Butter is delicious.

But just because two things are delicious,

does not mean they should be combined.

Likewise, just because two things are perceived as healthy

does not mean they should necessarily be combined

or consumed in large quantities.

And of course that brings me to bulletproof coffee.

And in this video, I'm looking at four reasons

why it's actually really bad for you.

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In case you don't know what it is,

bulletproof coffee is basically coffee

with at least a tablespoon

of grass-fed unsalted butter mixed in.

Now, the original recipe calls for one to two tablespoons

of a type of oil called MCT oil to be added in

as well as the butter.

In fact, your coffee is supposed to be brewed

from so-called toxin-free upgraded coffee beans

that are sold by the Bulletproof brand.

But that's just another rabbit hole

that we don't want to get stuck down in today.

All right, so the first reason bulletproof coffee is bad

is because it provides massive concentrated amounts

of saturated fat on a regular basis.

Now, current evidence does show that saturated fat intake

is not actually a risk factor for heart disease

when consumed in normal quantities.

Keep in mind that all of the large population studies

available looked at people using normal amounts.

That is, everyday, ordinary amounts like adding butter

on toast or with scrambled eggs.

Now, people were never pouring large amounts

of saturated fat into their coffee.

They were simply eating it along with other foods.

Now, for those who subscribe

to the ancestral nutrition approach,

humans did not evolve eating or drinking

such massive amounts of saturate fat.

We were eating it as part of meals, not as the meal.

There are plenty of nutrients that are healthy

when consumed in reasonable amounts.

But when people start megadosing them

and eating those nutrients in isolation,

it can cause serious problems.

Fructose is the really obvious example.

Now, it's good when found

in nutritious fibrous whole fruit, okay?

But it's a disaster when consumed in concentrated amounts

from refined sugar like you get in soft drinks.

It's entirely possible that saturated fat is the same.

Fine in reasonable amounts but harmful

when we start adding unnaturally large, concentrated doses

that are just way outside of our evolutionary norms.

Number two.

The fat in butter is much more dangerous

than fat from other dairy food sources.

Saturated fat aside, there is another glaring problem

with consuming large quantities of butter.

And that is that it does not contain

what's called milk fat globule membrane, or MFGM.

MFGM is a protective membrane that encloses the fatty acids

found in high-fat dairy products, such as cream,

which in turn seems to reduce

the cholesterol-raising effects of its fatty acids.

Now, butter is just cream that has been churned,

and the churning process destroys much of this membrane.

The result is that butter can increase

the amount of LDL particles in your blood stream,

which are a strong predictor of heart disease.

Okay, so how do we know that this is indeed fact?

That dairy fat from butter

increases heart disease risk factors

more than dairy fat from other products like cream?

There's actually been a lot of studies on the topic.

This recent Swedish trial randomly assigned

57 overweight men and women to consume

either 40 grams of milk fat as whipped cream per day

or 40 grams as butter for an eight-week period.

They found the LDL particle number of the butter group

shot up significantly more than the cream group.

As you can see by this graph,

it clearly shows that butter, on the right,

increased the levels of blood cholesterol,

whereas cream did not.

Now, there were also significant increases

to total cholesterol, ApoB levels, and non-HDL cholesterol,

compared to the cream group.

Several other randomized control trials also show

that eating butter fat has worse effects

on the blood lipo profile

than other sources of dairy fat with an intact MFGM,

such as cream or cheese.

For this reason alone, you should make sure

that your butter consumption is not excessive.

And step one is to not put it in your coffee.

Number three.

There have been some case reports

of dramatically elevated cholesterol

due to bulletproof coffee.

In case you're still not convinced,

many people's heart health markers are spiking dramatically

when they start to drink bulletproof coffee.

There have been a lot of reports from health professionals,

even those that advocate a low-carb, high-fat,

or paleo approach,

that they've had patients

with drastically elevated cholesterol levels

after drinking bulletproof coffee.

Keep in mind that these changes

go way beyond total and LDL cholesterol,

which are not the most accurate as risk factors.

We're seeing increases in ApoB and LDL particle number,

which are much stronger and more accurate risk factors.

Now, although these numbers are still just risk factors,

given how strong their predictive value is

for heart disease,

I think this is a legitimate concern.

Fortunately, case studies indicate that in those

who do experience those large spikes in cholesterol levels,

when they stop drinking bulletproof coffee,

the levels come down quite quickly.

Number four.

You are displacing a highly nutritious meal

with something that is low in essential nutrients.

Shifting gears a little bit, but let's have a look

at what you miss out on by drinking bulletproof coffee,

because it is typically recommended

to have it in the morning in place of breakfast,

which makes sense.

Because a standard bulletproof coffee

is over 450 calories and 50 grams of fat,

which is a meal in itself.

Now, problem is, it's essentially just fat

and tiny trace amounts of other nutrients from the butter.

That's it.

If you already a nutritious breakfast,

the obvious downside here is that bulletproof coffee

only replaces the calories and fat,

but provides nothing else.

Now, for example, eating two eggs for breakfast

has 12 grams of protein and around 20% of the RDA

for selenium, phosphorus, vitamin B12, vitamin B2,

vitamin B5, and even some minerals.

You know, meanwhile bulletproof coffee

has little to no micronutrients and no protein.

So if you're used to eating three meals per day,

then replacing breakfast with a bulletproof coffee

could potentially reduce

the total nutrient load of your diet by a third.

Look, ultimately, it's best to proceed with caution

when adopting a drastic dietary change

that has never been tested

and is way outside of our evolutionary norms.

It's better to be safe than sorry.

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