Green Tea Extract: The Pill Is Not a Stronger Cup, and the Liver Signal Is Real

Summary

Drinking green tea is a benign, mildly-beneficial habit, but the concentrated EGCG supplement is a different thing, not just a stronger cup: the fat-loss and metabolism claims are trivial in humans and collapse to nothing once caffeine is controlled out, while high-dose green tea extract carries a real, documented idiosyncratic liver-injury signal (case series, an RCT with transaminase elevations, a strong genetic susceptibility marker, and regulatory action), which is worst on an empty stomach, so the honest verdict is "the beverage is fine and lightly good for you, the pill is oversold for f