnamon with food or liquid. While cinnamon typically doesn’t cause side effects, it may cause an allergic reaction in some people, irritating the mouth and lips, and causing sores. Those taking blood thinners may need to moderate their consumption, as the coumarin in the spice can increase risk of bleeding. Check out 9 uses of cinnamon you didn’t know about. It can also help you lose weight!
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