A fascinating study, conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut, shows that green tea may stop the build up of fatty deposits in the liver. Fatty liver is on the rise in the U.S., increasing in line with the ongoing obesity epidemic.

According to the American Liver Foundation: “It is normal for your liver to contain some fat. But if fat accounts for more than 10% of your liver’s weight, then you have fatty liver and you may develop more serious complications.”

Extracts from green tea may stop the build-up of fatty deposits in the liver, according to a new study with mice that was published in the Journal of Nutrition.

If the results can be translated to humans, green tea and its extracts could become a useful preventative in the development of fatty liver, a condition that is usually symptom-less but said to increase the risk of liver inflammation, and ultimately results in liver failure.

Researchers from the University of Connecticut used genetically-obese mice and, using lean mice as a comparison, fed them a diet containing zero, one, or two percent green tea extract (GTE) for six weeks.

At the end of the study, the researchers report that the obese mice fed the GTE-supplemented diets had 23% to 25% less body weight than the obese mice fed the non-supplemented diet. Moreover, the lean mice fed the GTE-supplemented diets had 11% to 20% less body weight than their lean counterparts on the non-supplemented diet.

Measurements of the blood enzymes alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase, used as markers of liver damage, showed that GTE supplementation was associated with 30% to 41% and 22% to 33% lower activities, respectively.

Researcher Richard Bruno said: “Nearly 40 million Americans are afflicted with this silent and tragic disease. Weight-loss is the primary recommendation for those with fatty liver disease. Since this is difficult for most people, we hope that our continued studies on green tea will lead to the understanding of its protective properties and to what extent green tea protects humans from this disease.”

Journal of Nutrition 138:323-331, 2008