I have found lately that putting cream or unsalted butter in my coffee or tea can really shut down my appetite, so much so that I have decided to reduce the butter I use with my morning egg.
Of course, I want to get the best fats in my diet. Pasture-fed dairy has more omega-3 fat and less omega-6 fat. The more the cow’s diet depends on pasture, the better the balance of these fats. When pasture comprises a cow’s entire diet, the ratio can be 1:1. Pasture-fed dairy is also a good source of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA). Milk from a pastured cow has up to five times more CLA than milk from a grain-fed cow. CLA may be one of our most potent defenses against cancer. CLA has also proven useful for weight loss. Full-fat dairy products from pasture-raised sources have also proven useful for preventing heart disease.
I like Organic Valley pasture-raised heavy whipping cream. When I go for butter, I use Humboldt Creamery unsalted organic pasture-based butter. I don’t know how much of their feed is pasture, but they are both readily available at my local Sprouts Farmers Market for a reasonable price. That makes them easy to buy.
I got the idea for putting butter in my coffee from Dave Asprey on his blog, The Bulletproof Executive. He calls it Bulletproof Coffee. He got the idea while traveling in Tibet. There, he had a cup of yak butter tea. I tried Bulletproof Coffee myself one Saturday morning for breakfast. I didn’t need to eat anything else. It pretty much shut down my appetite. By the time we went out to lunch, I still really wasn’t all that hungry. I got something light that day. The downside of making coffee or tea this way is that it involves a blender. That makes it a bit fussy. Also, commenters on the blog say that butter can separate out of the coffee fairly quickly.
In an interesting aside, the Modernist Cuisine team found that coffee with cream cools about 20% more slowly than plain black coffee.
References:
Recipe: How to Make Your Coffee Bulletproof
Eat Wild – Super Natural Milk
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