Ah, butter! The most diety-of diet foods, guaranteed to slim your hips and trim your tummy! Wait — are we in an alternate universe? Why are people mixing butter into their coffee in some kind of new health/energy craze?

It kind of makes sense that butter would work in coffee, so far as taste buds go. After all, it’s a dairy relative of milk and cream. But as MSN Health says, there are some touting butter coffee as a way to get an energy spike and stay healthy.

Fans of the paleo diet — who are of the mind that eating animal proteins and fats like a caveman is the way to live healthy — say that putting butter in your coffee can give you a boost of energy when paired with. That’s the idea behind “Bulletproof coffee,” a recipe that combines a few tablespoons of unsalted-grass-fed butter plus a coconut-palm oil blend called MCT. Proponents of the stuff say it’s supposed to promote weight loss, boost energy and charge your brain up.

But health experts point out the obvious: Whether or not those various claims are true, mixing butter in your coffee will probably cause you to gain weight by the mere fact that it’s adding 100 to 200 calories to your diet per day.

And that energy boost is predicated upon the idea that MCT is digested faster than other fats, and thus must boost energy. There’s no evidence out there to support that claim, however.

So go ahead, mix that creamy butter in your morning Joe. It won’t hurt you, but don’t expect to turn into a svelte underwear model with boundless energy to burn.

Nobody better debunk my “Daily Intake Of Ice Cream Is The Best Diet Ever” fad I’m about to unleash on the world. It doesn’t promote weight loss but it does make you really happy in your mouth.

Butter coffee: Will it give you extra energy — or just make you fat? [MSN Healthy]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.