Supplement
EGCG (Green Tea Extract)
A heavily studied extract with small effects and the supplement shelf's clearest genetic liver-risk story.
EGCG is the main catechin in green tea, sold as concentrated green tea extract for weight loss, metabolism, and general antioxidant support. We grade EGCG (Green Tea Extract) C+ on evidence and C for worth-it at about $12-25 per month.
Evidence
Worth it
Typical cost: $12-25/month
What it does
EGCG is the main catechin in green tea, sold as concentrated green tea extract for weight loss, metabolism, and general antioxidant support. It is the first record in this library where the food form (tea, consumed for millennia) and the supplement form have genuinely different risk profiles, and the record keeps them separate throughout.
What the research says
Produces small weight and LDL reductions that meta-analyses judge not clinically important
Evidence: moderate. Cochrane's review of green tea preparations for weight loss found about 1.3 kg more loss than control over roughly 12 weeks and called it not clinically significant; effects concentrate in studies with caffeine and in Japanese populations. LDL cholesterol falls modestly in the Minnesota trial and related meta-analyses (on the order of 5 percent). Real, replicated, and small is the accurate summary of the entire benefit file.
Cancer prevention claims remain unproven after decades of study
Evidence: weak. Green tea drinking correlates with lower rates of some cancers in observational studies, mostly in Asia; supplementation trials, including the 1,075-woman Minnesota trial whose main aim was breast tissue changes, found no overall preventive effect. Cochrane's verdict has been 'insufficient and conflicting' for years and has not improved.
The brewed tea and the extract are different exposures
Evidence: moderate. A cup of green tea carries roughly 50 to 100 mg of EGCG, sipped with food across a day. Extract capsules deliver 400 to 800+ mg at once, often fasted. Every serious safety finding in this record belongs to the concentrated form; none indicts the drink.
One of the most-studied botanicals on earth, and the studies converge on an unglamorous verdict: small metabolic effects that reviewers keep calling not clinically important, unproven cancer claims, and a genuine, dose-related, partly genetic liver risk at extract doses that the drink never reaches. The evidence base is large; the effect sizes are not. C+ for a heavily researched ingredient whose honest summary is 'a little of something, with a real caution attached.'
The week's longevity and biohacking news.
This grade for EGCG (Green Tea Extract) rests on the record above. When a new result changes that record, the grade changes with it, and the Thursday email is where the change lands first: the week's longevity and biohacking news, in plain English, linked back to the reasoning on this page.
The week's longevity and biohacking news. Every story graded against the evidence. Free. Unsubscribe anytime.
Every grade follows a published rubric, and sponsors never change one. When the evidence moves a grade, Thursday is where you hear it first, before you renew a stack that stopped earning its cost.
Is it worth it?
Evidence (C+) sits below the leaderboard floor, so the worth-it grade is capped at C+ however inexpensive it is; the derived value lands at C. About $18 a month at common doses. Derived from the October 2026 worth-it model.
Typical cost
$12-25/month
Common form, not a brand recommendation
Dosage context established
Supplement products commonly provide 300 to 800 mg of EGCG per day. EFSA's safety assessment ties doses at or above 800 mg/day to liver enzyme elevations, and EU rules now cap labeled daily doses there and require warnings (take with food; not for pregnant women; not combined with other green tea products). Fasted dosing raises EGCG blood levels severalfold, which is the pattern in many injury case reports: the fat-loss habit of taking it on an empty stomach is precisely the risky one.
Worth-it leaderboard
EGCG (Green Tea Extract) sits outside the worth-it top 20.
EGCG (Green Tea Extract) sits outside the current top 20 on the gated leaderboard. The leaders below clear an evidence floor of B- before price counts at all, so cheap alone never earns a rank.
See the full worth-it leaderboard →
When the evidence moves a grade, this ranking moves with it. Thursday is where you hear it first.
Safety notes
The liver signal is the story. In the Minnesota trial, 6.7 percent of women on 843 mg/day of EGCG developed ALT elevations versus 0.7 percent on placebo, and 1.3 percent had clinically significant elevations. Case series describe idiosyncratic liver injury, sometimes severe, typically within the first months; registry genetics work links susceptibility to the HLA-B*35:01 allele (about 6 percent of European-ancestry populations), which helps explain why most users are fine and a few are not. Practical rules: stay under 800 mg/day of EGCG, always take with food, stop and get tested if nausea, dark urine, or jaundice appears, and avoid entirely with existing liver disease or alongside other liver-stressing supplements. Green tea also contains caffeine and vitamin K (relevant to warfarin stability at high intakes). Brewed tea at normal intakes does not carry this warning profile.
Longevity Lab Report
EGCG (Green Tea Extract) news. Graded when it happens.
The grade on this page stays free. The email carries the news on egcg (green tea extract): expert moves, dose changes, and what is working, in plain English every Thursday.
Changelog
Last updated 2026-10-23
- 2026-10-23|Graded from the Minnesota Green Tea Trial, the Cochrane weight-loss review, the EFSA safety opinion, and the DILIN pharmacogenomic data. The extract-versus-tea distinction is structural in this record: benefits are small in both forms, and the liver risk belongs to the concentrated one.
- 2026-10-23|Listed under heart, matching this record's graded LDL findings.