Among the many drinks we consume every day, the leading place for years has been occupied by coffee, without which we usually cannot imagine a successful start to the day. Let’s face it, we drink it in astronomical quantities and it is no exaggeration to say that it has become the most popular drink in the world today, despite the fact that most doctors point to its rather negative influence on our health. Its popularity surpasses even that of tea and practically all its varieties, also in Great Britain, where it was considered to be the national drink so far. There are new ideas on how best to drink it, and recently, bulletproof coffee, also called bulletproof coffee, has become quite popular. The recipe was invented by David Asprey, an American who runs a popular blog dedicated to healthy eating.

Before we get into a broader explanation of the bulletproof coffee concept, we should know how it found its way to our tables and what made us reach for a cup of this aromatic, energizing drink so eagerly. It’s hard to say which country these little green beans originally came from – we say green on purpose, because they get their characteristic brown-black colour only after smoking. Legend has it that an Ethiopian shepherd noticed his sheep eating unknown fruits with appetite, picked a few himself and brewed a drink from them, which gave him a big boost of energy.

We don’t know how true that is, but we do know that the origins of coffee in Europe date back to the 16th century, and the first coffeehouses where it was served were founded in Istanbul, from where it made its way to the Netherlands and England, among other places. At first its drinking aroused some controversy due to its Arab origin, but Pope Clement VIII, a great coffee lover, unequivocally quashed these prejudices. It appeared in our country after the victorious Battle of Vienna with the returning troops of King Jan III Sobieski, and the first Polish cafés were established in Gdansk, to reach as many as 122 in Warsaw alone in the early 19th century.

Drinking coffee, especially large amounts of it, still arouses some controversy, but this time for strictly medical reasons and not because of the country it comes from. Opinions on its health properties are divided and every now and then we come across completely opposite opinions of various specialists. Some say that coffee is harmful and we should immediately replace it with drinks such as yerba mate or green tea, while others, pointing to its health-promoting properties, even recommend it to their patients. The truth, as always, lies in the middle, but many of the health benefits of coffee really can’ t be denied. They result directly from its composition, in which the most important active substance is caffeine. Research has shown that caffeine has stimulating properties, helps concentration, reduces sleepiness and fatigue, accelerating metabolism and, consequently, fat burning. Coffee also contains several valuable minerals: sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium, but it is completely devoid of vitamins. Despite this relatively poor composition, coffee has been shown to be effective in the prevention and treatment of some diseases, such as cancer:

Of course, coffee should be consumed in moderation and not in excess, which can result in unpleasant reactions from the gastrointestinal tract. The recommended daily dose of caffeine for an adult is a maximum of 600 mg and should not be exceeded. If we do that, we have to take into account serious side effects, which, apart from the addiction to this substance, may include headaches and dizziness of different intensity, the feeling of distraction or strong excitation, excessive nervousness, convulsions leading even to loss of consciousness, trouble sleeping and insomnia. Pregnant women are also advised to be cautious when consuming caffeinated beverages, although there are no studies showing the negative effects of caffeine on foetal development.

When we hear that something is bulletproof, we immediately think of the vests worn by soldiers and policemen or bulletproof windows, but certainly not coffee. We can describe it with many adjectives, praising its taste, aroma or pointing out its flaws, but after a moment’s reflection, we can say that the term fits its health properties. The author of this concept, and the originator of a new way of drinking our favorite beverage, is David Asprey, whose greatest passion is a healthy, eco-friendly lifestyle.

For years he has been running a blog where he shares his ideas and thoughts, and when he first published the recipe for bulletproof coffee, he did not expect that it would cause a real revolution. During a trip to Tibet in 2004 he tasted the national drink of the region, tea with milk and yak butter, and came up with an idea to combine his favorite coffee with fat. Of course, he dispensed with the extremely unhealthy, hard to digest yak butter, replacing it simply with regular cow’s milk butter and MCT fats. This is another novelty in the field of weight loss, medium-chain fatty acids, with the digestion of which our body can cope without the participation of lipase and bile, necessary for the digestion of other fats.

The primary source of MCT is dairy products and the increasingly popular coconut oil, with which we replace other oils, previously used in the kitchen. MCT fats have a beneficial effect on the absorption of nutrients by our digestive system, slowing down intestinal peristalsis while increasing the feeling of satiety, which is an important element of prevention against overweight and obesity. David consulted his nutritionist about the idea of bulletproof coffee, wanting at least partial confirmation of his assumptions about its possible health properties.

The recipe for this type of coffee appeared on a blog for the first time in 2009 and almost immediately gained popularity among millions of people around the world, including celebrities from the front pages of newspapers, and in Poland its great promoter is Anna Lewandowska, the wife of Robert Lewandowski the captain of our country’s football team. David Asprey, creating this new culinary trend, based its assumptions on two pillars, the health properties of caffeine contained in coffee, and the properties of fats added to it. He continues to praise it on his blog, although after the initial wave of enthusiasm, more and more people are becoming more skeptical about combining the two ingredients. Asprey himself still claims that drinking Bulletproof Coffee every day has a beneficial effect on our body, especially when it is drunk in the morning, and he especially recommends it to active people, both physically and mentally, who need a big morning boost of energy sufficient for the whole day. Among the many advantages of this way of consuming coffee, it is also worth emphasizing:

Looking at the health properties of Bulletproof Coffee, highlighted by David Asprey, it is really hard to resist them and almost immediately we feel like tasting what coffee with added fats tastes like. Its creator recommends it especially to people who are on a weight loss diet, especially its ketogenic variety, otherwise known as a low-carbohydrate diet. It is undoubtedly fashionable, but the model of nutrition it promotes raises many controversies among doctors and professional nutritionists. The most serious objection is the almost complete elimination of carbohydrates, leading in a short time to a serious shortage of glycogen in the body produced by our liver.

In addition, the consumption of products rich in proteins and just fats, such as those added to bulletproof coffee, is not without health effects. They are certainly necessary, but consumed in excess can be counterproductive. Fast weight loss, however, causes a great interest in this way of losing weight, but it is worth considering what the negative consequences can be. So it’s always better to keep the right proportions in your diet, 80 to 20 percent, where 80 percent are all healthy products with high recommended nutritional values, and the remaining 20 percent are small deviations from the diet, which you need to allow yourself from time to time to maintain a good mood.

However, before you decide to introduce bulletproof coffee into your daily menu, you should know that the theories about it that David Asprey proclaims with the help of various media have not really been supported by any professionally conducted scientific research. All the results that we have to deal with are only tests conducted by himself, that is a person rather lacking adequate expertise and experience in this field, and moreover, they were carried out only on animals, rats and mice, and only on young specimens, so in our opinion they cannot be too reliable. Virtually no properties of Bulletproof Coffee have been scientifically confirmed and the information we can provide about it is based only on the health effects of the individual substances it contains. No serious institutions, such as laboratories of respected universities or medical concerns have confirmed its slimming effect, acceleration of metabolism to facilitate fat burning, or improvement of mental abilities, greater than when drinking ordinary black coffee without the addition of cow butter and coconut oil.

Many specialists also point to the inappropriate way of supplying the body with the necessary portions of fats. Professional nutritionists say directly that as a coffee additive they occur in a strong, too concentrated dose, while omitting other equally important nutrients, vitamins and carbohydrates. If we add butter as a fat, we must also reckon with a dangerous increase in the level of harmful cholesterol LDL in the blood. In their opinion, a better solution is to provide fats in a more accessible form, in products such as nuts, almonds and in cereal seeds, a tasty and healthy addition to the oatmeal we eat for breakfast every day. There are also plenty of easily digestible fats in eggs, although we can’t eat them in large quantities either, and the best unsaturated fats full of Omega – 3 and Omega – 6 acids are found infish, seafood and olive oil.

As you can see there are quite a few objections to the nutritional properties of bulletproof coffee and they cannot be completely ignored, but it would be a mistake to say that it is completely harmful and should not be drunk. Like everything else, it should also be consumed in moderation and certainly not every day, and in our opinion it cannot replace a wholesome, nutritious breakfast, full of nutrients. It is it, not bulletproof coffee that provides us with energy for the whole day’s activity, although it can effectively support it. However, if consumed once in a while, it is quite a pleasant new culinary experience, with certain, although not fully confirmed health benefits. Therefore, for all those who would like to try how it tastes, here is the most common brewing method, also recommended by David Asprey.

The most important thing is the right choice of ingredients and in this matter we do not rely on cheap, low-quality coffee from the nearby market. Choose only the best kinds, prepared in the traditional way in small, ecological roasteries, only then we can fully appreciate their unique taste. Equally important is the quality of added fat, real country butter from cow’s milk or unrefined cold-pressed coconut oil. The first thing we need to do is prepare a coffee stock, in the form of 100 – 200 millilitres of strong, essential espresso. Only to it we add a tablespoon of clarified, necessarily unsalted butter and two tablespoons of coconut oil, and all these ingredients combine thoroughly with each other using a blender. Coffee prepared this way can be sweetened, of course not using white sugar, but for example stevia and improve its taste with your favorite spices, such as vanilla or cinnamon.