Not Easy Being Green

Got a note from a friend about green coffee extract. Dr. Oz did a segment on the stuff, which is unroasted coffee beans in capsule form, and supposed to melt off the pounds without having to diet and exercise. There was a study, people in it lost 10% of their body weight in a couple of months, with no side effects. Stores have sold out of the capsules, but you can still get the pure stuff online, even Amazon.com has it, and doesn't this sound terrific?

Why, yes, it does. Lose weight, no side-effects? No diet or exercise? Hallelujah!

Get online and the first few of pages of Gogglery sing the praises: It works! It's wonderful! It's a miracle!

And yet, to the cynic who lives down the hall in Steve's brain, a sniff,  and ... is that the slightest odor of, um ... snake oil ... ?

Online giveth, online taketh away. Dig a little deeper, there are some caveats. 

Basically this link tells you what they are, and there are others, here, and here, since the bean has considerable amounts of caffeine, that tops the list, and if you have high blood pressure or bowel problems or get jittery after the second cup of coffee in the morning, taking a capsule full of caffeine might not be something you'd want to do. 

Plus there is the narrowness of the study, which was funded by a Texas company that sells the stuff, done in India, with a statistically-small sample. As the writer points out, why didn't they used Texans and more of 'em?

Just as telling, perhaps, are the responses to the article, from people who have used the products. Those who lost weight; those who didn't. Those who gained weight. Amazon.com has more one-star reviews than fives.

For years, weight-loss products featured caffeine, because as a mild form of speed, one of the things it does is suppress appetite, while giving you energy. 

Stuff about some magic acid in the green bean form that does ... something nobody understands? One wishes to see a bit more research than, Well, don't know why it works.

Then there is Mr. Placebo Effect, who steps in and fiddles with the results all the time.

Generally, if something sounds too good to be true? Probably it is.

If you want to try it, maybe it'll do the trick, but read the caveats. And know that anything you put into your mouth is going to have some effect; anybody who tells you differently is almost always selling something ...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Turns out, when I checked this further, that the note I got from my friend wasn't from him, it was a shuck–somebody used his name on a Yahoo address to sneak past my spam filter. O the calumny!