Chlorogenic Acid: The Solution to Weight Loss, Wrinkles, and Being Cold?
Chlorogenic acid is a relatively common compound that is often overlooked in our diet. Found in green coffee beans, tea, and various fruits and vegetables, chlorogenic acid is no mystery supplement.
As the title suggests, the effects of chlorogenic acid are multifaceted, including, but not limited to, preventing droopy or wrinkly skin, aiding in weight loss, and slightly increasing body temperature (resulting from an increased brown fat-to-white fat ratio).
Chlorogenic acid (CGA) is a polyphenolic compound found in many plants. It is known for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, but we will focus on its lesser-known and, in my opinion, more beneficial effects.
Skin Quality
AGEs or Advanced Glycation End Products are extremely toxic molecules that form irreversibly throughout life. To make an AGE, a sugar (glucose or fructose) first reacts with a protein, lipid, or piece of DNA. Second, the molecule rearranges itself to a more stable form. Lastly, over time, this stable form undergoes oxidative stress and irreversibly becomes an AGE. This new AGE can adhere to any protein and alter its shape, thereby inhibiting its intended function.
Prime targets of AGEs include collagen, myelin, and tubulin (Singh, 2001). Notably, collagen is a primary component of our skin, blood vessels, and connective tissue. Our skin is composed of 70-80% collagen; when AGEs crosslink with collagen (i.e., bond to it and alter its shape), it becomes stiffer, less elastic, and more challenging to repair (Oikarinen, 1994). As a result, the skin begins to look “old,” characterized by sagging and wrinkling, and its overall quality decreases. A study published in 2012 concludes that “there is ample evidence that AGEs play an important role in skin aging“ (Gkogkolou, 2012).
Chlorogenic acid was tested against several molecules known to increase the percent inhibition of AGEs (i.e., its ability to prevent the formation of AGEs) and outperformed all of them (Gugliucci, 2009). Known to reduce the percentage of glucose absorbed as well as the general formation of AGEs, chlorogenic acid is, in my opinion, the perfect way to prevent these toxic molecules from being irreversibly formed. To conclude this subsection on how chlorogenic acid can be used to avoid the appearance of aged skin, CGA prevents a significant percentage of AGEs from forming, reducing the amount of collagen within skin that gets cross-linked and can’t be fixed.
Weight Loss and Coldness Factor
Our body has two types of fat: white fat and brown fat. White fat primarily serves as an energy storage for the body and is the type of fat we try to avoid accumulating. Brown fat, however, contains many more mitochondria, and rather than storing the extra energy or calories, it burns them in the form of heat. People living in very cold regions have been found to have a larger ratio of brown fat to white fat than the average person, a mechanism that helps them remain warm (Saito, 2009).
White fat stores energy and contributes to weight gain when in excess, while brown fat actively burns calories to produce heat. In animal studies, chlorogenic acid has been shown to increase body temperature and activate brown fat, supporting weight loss.
“Chlorogenic acid increased energy expenditure in DIO mice. Consumption of chlorogenic acid effectively increased (A) body temperature, (B) body thermal dissipation and (C) brown adipose tissue activity ”(He, 2020).
The graphic above depicts three different mice that experienced different treatments. CK was fed a low-fat diet and served as a control, while HFD was fed a high-fat diet. Finally, the mouse labeled with chlorogenic acid was fed a high-fat diet but was supplemented with chlorogenic acid. We can observe that the chlorogenic mouse appears to be higher on the temperature index, and the study determined this difference to be statistically significant (He, 2020). This difference is due to an increased ratio of brown to white fat, which was also accompanied by greater weight loss in the chlorogenic acid-fed mice than in the HFD mice.
In conjunction with increasing body temperature, chlorogenic acid decreases glucose absorption as previously mentioned when discussing AGEs. It has been found that coffee enriched with green coffee beans reduced glucose absorption in humans by 6.9% compared to the control. Another study found that the average weight loss from chlorogenic acid-enriched coffee vs. normal instant coffee was 5.4kg and 1.7kg, respectively (Thom, 2007).
Chlorogenic acid has been a personal must-have as a young adult. It hasn’t been associated with any adverse side effects, prevents the buildup of AGEs that begin to accumulate early, and generally reduces glucose absorption. You can increase your chlorogenic acid intake by drinking coffee enriched with it, or if you’re like me and would prefer to take a supplement, you can. Below is the link to the brand that I like to take.
References
Gkogkolou, P., & Böhm, M. (2012). Advanced glycation end products: Key players in skin aging?. Dermato-endocrinology, 4(3), 259–270. https://doi.org/10.4161/derm.22028
Gugliucci, A., Helena, D., Schulze, J., & Souza, M. F. (2009). Caffeic and chlorogenic acids in Ilex paraguariensis extracts are the main inhibitors of AGE generation by methylglyoxal in model proteins. 80(6), 339–344. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fitote.2009.04.007
He, X., Zheng, S., Sheng, Y., Miao, T., Xu, J., Xu, W., Huang, K., & Zhao, C. (2020). Chlorogenic acid ameliorates obesity by preventing energy balance shift in high‐fat diet induced obese mice. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 101(2), 631–637. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.10675
Oikarinen A. (1994). Aging of the skin connective tissue: how to measure the biochemical and mechanical properties of aging dermis. Photodermatology, photoimmunology & photomedicine, 10(2), 47–52.
Saito, M., Okamatsu-Ogura, Y., Matsushita, M., Watanabe, K., Yoneshiro, T., Nio-Kobayashi, J., Iwanaga, T., Miyagawa, M., Kameya, T., Nakada, K., Kawai, Y., & Tsujisaki, M. (2009). High incidence of metabolically active brown adipose tissue in healthy adult humans: effects of cold exposure and adiposity. Diabetes, 58(7), 1526–1531. https://doi.org/10.2337/db09-0530
Thom, E. (2007). The Effect of Chlorogenic Acid Enriched Coffee on Glucose Absorption in Healthy Volunteers and Its Effect on Body Mass When Used Long-term in Overweight and Obese People. Journal of International Medical Research, 35(6), 900–908. https://doi.org/10.1177/147323000703500620
Singh, R., Barden, A., Mori, T., & Beilin, L. (2001). Advanced glycation end-products: a review. Diabetologia, 44(2), 129–146. https://doi.org/10.1007/s001250051591
