Bulletproof? Eating Shouldn't Be That Hard!

That doensn't mean it's EASY per se, because anytime you have to change a habit (or when we talk about eating it's usually multiple habits and triggers) we generally have a tough go at it.

That is a conversation for another time, though.

What I take beef with (mmm.... beef) is the whole Bulletproof THING that has been gaining more and more notoriety. I credit The Bulletproof Executive for stopping me with my whole Paleo journey.

You see, about three or four years ago when I was just starting out on this whole coaching journey, I figure I should start walking the walk a little more and decided to go Paleo/Primal. I cut out gluten and legumes, I only had dairy in the form of cheese, no more soy, no more sugar or artificial anything. ManFriend and I even hired a cook to prep our meals for the week so that we wouldn't fall off the wagon in a hungry, nothing-in-the-fridge situation.

That lasted for at least 8 months. I looked great at USAW Nationals. But I lifted like shit.

So skinny. And so weak. (That's 93 kg)

I felt like I was missing something. I did WellnessFX testing and got recommendations about what supplements I should be taking. I was told that maybe I had adrenal fatigue. My searching eventually led me to The Bulletproof Executive. That's when  fuse blew. I was reading about all these RULES to being optimal. It was like.... if Methodists are Paleo, then the Bulletproof Executive are Orthodox Catholic.

I grew up in Texas, okay? Leave me alone.

That ended it. Fuck Paleo! This is stupid! Eating shouldn't be this HARD!!!


The Bulletproof Diet has seemed to come more mainstream now. And even I'll admit, butter coffee is delicious. It's got a nice frothiness to it and keeps you humming. But I never bought into the whole mycotoxin fear-mongering, or the need to buy special MCT oils. And in the end, it was too much work to blend my coffee in the morning when I have about 20 minutes to wake up and get out of the house. (extra sleep >>> making fancy coffee)

Lately I came across this article from the website posted to Facebook, as a way to help people start their Bulletproof journey. I'm just going to take issue with a few points:

1) Eliminate sugar (including fruit juices and sports drinks that contain HFCS, honey, and agave) .

So apparently we have a "sugar is toxic" person here. I can get behind removing liquid calories for some people because they end up taking in too many calories this way and never feeling satiated. But frankly, that goes for Bulletproof coffee, too. Butter vs sugar? It's all calories and how you psychologically respond to it.

2) Replace the sugar calories with healthy fats from the Bulletproof Diet such as grass-fed butter, ghee,Brain Octane™,  Upgraded™ MCT oil, or coconut oil.

See #1

3) Eliminate gluten in any shape or form.  This includes bread, cereal, and pasta.  Do not make the mistake of resorting to gluten free junk food, which can be almost as bad.
4) Remove grains, grain derived oils, and vegetable oils such as corn, soy, and canola.  Also remove unstable polyunsaturated oils such as walnut, flax, and peanut oil.

Look, I don't care if you eliminate gluten. Just like I don't care if you eliminate meat. But don't try to tell me that it's universally healthier for humanity. It just isn't true. I've had people tell me to eliminate it for a month or two and see who awful I feel when I put it back in my diet. The funny thing is, I've done exactly that, with no difference! 

9) Switch to grass-fed meat and wild caught seafood.  Eat pastured eggs and some pork, chickens, turkeys, and ducks.10) Switch to organic fruits and vegetables.  This is more important for some plants than others.  See thissite for details.

Let's all go broke just to be some false sense of optimal. 

11) Cook your food gently, if at all.  Incorporate water into your cooking whenever possible and use low temperatures.  Do not use a microwave or fry.

Anyone with any understanding of evolution knows that cooking meats (and some vegetables) allowed us to access their nutrients and evolve to the (cough cough) highly intelligent creatures we are now. 

Also, this bullet point at the end:

• High healthy fat intake is optimal.  General ranges are 50-80 percent fat, 5-30 percent carbohydrate, and 10-30 percent protein.

Which, dammit all to hell, is so wrong on so many levels. If' you've read my recent blogs, you know why I take issue with this. 

I get it when people try to say that science moves forward and teaches us things that we once thought were right are now wrong. But that new learning is usually in the nuances of how our biochemistry works. 

At one point people vilified fat because, well, it seemed obvious that putting fat in our system would make us fat. We eventually found that to be a false story line. Really, eating a lot of fat just packed calories into our diet easier. But rather than take this easy moderate approach, people with an agenda are trying to say we had to completely backwards. We didn't. We just didn't have the details. 

I'd like to leave you with an article that explains much better than I could why the Bulletproof diet is such a sham: 

The Bulletproof Diet: simplistic, invalid, and unscientific