If there were a drug that could improve your eyesight, lower your blood pressure and help you lose weight, it would be the drug of the millennium. You’d never hear the end of the advertising.
But you can get all three of those benefits at once. You just don’t hear about this very much because the secret is hidden in a plant compound, which can’t be patented.
It’s called chlorogenic acid.
Green coffee bean extract has plenty of this compound, which is why people lose weight when they take it. One study of the effects of green (unroasted) coffee bean extract found that it helped people lose 17 pounds on average in about five months.
A number of studies show chlorogenic acid significantly lowers blood pressure. An average dose of 140 mg daily lowered blood pressure 5.6 mmHg systolic and 3.9 mmHg diastolic.
And as if you need another health benefit to drinking coffee, research at Cornell shows that the chlorogenic acid in coffee is a powerful antioxidant that protects the retina in the eye.
According to the Cornell scientists, coffee consists of 7 percent to 9 percent chlorogenic acid, whic may keep your eyesight from deteriorating and prevent blindness from retinal damage, glaucoma, diabetes and aging.
The retina is on the back wall of the eye. It contains millions of cells that receive light and transfers the information to nerve cells. The retina is very metabolically active and consumes plenty of oxygen. That makes it highly vulnerable to oxidative stress.
Coffee’s chlorogenic acid can help prevent potential damage from the by-products of this oxygen consumption.
If you’d like to take a supplement instead of just drinking coffee, look for a green coffee bean extract that has low caffeine, and at least 50% chlorogenic acid.
