SOMETIMES IT SEEMS there are so many supposed superfoods out there that they ought to have their own cinematic universe and a Snyder cut. Green coffee beans, which are simply coffee beans that haven’t been roasted yet, have a long history of being called superfoods, from the green coffee they brew to extracts in a vitamin supplement.
In 2012, TV personality Dr. Oz endorsed green coffee bean extract as a surefire way to lose weight, which is always a red flag. Subsequently, the Federal Trade Commission charged a company profiting off this fad with deceiving consumers. What’s more, a 2014 paper demonstrating green coffee bean extract’s safety and effectiveness as a weight loss supplement was retracted, and all this together ought to be enough of an answer.
Just to be thorough, Rui Hai Liu, a food science professor at Cornell University, helped us dive into the myth behind unroasted coffee beans.
IS GREEN COFFEE GOOD FOR YOU?
First of all, coffee — any kind of coffee — brings health benefits. Coffee beans contain over 800 naturally occurring compounds. While the Internet ping-pongs on whether coffee is good or bad, there’s evidence that coffee contains health-boosting chemicals.
As with many purported superfoods, green coffee is heralded as a rich antioxidant source. These antioxidants in green coffee come from a phytochemical, or naturally occurring plant chemical, called chlorogenic acid. There’s a belief that chlorogenic acid influences how quickly the body metabolizes fat, and while there has been some evidence that it may, the evidence isn’t clear.
“I think that people just like the term ‘green coffee,’” Liu tells Inverse.
In a previous Check, Please! on coffee, computational materials chemist at the University of Oregon, Christopher Hendon, tells Inverse, “literally everything on earth contains antioxidants.” Antioxidants don’t make green coffee beans or their beverage byproduct special.
