Re: Huel Black - green tea extract and liver toxicity

Nutrition
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Hi all.

I wondered if anyone could help.

I have been reading concerning articles about ingesting too much green tea extract, and the potential for liver toxicity and/or failure.

See:

Or

Obviously, the huel black edition includes 130mg of green tea extract per serving, which translates to 650mg per 2000kcal.

So if a person were to adopt a 2000kcal huel consumption daily for many months, would you be concerned about the long term levels of green tea extract damaging the liver?

Secondly, would it be worth considering making a hule black edition without the green tea supplement for heavy consumers?

Many thanks in advance for everyone’s thoughts and help with this matter. :+1:

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I think you have to keep in mind that reports like this often refer to and base the levels on taking green tea extract in the form of concentrated supplement / capsule. Recommended levels are much higher when it comes to being consumed as part of a preparation such as a tea or in this case - a shake - where the daily limits are 704 mg (US) and 700mg (EU).

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We use green tea extract as it is rich in catechins especially epigallocatechin gallate which are polyphenols with antioxidant activity :slightly_smiling_face:

While there has been a few bits of research (whilst limited) of hepatotoxicity associated with extremely high doses of EGCG, it is important to note that these instances are not typically observed with regular green tea consumption or standard green tea extract supplements. As Phil mentioned, reported cases generally involve concentrated EGCG supplements taken at doses far beyond normal consumption levels.

Also, it’s always good to delve into the studies, the one linked above looking at ‘Hepatotoxicity with High-Dose Green Tea Extract’ focused on postmenopausal women, making it difficult to generalise the findings to the broader population.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to reply, and for the reassurance/confidence in taking the green tea extract within a shake. :+1:

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At least someone read the study, lol

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There are so many things that are “hepatotoxic”. Most drugs are hepatically metabolized. Consuming bad foods and obesity lead to steatosis, which eventually can become liver cirrhosis. Complete foods are protective in this aspect, as they are vegan and don’t contain any bad refined carbs or saturated fats from animal sources.

Alcohol is one of the worst things for your liver, though. And only very few people are able to live completely without it.

But who worries about that? Exactly, nobody, as it is considered to be “normal”.

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Thanks for your thoughts mbs, and you are of course correct indeed. :+1:

I for one have given up alcohol altogether since the start of January this year for the very reason you stated above.

I am attempting to move away from all things “bad for you” and aiming to adopt a much healthier lifestyle with diet, exercise and supplementation.

Hence I found huel.

2 weeks in on the powder (I had tried Ready to drink and Yfood before), I have absolutely been loving it so far.

Replacing lunch and snack with it most days, and some days even breakfast if running late.

Been using the v3.1 powder, and have got another bag and a bag of black to try yet.

On another note, can anyone suggest a good “complete greens” powder?

I tried one years ago, and my wife wasn’t keen so forgot about it. Can’t remember the brand…

Did huel ever do their own “complete greens” powder? (If not, perhaps it’s something they should get in to?)

It occured to me that I could potentially mix the “complete greens” powder to my huel to get all the benefits of algae, seaweed etc too…

Any suggestions welcome.