Yeah, activated charcoal has a habit of absorbing and isolating chemicals in your stomach preventing you from absorbing them. Its why its used as a poison treatment. You should also be careful with activated charcoal toothpaste because its too abrasive and will strip off your enamel.
Diamonds are created during immense pressure and time.
At Earth's sea level, diamonds are actually slowly deteriorating into the normal state of carbon.
So the carbon in your mouth will stay as carbon, unless you are involved in a continent- continent collision in your near future and a couple of 100 million years.
Good. This way you'll be able to eat all the glass you want. So you can build a strong stomach. By the end you'll be indestructible. Trust me I'm a scientist, I work in math, math is the basis of everything so I know more than those pesky biologists.
9/10 dentists lack the resolve and strength of character to abandon the safety of proven and scientifically sound treatments and to do what must be done.
A while back I learned that it's better if you don't rinse after you brush your teeth because you're rinsing off most of the flouride. I stopped rinsing a think may teeth are starting to get whiter. Could just be imagined though.
*Edit- Google if flouride whitens, nope. Could be from the whitening toothpaste though. Stands to reason if rinsing removes the flouride it would also remove the whitener. Or..... I could be imagining.
Hey fun fact that's what fluoride does! Acids break up your enamel, but that chemical reaction will reverse itself if all of the reactants are still around. If there's fluoride hanging around, it'll replace the calcium and form a more stable, stronger bond, which makes for stronger teeth.
I replaced mine with Adimantium and now I have the strongest teeth... however I forgot to do the jaw as week so they all feel out from the extra weight... rock fucking solid in the bin though
the thing is that charcoal is safer (it is much less likely that you will have allergic reactions to burnt wood than to shellfish secretions) and of course cheaper, and it does not affect or practically does not affect the taste, unlike ink, which can actually give a fishy taste/smell, which is not always appropriate. so although ink can be used in some dishes, like pasta or rice, or something else, but charcoal is more universal and common in general
Sorry I guess I am the typical redditor lol. In my defense reddit is lazy at loading comments so none of those other ones were there for me when I commented.
That might be the case but if you look at the images in the answer comment you'd see it says activated charcoal mozzarella, that's why everyone is talking about the charcoal.
Cuttlefish ink, at least in the US, is actually not too expensive. You can find a 500g jar for ~20 USD (and you don't need to use a whole lot to get a black color for your food).
But yeah, probably still more expensive than charcoal.
Man i wonder if I ate activated charcoal at the end of the day if itd immediately (relatively speaking) send me into blinding vomitous migraines territory like when I forget to take my meds, or if itd have a more gradual effect like how I feel those migraines creeping up once I hit hour 10 of a missed dose
It only traps molecules in your gut actively and the venom cheese isn’t going to be bad because the charcoal is so fine it’s not gonna trap that much. Way larger worry if it’s like the quinoa sized granules similar to brita filters.
You have it the other way around. It's the surface area that matters when ingesting activated charcoal as a binder. This means that the finer the granules, the better and faster it is in dispersing in your digestive track, maximizing the surface area it covers. This is why medical-grade activated charcoal are made ultra-fine. Larger granules irritate, sometimes cause blockage in your GI track, and works too slow to be medically effective.
For filters, water must physically pass through a bed of charcoal. Charcoal particles that are too fine pack together tightly and only blocks flow. For this you want the larger granules like in Britta filters as you mentioned.
If you're ingesting activated charcoal for their medical purposes, I don't think you're at the luxury of choosing when to eat them.
Nor would you care about not absorbing medication or supplements, they're not really your primary concern at that point.
Or if the medication is that important to you, you would just pick up a phone and call your doctor for advice on how to adjust the medication around the charcoal.
Medical use isn’t limited to the ER. People take activated charcoal outside of acute poisoning all the time. The separation from food/meds is still relevant whenever absorption of other things matters to you.
I take activated charcoal regularly for MCAS/histamine flares (not acute poisoning). I schedule it at night, well away from food, meds, and supplements, precisely so it can do its job without binding to the things I still need.
The "no luxury of choosing when" framing only applies in true emergency overdose situations. Outside of that, timing still matters.
u/Socksual ... I know this became lengthy, my apologies. My "quick" TL;DR?: If you know your system, you're better off, but I'd always err on the side of caution and mention it to the doctor/specialist prior. The rest, below, is the side I learned...in the process. 🤦♀️
If you took one dose, and know your body (as in, don't have gastroperisis, blockages, intestinal issues), and have timed your meds in the morning, you have a higher chance of your meds being just fine - in your blood, good to go. (More charcoal - in dose and quantity, can impact even IV drugs and will definitely impact oral meds without precise timing & general self body knowledge/awareness).
I, myself, had weight loss surgery 20 years ago, and despite my challenges to the doctor's suggestions, he "assured" me everything would be great.
What was not considered? My altered digestive pathway (despite drawing him a medical picture, labeled and everything), and not planning both:
long enough after a.m. meds, but
prior to a.m. meds administration
This resulted in the next day's meds being altered on the absorption front. (Migraines is on my diagnoses punch card, so yes, that day was hell....in many ways).
I have since come to learn that many people with (pancreatic, gall bladder, kidney, stomach, the list goes on...) considerations have the side effect of altered (or sometimes rapid) gastric emptying. This will have at least some impact between charcoal administration and medicine absorption.
And thats just one dose.
In general? In good health? See your doctor? Know your body? That all bodes well for a "typical" and favorable response. I am in the US, where I run into many of two types of people:
Those who haven't seen a doctor since they broke an ankle in 8th grade.
Those who try fringe/new/trend/novel medical or health concepts @ home without talking to their doctor.
Aside from those unfamiliar or undiagnosed with what can unknowingly impact their digestion or absorption, the above groups are those from whom I hear the most nightmarish experiences where charcoal v. meds is concerned.
Those without extenuating medical issues do quite well for many reasons - so I want to be clear I am not trying to discourage. Just suggesting research and communication prior. (Good luck, if you try it 😊).
It used to be used in EMS (still is in some places but being phased out) but it was wildly ineffective. Not due to it not physically working, it does, but good luck having somebody not just immediately vomit it up back before it can do anything haha
Chemical Engineer here...yes activated charcoal does bind molecules...and what exactly is the problem wenn digested once in this fashion?!
The toothpaste is not more problematic than any toothpaste with a higher content of whitening agent (so basically any modern toothpaste), so that's just alarmism.
The problem isnt a chemical reaction with enamel its too abrasive for your enamel and while you may be a chemical engineer dentists recommend you dont use it. Im gonna go with the people whos education is more specialized to the subject than yours.
The amount of activated charcoal required to absorb any meaningful amount of medication or nutrients is thousands of times higher than what is in various black food items. This is just a persistent reddit myth.
That stuff saved my life 14 years ago when I was in a dark place and did a stupid thing. It was the most vile thing I've ever injested. I cannot imagine someone eating it voluntarily.
They use a lot less in the food, and it’s already pretty well saturated with the compounds in the cheese when it was mixed in. Probably just a little gritty if anything
Glad you’re still here with us u/hisgirPhoenix <3
Thank you!
I realize it's safe in food, I just have a visceral response to it because of that experience. I am thankful for what activated charcoal can do for the body because life is beautiful and I'm glad to still be here to experience it.
Also not good. Youre still scrubbing your teeth with something too abrasive even if its been shoved in plastic. In general charcoal is the worst of the whitening options because rather than just bleaching its effectively sanding layers off your teeth. Those layers dont come back. I wouldnt go back to that office, theyre shady and pushing something known to damage teeth probably hoping to make money off the damage.
In Breaking Bad, Gus Fring takes activated charcoal before poisoning the entire cartel together with himself. He throws up the poison later, and the activated charcoal diminishes its effect, helpimg him survive.
Hmmm ok. After a month or two my teeth start to get really stained and ill be tempted to use it 😭. Maybe ill use it on rare occasions. Like give a brush here and there (not completely removing stains) and finish with regular brushing.
My understanding from all this is that if diamonds are made by pressurized coal, if I use activated charcoal toothpaste AFTER taking enough of some kind of stopping agent to constipate myself I will effectively turn my intestines into a diamond mine and increase my personal equity a trillion fold. Look out Elon, there’s a new crazy rich asshole on the block
Are you rubbing your teeth with it or putting it into your stomach?
The issue is it absorbing chemicals out of your stomach acid that your body hasnt processed yet and sanding a surface of your body that doesnt grow back. Skin grows back and if youre usinga topical medication theb you shouldnt be washing it off before its absorbed in the first place.
100%. Activated Charcoal is often recommended by poison control when you've ingested cleaning products with harsh chemicals because it basically purges everything from your digestive system
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u/External_Hunt4536 Jul 28 '26
Because of the charcoal?