Is Green Tea Good for Your Liver Health?

What is green tea? 

Green tea is the least processed type of tea. It is taken from the unoxidised leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. Due to that reason, it has high antioxidants and improves body function. Green tea is taken as a detoxing agent. It has numerous benefits, including enhancing liver function.

How green tea consumption deals with liver health? 

According to NCBI, green tea can help regulate lipid metabolism, reducing lipid accumulation in the liver. Green tea intake reduces the risk of liver disease as green tea has polyphenolic antioxidants that protect against malignant transformation.

Types of green tea 

All the following types of green tea are used in Japan than in other countries. Each type is prepared using different methods.

Sencha  

Sencha is a commonly used variety of green tea. Sencha are made using the most common method, where the leaves are steamed and rolled to produce natural tea.

Fukamushi sencha 

This type of green tea is steamed twice as long as sencha. Tea leaves are exposed to hot steam for a long time, making them powdery. The taste of the tea may be stronger and is dark in colour. The key benefit of this tea is that its active components are absorbed into the body even though they do not dissolve in water.

Gyokuro  

Gyokuro tea formation is a different method. Before picking the tea leaves, the gyokuro tea bushes are covered with cloth for 20 days. This covering suppresses the formation of catechins (a crystalline phenolic compound that is a major constituent of many plants) from amino acids, resulting in a rich flavour with lower astringency.

Kabusecha  

Before picking, the bushes are covered with cloth to block most sunlight exposure. The growth of new leaf shoots in the absence of sunlight gives dark green colour to the leaves. This method is called covered culture. It enables low astringency and high flavour in the leaves.

Matcha  

This type of tea is used in Japan’s traditional tea ceremony. In those days, matcha was made from nearly 100 years old tea bushes. As tea cultivating methods have been improved, it provides the best tea without the need for 100 years old tea bushes.

Tencha  

This tea is a key ingredient for matcha. Tencha bushes are grown by following the covered culture. The leaves are steamed and dried without rolling. When the vein lines and stalks are removed, the leaves are called tencha.

Genmaicha  

Genmaicha is a Japanese name describes brown rice. Brown rice is the rice that retains the bran. These brown rices are soaked and steamed. Then they are roasted and popped.

They are mixed with sencha or other tea varieties in a 50:50 ratio. The caffeine is low in genmaicha when compared with other tea varieties, which makes it a suitable tea for children and elderly people.

Hojicha  

Roasting sencha or other varieties of tea are called hojicha. This gives a peculiar roasted aroma. These leaves are roasted in a roasting pan at 200 degrees Celcius. Then they are immediately cooled.

While roasting, the caffeine is sublimated (changed from solid to gaseous state directly), and the hojicha becomes less bitter. The savoury aroma and clear and light taste of hojicha is enjoyable.

Shincha  

The first picking of the season is called shincha. Usually, the tea picking begins from the temperate region and gradually moves northward. The nutrients are stored in tea bushes during winter. These nutrients are essential for the growth of spring shoots and new leaves. The key feature of shincha tea is its rejuvenating scent and the refreshment of new leaves.   

Sanbancha  

The later harvested leaves are called sanbancha. In some other areas, sanbancha is also called nibancha. The  ichibancha (another name of shincha) picking is followed by sanbancha. The processing method is the same as the processing method of other tea varieties. 

Benefits of green tea 

Parkinson’s disease 

Drinking nearly 4 cups of green tea every day protects against the development of Parkinson’s disease.

Ovarian cancer 

NCBI states that regular consumption of green tea shows a decreased risk of ovarian cancer development in women. But drinking green tea did not prevent recurring ovarian cancer in women with ovarian cancer from the past.

Osteoporosis  

Mediterranean osteoporosis study proved that drinking a maximum of 3 cups of green tea per day was associated with a 30% reduction in the risk of osteoporosis.

Oral leukoplakia 

According to a study of NCBI, patients with oral leukoplakia were given green tea capsules, including tea ointment and a placebo with topical glycerin. This treatment results in a 38% reduction in the risk of oral leukoplakia.

Low and high blood pressure 

Drinking green tea regularly and health-promoting lifestyle modification shows a significant reduction in systolic and diastolic blood pressure in patients with low and high blood pressure, says NCBI.

Endometrial cancer 

NCBI says that green tea has a protective effect on endometrial cancer among non-alcohol drinking and non-smoking women. This preventive effect of endometrial cancer risk is observed in premenopausal women.

Cervical dysplasia 

Cervical dysplasia is the growth of abnormal cells in the narrow neck of the cervix (woman’s uterus) due to the human papillomavirus (HPV). NCBI says that green tea consumption can be a potential therapy for patients with HPV infection in cervical lesions.

How much green tea intake is safe? 

Drinking two to three cups of green tea per day reduces the risk of Diabetes and the risks of certain diseases, including liver cancer.

Side effects of green tea consumption 

The caffeine in green tea may cause mild to severe side effects, like,

• Headache,
• Constipation,
• Sleep problems,
• Nervousness,
• Vomiting,
• Diarrhoea,
• Irritability,
• Irregular heartbeat,
• Tremor,
• Dizziness,
• And confusion.

Effects of green tea on, 

Serum biomarkers 

According to the Hindawi research journal, the effect of green tea extracts showed a considerable reduction in serum triglycerides in chronic alcohol-induced fatty liver.

Alcohol metabolism 

Green tea extracts promote the conversion of acetaldehyde to acetic acid, followed by increase in the acetaldehyde concentration. This conversion process would reduce health damage, says Hindawi journal. It is proven that green tea consumption help speed up the metabolism of alcoholic compounds in the body.

Body weight and liver lipids 

According to Science Direct, lipid oxidation is activated by green tea. Green tea improves hepatic metabolism and decreases lipogenic genes.

It reduces white fat depots in the liver. All these processes are associated with adiponectin (a hormone released in fat or adipose tissues).

A decrease in adiponectin causes an increase in body weight and a reduction in liver lipids metabolism, says NCBI.

Antioxidant capacity 

NCBI says there is a 4% increase in human plasma antioxidant capacity after drinking 400 ml of green tea. This 4% increase is observed 40 minutes after the green tea consumption. The ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) was also observed in urine samples 1 hour after consuming green tea.

Inflammation levels 

Green tea and its key component, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), have been demonstrated to have anti-inflammatory effects on humans and animals in an experiment conducted by NCBI. 

Conclusion  

Thus, consuming green tea will improve liver health due to the presence of antioxidants in unoxidised leaves of green tea, which benefits the tea drinkers. Tea lovers can use green tea as a substitute for milk tea.

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