Green coffee bean extract - Hype or real?

I keep hearing about this green coffee bean extract helping people lose weight without dieting & now I'm reading it helps release fat from the liver. Any validity to this? I would think if a supplement could help cure fatty liver it would be essential in some of our regimens.

Coffee inhibits iron uptake, which we all know causes our body lots of hell when present in excess, especially the liver. I think it has some merit. Supposedly it also protects the liver from alcohol and other toxins. Caffeine targets liver enzymes as well.

Satan, I wasn't sure if targeting liver enzymes was a bad or good thing, so I found this article--

http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/caffeine.shtml

Written by Ray Peat, who advocates sugar, so I'm not sure how seriously I should take it. He has some interesting ideas about nutrition.

There are other things that can help release fat from the liver. ABC has pointed out some of them, and if I'm not mistaken, I believe he's eliminated his own fatty liver. If a fatty liver is non-alcohol related, he said that the problem is probably LPS. Endotoxin is a huge problem and easily passes into circulation when leaky gut is present, and causes all kinds of problems including autoimmunity and fatty liver. If I'm wrong, I'm sure he'll call me out, but as far as my intuition goes, I believe LPS should be looked at a lot more when it comes to fatty liver. Its one of those ideas that just makes immediate sense to me.

I think ABC has also pointed out that high circulating fatty acids can also contribute, which makes it possible to accuse being overweight and/or insulin resistant. Until carbohydrate metabolism is normalized fatty liver might always be present to some degree. So rather than a supplement specifically, I'd probably focus on regaining insulin sensitivity, dropping body fat, keeping PUFA in check, healing the gut, and eliminating bacterial overgrowth.

That said, I think supplements like milk thistle (psilymarin), bitters (dandelion), phosphatidylcholine, selenium, and vitamin E can really help here. I'm always skeptical of a miracle supplement because there usually is no one thing. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

And as far as Ray Peat, I think he's a brilliant chemist. But I do think he tends to overextend his findings to the context of human physiology. Just because something behaves one way in vitro doesn't mean it will in vivo, and giving broad recommendations that attempt to fit everyone without addressing individual variability isn't a good idea. Things tend to behave different enzymatically in vivo that in vitro, chalk it up to the brilliance of the human body that eludes our compartmentalized way of thinking about it.

On D Roddy's weblog, he posted an email response from Matt Lalonde, my science man-crush at the moment. The response was to one of Ray's claims about certain amino acids effecting the thyroid. Check it out...it brings up some important points regarding how we have to look at some of these studies.

http://www.dannyroddy.com/main/2011/5/26/harvard-researcher-mat-lalonde-on-cysteine-the-thyroid.html

I actually got that info from Ray Peat, so yeah. I've been following a Peat inspired diet for a little while, with very high sugar, and I can say with 100% confidence that sugar is not the demon it's made out to be unless someone has a deranged metabolism. Amounts will vary from person to person, of course. Dark circles under my eyes have finally began to fade. I dropped all of the top 6 a week ago except Decalcify in favor of spending the extra money on more quality protein and more calories (just added yesterday, see my calorie thread), and after pigging out yesterday and this morning/afternoon, I am WARM on this rainy 65 degree day. My hands would usually be ice cubes in this weather.

Of course that's slightly beside the point here, but what I'm saying is that while it's true that some of Peat's ideas are a bit laughable, the core of his principles is brilliant and sound. I don't drink coffee, but his ideas in favor of it make me lean towards YES - coffee bean extract could be beneficial to your liver.

Now since im a guy you woud think i would have the mindset of weight loss is for women, But my weight got to a point that i just couldnt deal with anymore.. I tried the working out and my wife even had me start a diet but nothing was working. I came to learn that it is very hard for me to loose weight so i did some research and looked for a product that would be safe and wouldnt have me with a strict plan. After i found the green coffee bean extract which eventually led me to dr.oz's segment. I wanted to find a product with everything he said to have because i didnt want to fully have to change how i eat and exercise. With all that said i came to find Healthy Hope Naturals and their product was the best one i found.. to me anyways, not knocking off anybody elses product its just this had free shipping and was 100% natural, a veggie capsule and 800 mg. The bottle lasted me a month which is good because other supplements have a lower mg so you have to take more than one so u end up with less pills etc etc... So anyway, after my first month i ordered again and they have promos to give 2nd time customers 35% off. they are very nice there. im on 3 months now and ive lost a little over 24 lbs. i feel like a completely different problem and if anyone male or female is having the same weight issues as i did i would reccommend this product so goodluck to all. sorry for the rant i just really know how low i was feeling and this product really did change my life

mistyisland wrote:Satan, I wasn't sure if targeting liver enzymes was a bad or good thing, so I found this article--

http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/caffeine.shtml

Written by Ray Peat, who advocates sugar, so I'm not sure how seriously I should take it. He has some interesting ideas about nutrition.

Well, for what its worth, from what I've read elsewhere ray peat believes that coffee is basically healthy in moderation.

Now since im a guy you woud think i would have the mindset of weight loss is for women, But my weight got to a point that i just couldnt deal with anymore.

LOL, it is not a matter of necessity for men to maintain sexist ideas.

I have taken coffee bean extract under recommended dosages, and it did nothing in the way of hair regrowth. Ymmv.

My experience has been pretty good with it, I bought a 30 pill bottle to try and after taking it twice a day (800mg 2x a day) which lasted me a week and in the past 10 days I've lost 9lbs. I believe thats pretty good for a weight lost supplement.

I've been lookin into buying green coffee beans too. This Doctor Oz seems to be saying good things about it in his study. The case study done by him here youtube.com/watch?v=u0mqeq6EeJ8 seems to be pretty convincing. I may give it a try based on the results some of those women have seen in that video.

Lucy

This is good stuff for the liver, the compounds from green coffee extract helping the liver/bile are named chlorogenic acids (CGAs). I don't really like to use supps, I use whole foods when possible, in this case you have either green coffee or coffee specially roasted (HealthyRoast) to preserve the antioxidants/acids found in green coffee beans. I don't use it for weight loss, I am already normal/underweight, I use it for liver health since I have hepatitis.
If you want to lose weight and keep your hair, this is what I tried and it worked: www.drlwilson.com
But I cannot really recommend it since you need to use their supplements with fillers and synthetics vitamins which I couldn't stomach anymore after 6 months, and also I lost too much weight and I hurt myself doing enemas...but for an overweight person might work really well, with some effort. Even if you quit the program after a while, you will still gain some good understanding about health and continue doing some parts of their program you will love, like IR saunas, healthy diet, meditation, how to defend your energy...
Overall for me it was a positive experience.

Regarding CGA, some info:
http://www.itmonline.org/arts/chlorogenic.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22674675
for HBV: ttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22982394




"I have taken coffee bean extract under recommended dosages, and it did nothing in the way of hair regrowth. Ymmv."

You will never keep/regrow your hair simply by taking one/more supplement/s.This is common sense. There would be no baldies out there if it were that simple. The same goes for overweight people or other hard to treat diseases, so don't quickly believe some seller saying this product does this or that when reality and common sense tell you differently.
Hair loss is complicated, you need to understand a lot about general health, the theory behind autoimmune diseases (mpkb.org) and to find ways to fight that (jdp+CS+Prague posts especially). It is hard and needs constant work and some serious determination in order to overcome your own brain when it will work against you (this aspect it was not much discussed here, but it is important for one's health, this helps http://drlwilson.com/articles/meditation.htm...I am 100% sure the subconscious mind knows what will happen in the future (at least the near one) and based on something (maybe the amount of work/determination you put into something, I don't know...btw, that meditation says something interesting "successful people are always grounded") it will set you up for success or failure when your chance will come).

This is the best I can help you with, again it is hard work (at least for me) but it works when I am doing it, it really is possible to keep my hair (I have to say I don't have an aggressive hair loss case, but it gets worse when I let myself go and better when I do the work).

Overall I still think I will need a small hair transplant if I want perfect hair and I won't find better ways to keep what I have, but for someone that started losing hair 7 years ago I am doing OK at nw1-2 for the moment. I estimate that I should be nw3-4 if I wouldn't have done anything about it. Big thanks again to all the people on this forum that share their knowledge, especially CS, jdp and Prague.