Does caffeine increase weight loss?

Mayo Clinic dietitian Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D., and colleagues answer select questions from readers.

Answer

A few studies indicate that caffeine may slightly enhance weight loss in people who exercise and maintain a low-fat diet. But there's no evidence that increased caffeine intake results in significant or permanent weight loss.

Marketers of fad diets and weight-loss supplements often exaggerate the benefits of caffeine, claiming that caffeine will significantly curb your appetite and help you drop pounds quickly. However, clinical studies on the relationship between caffeine and weight loss don't support these claims.

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Colombia wants coffee countries to buy Starbucks

BOGOTA, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Coffee-growing nations should buy Starbucks and create their own distribution chain as the U.S. company grapples with slowing sales, Colombia's coffee federation chief said in an interview published on Sunday.

Gabriel Silva, director of the National Federation of Coffee Growers, also told El Tiempo newspaper that Colombia will accumulate four times the coffee stocks it did a year ago to build inventories and shore up coffee prices.

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McDonald's goes after slice of gourmet coffee market

By Carly Harrington
Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Want a latte with that Big Mac?

Customers can now order one at most Knoxville-area McDonald's restaurants where mochas, lattes and cappuccinos are being served up alongside Happy Meals.

The McCafe, a concept that was first introduced by the fast-food chain in Australia in 1993, has finally reached East Tennessee, where local franchisees are attempting to grab a share of the gourmet coffee market with the Golden Arches brand of espresso-based drinks.

"We're becoming baristas," said Tom Cochran, whose family owns 29 McDonald's restaurants in the area. "It's been a learning process."

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Across France, Cafe Owners Are Suffering

By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: November 22, 2008

SAULIEU, France — Nathalie Guérin, 35, opened Le Festi’Val bar and cafe here two years ago full of high hopes, after working at this little Burgundy town’s main competition, the Café du Nord. But this summer, business started to droop, and in October, she said, “it’s been in free fall.”

“Now there’s no one,” she said, standing in a somber room with a few sad holiday decorations, an idle pool table and one young man playing a video game.

“People fear the future, and now with the banking crisis, they are even more afraid,” she said, her eyes reddening. “They buy a bottle at the supermarket and they drink it at home.”

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