Can instant coffee cause cancer concerns when weight-loss blends hide sibutramine?

Weight-loss coffee sold through WeChat sellers and Xiaohongshu keeps making headlines because some products contain sibutramine, a banned appetite suppressant. The drinks often lack ingredient lists, production details, and Chinese labeling. Buyers report thirst, nausea, and palpitations, and some have tested positive for the drug. Plain black coffee plus diet and exercise remains the evidence-based route.

The popular claim that a cup a day removes a dozen-plus jin in thirty days has no reliable basis. Questions like whether iced americano or hot americano is better for weight loss miss the point: unsweetened, milk-free coffee supports fat loss only alongside a sensible diet and regular activity. Products without verified labeling should be avoided.

After specialty coffee became popular, the claim that coffee helps with fat loss spread widely, but the real prerequisite for it to be effective is drinking black coffee with no sugar and no milk, combined with a sensible diet and moderate exercise. However, many people can neither control their mouths nor move their legs, so weight-loss coffees touted under slogans like "no exercise, no dieting, no injections or pills, one cup a day and lose a dozen-plus jin in thirty days" seized the opening. Such products often have no ingredient list, no production information, and no Chinese labeling, yet sell briskly through WeChat sellers, Xiaohongshu, and other channels. After drinking them, consumers commonly experience thirst, nausea, palpitations, and in some cases have even tested positive for the banned drug sibutramine. This article sorts through related cases and verdicts to remind everyone to be wary of weight-loss coffees of unknown origin and to view the relationship between coffee and fat loss scientifically.

Nowadays, as long as a food product has anything to do with weight loss, its sales are basically never a problem. After specialty coffee culture gradually spread, many research papers and online articles mentioned that drinking coffee can help with fat loss, but all of this comes with a prerequisite—what you drink must be black coffee with no sugar and no milk, and it must also be paired with a sensible dietary structure and an appropriate amount of exercise.

For many young people, eating a little less may still be tolerable, but giving up sweet drinks and sticking to exercise often exceeds their willpower. Precisely because of this, some lawbreakers latched onto this psychology and brazenly peddled so-called weight-loss coffee that requires "no exercise," "no dieting," "no injections or pills," and promises that just one cup a day will shed a dozen-plus jin in thirty days.

The packaging of such products has no ingredient list, no production information, and no Chinese labeling to be found at all, yet they thrive in WeChat sellers' friend circles and on Xiaohongshu... After all, the temptation of losing weight while lying still is simply too great.

Add to that their low price and the almost nonexistent threshold for buying them, and many people seeking a shortcut to weight loss place orders without hesitation. Although some "consumers" online claim this kind of weight-loss coffee really works and share their process and results from drinking it for a month straight without restricting food or exercising.

But far more feedback describes discomfort after drinking it, such as thirst, nausea and retching, and palpitations, while the "sellers" all reply with the same line that this is a normal reaction... In this way, these lawbreakers, while remaining "unsuspected," repeatedly harvested the trust of consumers eager to slim down, until people really did get sick from drinking it.

On November 13 last year, the Jiangsu Anti-Drug public account published an article titled "'Thirst, nausea and retching, palpitations!' This weight-loss coffee is toxic—have you seen it in your friend circle?" introducing an instant coffee containing banned pharmaceutical ingredients. It mentioned a case: a girl in Cixi, Zhejiang, was introduced by a friend and bought 10 sachets of "Starry Sky Weight-Loss Coffee" from an online shopping platform. After drinking it, she experienced reduced appetite, dry mouth, dizziness and blurred vision, nausea, whole-body weakness, insomnia, accelerated heart rate, and elevated blood pressure. Alarmed, she went to the hospital for a checkup and only then learned that this "weight-loss coffee" had tested positive for sibutramine.

Sibutramine is a banned drug whose effect is to suppress the appetite center, making people feel fuller in the stomach and less hungry. It was once used in the early years as an adjunct treatment for obesity, but its side effects are obvious, causing accelerated heart rate and elevated blood pressure, and in severe cases it may trigger stroke or even death. In October 2010, the State Food and Drug Administration issued a notice stopping the production, sale, and use of sibutramine preparations and raw materials in our country.

Police then followed the trail and found that victims of the "weight-loss coffee" were spread across the country. These products labeled "authentic Korean edition" were actually produced in Jilin, Jiangsu, Hunan, and other places, with supplies coming from eight suspects including Luo, Li, Lü, Xu, and Gu. After "producing" them, they sold them via WeChat to multiple downstream buyers.

Among them, the source producer Lü mixed 50 grams of sibutramine into 1 kilogram of coffee powder, stirred it, then filled and packaged it, and even used a similar method to make weight-loss candies; Xu and Gu bought products from other suspects, changed the packaging, and sold them under the name "bulletproof coffee." These suspects were arrested and brought to justice one after another in December 2021, and the courts in the relevant areas also recently handed down judgments against them.

In January this year, the Xiangcheng District Procuratorate filed a criminal incidental civil public interest lawsuit against Xu and Gu on suspicion of producing and selling toxic and harmful food, requesting that the two publicly apologize to society in national media and issue a consumer warning, explicitly recall the "bulletproof coffee" already sold, bear compensation for consumers' losses, and pay punitive damages of more than 140,000 yuan, ten times the price. The local court supported the procuratorate's claims and made the above judgment in accordance with the law.

Recently, the Ningxiang Court, taking into account the facts of the crime, sentencing circumstances, attitude toward admitting guilt, and expression of repentance of defendant Li, sentenced Li in accordance with the law for the crime of selling toxic and harmful food to seven months in prison and a fine of 10,000 yuan; the illegal gains of 4,578 yuan that Li turned over to the Ningxiang Court were confiscated in accordance with the law and turned over to the state treasury.

Although these suspects who mixed sibutramine into coffee have been arrested, quite a few weight-loss coffees are still circulating secretly on the market. They usually have no production information and no Chinese labeling, and claim to be widely welcomed by consumers in Thailand, South Korea, and other places. Especially in recent years, bulletproof coffee has been favored by health-conscious consumers, so many lawbreakers have taken advantage of the name of bulletproof coffee to sell coffee containing banned drugs to others.

As consumers, when facing any drug marketed under the banner of "miraculous effects" or "weight loss," we must be wary of the tricks hidden behind them, and we must never be greedy for things obtained without effort. If you truly want to lose weight and slim down, it requires paying a price. Daily dietary control, regular rest, and reasonable exercise can play a certain regulatory role. If medication really is needed for adjustment, you must choose a regular hospital and follow the doctor's arrangements to ensure medication safety. Never listen to the nonsense of WeChat sellers, or in the end "wanting to be thin" turns into "wanting to live long."

No market! Then no buying and selling!

Friends who really want to use coffee to help with weight loss might as well try drinking a cup of black coffee with no sugar, no milk, and no additives before exercising. In January last year, a study by the Department of Physiology at the University of Granada showed that consuming caffeine 30 minutes before exercise can significantly increase the rate of fat oxidation during exercise.

Only through hard work can one taste the joy of harvest when the harvest season arrives. Walking into the gym with a cup of Americano to lift weights can both strengthen the body and make new friends—why not? Maybe because of coffee, you'll even meet someone who truly understands you; just thinking about it makes you happy.

Image source: Internet

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.