Green Tea Intake Effect on Lipoprotein, Liver Enzymes, Body Mass Index, and Liver Cancer: A Meta-analysis

Introduction: Green tea is related to the reduction of liver enzymes, lipoprotein, and body mass index. However, some reports related green tea to the risk of developing liver cancer, but their outcomes were conflicting. Hence, the present study aimed to determine the relationship between green tea intake and lipoprotein, liver enzymes, body mass index, and liver cancer. Methods: A systematic literature search up to January 2020 was performed and 22 studies included 169599 subjects with 97316 of them use green tea intake. Odds ratio (OR) or mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) was calculated to evaluate the relationship between green tea intake and lipoprotein, liver enzymes, body mass index, and liver cancer using the dichotomous or the contentious method with a fixed effect or a random effect models. Results: Green tea intake significantly lowered the risk of developing liver cancer, and body mass index compared to no green tea intake. Also, there was a significant lowering effect of green tea intake on liver enzymes, lipoprotein compared to no green tea intake. However, no significant different was found between green tea intake and no green tea intake on high-density lipoprotein. Conclusions: Based on this meta-analysis, green tea intake had a significant lowering effect on the risk of developing liver cancer and had a significantly improving effect on body mass index, liver enzymes, and lipoprotein compared to no green tea intake. These results suggest that green tea may be added to the daily dietary program to improve cardiovascular status with no possible risk of liver cancer. It even may have a protecting effect against liver cancer in the usual daily number of cups.