Should You Add Butter to Your Coffee?

 Butter has found its way into coffee cups for its purported fat-burning and mental clarity benefits, despite many coffee drinkers finding this non-traditional.

You may wonder if adding butter to your coffee is healthy or just another trend driven by false claims.

This article provides evidence-based information on the potential health benefits and risks of adding butter to your coffee, so you can decide if you want to give it a try.

Butter coffee vs. Bulletproof coffee

Butter coffee is a drink consisting of brewed coffee, unsalted butter, and medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), an easily digested type of fat.

It’s similar to Bulletproof coffee, which was developed by an entrepreneur named Dave Asprey. Asprey’s Bulletproof coffee uses a specific type of coffee bean, a liquid high in MCTs, and grass-fed, unsalted butter.

Butter coffee is a do-it-yourself (DIY) version of Bulletproof coffee that doesn’t require special coffee beans or MCT oil. In fact, any coffee with unsalted butter and coconut oil, which is a good source of MCTs, will work.

Butter coffee is often consumed in place of breakfast by those following a keto diet, which is high in fat and low in carbs.

Here’s how to make butter coffee:

• Brew about 1 cup (8–12 ounces or 237–355 ml) of coffee.
• Add 1–2 tablespoons of coconut oil.
• Add 1–2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, or choose ghee, a type of clarified butter lower in lactose, if you don’t eat regular butter.
• Mix all ingredients in a blender for 20–30 seconds until it resembles a foamy latte.

Butter coffee nutrition

A standard 8-ounce (237-ml) cup of coffee with 2 tablespoons of both coconut oil and unsalted butter contains (1Trusted Source):

1. Calories: 445
2. Carbs: 0 grams
3. Total fat: 50 grams
4. Protein: 0 grams
5. Fiber: 0 grams
6. Sodium: 9% of the Reference Daily Intake (RDI)
7. Vitamin A: 20% of the RDI
8. Nearly 85% of the fat in butter coffee is saturated fat.

Although some studies have linked saturated fat to an increase in risk factors for heart disease, such as high LDL cholesterol, research suggests that saturated fat doesn’t directly lead to heart disease (2Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source, 4Trusted Source).

Nonetheless, the amount of saturated fat in butter coffee is excessively high for just one serving.

Research shows that replacing some of the saturated fats in your diet with polyunsaturated fats can lower your risk of heart disease. Foods high in polyunsaturated fats are nuts, seeds, and fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, herring, or tuna (5Trusted Source).

Aside from its high fat content, butter coffee contains other important nutrients, namely vitamin A. Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that’s necessary for skin health, immune function, and good vision (6Trusted Source).

Although butter coffee also contains minute amounts of calcium, vitamins K and E, and several of the B vitamins, it’s not a good source of these nutrients.