By Nurse Mark

Next weight loss miracle or just more bunk?

You’re seeing it nearly everywhere now – the mighty Dr. Oz has promoted it on TV, it’s in print ads in newspapers, tabloids, and magazines, and spam ads are overwhelming your email in-box.

Green Coffee beans are the newest weight-loss miracle that promises:

• Reduce sugar, LOSE WEIGHT FAST!
• Inhibit weight gain, MELTS BODY FAT!
• All this, WITHOUT ANY CHANGES IN DIET OR EXERCISE!

Wow – Talk about a MIRACLE!

Wait a minute – that’s just what the Great and Mighty Oz called it – a “miracle.” On his show when touting this stuff he used the terms “staggering,” “unprecedented,” “magic,” “miracle pill,” and even “cure.”

I don’t know about you, dear reader, but quite frankly the B.S. Alert Meter on my dashboard is flashing red right about now… (oh, come on – don’t accuse me of naughty language; B.S. stands for “Bad Science,” not what you were thinking!)

It seems that a lot of you are wondering if this stuff is really be real or if it’s just another scam too – you’ve been sending us emails and letters asking for our thoughts about it.

So, I’ve been looking into Green Coffee Bean extract. And what I’ve found is that I doubt very much that this stuff will ever live up to the hype, but that used as one of many tools in a comprehensive weight loss program there may be some merit to it.

There’s the nitty-gritty of it. It is NOT a miracle magic weight loss silver bullet – there ain’t no such thing!

It is possible that there may be some beneficial effects from chlorogenic acid – thought to be the active component in Green Coffee extract – that could help with weight loss when combined with a sensible program of diet and exercise.

But can you eat Hagen Daaz, fudge brownies, and French fries and expect Green Coffee pills to magically make you lose weight? To “melt” your belly fat? Don’t be silly!

Will the mere act of lifting the magic Green Coffee pill to your mouth relieve you of the need to do some real exercise if you want to be slim and fit? C’mon, you don’t really believe that do you?

Most of the claims about the effectiveness of Green Coffee extract are based on one small (16 people) and brief (22 weeks) human study that was conducted in India and sponsored by the manufacturer of the “GCA” brand Green Coffee extract supplement that was used in the study – what could possibly go wrong with that?

The study was reasonably well-conducted, despite it’s many flaws, and at the end of it all it looks like participants lost an average of 8 kilograms (17.6 pounds) over the course of the study – or about 0.8 pounds (12.8 ounces) a week.

Ummm… three-quarters of a pound a week? If that is your entire weight-loss strategy you have a problem…

On the other hand, in reviewing the medical and research literature on chlorogenic acid (which is not something exclusive to Green Coffee by the way!) it is apparent that this substance may be useful as an additional tool in dealing with a number of conditions. Green Coffee extract / chlorogenic acid is also potent antioxidant and may have some research demonstrating it’s use in supporting cardiovascular health.

So, should you rush out and buy some so that you can be as skinny as the models they show in the big glossy ads? You know the ones – the teenage girl gymnast types with 22 inch waists standing sideways in a pair of huge pants that someone got from a thrift store – sometimes even claiming to be “an actual customer.” Yeah, those ads – you knew they were as phony as a three-dollar bill didn’t you? Of course you do – you just got carried away with the excitement of the claims and forgot…

But will it help me lose weight?

Yes, if you are going to follow a sensible weight loss diet plan (like the Super Fast Diet) and increase your activity and exercise then maybe adding Green Coffee extract might help you lose an extra pound a week – or maybe not. But given that there don’t seem to be any significant side effects reported, it probably can’t hurt anything more than your wallet…

How can you know what is a good brand?

Dr. Myatt currently does not offer Green Coffee Bean extract. That is because she has not yet found a product that meets her quality, potency, and purity standards. She is interviewing suppliers and hoping to find something that she is willing to put her name on soon, but the supplement industry really is “the wild, wild west” and it’s even worse with something as over-hyped as Green Coffee extract is. There is an awful lot of absolutely awful junk on the market.

If you are looking for a supplement, be sure to read the label – doses vary. So does something called “standardization” which assures you that you are getting what is claimed on the label. Quality varies too, and if something is significantly cheaper than all the others, there is usually a good reason for that…

The most effective dose used in the study was 350 mg standardized to 45.9% chlorogenic acids taken three times daily. Be sure you are getting a Green Coffee Bean extract with the proper standardization of chlorogenic acid (45-50%). Also make sure there is at least 200mg of Green Coffee Bean Extract at 45-50% chlorogenic acid per capsule.

There was Hoodia, and Irvingia, and Green Tea, and Bitter orange, and of course Raspberry Ketones. Better yet, now it looks like you can get pills with ALL of these! A little bit of this, a little bit of that…

Now after bombarding us with the glory of Green Coffee Beans The Great and Mighty Oz has turned to promoting saffron extract as the newest “weight loss miracle – that melts belly fat.” Do you see a pattern here?

What’s next? My prediction: Wait for it, your email inbox is about to be stuffed with spammy ads for – Ta Da! – Cranberries. Yup, the humble cranberry was found in a study to control blood sugar and “slow starch digestion.”

And so it goes – the eternal search for the elusive fat-melting pill… and the fountain of youth, and unicorns while we’re at it.

References:

“The” study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3267522/

One writer’s critique of the study, detailing it’s flaws and weaknesses: (Fair warning – this writer and blog is VERY much opposed to natural medicine of any kind)

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/dr-oz-and-green-coffee-beans-more-weight-loss-pseudoscience/

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