Carbon juice now on sale: Would you drink it?

January 23, 2017

Activated Carbon

It’s used in military gas masks, air purifiers, water filters and hospital emergency rooms, but would you drink the charcoal known as activated carbon?

There are not one, but at least half a dozen companies banking on the fact that you will.

Billed as “detoxifying”, activated carbon is being mixed into juices with almonds, greens, apples and everything makers can think of so that “people won’t gag on it” (so says Juice Generation founder Eric Helms).

There is a lot of evidence backing up the amazing powers of activated carbon, in fact it's been used for thousands of years. Its incredible surface area soaks up pollutants like a sponge and can hold many times its weight in toxins. Emergency room doctors actually use activated carbon in poisoning cases. Yet, there is little modern-day evidence of its continued long-term, regular use as a food item. Another tick in the con list may be that it will soak up the good with the bad. Some experts have suggested that the ingested carbon may bind to nutrients as well as toxins in the body, flushing both out of your system. Imagine forcing down all that kale just to kill its benefits with your carbon juice?

Carbon is also popping up in food, drinks and at trendy restaurants:

-In the UK, Bull in a China Shop (BIACS), a Chinese rotisserie chicken restaurant, serves a chicken burger in a black charcoal brioche bun (a trend started by Burger King in Japan).

-Michelin-starred Chef Simon Rogan uses charcoal oil in some of his dishes

-Artesian in London, which has been voted among the world’s best bars four years running, puts it in cocktails

 

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