Episode Resources
- Listen to Little Lover ‘TEEMID Remix’
- Ep 17 – How To Stop Binge Eating
- Ep 21 – Ayurevda Series 1 – What Is Your Body Type?
- Ep 44 – Longevity Series – Get Your Antioxidants
This episode is all about my journey with Bulletproof Coffee which I have now not been drinking for the past 8 months. And I am going to talk about the process of elimination I went through to finally determine whether coffee was good for my body type and unique constitution.
Yes I know, I know… If you have been following Melissa and I for a whole, you would know how much we loved our Bulletproof Coffee. If you don’t know what Bulletproof Coffee is, it’s basically a high quality brew of coffee blended with grass fed butter and MCT oil. In fact, Melissa and were probably largely responsible for the extreme shortage of Westgold Unsalted Butter in Australia for a while there.
Let’s face it… there are few things more satisfying than hand grinding your own coffee, the aroma of that magical brew filling all your senses and the rush of clarity you get once those caffeine delivered lipids and polyphenols rapidly absorb into your bloodstream, supposedly fuelling your mitochondria. But, what happens when you take this magical morning routine all away? Well, I can only speak for me, but after years convincing myself that I just naturally had amazing energy in the morning, I realised that perhaps my creamy buttery brew was in fact propping me up more than I would have liked to admit.
It was a Monday morning and my son was off to school. I wouldn’t be seeing him for a week as it was his last morning with Melissa and I before he headed back to his mum’s place. Now, anyone that has met Leo knows what a little angel christ like buddha he is. Wise beyond his years and impossibly lovable. To be honest, I sometimes wonder if I am anywhere near as good a human as he is. So when I witnessed myself all of a sudden erupting into a volcano of anger over something ridiculously insignificant (I think he couldn’t find his soccer boots after looking ‘“really hard”), I knew that something in me was not quite right.
Now, being a parent is certainly one of life’s greatest challenges. They are your greatest mirror and can reflect all the things about yourself that you may find hard to accept. You can forgive yourself for the occasional meltdown, but for me it was becoming increasingly common. I promised this would be the last time I treated him poorly and vowed to figure out how I had become… well… an angry human.
So, I turned to the lowest hanging fruit – my diet. Was there something I was having which could be causing an imbalance? The obvious place to start was with my Bulletproof coffee (oh dear God, please don’t let it be the coffee!). I don’t know why this never occurred to me, but I decided to take a look at coffee from an Ayurvedic perspective.
Ayurveda
noun
the traditional Hindu system of medicine which is based on the idea of balance in bodily systems and uses diet, herbal treatment, and yogic breathing.
Without going into all the potential modern day scientific benefits of drinking coffee which you can get in this interview with Dave Asprey (who I love and respect for his work and dedication by the way) on The Melissa Ambrosini Show, I want to explore a more subtle side that is almost always overlooked – is coffee really good for YOUR bodily constitution?
In Ayurveda there are three main body types or doshas. We each have our own unique balance of all three doshas, but more often than not we tend to be more dominant in one or two. If you haven’t heard my Ayurveda Series 1, head to iamnickbroadhurst.com/21 where I take a deep dive into each body type… but in a nutshell:
Pitta (fire) – ravenous hunger, can devour food, strong digestion, fiery at times, type A personality
Vata (air) – hard to stay warm, needs more rest, likes to graze on food, weaker digestion, can be a bit flighty
Kapha (earth) – heavy, grounded, happily can eat an extra piece of brownie or two
These are outrageous over-simplifications, but you get the point.
I have a Vata constitution (I can get cold and my skin dries easily) and Pitta constitution (fiery, driven, intense, unforgiving). It had taken me several visits to various Ayurvedic practitioners before the significance of this dropped. I had been ignoring the Pitta part of me, thinking I was just a delicate little Vata who just happened to be a total ass at times to those around me. But this was not always how I was. As I pondered my latest eruption, I reflected on my pre-coffee life and realised… I used to be nice person (oh dear God, not the coffee!).
So I turned to Dr Google and within 0.43 seconds was faced with 553,000 reasons why ‘pitta coffee ayurveda’ was not such a good idea. For starters, coffee can be an intestinal irritant that inflames the digestive tract (Pitta imbalance here we come), it is acidic in nature (hello again Pitta) and to top it all off, it’s dehydrating. Sorry Mr Pitta Vata. Coffee is out of the blender for you.
Could it be that my increasing rage was simply coming from imbalancing my Pitta day after day? So I gave it up, and the immediate results were… depressing. Literally. I was frickin sad! Is it normal that a food should be ‘making’ you happy? Why can’t my body just naturally be in that state?
And then there was the issue of energy. Or should I say no energy. None. Nada. My usually focused mornings resembled more of a walk on the moon where everything just went soooo sloooow. It all started making more sense. After jumping on the Bulletproof band wagon, which I will say is AMAZING for some people, I had to face the fact that it simply was kryptonite for me. It had become a vicious circle of maxing out my adrenals but not knowing it because that MCT oil just made me feel so good! I had energy, but it was exogenous and not from within.
So faced with the age old question of what-the-hell-do-I-eat-for-breakfast, I headed into the slippery slope of dietary wilderness to find a truly upgraded Bulletproof brekkie alternative. And I think I may have nailed it.
But first, a disclaimer – it is up to you, and only you to ‘see’ what is true for you. Don’t believe me because others do, and don’t believe what you have read in books, seen on Instagram or heard from ‘authority’ figures, doctors, teachers and musicians who write about health. You already have all the answers, it’s simply a case of remembering what is true for you.
Ok, that said, it’s time for my big old blueberry morning smoothie. Rather than go over this again, you can check out episode 44 in the Longevity Series – Get Your Antioxidants where I talk about the magic of berries.
And while I am not recommending that everyone ditch their Bulletproof or regular coffee, I would like to point out that in this day and age with the amount of environmental toxins we are exposed to, don’t we all need to make every meal count? Could it be that your morning pick me up is a missed opportunity to have a super nutritious meal? If you are looking for polyphenols which comes from coffee beans, something tells me that a beautiful fresh bright purple berry could just be the upgraded alternative for getting our daily dose of polyphenols, and best of all, they are in their natural state and have not been roasted. After all, coffee is dark because it has been burned to some degree, and burned food in general is not such a great thing.
But as with all things, there is always divine order, perfect balance, equal opposites, and in this case it just so turns out that coffee can actually be used medicinally to improve some of my vata body type constraints. So now, my mentor Stephen Cabral has me drinking a very tiny cup of decaf coffee after breakfast to do two things… 1) bring heat into my digestive tract when it is at it’s slowest in the morning, and 2) bring more acidity into my digestive tract because naturally as a vata I have less stomach acid. So you never know. They key here is to stay open, always.
Intermittent fasting does also have its benefits, and if anything I think that my daily habit over the past few years of replacing breakfast with a BPC was a huge step forward towards learning to eat less and trusting my body. Overeating has always been an issue for me, and hearing cries of “but it’s healthy” drip from my mouth along with the crumbs of a keto cookie (or 10) can get pretty boring for those around you. I talk about overeating in episode 17, How To Stop Binge Eating. But my body needs constant fuel. It runs on carbs… yep… carbs… and it turns out that missing my chance to fuel up with nutrient dense foods in the morning was actually hurting my mitochondria. The exact opposite of why I thought my BP Coffee was good for me in the first place.
While there were many things I was doing that contributed to this fiery Pitta imbalance, I do believe that a great route to take is to identify and remove anything that could be causing an imbalance within you and see how you feel. Eight months on I am not an angry human anymore, my wife actually wants to be around me again (plus there are loads more little flowers in her Period Tracker app ;), and Leo doesn’t think Daddy is a crazy person. Win-win.
I know I am kind of taking the piss here a little bit, but seriously, I just want to put bio-individuality back on the breakfast table. There is so much pressure these days to do as we see on Instagram. If that person looks so good and they drink coffee, then maybe it’s good for me? Maybe… it all depends on your constitution.
I honestly believe BP coffee can be amazing, if used almost therapeutically, and for the right body types.
Remember today to … look up … see the beauty around you … see the beauty within you … be gentle with yourself … be love … listen to your intuition … listen to your beautiful messenger that is your body, it’s always whispering, and sometimes screaming at you to be heard… and as always, have a beautiful day … I love you heaps.
I would love to hear from you, so please tag me @IAmNickBroadhurst on social media, and use the hashtag #TheNickBroadhurstShow, or leave me a comment below (I read every single one!). And if you could take a minute to leave me a 5 star review on iTunes I would be very grateful.
P.S. Always listen to your intuition (and your doctor or practitioner) before trying any new health practice.
This is amazing thank you thank you thank you! I haven’t had my bulletproof coffee for 2 months now cause cleansing and cut out caffeine obviously and I’ll felt a bit like oh I do want it back when I finish but maybe I shouldn’t rush to having it again because I actually feel pretty amazing without it now. But I have so been strapped for ideas of what I could have for breakie instead so am super excited to try this thank you!!
Let me know how you go Sarah! x
Thank you for sharing your experience with coffee. People think I’m nuts to give it up! I stopped drinking coffee as part of an elimination diet to find out what was causing my health issues. I thought I had to have coffee to function. After four days of having lemon water, green tea and fruit for breakfast I felt like a new person. I had more energy, I was less anxious and I slept better at night. It’s been 2 1/2 months and I have no desire to start drinking coffee again!
The proof is in the fruit pudding Noël ;)
I love this! I am excited to try your Build-Me Up Brekkie-Broth ASAP. Going to get my hands on some Sun Potion herbs soon! Have you tried this combo with an Avo? I follow a blogger who adds chunks of Avo to her warm broth for those fats! I’m a Pitta type too and I’ve been struggling with my energy levels. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Hey Jehanne, to be honest I think that would defeat the purpose of having something easy to digest in the morning. I know that avo is incredible, but I think it’s best eaten around midday because it’s not easy for everyone to break down. Plus the fats in their raw form are not super stable, so adding to hot broth would have to have a negative impact. I know avocado oil is supposed to be ok for use in cooking, but to be honest when it comes to vegetable oils like olive, macadamia and avo, I think playing it safe and having them raw is the safest approach
Hi Nick!
As I’m writing this I’m sipping on some warm, DELICIOUS, healing brekkie broth (for dinner). Interestingly enough I intuitively decided to leave the zabouca (our Trinidadian word for “avocado”) out. It’s really divine. I had no “next level” goodies, but I think the local, fresh turmeric and added Grenadian nutmeg were perfect. I also wanted to add that I love that you are HONEST and constantly question your habits and assumptions. And that you’re bold enough to be transparent when you shift something that you once swore by, and that worked for you. We are seriously so individual, and it changes with the seasons of our life. ✨ I’ve been primarily “vegan” (I prefer to say plant based) for the past two years but my body has been asking for butter, so I included some sweet ol’ butter in my soup and it’s just insane. Thank you! Will be incorporating this when I head back up to my Torontonian winter ❄️
Thank you for your kind words Jehanne. I am so happy to have you here. Butter… it’s pretty beautiful hey? And yes, we are always evolving and changing. Good to stay open and flexible.
Thanks for the blog post, Nick Like the idea of the morning brekkie broth. Want to give it a go!
A few qs: Do you have a recipe for the bone broth you can share?
How do you determine your Ayurveda type?
Do you have a collagen you recommend?
Are the problems you’ve written about coffee from the caffeine or the actual coffee?
I’ve just recently began making bulletproof coffee with decaf beans (breastfeeding and never been a big coffee drinker prior). I am enjoying it. However, there was a little question in my mind if it would suit everyone, which until your post, I’d been ignoring, focusing on the benefits of bulletproof coffee instead of listening to my intuition. Don’t think I’m having any bad reaction to it, but just not sure? Thank you!
Hey Sarah, I will release a recipe on my blog one day, but really they are all the same. Western A Price has a good one. To properly determine your dosha, I recommend seeing an Ayurvedic practitioner. You can do an online quiz, but I don’t they are super helpful because you may be answering questions from a position of existing imbalance. Great Lakes collagen is ok, but my favourite is by Vital Proteins. The issue I have written about are from the coffee bean as a whole and all its constituents… but that’s just my own personal experience. You just have to tune in and see how you feel. Depends how attuned you are as well to your body. Hope that helps!
Thanks so much for the quick reply Appreciate it! Keep up the amazing work! And thanks again for the post which reminded me to listen to my intuition
good timing)) it was so hard for me to admit that my favorite coffee drink and tea has become an obstacle rather than support… being snappy sucks. loved ur recipe, it inspired me to try it out. i didnt expect it would be such a delish sounding thingy, ive been over coffee alternatives and they all dont seem as fun option. and this is like a super potion!! i want to share with you one more way how i maintain stability through day and it helps me to be patient to those around me… funny enough… its Melissa!!! lol not your sweet wifey but actual dried plant :) u can buy it in capsules or just grind ur own powder and eat like a teaspoon daily. it makes me a whole different person, makes me chill and not sleepy at all. some call it lemon balm herb also. much love to u guys :) thanks for great vibes, very very fun to feel that others strive for balance and honesty as well :)
Oh wow! Never thought of that. doTERRA also make a Melissa oil which is epic. That TedX was super interesting. Thanks for sharing!
oops i finished my post but thten had an urge to share a little more with you guys, lol! you might find this info quite interesting as well. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JaQNy0Ef4YY
made me wonder what would a real coffee experience be like when done fresh and properly.
seems to me that many substances are fun and useful in nature, and problem is that people alter them and also abuse them by far more than they need. lack of body awareness. stuff like coffee or tobaccoo leaf (and tons of others) are quite powerful when used rarely and with purpose, fresh…
Hi Nick! Love your post and all of your knowledge. I have actually started making my own bulletproof version after hearing how it works good for our mitochondria! I love your alternative and am definitely going to check that out. I have always had an intolerance for coffee so my bulletproof in the morning consists of 2/3 of warm water mixed with Vata-herbs, 1/3 coconut milk, turmeric, coconut oil, mct-oil, collagen, ceylon cinnamon, ginger, milk thistle and a few sprinkles of pepper. I know you are not a nutritionist but I do know you have a lot of knowledge in this area, so I was wondering what you might think of this alternative. Keep up the good work! Lots of love!
Hey Helene, thanks for being here. It all depends on how it makes you feel? I guess all I can point out are the potential issues… coconut cream/milk can be hard to digest for some, turmeric can cause issues due to high oxalates, coconut oil is pretty hard to break down for most people (controversial but true), MCT is a refined product so I still don’t know what to think about it, collagen can cause issues if you have candida, pepper can aggravate Pitta. BUT, this could be a dream drink for you and many others, so thanks for sharing! Just stay tuned in and listen to your body. x
Just jumping in on the coconut cream point, is that why drinking coconut milk or eating coconut yoghurt makes me feel ill/bloated/nauseous? I had no idea it could be hard to digest!! Thanks for sharing that! :) Ghee is my main cooking fat at the moment, I love it. I think I may have to do veggie broth if I try this as i have histamine intolerance (so can’t do bone broth),and I have SIBO too.
Hey Elizabeth! You can also try a short broth, like a whole chicken cooked for 2 hours in lots of water and some veggies like leek and carrot… then you can eat the chicken as well, but you get a low histamine broth with loads of bone broth benefits. Worked for Melissa when she had histamine issues a couple of years ago
Great post, Nick. Excellent information so clearly dropped. You, and your “ojasic” brekkie broth, are terrific.
Ha, thanks Laura! I learned from the best ;)
Thanks for sharing your individuality, Nick. I loved that you let people know that, amongst all the wonderful Heath advice around, one needs to listen to their intuition and their body.
I so wanted to love Bulletproof coffee but I just couldn’t stomach it. I tried. I stopped. Now I have confirmation that, as having a lot of pitta vada, it’s not for me. Your post was my confirmation.
Your smoupie recipe looks awesome! Thanks x
Give it a go and let me know? :) Thanks for being here Anita.
Wow Nick, what a fantastic article; I truly love how honest and informative both yours and Melissa’s blogs are. Thank you.
Thanks Brooke!
Hi Nick,
This is great! I find bulletproof coffee sends my pitta-dominant constitution into overdrive if I consume it regularly, such a shame – it’s so tasty! I’ve also noticed that too much meat makes me particularly fiery, angry and aggressive, so that could be something else to experiment with too. I still eat meat, but I’ve gotten strategic about how and when I consume it, and it’s made a world of difference.
x
You sound very dialled in Emily
Amazing read!!! Very inspiring. I must admit im feeling quite overwhelmed and short tempered lately. I don’t even know myself anymore!
I will definitely be trying this…
Thank you
Let me know how you go!
Hey Nick !
Just searching for your upgraded bone broth recipe that you posted a while ago but can’t seem to find it .
Do you mind forwarding it on to me ?
Really appreciate it , thank you
Hey Gemma, I actually removed it and changes this to the Berry Smoothie as it feels like a more global option for people. But really, that recipe is bone broth, blended with your choice of a leafy green vegetable. From there you can add other things like a fat source and herbs. Super easy :)
hi, I just came across this blog post. I don’t know who to ask about this. I am a pitta-vatta. and suspecting it’s not being good for me too. I have been drinking decaf coffee with ghee and mct oil. is decaff ok ? or would something else altogether like green tea be more ideal ?
is mct oil also bad for pitta ?
Thanks !
Green tea still will rev up your system. It’s all about balance. Ask yourself, why do you feel the coffee is so important? Could there be far more nutritious meals? Is high fat good for you?
I agree to some extend…has been on and off bulletproof coffee for 3-4 times.
At early state of BP coffee, you will find yourself better performance for weeks… but after some months, you will become worse (and sicker) than before you take the BP coffee.
Still dont know the reason, but I would say BP coffee is for occasional (like spare tire) but main coffee/tea should stay simply NO oil one.
Sleep, exercise, have companion, cannot be replaced by BP coffee.
Really, simply old style coffee/tea and boil water is enough…yeah, search within, not without.
Indeed!
I was having BPC every single day. Then, for other reasons, I started to have chronic insomnia.
I went to a doctor and she told me to stop the BPC for a while – as well as other things. She told me it would be extremely good to do meditation. I started doing Transcendental Meditation, because she told me to AND because Ray Dalio always talks about it. Check it here in this 2m20sec video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U62ZcevDyrs
When I stopped drinking the BPC, it was extremely depressing. My energy level and my brain power went way down. Horrible experience.
Today, I just started to drink the BPC again – after recovery! My gosh, my energy level is so fucking HUGE… again! It feels like I got my power back – just like THOR in the first movie! heheh… Or just like Thanos when he got all the stones! hahah…
I will listen to you to learn more about my body type (Dosha)! But one thing I had just like you: I was getting completely crazy and my wife started complaining too.
The issue here is the high levels of saturated fat. Check out the book How Not To Die by Dr Michael Greger. You want your meals to be nutrient dense, not calorie dense. And get to the bottom of why you need caffeine for energy. That’s where your journey can start… Hope that helps.
Oh and yes, TM… have been doing it for 11 years :)