[Reblog] Can Buttered Coffee Give You a Better Body?

From the March 2015 blog item by  Laura Jeffers, MEd, RD, LD at Clevelandclinic.org

Heart-healthy fats are good, but not in coffee

There’s a lot of hype lately about the most recent coffee trend. Take your morning cup-of-joe, add two tablespoons of butter and some oil, and call it Bulletproof Coffee. No doubt it’s an interesting flavor, but it’s the claims of increased energy and weight loss that seem to be giving this morning jolt traction.

It’s not just any butter and coffee. Those supporting this idea say it has to be unsalted, grass-fed butter and medium-chain triglyceride oil (MCT) added to low-toxicity coffee beans. But can a mixture like that really live up to what proponents are saying?

What happens to butter in your body

There’s no real research into whether butter-spiked coffee is good for you, but we do know some things about how butter affects your digestion.

According to existing research, fat in butter contains glycosphingolipids, fatty acids that ward off gastrointestinal tract infections, especially in very young children and older adults.

Its omega-3 and omega-6 fats also slow down your body’s metabolism of caffeine, so you hold on to energy longer and avoid the crash that comes when the stimulant wears off.

More about MCT

MCT, most commonly found in coconut oil, is also good for our bodies and brains. When it comes to our bodies, we don’t store MCT in our adipose tissue, the fat around and inside our muscles, like the other dietary fats we eat.

Most of those fats are long-chain triglycerides, but MCTs are shorter. They travel directly to the liver where they’re processed into powerful energy particles called ketone bodies.

In addition, if your brain loses the ability to break down its primary fuel source, glucose, due to cognitive impairment or some other disorder, it can use ketone bodies as an excellent, alternative source. Researchshows that people with cognitive impairment who ingest MCT experience an almost immediate improvement in mental function.

My verdict

So, do the health benefits of butter and MCT mean you should add them to your morning coffee? To begin with, if you don’t already drink coffee, I don’t recommend you start. If you do, though, I still don’t endorse your adding butter and oil to it, and I have no plans to do it either.

Healthy fats and oils do have a place in our daily diets, but I’m not convinced that enhancing our coffee with them is the best way to incorporate them.

Contaminated Butter Points to Need for Better Surveillance, Study Says: MedlinePlus

From the December 7th Health Day news item by Robert Preidt

TUESDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) — U.S. researchers who recently found high levels of polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants in butter say it is the worst documented case of food contamination with PBDE in the country.

It’s also the first time that this type of food contamination is believed to be the result of PBDEs in a food’s packaging.

 

The researchers found that one in 10 samples of butter bought at five Dallas grocery stores had PBDE levels more than 135 times higher than the average of the other nine samples. Levels of deca-BDE — a PBDE compound widely used in electronics, textiles, cable insulation, and car and aircraft components — were more than 900 times higher in the contaminated samples than in the other nine samples.

Studies in rodents have linked deca-BDE with thyroid hormone changes and neurobehavioral changes.

As the researchers continued their investigation, they found that PBDE levels in the butter’s paper wrapper were more than 16 times higher than levels found in the butter. It’s not clear whether the paper was contaminated before or after it reached the butter packaging plant, and the actual source of contamination is not known.

The study is published online Dec. 7 and in an upcoming print issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

The findings highlight the need for a U.S. regulatory program that tests food for persistent organic pollutants such as PBDEs, said lead author Arnold Schecter of the University of Texas School of Public Health and colleagues in a news release from the journal.