If you're trying to lose weight, you may have heard about the benefits of adding butter to your coffee. While it's been a popular obsession among coffee drinkers recently, the concoction known as "bulletproof" coffee may not be the diet secret people were hoping it would be.
Those who are adding butter to their coffee say the drink makes them feel healthier, more mentally alert, and is helping them maintain their weight. However, they tend to be drinking this as a breakfast replacement, and that's really not a good way for them to get the nutrients they need to start their day. One or two tablespoons of butter is about 100 to 200 calories of fat, and coffee is, of course, a bunch of caffeine. So of course they're going to feel mentally awake, because that's what coffee does, but getting calories purely from fat is only going to keep you full for a short period of time.
As for the weight loss praise the drink is getting, it may or may not actually be helping. The drink is very low in carbohydrates, but a low carb diet requires participants to have extremely low carb intake to see notable results. Carbs are also an important energy source, and neglecting them can make you feel sluggish and tired (once the caffeine wears off).
However, the makers of Bulletproof Coffee boast that they aren't using just any old supermarket butter- they're using butter from grass fed cows. They say the butter is high in vitamin K and is able to help control cholesterol levels- there are not many human studies that show this to be true, though.
There isn't a ton of proof either way- buttered coffee might help you lose weight, but it might not. If you like the way it tastes, keep drinking it! But it would certainly be a good idea to eat something healthy with it, like a serving of protein and a piece of fruit, so you can still get proper nutrition from your breakfast. Coffee is a completely optional part of a healthy breakfast, but one that most of us can't do without.
