05 Sep How do you like your coffee?

Coffee inspires a love/hate relationship. You love it, you hate the jitters. You can’t get started without it, and you can’t go to sleep with it.

Functional medicine will tell you to give up coffee completely on an elimination diet. Yikes! The latest trend is to embrace coffee, and load it up with fat. This is called Bulletproof coffee, or butter coffee. I will admit that’s how I like my morning coffee. All that fat gives me a good start to the day.

Some people even substitute their butter coffee for breakfast. I’ve done that too.

But should you? Let’s look at the pros and cons of coffee, and butter coffee.

Coffee

Coffee seems to be good for the brain. It can also be preventative of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Yet some people react badly to coffee. It seems that some people metabolize the caffeine in coffee quickly and some metabolize it slowly. That’s why some people seem to drink a cup of coffee in the afternoon and can’t sleep that night. And others seem to drink it all day long without a problem.

So, if you are a slow metabolizer, than keep your coffee to early in the day, and to maybe one or a couple cups. Some people may do better with no caffeine at all. If you are a fast metabolizer, than you can indulge more often.

I’m in between. I have a cup in the morning, and some afternoons I have an ice coffee. More than one cup of strong coffee can make me jittery. And, whether I have that afternoon coffee or not, my sleep is unaffected.

Butter coffee

We are a low fat world. The advice to go low fat these past fifty years has finally sunk in. Since I’ve decided to up my fat intake, I notice that when I eat out, I usually eat less fat than I’d like. I notice it in how I feel. My body seems to function better with adequate fat.

So, starting the day with generous servings of fat in my coffee is a good way to insure I get some healthy fat in my diet. The usual ingredients are MCT oil and butter, whipped into the coffee with an immersion blender so it’s reminiscent of a latte. I use grass fed, organic, unsalted butter in mine. Sometimes I use coconut oil in place of either. MCT and coconut oil are both great for the brain. Then, I sprinkle turmeric and cinnamon on top, and a couple specks of pepper. The pepper increases the effectiveness of the turmeric by a lot. And turmeric is very anti-inflammatory. I also throw in some collagen.

That’s just one way to make your coffee. You can play around with other additives. The only requirement is high fat, about a couple tablespoons.

Some people use butter coffee as their breakfast. This may or may not be a good idea. For some people, they need more food than that to feel energized during the day. Skipping food is also a missed opportunity for nutrients from vegetables and meats. What you don’t want is to fuel yourself in the morning on cortisol and caffeine.  That’s a huge stress on the adrenals, and certainly not a good idea for anyone with any hormone issues, such as low thyroid or out of balance estrogen.

So, it’s individual whether you should use butter coffee alone as your breakfast. Some people thrive on an intermittent fast done that way.

Coffee and you

Your job is to figure out how coffee affects you and how much coffee you should drink. I can help you with that. You may already have an idea that coffee is a problem. Or maybe not. This is what health coaching is all about. We will come up with a plan. For example, if you want to see how you feel with less coffee, we will first drop your last cup of coffee or find a substitute for it, like green tea, decaf coffee, fizzy water, lemon water, or even just taking a walk. Walks are energizing and could fill your need for a pick-me-up. Then we might keep reducing till you’re down to a cup a day. They we will try a few days of mixing in some decaf until you’re at no coffee at all. We can even find some refreshing drinks like hot lemon water or herbal teas as subs.

How do we make all these decisions and decide on the steps to take? You decide. I share my insights and suggestions, but you find what resonates with you. Your body gives you messages; you feel good, or you feel bad, and we tune into that to find the healthy habits that are right for you. So contact me. I’m a National Board Certified Functional Medicine Health Coach.

Comments–tell us how you like your coffee.

Chris Kresser All about coffee

Chris Kresser Coffee is good for you or not

Dave Asprey Bulletproof and fasting

Chopra Health benefits of coffee

Shawn Mynar Autoimmune

This article is for information purposes only. See Disclaimer below.