Too Much Green Tea (or Matcha!) Could Lead to Liver Damage

There are a lot of benefits of green tea, but sipping too much (including green tea extract) could cause herbal hepatotoxicity, or liver damageYou've kicked your coffee habit by turning to green tea—arguably a smart move, considering What Drinking Green Tea Can Really Do for You.
But despite the health perks, downing too many teas could make some people sick. And that's exactly what happened to one 16-year-old girl after she started slurping three cups of Chinese herbal green tea a day over three months as part of a weight loss plan. She showed up at the hospital with what she thought was a severe UTI, only to find it her pain was from a herb-induced hepatitis. Scary!

The problem is called herbal hepatotoxicity, which is toxin-induced hepatitis, and it occurs when too many herbs or supplements—everything from Tylenol to green tea—chemically induce liver damage.

So what's the offending ingredient? Green tea is packed with catechins, antioxidant compounds. In the proper dose, these deliver big benefits like lower cholesterol and a reduced risk of heart disease and cancer. But highly concentrated doses (like those found in a lot of green tea weight loss supplements) can cause herbal hepatotoxicity.

"When you start taking the extracts and boiling them down into concentrated capsules, it's kind of like little tiny bombs going into your liver," says Niket Sonpal, M.D., a gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at Touro College in New York City. These super concentrated doses overwhelm your liver and cause the cells to break down. If affected, you can expect fatigue, severe abdominal pain, and jaundice—definitely not worth the price of a few pounds. (Instead, Drink This Before Dinner—It's the Easiest Way to Lose Weight!)

Figuring out how much is too much, though, isn't an exact science, says Christopher Hobbs, M.D., an herbalist who specializes in holistic health. Every body utilizes the compounds in foods and herbs in very different ways. How your liver eliminates or utilize natural compounds is determined by a slew of factors like genetics and what else you're eating, he says.

Does this mean you have to worry every time you have a spot of tea? According to Sonpal, probably not. "Green tea is incredibly safe for the most part," he says. "It's rare for hepatotoxicity to occur with daily normal consumption, like one or two cups."

The risk comes when you're downing herbal teas like water, Sonpal adds. Or if you've become a matcha maniac (guilty as charged!), it might not be a bad idea to check in with your doc since matcha is a concentrated form of green tea. "They can help you understand how much of a good thing is too much," he says.

Bottom line: Stick to two cups of green tea a day. Just because it's natural doesn't necessarily mean more is better!Shape