First and foremost: what the hell is a green coffee bean?

If you are like most people in this world, you probably didn’t realize that coffee beans actually come from a fruit/berry known as a “cherry” (not to be confused with the delicious cherries in my grandmother’s Cherry Dream Pie). Green coffee beans are composed of the seed (what we typically think of as a coffee bean) and the silverskin. So why is it that this rather ugly-looking fruit is the latest craze?

Recently, there have been claims (mostly from the media) about green coffee bean extract and its link to weight loss, decreased blood pressure, and antioxidant effects. What do green coffee beans have that roasted coffee does not? The major difference is that green coffee beans have a much larger amount of Chlorogenic Acid (CGA) per mg than roasted coffee. When we roast coffee, the beans are heated to an extremely high temperature and much (not all, as the media claims) of the CGA is lost during that process. CGA, which is also found in plums and other fruit such as berries, has been thought to slow the release of sugar in the blood stream and cause the body to burn sugar and fat stored in the liver. But, is green coffee bean extract the miracle drug we’ve been waiting for? Below we have listed the health claims linked to green coffee bean extract, and in bold, you will find our research backed rebuttal.

Claims:
1. It will help lower your blood pressure. There is actually a substantial amount of literature to support this claim. HOWEVER, most studies only report a decrease of 1-5 mmHG in Systolic and Diastolic blood pressure. Guess what?!? You can get the same, if not greater, antihypertensive effects, by losing weight, exercising, and improving your diet (specifically, decreasing your salt intake and increasing your fruit consumption). 
2. According to an article reference in the Dr. Oz show, green coffee bean extract can help you lose 18 pounds and decrease your body fat by 4.4%. Sorry friends, there DEFINITELY isn’t enough evidence to support this dramatic claim. Although there is evidence to indicate that the intake of green coffee bean extract can promote modest weight loss, results vary and the long term weight loss effects are unknown. Additionally, there are limitations to the current literature. First-  there is no known effective dose. The current literature does not reveal any trend regarding what dosage is most effect, and more importantly, what effects that dosage has on the rest of the body. Safety of green coffee bean extract is not known, and thus, side effects have yet to be established. Second- the methodology of the current literature seems flawed. To date, only five human trials have been conducted. All of these were at a high risk of bias (two of the authors were affiliated with the company whose product they were testing) and were poorly organized (ex: small sample sizes and short intervention durations).

Bottom line: there isn’t enough research to support green coffee bean extract as a weight loss supplement. This area of research is still very new, so that miracle drug we’ve been looking for hasn’t quite been discovered yet (or if you were to ask us- it has been discovered. Hint- it has to do with HEALTHY EATING and PHYSICAL ACTIVITY). Even Starbucks isn’t jumping on that bandwagon. If you read their Q&A section about the benefits of green coffee beans, no where do they list weight loss as a possible benefit. Word to the wise: their new “refreshers” are wonderful if you are looking for a low-calorie (most of them have ~60-70 calories) slightly caffeinated (think the same amount of caffeine in two pieces of dark chocolate) non-coffee tasting drink. Our advice: save the $40 you would have spent on the green coffee bean extract and spend it on a new pair of running shoes or cute workout clothes!