Ever tried green coffee?  I haven’t, simply because I’m not a coffee drinker.  But I have heard mixed feedback from those who have tried it.

Green coffee beans are nothing but unroasted coffee beans.  Chlorogenic acid is believed to be the main active ingredient in green coffee. This ingredient is also believed to increase body metabolism and aid in weight loss, although there is no substantial evidence for it.  Green coffee has therefore found it’s way into the must-have lists of weight watchers.  Some people claim that green coffee has helped them to lose weight but some others are skeptical about it.

For someone who is not used to drinking coffee, green coffee could have the same negative effects as regular coffee because both contain caffeine.  So, taste it if you wish but do not go overboard with it.

Green coffee is also available with probiotic spores.  The spores help to improve your gut bacteria levels.

Those of you who went for the Coffee Santhe at the beautiful boulevard on MG Road, Bangalore, would have smelt, sipped and admired the coffee varieties and other goodies there.  It was a treat to see the coffee video, listen to the coffee story, experience the different flavours of coffee, and admire the various ways in which coffee can be a part of our lives.  Coffee jewelry, coffee flavoured desserts, coffee furniture, varieties of kaapi and coffee vied for attention. 

The health brochures on coffee brought out by the Coffee Board caught my attention.  A brochure on coffee & Parkinson’s says that there could be an inverse relationship between coffee drinking and the development of Parkinson’s although the mechanism of action is yet to be identified.  Another brochure quoted a study to say that men who drank 2 to 3 cups of coffee per day had lesser risk of gall bladder stones.  The brochure on coffee and diabetes said that there could be a protective mechanism of coffee against type 2 diabetes, although this area requires much more research and is currently inconclusive.

While coffee is definitely coming back into the limelight, most research studies are being done in the western countries.  The effects of coffee on health seen there might not necessarily apply to us or vice versa.  India has a large coffee-drinking population and it would be worthwhile to run studies in our country to understand the true efficacy on health.

Meanwhile, if you’re a coffee drinker enjoy it but keep the intake to 2 cups a day.