{"id":31941,"date":"2014-09-15T07:15:18","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T11:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/?p=31941"},"modified":"2016-07-14T16:05:14","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T20:05:14","slug":"eating-charcoal-detox-diet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/health\/eating-charcoal-detox-diet\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Eating Charcoal Help You Detox?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Activated
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meet Amber Williford. Because of her food allergies to soy and dairy, Williford frequently experiences bloating and gas, especially after eating in restaurants. In search of relief, the\u00a0holistic health coach<\/a>\u00a0read numerous online accounts of the benefits of taking activated charcoal supplements \u2014\u00a0and decided to try it.<\/p>\n

Most commonly used in emergency settings to treat people who have been poisoned, activated charcoal is a superfine black powder that promises to entrap toxins in the body and help you excrete them during bowel movements.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong>\u00a0Is Your Juice Cleanse Doing More Harm Than Good?<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, the substance is gaining popularity outside the ER, appearing as an ingredient in\u00a0cold pressed juices<\/a>, in supplements sold in\u00a0stores like GNC<\/a>\u00a0and for use in\u00a0powder form<\/a>. The popular New York City-based juice and smoothie chain Juice Generation recently announced plans to add three raw activated charcoal juices to their menu \u2014 and more juice bars are sure to follow. Claiming to help treat everything from diarrhea, bloating and gas to improving skin care and whitening teeth<\/a>, charcoal is being touted as the new key to a\u00a0cleaner, healthier you<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But is activated charcoal a cure-all or just full of smoke? Read on to find out.<\/p>\n

Activated Charcoal Benefits in Medicine<\/b><\/h3>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a very specific absorber of substances. It will absorb anything in your gut, good and bad.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Declared an \u201cessential medicine\u201d by the\u00a0World Health Organization<\/a>, activated charcoal is commonly used in medical settings to treat accidental poisonings or drug overdoses. The substance is created when carbon is treated with an oxidizing agent, resulting in superfine dust with millions of pores and an immense surface area.<\/p>\n

It is this surface area that makes activated charcoal special, reducing the body\u2019s absorption of toxic substances by an estimated\u00a047 percent<\/a>. How?\u00a0Toxins<\/a>\u00a0are carried out of the body through a process called adsorption. Anything in your gut sticks to the surface of charcoal like a magnet and gets carried out through a bowel movement.<\/p>\n

But the jury\u2019s still out concerning whether or not this ingredient is safe for everyday use.<\/p>\n

According to Dr. Linda Fan, attending physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, \u201cIt\u2019s not a very specific absorber of substances. It will absorb anything in your gut, good and bad.\u201d That includes any medication that you may be taking. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t use it without a medical professional\u2019s advice,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Wellness Secret or Black Magic?<\/b><\/h3>\n

Williford, who ingested her charcoal in capsule form, claims the pills helped rid her system of an overgrowth of candida \u2013 yeast that lives in the digestive tract. \u201cIt has helped with the bloating,\u201d Williford says, which had gotten so bad she says she sometimes looked several months pregnant.<\/p>\n

\"Activated
Photo: Pond5<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some natural health practitioners also say activated charcoal can be useful to treat minor digestive issues. For patients who experience an extended bout of diarrhea, Judy Fulop, N.D., M.S., a Naturopathic Practitioner at the\u00a0Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Northwestern University<\/a>, says \u201cInstead of taking something like Imodium to stop it, which doesn\u2019t get to the cause of the problem, you can take something to bind to the toxins and move them out of the body.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, since the \u201cruns\u201d are the body\u2019s natural reaction to digestive distress, it\u2019s important to give your body at least 12 hours to purge the bad stuff by itself before turning to treatments such as charcoal, Fulop says.<\/p>\n

But not all health care providers agree that charcoal should be used outside of a medical setting. While\u00a0Dr. Gina Sam<\/a>, Director of the Mount Sinai Gastrointestinal Motility Center at The Mount Sinai Hospital, has heard similar stories from her patients who reported decreased gas and bloating after taking activated charcoal, she does not use it in her practice. \u201cThere needs to be more scientific evidence to support its use,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The Black Line<\/b><\/h3>\n

This black, sandy substance may have a proven track record in urgent care settings, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s safe to self-administer. If you decide to use it anyway, \u201cTake it under the guidance of a doctor so they can track your liver and enzyme levels,\u201d says Dr. Sam, to ensure your body is not becoming depleted of\u00a0essential nutrients<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur liver and our spleen do a good job cleansing the body on their own.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s also important to note that the powder, which will turn your stools black when ingested, can mask upper GI bleeding that may be a side effect of serious digestive distress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing to keep in mind is to figure out the cause of your digestive problem before running to take activated charcoal. There might be something else going on in your system that is causing your symptoms,\u201d says Fulop. \u201cIf you continue to have diarrhea or explosive gas, you do need to see your practitioner.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the claims that activated charcoal will help purify your body from toxins? \u201cWe don\u2019t really need to take anything special to detox,\u201d says Melissa Burton, RD, CDE. \u201cOur liver and our spleen do a good job cleansing the body on their own. Instead, people should eat a\u00a0balanced diet<\/a>\u00a0with adequate micronutrients,\u00a0exercise<\/a>\u00a0and maintain other healthy habits in order to keep the liver functioning well and to have a healthy body.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0<\/strong>Eating Clay: Absurd New Health Trend or All-Natural Cleanse?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest cleanse trend: Eating charcoal. Will it protect your body from toxins or is this fad full of smoke? Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":32011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,7,11],"tags":[41,44,191,341,364],"class_list":["post-31941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diet-nutrition","category-health","category-health-hacks","tag-diets","tag-drinks","tag-supplements","tag-tax1living-well","tag-tax2alternative-treatments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyburn.com\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}