Before looking at the mobile, before speaking with anyone, there is an almost sacred gesture: prepare coffee. Beyond frightening sleep, that cup could have an unexpected benefit to your health: protect your liver.
An invisible enemy. More and more people live with a diagnosis that usually goes unnoticed for years: the fatty liver. A disease that in Spain affects one in four adults, According to the Spanish Association for the Study of the Liver (AEEH). Can’t it be detected before? The point is that the liver accumulates fat silently. At first it does not hurt, it does not bother and does not warn. Only when it advances already becomes more serious problems such as fibrosis, cirrhosis or liver cancer.
The accumulation can should be mainly two causes: Alcoholic liver disease, linked to alcohol consumption, or metabolic hepatic stanosis (EHMET or MASLD), related to obesity, insulin resistance and metabolic alterations. And a key actor in the equation: sugar, especially the fructose added in sodas, pastries or ultraprocess cereals. Unlike glucose, fructose is almost exclusively metabolized in the liver, which triggers fat manufacturing.
An unexpected ally. Among the classic recommendations – e -evident simple sugars, trans and alcohol fats – science has begun to look at coffee. According to Dr. Javier Escalada, Endocrinologist and director of the Department of Endocrinology and Nutrition of the University of Navarra Clinic, This has explained it for Hola magazine: “Coffee is not only safe, but its consumption is associated with less risk of progression of liver damage. It can even reduce transaminases and protect against hepatecellular carcinoma.”
Different studies, collected by Cleveland Clinicthey also demonstrate that coffee helps reduce inflammation and prevents the accumulation of fat in the liver thanks to its antioxidants. As Dr. Jamile Wakim-Fleming pointed out to the same medium, a process called autophagy is activated, a kind of internal cleaning that eliminates damaged cells and protects the organ against fibrosis.
Another type of allied cup. In parallel, green tea is also consolidated as another ally. Its catechins and antioxidants help reduce liver fat, improve the lipid profile and exert an anti -inflammatory effect. The evidence is more solid in green tea than in black or red. Of course, with an important nuance: the benefits are observed in traditional infusion, not in extracts concentrated in capsules, which in high doses can damage the liver.
A great population study in the Netherlands, Published by Journal of Hepatologyanalyzed more than 2,400 people and found that those who took three or more coffee cups a day had less liver rigidity – a fibrosis indicator – against those who did not consume it. The effect was also observed in herbal infusions consumers.
Although not everything depends on a cup. It should be put in context. Neither coffee nor green tea are a magical potion. They work, but within a healthy lifestyle. Doctors insist that the basis of fatty liver treatment is to change the lifestyle. That means following a Mediterranean diet, exercising, no alcohol or tobacco, dominating well and controlling stress. As the nutritionist Isabel Higuera has detailed To the Spanish magazine: “The diet set is more important than food in isolation. In these patients it is key to consume enough fiber, healthy lean proteins and fats, but always adapted to each person.”
Beyond the cup. The fatty liver does not warn, but it is not an inevitable destination either. There is no miraculous remedy, although science suggests that small daily habits can make a difference. Among them, something as simple as coffee or green tea, which not only clear the dream, also seem to protect the liver. A reminder that health begins in gestures as simple as what we eat, drink and repeat every day.
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