Debunking Coffee Weight Loss Myths

Hello friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the Unhealthy Podcast, my show that explores health beyond diet and fitness. We talk about unhealthy habits and lifestyles and try to change them into healthier ones. So I know it's been a couple of weeks since we had a show and I wanted to just get on here real quick for a couple of reasons.

One, I want to give you an update that yes, some more shows will be coming soon as I set up some interviews with friends and almost famous people to bring you some great content. But I'm also going to give you a few shows in here with just a quick personal update on some of the things that I'm doing that are working for me and not working for me. So I'm going to have a couple of shows about them.

Today's show, I want to talk about coffee and supplements and what I've been seeing since I've made a couple of those changes. But before I get to that, let me just give you, I guess, an overall view of my state of being since we got started. I know in the very beginning, we talked about my stubborn belly fat, which is pretty much the one thing that I wanted to focus on first.

And of course, that always gets pushed to the side with how busy I am. But one thing that we have been doing, and I had mentioned in the beginning, we did cut out soda. That was probably the first thing where I said, you know what, once all the soda's gone, no more soda.

So a lot more water. Still drinking coffee and tea but working on that. And trying to cut back on the sugar.

Now what we've also done is started substituting foods with more organic versions of them. For instance, we're doing organic farm fresh eggs and not just whatever's at the store there. Trying to do the same with chicken that we get.

And getting organic beans for my coffee and not just taking the prepared stuff. So that's kind of how the coffee thing came up. But the whole idea is to get into this concept of clean eating.

And I will go into that a little bit later on another show. I need to kind of describe that. I don't want to do that here.

But clean eating is the ultimate goal that I have. So I'm going to give it a shot. And I will say that, yeah, I still got some belly fat, but things are much better.

Feeling happier. I can't say that I've dropped a full belt size yet, but the pants are a little bit loose. So that feels good.

Let's see here. So today, let's talk about what's going on. So one of the things that I have been doing, as I mentioned, changing out the beans that I do.

Because I do grind my own beans. Of course, I do have some Keurig K Pods and we're moving to some of the organic brands. Of course, you know, the Keurig pods are quick and easy and that's always it.

But I do try to grind my own beans for a while. So I've gotten organic beans and I've gotten organic cinnamon sticks that I will grind up as well. And the whole idea is to try to reduce the amount of sugar and creamer that I put into the coffees.

One of the things that I actually did a little bit of research on before is to replace that, I actually look at this thing called Cacao. I don't know how to pronounce it. It's spelled C-A-C-A-O.

It's basically a very special organic cocoa powder. And I've been putting that in. It's obviously not the same as creamer and sugar, but it's supposed to be a much healthier thing that I do with that.

So that's what we're looking at. But when I started doing that, I started seeing these ads about all these so-called coffee tricks for weight loss. In fact, I even got a freaking email that was a whole advertisement about this one little supplement that you can add.

And I think it's called Java Burn or something like that. But all of these ads that I've seen both in email and on the social media, because you know folks, Facebook listens. So ads have started popping up for me on that.

And they claim that adding these supplements or even adding a little lemon juice can somehow trigger 24-7 fat burning and melt away stubborn pockets of fat. Now what I've also decided to do was to go and look for these peer-reviewed, because they all say that they're backed by scientific studies and they throw up, you know, Harvard Medical Review and some of these other things and they say that they're backed by them. But yet there's never a link to the actual articles.

So I thought, let me do my own research. So I tried to look for peer-reviewed scientific studies or articles on losing weight by adding a supplement powder to coffee. And guess what folks? Didn't find any.

Couldn't find a one. The closest thing that I found was I found in the National Library of Medicine an article that referenced the use of green coffee extract as a weight loss supplement and it gives the systematic review and meta-analysis. Now I'll put the link in the show notes because I couldn't read past the first paragraph.

It starts to get a little heady. But basically it says that there is evidence accumulating from animal studies that green coffee extract can be used as a weight loss supplement. In human subjects, coffee intake has been reported to be inversely associated with weight gain and consumption of coffee has also been shown to produce changes in several glycemic markers in older adults.

And that's the problem. I have no idea what that means and I don't have the time to research it and study it. But I will have a link to it and at some point get to it.

But here's the thing. All these ads and commercials and YouTube videos that talk about this basically to me are just nothing but a bunch of marketing mumble jumble. There's no scientific evidence to back any of these coffee tricks up for weight loss.

Now we know that coffee itself can give a little bit of a metabolism boost because of the caffeine. However, everywhere I have read says that it's a modest boost. The effect is only temporary so that once your body gets used to the caffeine, the boost goes away.

And you know, again, it really comes back to if you want to lose weight, keep it off. It really comes down to lifestyle changes, balanced diet, regular exercise, blah blah blah. So that's where we are.

So I wanted to just real quick talk about that. The cacao, I don't, again, C-A-C-A-O. There has been some things about that that can aid and be more healthy.

I don't know that it really is a weight loss thing at all. But again, here's some scientific stuff. It is rich in polyphenol antioxidants and fiber, which may help promote a healthy gut and improve metabolism.

The compounds, and they're words that I don't really know, theobromine and phenylethylamine or something like that, can act as a natural appetite suppressant and mood booster, helping to reduce cravings. So that's kind of where I went with that. Again, it's not very tasty.

So I don't know that it's something that I'm going to continue to do unless I can find a way to clean that up. But I just wanted to give an update and let you know that, yes, I am doing stuff, folks. I'm trying.

I'm making some changes. As I make those changes, I get hit up with these ads and comments and stuff. I actually need to thank a couple of listeners who have emailed me and talked about some of the previous shows that I've had on.

Specifically, somebody had written in about the functional nutrition that I did with Sherry Mills and said that that seems interesting and I really need to pursue it. So yes, I am. And I did have somebody reach out to me and ask if I had gotten my pizza from our good friend Dianne Feinstein, or Diana Feinstein.

And I have to say, no, I haven't. So I am going to send her an email and find out what happened to my pizza. But that's where I am, folks.

I will have a couple of other quick episodes like this just to give you an update on what I've done and what has worked and what has not worked and the research that I've done behind it. So that's enough of a rant for today. And let me ask you this.

If you have any tips or suggestions about the whole eating clean thing that I'm trying to do, let me know. Or maybe you have some thoughts on these, what I'm going to call, bogus coffee weight loss scams. Send me an email, hit me up on social media, and if you have any ideas, hey, I might even take some of your advice.

But for now, that's it. We'll see you next time. And until then, live healthy and be happy.