Bulletproof Coffee with Cinnamon & Turmeric

Bulletproof coffee (& other bulletproof beverages) are especially helpful in these times. I’ve changed up my ever-changing bulletproof coffee mix to add some healthful spices. Cinnamon is helpful to maintain good blood sugars. Since diabetics and prediabetics are at greater risk to get a severe case of Wuhan Coronavirus, controlled blood sugars is a good thing!

I use instant coffee— Folger’s on weekdays and Jacobs (from Germany) on the weekends. I also have Sanka decaf for afternoon & evening, but don’t usually use it as I think it doesn’t taste very good.

I mix my bulletproof beverages in a 16 oz ceramic cup. Since I often use MCT oil or coconut oil in my bulletproof beverages, which you cannot put in styrofoam cups due to a chemical reaction, it is worth having to wash out the cups.

BULLETPROOF COFFEE with CINNAMON & TURMERIC

2 teaspoons of instant coffee

pinch of Himalayan pink salt or sea salt (optional)

1 Tablespoon MCT oil

1 Tablespoon EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil)

hot water to nearly fill cup

After the hot water is added, stir it a little, then add:

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

about 1/16^th teaspoon turmeric (half filled 1/8 teaspoon measure)

Stir well and drink. I do NOT add my usual heavy whipping cream to this bulletproof coffee as I have given up cream for Lent. At first I added coconut milk to my daily bulletproof coffees, but lately I don’t bother.

VARIATIONS

With Brewed Coffee: Replace the instant coffee crystals and the hot water with brewed coffee

Bulletproof Tea: make enough tea to fill the cup (in a different cup) and replace the hot water & instant coffee with the brewed tea.

Bulletproof Hot Chocolate: Replace the 2 teaspoons of instant coffee with 2 teaspoons Hershey’s (unsweetened) cocoa or cacao powder. You may use up to 8 drops of Sweetleaf liquid stevia, plain, vanilla, or English Toffee flavor. But I made some without any sweetener and it was quite good.

Bulletproof Chocolate Mocha: As above, but use 1 teaspoon instant coffee and 1 teaspoon cocoa/cacao.

Bulletproof Carob: As above, but use 2 teaspoons carob powder. Sweetener may be even less needed than it is in the chocolate version. 

NOTE: I don’t like the taste of EVOO in my bulletproof beverages. But mixing it half-and-half with MCT oil and adding the spices, especially the turmeric, kills that EVOO flavor I don’t care for in my drinks. Since EVOO is not only healthy, it is recognized as a healthy oil by doctors and family members who insist everyone should avoid fat sources like MCT oil in their diet, adding it to your bulletproof beverages may be an acceptable compromise.

OTHER FATS: Butter was the original fat in bulletproof beverages. When I was in a rehab center after my stroke last year, I saved the tiny pats of butter allowed for my coffee since the food it was meant for was too lukewarm to melt butter. It was delicious, even though I had to do without cream or sweetener. Coconut oil contains some MCT oil, and thus is a low-cost substitute. I have used Ghee in bulletproof beverages as well, and when I had a small jar of bacon fat recovered from cooking bacon I used that in my hot chocolate (weird but delicious.) DON’T use rapeseed oil (‘canola’ oil) or other inflammation-causing vegetable oils in your bulletproof beverages.

Wishing you health
during this Lenten/coronavirus season,
Nissa Annakindt

Anatomy of a Bulletproof Beverage

Bulletproof coffee is a thing now. I had a family member who briefly tried ‘keto’ who made some (and didn’t like it.) When I was in a rehab center after my stroke, I used the pitiful bits of butter I could get in my coffee, since I didn’t want to waste them on the often-lukewarm food. 

The purpose of a bulletproof beverage is to get healthy fats into your body. Note that in Keto * Low-Carb we go by science when we think about what fats are healthy, not by what big national organizations claim are healthy fats— they’d have us using CANOLA oil! Remember there are people trying to sell us on the idea that sugary Honey-Nut Cheerios are ‘heart-healthy’ just because they have oat ingredients in among all the sugar and carbs.

Because ‘keto’ is trendy right now, you have to beware of trying random advice about what is allowed on Keto * Low-Carb. You can’t use ‘creamers’ in your coffee— not only are they processed food, but they have sugars and starches and probably very little HEALTHY fat. 

A bulletproof beverage consists of three parts— the basic beverage (coffee, tea, cocoa/carob and hot water, bone broth), a healthy fat (butter, coconut oil, MCT oil, extra-virgin olive oil, home-made ghee, perhaps heavy whipping cream or coconut milk/cream as a lightener) and, possibly, additions. Like cinnamon— healthy for diabetics— a pinch of sea salt or a bit of kelp powder, or any other thing that is healthy in small amounts and tastes well in your bulletproof beverage.

I have never been a big coffee drinker, but I started using some instant coffee when I read about the oxalate problem with tea. I still drink some tea, but not as much and I don’t care for additives in it. I currently have three brands of instant coffee in my house, one of them imported from Germany. 

On the few occasions I have been able to afford Kerrygold butter, I reserved it all for bulletproof beverages so the goodness wouldn’t be wasted. I use MCT oil when I can, because it’s helpful in getting into ketosis or staying in ketosis. Since I can’t afford a lot of MCT oil, I use coconut oil as well— it CONTAINS some MCT. I used to use butter as well, but ever since I first made ghee, I prefer the taste of that. 

When I was in the rehab center I got some extra-virgin olive oil to put in my coffee, but that tasted just too dire. Butter in my coffee was a treat, EVOO in coffee just wrecked a good cup of coffee. Since coming home, I found that if I put in 1/2 Tablespoon to 1 Tablespoon of EVOO in my coffee and have 1 Tablespoon of MCT oil, butter, ghee or some other tasty fat source, I can’t taste the EVOO. 

SWEETENERS are not normally used in bulletproof beverages, but when I do a hot cocoa/carob BP beverages, I use a few drops of liquid Stevia (Sweetleaf.) On Fridays on other penitential occasions I use as few drops as possible and can handle a hot cocoa with only 2 drops of stevia. Carob doesn’t even need a sweetener really. If you are really ‘hooked’ on sweetened beverages, so that you needed a couple of Tablespoons of sugar in your coffee or tea back when you ate carbs, you can use whatever amount of liquid stevia you need, but try to taper off, and also sometimes take a break from the sweetener. We need to break our addiction to constant sweet things!

Have you ever made a bulletproof coffee, bulletproof tea or other bulletproof beverage? Did you like it? Is it a regular part of your Keto * Low-Carb life right now? Please share your experiences in a com

Warm fasting fluids for winter

It’s getting to be wintery— we’ve had our first snow up in Michigan’s upper peninsula— and it’s time to winterize our fasting practices. At least if you live somewhere in this hemisphere with cold winters.

I normally drink my distilled water at room temperature. I’ve read things that cold fluids like ice water may not be that great for us. It certainly isn’t great to drink a glass of ice water on a winter day! I have come to prefer room temperature water. But it’s a little on the cold side, especially on a cold morning in a relatively cool house (I keep my thermostat low to save home heating money), when I have to go out and do cold-weather chores that day.

The first thing we can do is drink heated distilled water. I have an electric tea kettle— it’s a replacement for a coffee maker I used to heat tea water which just wore out, in part due to using hard water (well water) for years in it. My tea kettle very much prefers my current distilled water from my water distiller. When I was a teen and lived in San Jose California, I knew a neighbor family who were Chinese-Americans, and they were big believers in drinking warm or hot water. I babysat for them once or twice a week for years, and it rubbed off on me. You can just heat your water as if for tea, and drink it like tea. I personally wait for 2 minutes or so before drinking hot tea or hot water. Since water fasting is purer fasting, adding hot/warm water as a fasting fluid warms up your insides without making you feel like you are not ‘really’ fasting. (Below: an electric tea kettle similar to mine.)

Tea is a great warm fasting fluid for most of us. I’ve read it suppresses the appetite a little. A lot of people assume that green tea is the only ‘healthy’ tea, because there was a famous study that showed health benefits for green tea extract. But there are other studies that show benefits for black tea, and Chinese studies that show benefits for pu-erh tea. They haven’t studied white tea yet, but it’s from the same plant and is probably mostly like green tea, only more so. There are drawbacks, though. I’ve read that tea may raise insulin levels— or is that blood sugar? And there is the oxalate issue— if you are watching oxalates, tea is one source you might have to give up. (I gave up spinach and almond products and rhubarb instead.) (Below: my favorite brand of pu-erh tea.)

Coffee. You can learn to drink black coffee. I got started drinking coffee with a few drops of liquid stevia sweetener in it, And reduced the number of sweetener drops over time. I also added a teaspoon of heavy whipping cream to the coffee. But this morning I drank a cup of black coffee and lived. Like tea, coffee can suppress your hunger. So when you are fasting and have hunger pangs, a cup of coffee or tea may stop that. 

Home-made bone broth. Yes, you can drink bone broth during fasting. There are a very few calories in a cup of bone broth, but it is worth the calories to get the benefits of bone broth. A cup of hot bone broth feels more like you’ve had a meal. If you are doing a fast of 24 hours or more, you can have cups of bone broth at your normal meal hours and you might feel less deprived. 

Herb tisanes (herbal ‘tea’). I drink Stash brand peppermint tea and ‘spice dragon red chai’ which has cinnamon, rooibos, ginger and clove, and I also have some home-harvested stinging nettle tea, since I have lots of stinging nettle all over my yard. These are a decent change of pace, and are caffeine-free, and so one can drink them in the afternoon or evening without causing sleepless nights.

I have read that when people are fasting, they may feel the cold more. If you experience that, it could be a signal that warm fasting fluids are something you need more of. At least, you could give them a try. (I also recommend wearing warm sweaters in the house rather than overheating your house.) 

 Above is the brand of home water distiller that I use. I am quite pleased with it and it's easy to clean with apple cider vinegar, and it makes great distilled water.

Fasting: Day 4 of 7?

Today I am on the fourth day of a fast which may go for as many as 7 days. My blood sugar was 78mg/dL this morning— lower than the norm of 84mg/dL. Lower-than-84 blood sugars are normal when fasting, and I understand are OK when you are not having low-blood-sugar symptoms as a result. 

Between my previous fasts and my keto lifestyle, I had to buy some new clothes, only size XL (1X) after having had to buy 2X clothes before. (Since I shopped a lot at thrift shops, I also had some 3X clothes, if they were cute and not too baggy.) But I noticed my new XL shorts were big on me, and so I’ve recently purchased some items in size L. They all fit!  Bad news is, since I’m on disability for my Autism Spectrum Disorder, I can’t afford to run out and replace all my new XL clothes with L size clothes— not when I’m on track to possibly fit in M size clothes soon! (I have not been so slim since my high-school-hell years.)

I must point out that fasting is not about quick-weight-loss. Quick-weight-loss is a crock. It only leads to quick-weight-regain. The keto-and-fasting approach is about making lifelong changes that will provide long-term health improvements. It may make you lose weight, and lose weight easily, but it’s not about quickly becoming slim-and-‘sexy.’ 

My last 5 day fast— my first fast of that length— started impulsively, when I realized I was not hungry, and not in the mood to cook any food that day. My non-hunger pretty much lasted the first 2 days of the fast. Day 3, I had some hunger, but not enough to make me seriously think of eating something. Days 4 and 5 were easier.

This fast was more intentional. I had a few blood sugar readings which were way better than my previous, not-doing-strict-keto ones, but not as good as the ones just after my last 5 day fast. I had a bit more hunger in the first three days as I had last time.

While water-only fasting is the gold standard of fasting, Dr. Jason Fung allows plain tea and black coffee while fasting, allows home-made bone broth, and allows 1 cup of ‘bulletproof’ beverage per day— in one part of the book, suggesting that the ‘bulletproof’ additions to the beverage be kept down to a lower level than in normal ‘bulletproof’ beverages.

I have made use of a lot of broth during this fasting period. I schedule my broth drinking at my mealtimes, I don’t wait to determine if I am really that hungry before I consume it. (As the fast goes on, if my hunger remains gone, I will try to skip some of the broth helpings.) 

I am doing a ‘mini-cheat’ on Dr. Fung’s instructions. He specifies home-made bone broth, and I do have some on hand, but don’t want to use it all up too quickly— being on disability, the ingredients for bone broth are hard to afford sometimes. So I used canned broth, broth powder, and even dashi powder (I have plans to get the fixings for home-made dashi, a kind of fish broth from Japan, very soon.) I’m trying to have at least 1 cup of authentic, home-made bone broth every day, though.

I also am drinking tea regularly, as well as some cups of peppermint tisane (‘herb tea’) in the evenings. I’m feeling fairly well, though I don’t have the energy boost I experienced on my last fast. I’ve experienced chronic fatigue for probably over a decade, so I’m not surprised, but I hope that the combo of regular fasting and keto lifestyle will help me overcome this problem.

Spiritual benefits

As a Christian (Catholic variety) I know that the Bible commends fasting, and that Jesus both did it and advised it. But I’m not sure that fasting done to help your health has full spiritual benefits. But, just in case, I am dedicating my current fasting to the conversion of sinners (God can pick which ones) and to the Holy Souls. I don’t really feel especially spiritual, and perhaps during a future fast I may add daily spiritual practices like going to daily Mass (or watching it on EWTN television) and more daily prayer and Bible reading/spiritual reading.

Selling out?

You may have noticed that I now have Amazon affiliate links on this blog. Is that a sell-out? Well, perhaps. But I’ve noticed a lot of other keto blogs have advertising to the point of making the blog hard to read. I don’t want to do anything like that. But it’s really hard living on SSI disability, and not being able to get things fixed like the plumbing and the electrical outlet to my stove (my stove hasn’t worked for years because of it.) If a few kind people buy through my links sometimes, it would really help. But if you are not so inclined, just ignore the links. I don’t mind. I write this blog because I want to help others who struggle with some of the same issues I’ve been faced with, not because I think I can ‘monetize’ this blog and live high of the hog. (Which reminds me, I need to buy more bacon.) 

The Complete Guide to Fasting by Jimmy Moore & Dr. Jason Fung

If you fast, you really should read this book. It gives you all the scientific information you need to fast properly and not get led astray into unhealthy practices.

Kettle & Fire Bone Broth, Chicken & Beef

OK, this is not 'home-made' bone broth. But it does look pretty good as a substitute. You might try it.

Decaffeinate your favorite tea at home

Tea--- which is made from the plant Camellia sinensis--- is a useful drink on the ketogenic diet. Plain tea is allowed even as a fasting fluid--- which means, if you are on the 'no-breakfast' plan, you can sit down to the family breakfast table and have a cup while the others eat. You can also use tea as the basis for a 'bulletproof' beverage by adding butter or MCT oil and heavy cream.

Herb teas are not true teas, and the tea-like drink made from peppermint leaves or chamomile flowers is a tisane, not a tea.

There are different forms of the tea plant. Regular tea or black tea is processed and oxidized to a greater extent than other tea. It has the most caffeine of any kind of tea. Pu-ehr tea (my favorite) is a kind of tea which has been aged, and is from older tea plants, and is similar to black tea in caffeine content. Oolong tea is less oxidized, has less caffeine, and a milder flavor. Green tea is not subject to the oxidation process and has less caffeine than either black tea or oolong. White tea is made of baby tea leaves and has even less caffeine than green tea. [Red tea, or rooibos, is not from the tea plant at all and is a caffeine-free tisane.]

To decaf your own tea, simply steep the tea leaves or tea bag for 30 - 45 seconds and discard/reuse the 'tea' from that steeping, which will contain 80% of the caffeine. Then make your cup of tea from the leaves/tea bag.

I reuse my tea bags, as my paternal grandmother did before me. I use regular tea bags, not decaffeinated by the process above, in the morning when I need some waking up. In the afternoon and evening, I use the tea bags I used earlier in the day, which by now have little caffeine. This way an excess of caffeine does not disturb my sleep.

The steep water from home decaffeinating can be allowed to cool and used to water plants. It can also be diluted with more water and put in the cats' water dish.

Dear readers old and new, how has your ketogenic diet been going over the past weekend? Have you seen any great benefits, or are you just hanging on at this point? My blood sugars have been going up a little from my 5-day fasting period, which I guess is normal, but it disappoints me just the same!

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I have a book at my home called Lose Weight with Green Tea by Patricia Rouner.  I didn't lose any weight from it, but the author shared a lot of scientific studies about the benefits of all the forms of tea. If you are a tea lover you can learn a lot from this book!

My favorite kind of tea is Prince of Peace brand Pu-ehr tea. It has an earthy flavor, which I came to love after I grew used to it. My niece Brianna got me a couple of boxes of it for Christmas, but I'm out right now. Sad, sad, sad! But I will soon buy more.

Yes, the links below are Amazon affiliate links. If you buy through the links, you will NOT have to pay any more, but I will get a small commission which will be a big help to me, so THANK YOU if you choose to buy through them.