Green Coffee Bean Extract For Weight Loss As Part Of A Balanced Diet

By Cindy Davis


A new, refreshing, cold soft beverage has recently become available in a popular chain of coffee shops. Flavored with either raspberry or lime, it is marketed as a drink for those who wish to refresh and recharge. A key ingredient is green coffee bean extract (GCBE). The drink is certainly refreshing. It may surprise fans to hear that people also use green coffee bean extract for weight loss.

Biochemists in Pennsylvania have been studying the health benefits of tea and coffee since 1998. At a meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego, they presented evidence that the molecule in GCBE that may be responsible for weight loss is chemically related to chlorophyll. Its name is chlorogenic acid. Participants in the study experienced an overall decrease of 16 percent body fat.

Chlorogenic acid is believed to help regulate mechanisms of weight loss by slowing down the absorption of glucose and switching to stored fat as a primary energy source. When the body begins to utilize stored fat as a source of energy instead of free blood glucose, the body sheds weight at a faster rate. Critics attribute the weight loss to caffeine instead of chlorogenic acid. However, GCBE contains only 10 percent caffeine by weight, about half the caffeine in a strong cup of coffee.

Patients seeking cheap and easy ways to lose weight have been keeping their doctors busy for centuries. Greek physician, Soranus of Ephesus, could legitimately be described as the world's first bariatric specialist. Bariatrics is the study of weight loss. For his patients, he prescribed exercise, massage, heat, purgatives and laxatives. Perhaps surprisingly, these became the mainstay of treatment for over a thousand years.

Amphetamines ruled in the post-depression era of the '30s. Over the following 30 years, it was discovered that not only were they addictive but they were found to cause heart problems as well. By the 1960s, they were banned.

In the '90s, Fen-Phen was top of the charts for helping people lose weight. Favored by both patients and physicians alike, it was a composite of two active ingredients, phentermine and fenfluramine. These, too, were shown to be dangerous and subsequently withdrawn from the market. It turned out they caused pulmonary hypertension and damaged valves in the heart.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, a promising new drug called Ephedra became the weight loss treatment of choice (named after Soranus, the Ephesian, maybe). Linked to stroke, hypertension and death Ephedra was withdrawn from the market.

However promising the emerging data concerning green coffee bean extract for weight loss may appear to be, GCBE should be used with caution. All drugs are 'dirty' and have harmful side effects at high doses or over time. Drinking water in too high a concentration can be fatal. Green coffee bean extract contains thousands of different chemicals. Not all of them have been as thoroughly characterized as caffeine and, to a lesser extent, chlorogenic acid. Some of the GCBE preparations currently available over the Internet contain as much as 800 milligrams of coffee extract. People considering using this dietary supplement as an aid to losing weight should certainly consult their medical adviser. Enjoying the occasional refreshing, revitalizing iced beverage should be harmless to most people.




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