By Amber Mills.

What helps you get going in the morning? A morning cup-o-joe? I take mine with cream and nothing else. What about adding in some butter? You might be asking yourself why would anyone want to add butter to their coffee? Well, it is the latest trend in coffee drinking, but Tibetans have been drinking yak butter in their tea for years! Millions are now following this latest coffee drinking trend and say that they have energy that lasts for hours. That would be great, right?

Dave Asprey, founder of Bulletproof Coffee, came up with the idea after visiting Tibet. Now, before you grab your tub of Country Crock out of the fridge and add it to your Maxwell House coffee, you should know that it won’t have the same results that Dave Asprey talks about on his website. He explains that you must use grass-fed, unsalted butter, low toxin coffee beans, and he also adds MCT(Medium Chain Triglyceride) oil. MCT oil is a combination of liquid coconut and palm oils that digest faster than other fats. Butter, coconut and palm oils are saturated fats, which some dietitians say we could all benefit from by adding them to our diets. People that are adding these fats to their morning coffee are saying that they aren’t as hungry early on in the day and tend not to eat as much food throughout the day, which results in maintaining a healthy weight or even losing weight. If you suffer from heart disease, you should discuss adding these fats to your coffee with your doctor before doing so. Also, be aware that butter coffee does contain about 200-300 more calories than your average cup of coffee, so you want to be sure that you take those calories out of your diet later on in the day or you might begin to pack on the pounds. David Perlmutter’s book, Grain Brain talks about the benefits of saturated fat and discusses many studies that have been done on the topic.

I haven’t experimented with butter coffee yet, but will definitely put it on my to-do list. I would love to get a few more hours of energy from my morning coffee!

Amber Mills – Curriculum Director

“It is my hope that our students walk away from Soma with confidence in their clinical massage skills and their ability to naturally help the body heal.”