Research highlights the potential weight loss benefit of green coffee, which describes coffee beans spared from the process of roasting that gives them their usual brown color. Besides being a cost-friendly, accessible tool for weight management, green coffee extract offers a host of benefits from maintaining your natural skin glow to controlling metabolic syndrome

There's always another reason to grab and enjoy that steaming cup of coffee. This time, it's the weight loss properties found in green coffee extract that are making headlines.

Green coffee beans, scientifically known as Coffea canephora robusta, are raw coffee beans, meaning they did not go through the process of roasting. Perhaps the most highlighted benefit of green coffee is weight loss, with green coffee extract (GCE) being a key weight loss supplement. GCE is destroyed during roasting, so the traditional method of extracting it from green coffee beans involves the use of alcohol as a solvent.^[i]

Previous studies revealed consistent findings in human and animal studies on green coffee extract as a weight loss agent, suggesting that it may reduce weight in pre-obese adults and act as an inexpensive means to help prevent obesity from striking in overweight adults.^[ii] Its chlorogenic acids are deemed instrumental in lowering abdominal fat.^[iii]

Inexpensive Weight Loss Option

In a study published in June 2020, researchers echo that green coffee provides a cost-effective, safe alternative for treating the global epidemic of obesity.^[iv]

In their systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis, the group searched available online databases for related scientific papers on green coffee up to January 2020. They included all randomized clinical trials probing the effects of green coffee supplementation, comparing them with a control group, on measures such as body weight, body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage,  waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio.

After identifying 1,871 studies from their search, they analyzed 15 trials with a sample size of 897 participants. The researchers found "a significant reducing effect" of green coffee on body weight, BMI and waist circumference. There was, however, no significant effect seen on body fat percentage and waist-to-hip ratio.

They concluded that GCE supplementation can provide a cost-effective and safe solution to treating obesity, encouraging further well-designed studies to confirm their findings.

Further Green Coffee Benefits

Green coffee's positive effects, though, aren't limited to keeping extra pounds at bay. More than being an effective and accessible weight loss aid, it offers the following scientifically backed benefits:

• Skin health -- Green coffee contains high levels of volatile materials that can maintain healthy, glowing skin as well as reduce the appearance of wrinkles. It displayed a high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity when used on the skin of animal models.^[v]
• Lowering blood pressure -- Chlorogenic acids prominently found in green coffee are considered effective in decreasing blood pressure and may offer a safe tool for patients with mild hypertension.^[vi] They have been found to significantly push down systolic and diastolic markers during supplementation -- with no apparent side effects.
• Muscle injury protection -- Using green, as well as ripe, coffee may play a role in protecting muscle injury post-exercise.^[vii] In addition, it may reduce the percentage of visceral fat and consequently shield against further complications once this tissue produces disease-causing hormones.
• Fighting metabolic syndrome -- Supplementing with GCE had a favorable effect on glycemic control, lipid profile, blood pressure and insulin resistance markers in metabolic syndrome patients.^[viii] Combined with green tea extract, it also had beneficial action on improving metabolic syndrome by affecting relevant gene expression.^[ix]
• Neuroprotection -- Green coffee has been found to exert neuroprotective effects against Alzheimer's disease induced by insulin resistance.^[x] It is reported to attenuate insulin resistance and improve energy metabolism, with the potential to delay the onset of Alzheimer's or impede its progression.

GreenMedInfo.com has compiled 39 abstracts with green coffee research. For more information about coffee in general, check out our coffee research page documenting more than 40 health conditions that may respond favorably to its use.