A podcast episode (Ask the Health Expert) hosted by JJ Virgin in which a listener (Cassie X) asks about the benefits and use of MCT oil. Guest Dave Asprey (founder of Bulletproof360) explains MCT chemistry, differentiates four types of MCTs (noting lauric acid as common but less metabolically active, C10 as somewhat effective, and C8—"brain octane"—as the most effective), describes benefits (rapidly raises ketone levels, reduces hunger/cravings, may have links to cognitive benefits), gives usage tips (add to coffee, smoothies, salads), and warns about sourcing (prefer coconut-derived, triple-distilled to reduce gastric distress; avoid unsustainable palm oil). The episode also contains multiple sponsor ad reads.
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What are the benefits of MCT oil? This is JJ Virgin four time New York Times bestselling author, celebrity nutrition expert, and fitness hall of Fam. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. Cassie X from Instagram asks, what are the benefits of MCT oil and how should I use it? Hey, it's JJ here. And I've got two times New York Times bestselling author, founder of Bulletproof360, my buddy and bestie Dave Asprey. Now he's been called the father of biohacking and he's also the father of two awesome and pretty mischievous kids. In fact, I'm still finding sugar packets from the time his daughter Anna hid. Get this, over 500 sugar packets all over my house. We'll be right back with the answer.
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All right, Cassie, benefits of MCT oil and how should you use it? A lot of people have been asking about MCT oil and this is something that I did do going back, oh, about almost 20 years when I was working at an anti aging non profit group. I was on the board of directors of IT and working on bringing out these ideas about how can we live a lot longer. MCT oil. The initial research came up that showed, wow, MCT oil is associated with a reduction in Alzheimer's disease. And I was intrigued, as were my colleagues at the anti aging group. And we started looking at this and said, you know, there's a role for this. And I started playing around with it and went deep in the chemistry. It turns out there's four kinds of MCT oil that can all be sold as mct. And you need to know about this if you're going to try it. And the reason you try it is because it puts you in ketosis very quickly, which makes you feel really good, turns off food cravings and hunger very dramatically. And that's why MCT oil, or a specific subtype you're going to learn about in a second, that's in the recipe for bulletproof coffee. You can put it in your smoothie. You can do it with anything that you put into a blender. You can also pour it on your salad. It's a very flexible, zero flavor oil. But the cheapest and most abundant MCT oil called lauric acid, doesn't do anything special. It doesn't have metabolic superpowers. And a lot of the time you'll see that sold as MCT oil. It's the bargain price one, except it doesn't work. Then there's another type of it called CT10 that kind of works according to university studies. And then there's the rarest and most exclusive type, which is what I make at bulletproof, called brain octane oil or C8MCT. And that stuff that has superpowers and that's the one that raises your ketone levels as if you've been fasting or eating a low carb keto diet for a few days, but you didn't have to eat that way. And when you do that, you get the metabolic benefits of having ketones present in your body. So that's what MCT oil is. You want the C8MCT oil. You also want to be really careful. A lot of people are making it from palm. Palm oil actually kills orangutans, which is a bit of a problem. In fact, it's more than a bit of a problem, it's just not nice because it turns out coconut is sustainable and palm is not. So the bulletproof MCT oil, the brain octane, is made only from coconuts and it's triple distilled to remove these subtle impurities that can cause gastric distress. This is the benefits of being the guy who put it on the market, which allowed me to figure out all the little details to make the MCT oil work really well. I have had this every single day I can think of for more than 10 years and man, my dog gets it, my kid gets it, everybody gets it, and it works.
This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetoj.com.
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