[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.

Coconut Oil Could Combat Tooth Decay

English: Coconut oil in solid state (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From the 30th August 2012 article at ScienceNewsDaily

Digested coconut oil is able to attack the bacteria that cause tooth decay. It is a natural antibiotic that could be incorporated into commercial dental care products, say scientists presenting their work at the Society for General Microbiology’s Autumn Conference at the University of Warwick…

..

Many previous studies have shown that partially digested foodstuffs are active against micro-organisms. Earlier work on enzyme-modified milk showed that it was able to reduce the binding of S. mutans to tooth enamel, which prompted the group to investigate the effect of other enzyme-modified foods on bacteria.

Further work will examine how coconut oil interacts with Streptococcus bacteria at the molecular level and which other strains of harmful bacteria and yeasts it is active against. Additional testing by the group at the Athlone Institute of Technology found that enzyme-modified coconut oil was also harmful to the yeast Candida albicans that can cause thrush.

The researchers suggest that enzyme-modified coconut oil has potential as a marketable antimicrobial which could be of particular interest to the oral healthcare industry. Dr Damien Brady who is leading the research said, “Dental caries is a commonly overlooked health problem affecting 60-90% of children and the majority of adults in industrialized countries. Incorporating enzyme-modified coconut oil into dental hygiene products would be an attractive alternative to chemical additives, particularly as it works at relatively low concentrations. Also, with increasing antibiotic resistance, it is important that we turn our attention to new ways to combat microbial infection.”

The work also contributes to our understanding of antibacterial activity in the human gut. “Our data suggests that products of human digestion show antimicrobial activity. This could have implications for how bacteria colonize the cells lining the digestive tract and for overall gut health,” explained Dr Brady. “Our research has shown that digested milk protein not only reduced the adherence of harmful bacteria to human intestinal cells but also prevented some of them from gaining entrance into the cell. We are currently researching coconut oil and other enzyme-modified foodstuffs to identify how they interfere with the way bacteria cause illness and disease,” he said.

Related articles

• In-Depth Look At The Socio-Demographic Breakdown Of Periodontal Disease In U.S. Adults (Medical News Today)

  Of the sample presented, 47.2 percent, representing 64.7 million adults, had periodontitis distributed as 8.7 percent, 30.0 percent and 8.5 percent with mild, moderate and severe periodontitis respectively. For adults 65 years and older, 64 percent had either moderate or severe periodontitis. These estimates are far higher than previous national estimates. 

  Periodontitis was highest in males, Mexican Americans, adults with less than high school education, adults below 100% Federal Poverty Levels, and current smokers. This survey has provided direct evidence for a high burden of periodontitis in the adult U.S. population, especially among adults 65 and older.Coconut oil can combat tooth decay, study suggests (cbc.ca)

• Coconut oil could combat tooth decay (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com)
• Coconut oil could combat tooth decay (esciencenews.com)
• Coconut oil may help stem took decay (upi.com)
• Coconut Oil Toothpaste can kill bug behind tooth decay (sott.net)
• Coconut oil could combat tooth decay (engineeringevil.com)
• Coconut oil can combat tooth decay, study suggests (informationliberation.com)
• Coconut oil could combat tooth decay (eurekalert.org)
• Antibacterial Action of Coconut Oil Combats Tooth Decay When Consumed (returningtohouse.wordpress.com)