People who follow food fads are all evangelists; the ones who suggest that you don't settle for less and that adding a handful of Amazon-sourced acai berries turns you into the original Wonder Woman, or some such thing.
In the same line of food evangelism arrives self-described biohacker Dave Asprey, the creator of the now infamous beverage Bulletproof coffee. Which is nothing but a take on yak butter tea, where one caffeine source is swapped for another. What’s so highbrow about adding butter to coffee, you ask, apart from secretly cringing that coffee should be consumed in just one way: minus the butter. Asprey's recipe not just calls for our yellow, salty lumps of butter but only two tablespoons of the best, made with milk from grass-fed cows, and a tablespoon or two of medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil derived from coconut oil. If this sounds highly preposterous, then 'kale' me crazy for what comes next: Asprey has raised $9 million in funding from Trinity Venture, an early Starbucks backer to open up a chain of butter-coffee cafes. What Asprey claims that the Bulletproof coffee can do for you, is wondrous — gain a few IQ points and help you reduce weight. What Asprey gains out of this is more money than he already has. What Asprey's trying to preach is that a stick of butter in your coffee a day can keep the doctor away.
But it's not just the United States that is promiscuous with the food it consumes. Japan, for one, has always been at the forefront of experimenting. While burger chain MOS burger swapped regular buns for giant tomatoes, the Yunessan Spa House in Japan offers pork broth baths complete with Ramen noodles, because obviously it can get really awkward if you have to get up mid-bath to go eat. The key is in the details. But they're one step ahead of themselves, these Japanese: while Scottish whiskey connoisseurs are patiently waiting for wooden casks to mature, Suntory, a top whiskey maker, is sending its brew to the International Space Station, to let the alcohol age in zero gravity. Space is indeed the final frontier.
