Keto Coffee: A Complete Guide

by | Nov 23, 2019 | HOWTOs & Guides

Keto coffee has become increasingly popular lately. What started as a healthy option for people on the keto diet has gained popularity among casual users, coffee drinkers, and athletes. This is because it has a ton of great health benefits! If you want to learn more about keto coffee’s benefits and learn how to make it for yourself, then keep reading!

What You Will Learn

There are several things to discuss regarding keto coffee. Here are some of the things you will learn in this article:

  • What does keto mean?
  • What is keto coffee?
  • Health benefits
  • Adding keto coffee to your diet
  • How to make keto coffee at home

What is keto?

The keto diet is a program that emphasizes low carbs and high fats in your food intake. People on this program replace their carbs with healthy fats, which drops your body into ketosis. This makes your body burn fat to get its energy, resulting in weight loss.

keto diet

The keto diet usually results in rapid weight loss. On top of this, it can even lower your risk of various diseases. (1) It often works much faster and much better than low-fat diets for long term weight loss. (2) The diet has been shown to have a positive impact when it comes to lowering the risk for heart disease (3), reducing the risk of cancer and aiding in treatment efforts (4), reducing the symptoms of Alzheimer’s (5), and reducing the risk for several other illnesses.

What is keto coffee?

Keto coffee is also referred to as bulletproof coffee. This drink was popularized by Dave Asprey, who coined the term Bulletproof Coffee.

The keto diet has become extremely popular, and coffee has been a staple of daily life for centuries. It is no longer just a morning beverage, either!

Bulletproof Coffee

With the rising popularity of the keto diet, the question arose of whether coffee was friendly to keto diets, and how to enjoy it. Fatty coffee has become popular now, where people will brew their coffee using butter, coconut oil, or other healthy fats as a way to quickly raise the ketones in your blood at the start of each day.

Simply put, keto coffee is regular coffee with added fat. Because the keto diet is all about protein and healthy high-fat foods, adding some fat to your morning coffee can really help. While milk and cream have too many carbs for the keto diet, finding other sources of cream to cut the bitterness became necessary for those who dislike the taste of black coffee.

Caffeine

The primary component of keto coffee is still coffee. This means that one of the primary ingredients is caffeine. On a keto diet, you can’t get your energy sources from high sugar drinks. Even people who aren’t on the keto diet can end up with headaches, jitters, and a major crash later in the day if they use these methods for getting energy.

Caffeine from natural sources is much healthier. Using coffee and tea for energy provides caffeine and energy without adding in tons of sugar and carbs. Consequently, you will get a boost of energy without having the jittery feeling that energy drinks leave behind. It can also increase your focus and remove foggy brains. Your mood elevates with natural caffeine sources, and even your physical performance can increase.

Caffeine even suppresses hunger, which is a great idea for dieters looking to eat fewer calories throughout the day. It will also increase your metabolism speed, allowing you to burn more calories while resting. This is an effortless way to help your body attack fat loss while your muscles remain intact. (5)

On top of this, coffee is also a great antioxidant. It even contains phytonutrients and B vitamins that help your body stay healthy and fight off free radical damage to cells. (6)

Healthy Fats

The next component of keto coffee is adding a healthy fat source. Replacing your breakfast with a high-fat keto coffee can help you consume fewer calories.

omega 6

Keto coffee is occasionally referred to as butter coffee because a lot of people use butter as a great source of healthy fats without carbs and sugars. Grass-fed butter has 500% more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) than butter provided by cows that eat grains. This is a great source of omega-6 that is usually found in meat and dairy.

If you prefer, you can use coconut oil instead. Although this will make your coffee have the flavor of coconut, it will also have tremendous health benefits. There are thousands of studies on the benefits of coconut oil on your health.

Cocoa butter also works well for the mocha flavor. This butter is solid at room temperature but will melt into your coffee. It’s full of great antioxidants and healthy saturated fat.

MCT Oil

Although keto coffee works well with just these 2 ingredients, if you really want the bomb that earns the name bulletproof, you need to add some MCT oil.  This oil is made from pure medium-chain triglycerides (hence the MCT) that come from coconut oil. You might think that means it’s on the same level as coconut oil in terms of overall health, but these aren’t interchangeable. Coconut oil only contains 55 to 65 percent MCTs, whereas the extracted oil is 100%.

These MCTs are one of the fastest and healthiest forms of an energy source that is available biologically. Your body won’t need to take the time to process these fats; they just kick right into high gear immediately. These are automatically absorbed and rapidly turned into ketones for energy without your body ever storing them as fat!

Benefits of Keto Coffee

There are several reasons to enjoy keto coffee, whether or not you follow the diet. Adding rich healthy fats will increase the feeling of fullness. The coffee will become so rich and creamy with the added fat that you end up eating smaller portions and feeling more full throughout the day.

Keto Coffee

This is a great weight loss strategy. It will even give you a nice burst of energy to get in that early morning workout or face a Monday at the office. It’s also much healthier than the typical coffeehouse offering, which usually involves massive amounts of sugar and carbs.

Caffeine

A comprehensive review was performed which studied over 200 meta-analyses regarding coffee. Researchers discovered that drinking 3 to 4 cups per day was connected with lots of benefits, including a reduced risk of cancer, neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular diseases, liver disease, and metabolic issues like obesity and type 2 diabetes. (7)

Healthy Fats

When adding a healthy fat source like butter to your coffee, you can increase these benefits even further. The CLA found in grass-fed butter can lower the risk of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. It can also increase your bone mass, boost your immunity, and fight inflammation. (8)

MCT Oil

The MCT oils have additional health benefits aside from automatic energy that never stores as fat. These can help you feel full for longer periods of time, and their thermogenic effect will increase your metabolic rates for compounded weight loss. (9)

These can also have an overall positive effect on your digestive system. MCT oil contains natural antibiotics. These will help rid your intestines of harmful bacteria without hurting the good ones you need for digestion. This helps to balance the pH levels, creating a healthy internal biome that improves digestion while lowering inflammation.

Another great benefit to MCT is enhanced mental faculties. These oils will improve your cognitive functioning because your brain works almost entirely off of the fatty acids it receives. On top of that, the ketones that pass through your brain’s barrier and fuel your central nervous system, supporting your brain’s health.

MCTs can also improve your exercise, leading to increased muscle gains. The MCT oil secretes insulin, which is a vital component to building muscle strength. (10) Adding MCT oil to your coffee before a morning workout can help you build muscle without carb loading. This insulin sensitivity also helps manage and prevent diabetes. (11)

Finally, they help to support your overall heart health. These will balance your lipids and using these instead of unhealthy sources of cholesterol can actually reduce cholesterol issues. (12)

Essentially, even just 1 cup of keto coffee can increase your ketone levels, enhance your brain, and impact your overall health and wellbeing.

Adding Keto Coffee to Your Diet Routine

Keto coffee can be added at nearly any time during your daily routine. The only truly prohibited time to drink keto coffee is right before going to bed. This means you can drink it whenever you need an energy boost or need something to fix your hunger cravings between meals.

In the morning, you can drink a cup after drinking a full glass of water. This will help you stay hydrated and get you ready to face the day! Drinking it in the afternoon can prevent the infamous 2 o’clock slump and help you get through the rest of your day.

If you’re fasting as part of your keto diet (or any diet plan), then you can whip up a cup to get you through those cravings until you can eat food. This will help you stay on track with your diet. If you’re on the run, you can have some when you don’ t have time for food. Just pre-make some and stick the drink in a Thermos or some type of mug until you’re ready to drink it!

How to Make Keto Coffee

Now that you know the ingredients, here’s how you can make some keto coffee of your own. None of these ingredients are super expensive, and they last a really long time when used exclusively for keto coffee.

A classic recipe will use 1 cup of hot black coffee, 1 or 2 tablespoons of grass-fed butter, and 1 to 2 tablespoons of MCT oil (or oil powder, although there has been less research done on oil powder versus just the oils). Simply combine these ingredients together in a blender, using the low setting for a bit then frothing on high for 30 seconds.

If you’re looking for a perfect and amazingly well-balanced cup, rather than just a quick and easy method for making it with any coffee, here’s how we suggest making it.

Light Roast Single Origin Coffee Beans

Single-origin coffee beans are sourced from a single provider rather than mixed. These are isolated to a specific crop or region in a specific country.  We like Arabica beans because they’re less likely to grow mold or end up with mycotoxins that will end up in your coffee.

Single-origin Arabica beans are awesome because you will be able to trace all of your beans directly to the local farm where they were roasted. These also provide a richer and deeper flavor profile because the flavors aren’t mixed in with other sources and regions.

Beans that aren’t from a single origin are mixed from a variety of farms throughout the world. These get blended, roasted together, and shipped from all over. Not only does this mean they’re more likely to pick up myotoxins, but it also creates less flavorful coffee.

Beans should be roasted differently depending on the size, caffeine content, and location. Mixing them together muddles the individual flavors and creates a more bitter flavor with many beans over-roasted to the point of losing caffeine and benefits.

Contrary to popular belief, darker roast coffees do not contain more caffeine. As beans get roasted, they lose more caffeine. Though the content is dependent upon bean weight and size, if you assume the same bean weight across a light or dark roast, then light roasted beans actually contain significantly more caffeine than darker roasts, while also retaining more of their oils and flavor than darker roasts, which end up being bitter due to the roasting away of the flavorful oils in the beans.

This means that a lighter roast of coffee will contain more caffeine and more flavor, without tasting so bitter that you need to add sugar to the mix to mitigate the taste.

The one thing that is entirely up to you is the way you brew your coffee. You can use automatic coffee makers, Chemex sets, French presses, or other options. The one thing we don’t recommend for ecologically minded people s Keurigs. These contain tons of plastic pollution.

Grass-fed Butter or Coconut Oil

Using unsalted grass-fed butter is what most people use for this. As we mentioned above, we love this option because of the massive health benefits involved, especially when compared to grain-fed cows.

If you prefer coconut oil, then try to find virgin oil or unrefined coconut oil. These are the best type of coconut oil for your body to consume. In these oils, the meaty part of fresh and ripe coconuts gets extracted without high temperatures or chemical compounds.

MCT

You can choose to add either MCT oil or MCT oil powder next. There are several differences between the two and preference is what it boils down to. Here are a few comparisons.

For digestion, the powder is easier on your system than the oil, especially on an empty stomach. The powder is also much more convenient and can be packed and carried. When it comes to cooking, the powder can be added to baked goods far easier than the oil, which can only be used in raw foods or very low heat cooking.  The powder will add a creamier texture to your coffee, whereas the oil will add oily texture to it. The powder is also easier to combine with other supplements than the oil.

On the flip side, the oil can’t be mixed with other ingredients so it’s more likely to be pure. The powder can have a ton of different hidden fillers and sweeteners in the manufacturing process that could affect your keto diet. Additionally, the bulk of the research on health benefits and MCT has been focused on the oil itself rather than the powder form.

Both options have advantages and drawbacks, so you can experiment and decide which one works best for your needs.

Flavor Options

While these 3 ingredients make up the best keto coffee, not everyone likes plain coffee. You can also add some keto-friendly flavors into the finished product to enhance the flavor, especially if you’re not a fan of the flavor of coconut.

Heavy whipping cream is a better option for keto than cream and milk. It’s got carbs, so you need to be careful about the amount you put in, but it also has more bang for your buck on the carbs where healthy fat is concerned.  If you don’t want the carbs, you can add in unsweetened almond or coconut milk for a creamier texture. For a workout bonus, you can add some collagen protein powder.

For different flavor profiles, consider adding cinnamon, pink Himalayan salt, Maca powder, sugar-free cocoa powder, vanilla or peppermint extracts, lavender oil, Stevia, or even monk fruit! The additions are all about your flavor preference, dietary restrictions, and sense of adventure! Feel free to experiment.

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Last update on 2021-06-28 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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