Rotterdam Study participants who frequently imbibed coffee and herbal teas had the least liver stiffness, a good sign for fending off diseases of the organ that are 12th most prevalent cause of death worldwide. Unhealthy lifestyles including alcohol intake, high fat diets and chronic medical or street drug use lead to liver disease. Cirrhosis is the final stage of fibrosis and results from long-term inflammation.

The 2,424 participants included participants 45 years or older living in a suburb of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The researchers found drinking coffee and herbal tea may protect against liver fibrosis, estimated as the degree of liver stiffness, which is high in extensive scarring of the liver. Because these beverages are popular, widely available, and inexpensive, they could have the potential to become important in the prevention of advanced liver disease.

“Over the past decades, we gradually deviated towards more unhealthy habits, including a sedentary lifestyle, decreased physical activity, and consumption of a ‘Happy Diet’,” lead author Louise J. M. Alferink, MD, of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Erasmus MC University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, said. The article was published in the Journal of Hepatology. “This Happy Diet, also known as the Western diet, is typically rich in unhealthy foods including processed foods lacking nutrients and artificial sugars. This has led not only to an obesity epidemic, but also to a rapid increase in the prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is due to extensive accumulation of fat in the liver and resembles alcoholic liver disease in people who do not exceed two drinks a day of alcohol. In this context, examining accessible and inexpensive lifestyle strategies that have potential health benefits, such as coffee and tea consumption, is a viable approach to finding ways to halt the rapid increase of liver disease in developed countries.”