Week 6: The 2019 Voting with My Dollar Project
This post is brought to you by: people like me who actually spend valuable time thinking about things MCT oil, for some reason.
In addition to voting with my dollar, I’m also holding myself to a high standard of not eating flour and sugar right now, which, for reasons that make no sense at all, compels me to also deprive myself of my beloved cream in my coffee. The only way this is do-able is if I go on a bulletproof coffee kick for a while.
Bulletproof coffee is a poor excuse for cream-in-coffee but has enough marketing juju behind it to sound appealing and smart. If you’re not familiar:
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You take your black coffee (single-origin only)
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Add organic, grass-fed, salt-free butter
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Plus a tablespoon of on-brand MCT oil
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And whirl it in your Magic Bullet for a hot sec
What is MCT oil? Glad you asked. I have no idea. Something about coconut oil but better than coconut oil and “brain-boosting power” and $34 for a small bottle.
Often, when I’m on a bulletproof jag, I skip the MCT oil and use high-quality virgin coconut oil instead. It’s the poor man’s very expensive version, basically. But this time, I decided to try MCT oil for real, to see if it made a difference.
I could have ordered the MCT oil from Amazon, but instead, I went straight to Nutiva, makers of the most elegant and expensive coconut oil on the market. I buy Nutiva products all the time because I really do believe that good coconut oil makes a difference. Coconut oil in general is a sketchy product to buy for its environmental implications, but one hopes that when one buys from a company whose founder is often lauded for his environmental commitment, the justification would hold at least a little bit.
It was…. fine. Honestly, my brain did not feel all that boosted, but maybe that’s a tall order for someone living under the chronic sleep-deprivation regime of being a night person with twin four-year-olds. Still, I planned to keep going. However, my conscience implored me not to have another bottle of heavy liquid shipped to me in a very large box from Nutiva’s headquarters on the other side of the country. Instead, I went to the co-op.
While I was standing in the rare-and-expensive-bourgie-medicinal-products section that stores love to call “body care,” a tall, older gentleman near me spoke up.
“Can I ask you a question?” he asked. “Why are you buying that?”
I had to admit I really didn’t know. “It’s for my bulletproof coffee….?”
He said “I know, but why that? Why not just coconut oil?”
We got into a bit of an illuminating discush, and then I remembered that I have an entire case of Nutiva virgin organic unrefined coconut oil in a cabinet at home. I impulsively buy things like that when the co-op has its period bulk sales for members, then always forget I bought them because we don’t have a pantry, so I have to stash them in weird places like on the cellar stairs.
Sidebar: I want a house with a pantry someday.
Anyway, I did not buy the MCT oil. I am still drinking the bulletproof coffee. But often I stop at the country store after I drop the kids off at school and top off my bulletproof with some fresh-brewed coffee and a healthy dose of non-organic half and half.
This project is ongoing and of course, highly subjective. I love information, so if I got something wrong, or you know something I don’t, please let me know!
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What I’m eating:
Not MCT oil anymore. But also have been grappling with how to cook dinner for my entire family when my husband is a vegetarian, I don’t eat flour or beans, and my kids are four. In other words, we’ve been eating tacos.
What I’m reading:
Very excited to launch into this month’s National Geographic, with its cover story on Alex Honnold (a hero of my rock-climber husband’s)
What I’m watching:
Nothing!
What I’m listening to:
The new Mandolin Orange album, Tides of Teardrop
What I’m working on:
An ebook on operational AI (artificial intelligence) for a very exciting startup in Sweden called Peltarion
