Is Ginger Good for Fatty Liver? Food vs. Supplements

TL;DR

• Ginger is a good flavor tool for a fatty liver diet: fresh, ground or brewed as unsweetened tea, it adds almost no calories or sugar.
• Two small 12-week trials of ginger capsules in fatty liver lowered ALT and insulin resistance, but they were short, small and from one country, and the European liver guideline doesn’t recommend supplements for MASLD.
• Ginger has a good liver-safety record, but supplements can interact with blood thinners, and ginger ale is a sugary soda, not a ginger dose.

Ginger is good for fatty liver as a food, because it makes healthy meals and drinks taste better without adding sugar or fat. Whether ginger supplements treat MASLD (formerly NAFLD) is a different question, and the honest answer is that the evidence is promising but far too thin to rely on.

Here’s what the trials actually found, how ginger fits into your day, and when to check with your doctor.

Does Ginger Help Fatty Liver? What the Trials Show

Only a handful of human trials have tested ginger in fatty liver. The two most often cited both come from Iran:

• Rahimlou et al., 2016 (Hepatitis Monthly). In this pilot trial, 44 adults with fatty liver completed 12 weeks of either 2 g of ginger a day in capsules or a placebo. Everyone was given the same diet and exercise advice. The ginger group had larger drops in ALT and GGT (two liver enzymes), insulin resistance, two inflammation markers and the grade of fat on ultrasound. AST, another liver enzyme, and a fibrosis score did not differ between groups.
• Rafie et al., 2020 (Clinical and Experimental Gastroenterology). Here, 46 adults completed 12 weeks of 1,500 mg of ginger powder a day or a placebo, again alongside a balanced diet and activity plan. Ginger lowered ALT, total and LDL cholesterol, fasting blood sugar, insulin resistance and CRP, an inflammation marker, more than placebo. AST, GGT and liver fat grade on ultrasound did not differ between groups.

A 2023 meta-analysis in African Health Sciences pooled four trials with 177 people and found lower ALT and insulin resistance with supplements, but no change in AST, cholesterol or BMI. Look closely, though: two of its four “trials” were the same study of green cardamom (a relative of ginger) reported twice, so it adds little beyond the two trials above. A 2022 review in Phytotherapy Research found most ginger and fatty liver research is in animals: 17 animal experiments against 3 clinical trials.

What this means for you:

• The trials are small and short. Fewer than 50 people each, for 12 weeks.
• They mostly measured lab markers. ALT is a useful signal, but it isn’t the same as less scarring. See our guide to ALT and AST levels for what these numbers do and don’t tell you.
• Ginger was an add-on. Both groups in each trial were also working on diet and exercise, and the placebo groups improved on several markers too.

What Do Liver Guidelines Say About Ginger?

Neither major guideline recommends ginger. The 2024 European guideline (EASL–EASD–EASO) states that in adults with MASLD, “nutraceuticals cannot be recommended since there is insufficient evidence of their effectiveness in reducing histologically/non-invasively assessed liver damage/fibrosis and liver-related outcomes in MASLD, nor of their safety.” Its definition of nutraceuticals includes food supplements and herbal products. That applies to turmeric too, which has a more serious liver-safety warning; see is turmeric good for fatty liver.

What the guidelines do recommend is well established: gradual weight loss if you carry extra weight (at least 5% to reduce liver fat, 7–10% to improve inflammation, 10% or more to improve fibrosis), a Mediterranean-style diet, avoiding sugar-sweetened drinks, regular activity, and little or no alcohol. Our guide on how to reverse fatty liver walks through those steps. Ginger can help you stick to them. It can’t stand in for them.

Fresh, Ground, Tea or Ginger Ale: How Do They Compare?

Not every “ginger” product is the same thing. Here’s how common forms compare:

Form	Typical amount	Calories	Sugars	Best use
Fresh ginger, grated	1 tsp (2 g)	2	0 g	Stir-fries, dressings, soups, fresh tea
Ground ginger	1 tsp (1.8 g)	6	0.1 g	Marinades, roasted vegetables, oatmeal, spice rubs
Ginger tea, unsweetened	8 fl oz	about 2*	0 g	A swap for soda, juice or sweet tea
Ginger ale, regular	12 fl oz can	124	33 g	Treat it as soda
Ginger capsules	1.5–2 g a day in trials	–	–	Only with your doctor’s OK

Source: USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy). *USDA has no entry for ginger tea; the value shown is for brewed herbal tea.

Two things stand out. First, fresh and ground ginger are essentially free in calories and sugar, so you can use them generously in cooking. Second, ginger ale is a sugary drink. Its 33 g of sugar per can is close to the 37 g in a can of regular cola, and liver guidelines are clear about avoiding sugar-sweetened beverages. Our article on soda and fatty liver explains why.

For scale, the 1,500 mg daily dose in the Rafie trial is a little less than one teaspoon of ground ginger. That doesn’t mean a teaspoon in your cooking will do what the capsules did, since no trial has tested ginger as food in fatty liver. But it shows these doses aren’t extreme.

Is Ginger Safe for Your Liver?

Ginger has a good safety record. The NIH LiverTox database, which tracks medicines and supplements that injure the liver, says ginger “has not been linked to serum aminotransferase elevations nor to instances of clinically apparent liver injury.” It notes that more than 100 clinical trials of ginger reported no liver toxicity, and it rates ginger an unlikely cause of liver injury. It also adds a fair caveat: few of those studies checked liver tests routinely, so ginger hasn’t been studied carefully for this.

The side effects LiverTox lists are usually mild: heartburn, bloating, indigestion, and diarrhea or constipation. In the Rahimlou trial, one person reported a headache and one reported heartburn, and both resolved.

Check with your doctor or pharmacist before taking ginger supplements if:

• You take a blood thinner. The evidence is mixed, but there are case reports of people on warfarin whose clotting test (INR) rose sharply after starting ginger supplements, which raises the risk of bleeding.
• You take diabetes medicines. Fasting blood sugar fell in the Rafie trial, so tell your doctor if you plan to add a supplement on top of glucose-lowering drugs.
• You have cirrhosis, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or take several medicines. With cirrhosis, ask your hepatologist before starting any supplement, and see our cirrhosis diet guide for how nutrition advice changes.

Supplement products also vary in strength and purity, and capsules aren’t a better choice than food unless your doctor has a reason to suggest one.

How to Use Ginger in a Fatty Liver Diet

The best use of ginger is making the foods and drinks that help your liver more enjoyable:

• Make it your soda swap. Simmer a few slices of fresh ginger in water for 10 minutes, then drink it hot or chill it. Add lemon or mint instead of sugar.
• Flavor sparkling water. Drop thin slices of ginger and a squeeze of lime into plain sparkling water for a ginger ale-style drink with no sugar.
• Cook vegetables with it. Grated ginger with garlic in a stir-fry of vegetables, tofu, chicken or fish, cooked in a little olive oil, is a quick Mediterranean-friendly meal.
• Use it in dressings and marinades. Ginger, rice vinegar, a little soy sauce and olive oil make a simple dressing. Go easy on the soy sauce if you’re watching sodium.
• Spice up breakfast. Ground ginger and cinnamon in oatmeal or plain yogurt add flavor without added sugar.
• Watch the sweet versions. Candied ginger, gingersnaps and ginger cookies are sweets first, whatever the label says.

If you use ginger tea to cut back on soda or juice, an app like Liverly can log the swap and show how much added sugar you’ve dropped from your day.

The Bottom Line

Ginger is good for fatty liver as a food. Fresh or ground ginger and unsweetened ginger tea add flavor with virtually no calories or sugar, and they can make it easier to cook at home and give up sugary drinks.

Ginger supplements are a different story. Two small 12-week trials found lower ALT and insulin resistance, but they were too small and too short to show real liver benefit, and the European guideline doesn’t recommend supplements for MASLD. Ginger looks safe for the liver, but talk to your doctor before taking capsules, especially if you take a blood thinner. And skip the ginger ale: it’s soda.

Sources

• Rahimlou M, et al. Ginger Supplementation in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study. Hepatitis Monthly. 2016.
• Rafie R, et al. Effect of Ginger Powder Supplementation in Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Clinical and Experimental Gastroenterology. 2020.
• Zhou Q, et al. Ginger supplementation for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. African Health Sciences. 2023.
• LiverTox: Ginger. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (updated 2024).
• EASL–EASD–EASO Clinical Practice Guidelines on the management of MASLD: Executive Summary. 2024.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Talk to your doctor or hepatologist about your specific situation.