Yummy (?) but not special Part II: Bulletproof Coffee

Photo credit: James Neish (it’s not Bulletproof)

I really didn’t think Bulletproof Coffee was going to take off like it did; and initially, I definitely didn’t want to write about it because I feel that sometimes, giving something negative publicity is still publicity and doesn’t necessarily strengthen my argument, but gives theirs more traction. However, when I saw Jill Coleman’s (@JillFit) status update, “I’m confused by Bulletproof coffee. The old fashioned version seems to do the trick just fine, no?” I realized that if Jill is confused, a lot of people are probably confused too. That, and I think anyone who reads my blog probably already knows about it, so really, I’m not giving them any MORE publicity than they already have. Read More...

The lime in the coconut is purely optional.

Before I even start explaining what I’ve done here, I want to make it absolutely clear that this analysis is fairly casual, and that by no means have I followed a text-book rigourous protocol to do it because if I HAD done that, you wouldn’t be reading this for another year while it waited in the publication queue of some nutrition journal. However, I will say that even with that disclaimer, I’ve probably been a bit more rigourous than a lot of crap I’ve read, so…well, there really isn’t anything more to say, is there?

Back in the early 2000’s there was a small surge of medium-chain-triglyercide (MCT) research that petered out around 2003ish. While there were a fair number of human trials looking at MCT’s and lipid profiles, there were also a handful of trials that also examined the effect of MCTs on body composition, specifically fat loss. And while MCTs are used in some supplements and meal-replacement shakes, there hasn’t been a widespread adoption of MCTs like there was when olive oil got really big (also in the early 2000’s), and I have to say that it’s not entirely clear as to why. Part of the reason might have been the sparseness of human trials involving MCTs compared to those looking at olive oil. Since 2009, however, there appears to be another blip of human trials looking at MCTs, and specifically at coconut oil, or mixes that involve a fair amount of coconut oil. Read More...