The only theory of white kidney bean extract to lose weight may be a hoax

Considering that the past two or three decades of repeated failures, only these plausible results, for consumers, the wise judgment is: white kidney bean extract weight loss, completely unreliable White kidney bean extract weight loss? It's really a hoax Special contributor / Yun inadvertent of consumer report (the author is doctor of food engineering, senior member of American Food Technology Association, member of scientific squirrel Society) ）Weight loss is a popular topic in the field of health There are endless weight loss products in the market No matter how many false promotions are exposed, as long as new products appear, there are still many people who will try to lose weight White kidney bean extract is a new type of weight-loss product which has been hot in recent years However, this is just another example of health product manufacturers using information asymmetry to exaggerate propaganda Theoretically, it is possible that the effective component of white kidney bean is "kidney bean protein" (also known as "coumarin"), which can inhibit the activity of α - amylase, so that the starch absorbed through food can not be digested, nor can it be absorbed by human body to generate heat Therefore, kidney bean protein, which can inhibit the activity of amylase, is also called "starch blocker" Although white kidney bean contains starch blocker, it will lose its activity in the daily cooking process Therefore, it seems reasonable to take it as a "weight loss and health care product" However, if the theoretical feasibility is not supported by the facts, it is only a kind of deception The starch blocker in white kidney bean only has the activity of inhibiting α - amylase inhibitor How effective is the inhibition in the extract? How much can it play in the gastrointestinal tract? This needs scientific and rigorous data support However, what health care product manufacturers are good at is to take "possibility" as "fact" and "a little help" as "miraculous effect" Although there is only "theoretical possibility", health products manufacturers have developed "white kidney bean extract" for weight loss Then, as a "natural extract", it inevitably contains other "nutrients" and "effective ingredients", so health care providers have deduced a variety of other functions So is this theoretical possibility supported by the facts? Scientific research doesn't support white kidney bean's weight loss function Let's take a look at what has been found in the past few decades: in 1982, a study published in the New England Journal of medicine pointed out that there was no significant difference in the amount of calories in the stools between eating and not eating starch blockers Of course, health product manufacturers will not give up this "promising" product because of this experiment, and the academic community will not make a negative judgment based on this research alone Since then, a company that produces white kidney bean extract in the United States has funded a number of human trials to verify its weight-loss effect In 2004, they published an 8-week trial of 25 volunteers The results showed that there was no significant difference between the two groups of volunteers who took starch blockers and those who did not In 2007, they published a four week trial of 27 people This time, in addition to taking white kidney bean extract or placebo, the volunteers also had diet control and exercise at the same time The results were the same as last time, but there was no significant difference between the two groups According to the BMI index, total carbohydrate intake and net carbohydrate intake (i.e total carbohydrate minus dietary fiber), the researchers separate the experimenters, hoping to find out that the white kidney bean extract in a specific population will play a role of "helping to lose weight" After the game of data analysis, they finally came to the conclusion that in the "high carbohydrate group", people who ate white kidney bean extract lost more weight on average However, it should be noted that only 5 people eat white kidney bean extract and 3 people take placebo according to this classification It's very reluctant to make a conclusion for such a small sample size In 2009, they turned their attention to the effect of white kidney bean extract on blood glucose index A total of 10 volunteers took 1500, 2000 and 3000 milligrams of capsules or powders at different times The results showed that each dose of capsule had no effect on blood glucose; 1500 mg powder and 2000 mg powder had no effect, only 3000 mg powder barely reached statistical difference From the perspective of scientific evidence, such a result can also be understood as "not convincing" In 2010, Zhejiang University cooperated with Michigan State University and University of Georgia in another randomized double-blind controlled study After 60 days, the average weight loss of the experimental group was 1.9 kg In the control group, the weight decreased by 0.4 kg Although the results of the Zhejiang University study are statistically different, the effect of weight loss is not obvious Combined with all these studies, the scientific statement is that the current research can not prove that the white kidney bean extract can help lose weight Although the health care products business vowed that "the scientific research table understands that kidney bean extract can help lose weight", considering the repeated failures in the past two or three decades, only these plausible results have been obtained For consumers, the wise judgment is that: the white kidney bean extract is totally unreliable.