Our herbs aren’t the only thing we take. In fact, we’re constantly experimenting with all kinds of things that promise to deliver better health and performance.
I was never a coffee drinker before. But after hearing about Bulletproof coffee for some time I had to give it a try. If you’ve never heard of this before here’s the lowdown.
Upgraded coffee, as sold here, is grown and processed in a way to avoid contamination by mycotoxins. According to some research the majority of coffee produced, or at least a large percentage of it, has these contaminants. These can contribute to a variety of poor health effects, including many of those things, like headaches and jitteriness, that many people attribute to coffee.
Here’s one thing that is for sure. This coffee smells and tastes good. It is much more pleasant than most other coffees out there. One of the reasons I never really drank coffee is that it didn’t taste good to me. But by itself, this coffee is wonderful.
That’s just the coffee. In order to make it “Bulletproof” you follow a process. This involves blending the coffee along with MCT oil (which is a refined version of coconut oil) and grass fed butter. The purpose of adding high-quality fats like this to your coffee is to provide great fuel for your body and brain. MCT’s (medium chain triglycerides) are easily used by the body as fuel and in many ways are superior to glucose for that purpose.
I live in California where it is legal to get RAW grass fed butter. I use Organic Pastures. But this isn’t available everywhere. What is generally recommended is Kerry Gold butter which can be found in most places, even conventional grocery stores, imported from Ireland where cows graze on green pastures.
When you add these fats and blend them into the coffee it tastes even better! If you’re not use to lots of fat in your diet (from being conditioned to think that low-fat is best) you’ll want to use small amounts to begin with.
This can be combined with intermittent fasting, as in not eating breakfast, as a great way to provide energy to your body and lose weight. Although my goals don’t involve weight loss, I’ve been doing intermittent fasting every day, with a couple exceptions, for almost six months now. Much of that, but not all, has been with the addition of Bulletproof coffee. I do it because of how it makes me feel and how it has increased my productivity. I began eating in the early afternoon after I’ve done my workout for the day.
Coffee can be thought of as an herb in many ways. Depending on how it is grown and processed it can be crappy, or something worth taking. It will have a number of physiological effects on the body. A little may be good and there is certainly a point where you can have too much. And as with just about everything else, it works well for some but not for others.
By itself, Bulletproof coffee is great. But let’s kick it up a notch! And we do that by adding other herbs into the mix.
Caffeine appears to cause both vasodilation and vasoconstriction. It also boosts the metabolism by 20%. Due to its physiological effects it may be helpful as a delivery vehicle for the herbs. In addition, the healthy fats likely support their absorption and utilization in the body.
All herbal extracts have already gone through hot water extraction, thus are great to use to add to boiling water. With something more fragile like pine pollen as it is raw, if you add it to boiling water it may degrade some of the components, so it would be better to mix in after the water has cooled down a bit. You’d still get some benefits from it being heated, but not its full effects.
Coffee has a distinct flavor that matches fairly well to a number of the more “earthy” flavored herbs including most roots, as well as shilajit. Many mushrooms would work well in the blend as well.
Note that some of the herbs will throw off the taste of your coffee turning something delicious into something that is not. I would stay away from some of the saltier tasting herbs.
Here is what I made this morning:
- 8oz Upgraded coffee
- 2TB MCT oil
- 3TB Raw Grassfed Butter
- 1tsp Brown Shilajit
- 1tsp He Shou Wu
Another option is to make a mocha. Instead of adding sugar which would be against the Bulletproof idea you can just add a quality chocolate or cacao powder. If you want the sweet taste adding stevia could serve you well.
- 12oz Upgraded coffee
- 2TB MCT oil
- 3TB Raw Grassfed Butter
- 1TB Raw Cacao Powder
- 5 drops Chocolate Flavored Stevia
- 1/3tsp Cinnamon
- 1tsp Maral Root
- 1tsp Cordyceps Extract (both these herbs have an almost caramel-like flavor to them)
This third one, as shown in the video, uses all of the medicinal mushrooms we have available.
Note that my body is used to and excels on fats. You may want to start with much lighter dosages of those when you first try this. Coconut oil can be used in place of MCT oil if you don’t have that available. And, of course, any coffee can be used, but I would highly recommend you grab a bag and try Upgraded coffee.
Sources:
- Upgraded Coffee
- Bulletproof Coffee and Intermittent Fasting
- Caffeine’s Vascular Mechanisms of Action
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mpit4htc says
I use http://www.coffeetimes.com
shoshana sadia says
Hello, could you please tell me if you fell the benefits of intermittent fasting with bulletproof coffee for weight loss would still stand if you used alcoholic medicinal mushroom tinctures. What about extract powder. I think in order for it to be in line with BP IF, you have to have no form of protein. Would adding Maca powder or schizandra powder affect this. If it does i can consume the medicinal mushrooms and jing herbs after my BP fasting.
I would love to add my favourite tonic herbs to this protocol but keep in line with the IF.
Thank you with love and gratitude Shosh
admin says
The protein fasting is not the normal bulletproof fasting. I actually asked Dave Asprey about the mushrooms as they are rich in polysaccharides (which are a form of carb) and he said that since you only use a small amount it’s not enough macronutrients to change anything. Tinctures would be the same way. The schisandra should be fine since the dose is low too. Maca is typically used in bigger doses and it is a starchy root like a potato so it depends on how much you use.
Ron says
Yes, I use Starbucks and a spoonful of He Shou Wu and Nettle Root 16/1 extract love it.