Yeah, some guy ( I forget his name) popularized it a few years back. He called it “Bullet-Proof Coffee.” I tried it myself, with some coconut butter, regular butter, and my usual Starbucks coffee. A good friend swears by it, but I found it a bit messy when washing my cup. It DOES provide you with a high-caloric breakfast drink however, and you aren’t very hungry for several hours.
There are decades of studies showing that a single high-fat meal impairs endothelial functioning, constricts blood vessels, and slows blood flow. Dean summarizes it pretty well….
Wake up and smell the coffee: caffeine supplementation and exercise performance—an umbrella review of 21 published meta-analyses
Summary/conclusion: Synthesis of the currently available meta-analyses suggest that caffeine ingestion improves exercise performance in a broad range of exercise tasks….It seems that the magnitude of the effect of caffeine is generally greater for aerobic as compared with anaerobic exercise.
From my decades of (N=1) studies mixing about an ounce of coconut oil into my coffee and shaking like hell, I’d contest this on all four counts. I’v’e never seen any reliable correlation between dietary fat and blood cholesterol, not between blood cholesterol and heart disease. Beyond that, the benefits to health and exercise of metabolic flexibility have been extraordinary, at least for me. I’m all in. HYOH and have fun!
I tried bulletproof coffee once, thought it tasted terrible, but that was because of the butter. I have a tablespoon of MCT oil and some collagen peptides in my first cup of coffee each day, only instead of shaking I use an immersion blender for about 20 seconds to mix it up. Quite good, IMO.
I finally broke down and tried this stuff. Not a very strong coffee taste, somewhat bland but definitely a boost in calories. For my second cup I added 1/2 packet of starbucks via–much better this way. YMMV
When I do this it’s always with espresso strength coffee (made in a mocha pot). You want the coffee to be strong enough and acidic enough (made with light roast beans) to cut through the taste of the fats. I much prefer very heavy cream over butter; coconut oil or MCT oil optional. The other variation is to add the yolk of one fresh egg.
Pick your poison(s).
I usually just drink my coffee black made with an Aeropress which by the way is a great luxury item on backpacking trips. I grind the beans at home and portion out and vacuum seal the beans one bag for each day. I user the empty vacuum bags to pack out the grounds.
@Richard Reno. Do you have any formal training in cardiology? I’m not throwing rocks here. Just looking for a starting place to sort the wheat from the chaff..
Great question, Jay, and the short answer is that I don’t, beyond the usual college science classes 100 years ago and a lifelong curiosity about why we can’t seem to agree on the most very basic of questions about the human condition: “WTF should we eat?!?”
I’ve studied it a lot and am pretty sure (sure enough to bet my health and longevity on it, anyway) that
1. it’s all about insulin
2.Sugar is poison and wheat is sugar and both are more addictive than crack
3. Most of us (myself included) are best adapted to eat what humans evolved eating prior to settled agriculture about 10,000 years ago; and worst adapted to food as it’s changed over the past fifty or so years
4. corn is bad for humans and cows (but good luck getting off it!)
But back to cholesterol; here are a few decent resources yu might check out.
Backpacking Light community posts are moderated and here to foster helpful and positive discussions about lightweight backpacking. Please be mindful of our values and boundaries and review our Community Guidelines prior to posting.
This feature requires an active Backpacking Light Membership.
Premium Articles
You're currently viewing a free preview of a member exclusive premium article. Our premium articles include in depth journalism and insights from the Backpacking Light editorial team.
Get full article access by subscribing to a Premium or Unlimited Backpacking Light membership!
.
.
© Beartooth Media Group Inc.
Loading...