Authors retract study of green coffee bean extract

Remember when green coffee bean extract was the next big thing in weight loss, touted as a breakthrough by Mehmet Oz?

Well, fuggedaboutit.

Last week, the 2012 study that started the hype was retracted by Joe Vinson and co-author Bryan Burnham of the University of Scranton. Writing in the journal Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity: Targets and Therapy, Vinson and Burnham said they were retracting the study, published in the journal, because "the sponsors of the study cannot assure the validity of the data."

The retraction followed a $3.5 million settlement last month between Applied Food Science Inc. - maker of a green coffee bean product and sponsor of Vinson and Burnham's study - and the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC called the study, conducted by researchers in India at AFS Inc.'s behest, "so hopelessly flawed that no reliable conclusions could be drawn from it." The study's lead investigator repeatedly altered the weights and other key measurements of the subjects, the FTC alleged. He changed the length of the trial and misstated which subjects were taking the placebo, the agency said.

When the Indian investigators were unable to get the study published, the FTC said AFS hired Vinson and Burnham to rewrite the study for submission to journals.

"Despite receiving conflicting data, Vinson, Burnham, and AFS never verified the authenticity of the information used in the study," the FTC said in a news release.

- Los Angeles Times