If you want to maintain a healthy liver, then avoid high-dosages of green tea in supplement form. Findings from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) suggest that these supplements could contribute to liver damage.
On the other hand, steeped green tea is still safe for consumption as long as the antioxidant level is fairly low.
Advertisement
It is known that green tea contains antioxidants, which are beneficial to health, but too high of a dosage of these antioxidants can cause more harm than good.
Green tea supplements typically contain 5–1000mg, whereas green tea infusions have around 90–300mg.
The researchers determined that consuming over 800mg raises the risk of health problems, but they couldn’t determine a safe dosage.
Where high levels of green tea extracts in supplements were found to be harmful, the same effects were not seen in tea infusions.
The research findings come after Canadian health officials raised warnings that green tea extract supplements should come with greater warnings of potential harm to the liver. Health Canada came to their conclusion after a review of a teenager who took supplements containing high levels of green tea extracts and was left with liver damage.
Advertisement
This prompted the EFSA to conduct their own research to determine if the antioxidants found in green tea could cause harm if overconsumed.
There are several studies that point to the benefits of the antioxidants in green tea, but the recent findings suggest that in order to obtain these benefits, you should stick to tea infusions rather than stocking up on supplements.
Also read:
Mohan Garikiparithi got his degree in medicine from Osmania University (University of Health Sciences). He practiced clinical medicine for over a decade before he shifted his focus to the field of health communications. During his active practice he served as the head of the Dept. of Microbiology in a diagnostic centre in India. On a three-year communications program in Germany, Mohan developed a keen interest in German Medicine (Homoeopathy), and other alternative systems of medicine. He now advocates treating different medical conditions without the use of traditional drugs. An ardent squash player, Mohan believes in the importance of fitness and wellness.
