What's So Scary About Non-Activated Charcoal?

If you have ever seen charcoal detox supplements for sale online or at health food stores, you may have noticed that it is always labeled as “Activated Charcoal.” Like many people, you may have assumed that the word “activated” relates to the safety of the charcoal for consumption. Therefore, you may have also assumed that non-activated charcoal is unsafe to eat, AKA scary! Are these assumptions valid, or is there more mystery buried deep within the coals?

Please do NOT mistake the charcoal in this article with charcoal briquettes sold for grill cooking. Do NOT ever eat charcoal briquettes sold for grill cooking!

Activated Charcoal

What Is It Used For?

Activated charcoal is used to filter odors and impurities out of water and air. It is also used to pull toxins out of the body in emergency detox situations from poisoning and overdose. People use activated charcoal in toothpaste to whiten teeth, in face masks to pull impurities from the skin, and in many other hygienic and cosmetic products. When taken in supplement form, activated charcoal is said to help alleviate many symptoms like nausea, bloating, gas, headaches, and more.

How Does Activated Charcoal Work?

Adsorption is the process by which impurities or toxins are chemically bonded to the charcoals’ surface at what is called “active sites”. So, when you see the word “adsorption” used here, it basically means charcoal is working its’ magic to remove toxins! Eventually, all of the active sites, or available surface areas for toxins to bond to, get filled up, which is why charcoal filters have to either be reactivated or replaced at some point.

What Is It Made From?

Charcoal can be made from many different types of burned materials, like bones, petroleum coke, coal, wood, and, rice husks. (Wait… Bones? Scary!) However, it is usually made from coconut shells when bought for human consumption through a natural brand. (Oh, whew!) When burned at extremely high temperatures, like 1100 to 2100 degrees Fahrenheit, these materials undergo a natural chemical reaction that transforms them into carbon, otherwise known as charcoal.

What Does "Activated" Mean?

“Activation” increases the surface area of charcoal by using either steam or chemicals like argon and nitrogen. According to Medical News Today, activation “strips the charcoal of previously adsorbed molecules and frees up bonding sites again. This process also reduces the size of the pores in the charcoal and makes more holes in each molecule, increasing its overall surface area.” In other words, once charcoal has been activated, it is more effective at removing toxins than non-activated charcoal.

Activated Charcoal Precautions

Activated charcoal is so good at removing toxins from the body that it saves lives like when it is used for poisoning and overdose situations. The patient is forced to drink charcoal mixed with water, and the poisons are adsorbed by the charcoal. The patient then vomits up the charcoal along with the poison!

But, it is important to understand that with this great adsorptive power comes great responsibility, because activated charcoal can remove good things from the body too, like beneficial vitamins and nutrients that our body needs.

So, in an emergency situation, hell yes, drink the charcoal water!

But, when taking activated charcoal supplements, please read the supplement instructions carefully, and consult a trusted doctor for input on how often you should take it. If it can remove vital nutrients, you may not want to take activated charcoal supplements daily. Some recommend taking activated charcoal only on occasion like after an indulgent meal that may have had some unwanted preservatives or after drinking some questionable tap water while on vacation.

Ahhhhhh, It's Non-Activated Charcoal!!!

Differences Between Activated and Non-Activated Charcoal

Non-activated charcoal, or just charcoal, has the same uses, works the same way, and is made from the same things as activated charcoal. The only difference is that it is less effective at removing toxins than activated charcoal, because it has less exposed surface area to adsorb toxins. At least, that is what all the dudes who study charcoal say. But, some dudes say there is another important difference.

Don't Be Scared! Non-Activated Charcoal is Safe!

As I mentioned earlier, you should not take activated charcoal daily, because in addition to stripping the body of toxins, it also removes vital nutrients. In contrast, non-activated charcoal may have a more gentle approach and can still remove toxins from the body without removing the good nutrients you need according to some sources. Therefore, you may be able to consume non-activated charcoal much more often to achieve detox results in a safe way.

However, it is important to note that I have not found any scientific evidence that suggest that regular charcoal will not remove good nutrients from the body. This is just what some sources have claimed.

I have been making and consuming my own non-activated charcoal for over 10 years now. No, I don’t make it by burning entire fields like the picture here. What do you take me for, a pyromaniac?! I found this field and turned the tragic scene into a surreal photo op!

I make my charcoal from oak wood that I am very careful about sourcing, meaning I make sure that the tree wasn’t in a place where herbicides or pesticides were sprayed. I eat my homemade charcoal a few times throughout the week, have never had any side effects from eating it, and am considered a pretty healthy human who very rarely gets sick.

Also, in the 10 years that I have been researching charcoal, both online and through my own experience, I have never found a single source that claims that non-activated charcoal is unsafe. That is just something that people assume, because typically the only charcoal supplements for sale are activated.

History of Regular Charcoal Water Purification

While the modern claim is that activated charcoal is much more effective at removing impurities and toxins than non-activated charcoal, many people say that regular charcoal has been utilized throughout history and has been known to be effective at filtering water, odors, and impurities.

According to Dr. Vivek K. N. Singh, ancient Phoenicians and Indians understood that charcoal was an antiseptic, and they used it to filter water for drinking. The Phoenicians were known to char the inside of wooden barrels in order to keep water from going stagnant on long journeys through the Mediterranean Sea.

The practice caught on, and many other voyagers continued to char their barrels for hundreds of years.

History of Regular Charcoal for Poison Detox

Here are some very interesting stories of some brave doctors who proved regular old charcoal is pretty damn effective!

Way back in the long ago times… In the early 1800s.. Some Japanese scientists poisoned a ton of animals (assholes). But, they also gave them charcoal to test the effectiveness of it as an antidote. The results were so promising that the word spread around the world.

In 1813, a French chemist named Michel Bertrand grew some big balls and ate 5 grams of arsenic trioxide mixed with charcoal. Holy shit! That’s more than enough arsenic to kill a man. That’s enough arsenic to kill a few horses. He didn’t puke, he didn’t shit the runs, his throat didn’t burn. He didn’t even get a stomach ache! The man survived and proved that regular old, non-activated charcoal is magical indeed!

Not long after that, in 1831, a French pharmacist named Pierre Touery, drank a glass of the poison strychnine with regular charcoal and he lived too!

Disclaimer time: I have no proof this actually happened. These are stories I found at charcoalremedies.com. I will provide the full source at the end of the article. Don’t go doing anything crazy, because you read this post!!

Non-Activated Charcoal for Livestock Detox

Regular Charcoal May Have Saved Lawn Boy!

If you have ever had a goat, you know they are like toddlers and will try to eat just about anything! Golf balls, foam insulation on the inside of my car door, my cell phone, anything! One time, our sweet goat, Lawn Boy, got into the garage and ate some rat poison! (Please, don’t judge! I love rats, but they got inside the walls of the house one year, and we can’t risk them chewing up electrical cords and setting the house on fire.) My husband panicked and asked me what we should do. I grabbed some ground charcoal that I had on hand and straddled the bloated goats’ belly between my legs while my husband forced the powdered charcoal into Lawn Boys’ mouth making sure he swallowed it.

Lawn Boy lived! He didn’t even seem to get sick!

Non-Activated Charcoal For De-Worming

Some farmers use non-activated charcoal to deworm their cows! Check out this video by Stoney Ridge Farmer.

Non-Activated Charcoal in the wild

Some time in the 1990s (holla), Duke University scientist, Thomas Struhsaker became fascinated with the unusual habit demonstrated by the red colobus monkey in Zanzibar. He noticed they eat charcoal from burned trees (non-activated charcoal). Struhsaker contacted University of Wyoming Professor, David Cooney, because of his extensive research on activated charcoal and it’s uses in the medical field.

Struhsaker sent Cooney some charcoal samples from the burned trees in the area and some samples of the monkeys’ favorite food, leaves from mango and Indian almond trees. So, Cooney conducted experiments to test the adsorptive qualities of the charcoal from the forest on the toxins that are naturally found in the monkeys’ favorite leaves.

Cooney also used activated charcoal to conduct the same tests. Just as he thought, activated charcoal was more effective at removing toxins from the leaves, but the regular old non-activated charcoal still adsorbed a significant amount of toxins!

How cool is it that the red colobus monkey knows that the charcoal will help them digest their favorite foods?!

Struhsaker and Cooney noted an interesting correlation. Colobus monkeys that lived in the area with abundant burned charcoal had higher birth rates and population densities than the colobus monkeys who didn’t live near sources of charcoal. This indicates that charcoal consumption may be benefiting the red colobus monkey in huge ways!

What Kind of Charcoal Should You Use?

You just got a ton of info dumped on you about charcoal. What should you do with it? As always, that is up to you. I am not a doctor. This is just a topic I have been very invested in for over 10 years, and I wanted to lay down information about it in one spot for you to digest in your own way.

However, my opinion is that it would be wise for you to keep a bottle of activated charcoal around for emergencies, or to make your own non-activated charcoal like I do… (Instructions coming in a later post.) You never know when that new exciting restaurant sadly gives you food poisoning, or your dog eats something they shouldn’t.

Activated and non-activated charcoal are both safe options that could save you or your loved ones’ life! Always seek medical attention at a hospital when appropriate. But, if I knew I had accidentally eaten something poisonous, I would personally be drinking a homemade charcoal drink on the way to the hospital.

Still not convinced you need any form of charcoal in your life? That’s ok! But, picture this… You’re camping way out in the wilderness with your family. Your toddler eats a random mushroom too quickly for you to stop them! You are 2 hours away from the nearest hospital, and you don’t have any activated charcoal supplements with you! Ok. THAT’S SCARY!!!

What would you do?!

I would highly recommend grabbing some coals from the campfire (needs to be from burned wood only, no chemicals or charcoal briquettes!) Then, grind the charcoal up into a fine powder, mix it with water, and make your toddler drink a whole lot of the charcoal drink on the way to the hospital.

Again, it is completely safe and could save your childs’ life! Also, again, consult your doctor. Just sayin… If you read through the entire post, you know my reasoning, but I want to put that disclaimer out there.

Closing Thoughts

Whether you choose activated, non-activated, or no charcoal is up to you. This article is meant to compile over a decades’ worth of personal research and to answer some questions that are tough to find answers to.

I have never found all of this information in one spot, so here ya go! Always do your own research, check my sources, and do what you feel is best for your body and family!

This is a topic that goes deep into the rabbit hole, and my learning journey is never complete. I plan to do an experiment on how activated vs non-activated charcoal removes chlorine from water in the lab I work at, so stay tuned for that! Please email me at katy@seenandgreen.com for comments or questions. Thanks for reading, and don’t be scared of non-activated charcoal!

Sources:

1. Patel, HH, “What is Activated Charcoal?” News Medical, February 22, 2023 https://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Activated-Charcoal.aspx#:~:text=Activated%20charcoal%20is%20a%20special,and%20coconut%20shells%2C%20among%20others.

2. “Frequently Asked Questions,” General Carbon Corporation, 2023 https://generalcarbon.com/facts-about-activated-carbon/activated-carbon-faq/#:~:text=Activated%20carbon%20is%20made%20by,from%20600%2D1200%20degrees%20Celsius.

3. Ratini, Melinda, MS, DO, “The Truth About Activated Charcoal,” WebMD, December 10, 2021 https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/ss/slideshow-truth-about-activated-charcoal

4. Huizen, Jennifer. Medically reviewed by Sellers, Alisha, BS Pharmacy, PharmD, “What Are the Benefits of Activated Charcoal?” Medical News Today, January 12, 2023 https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322609

5. Dinsley, John, “Charcoal Hemoperfusion For Poisoning In Animals,” Charcoal Remedies.com https://charcoalremedies.com/charcoal-hemoperfusion-for-poisoning/

6. Singh, Dr. Vivek K. N., “Evolution of Use of Activated Carbon to Purify Water,” Linkedin September 14, 2019 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/evolution-use-activated-carbon-purify-water-dr-vivek-k-n-singh

7. Bettle, Jim, “Activated or Non-Activated Charcoal?” The Dorset Charcoal Company, May 13, 2021 https://www.dorsetcharcoal.co.uk/post/activated-or-non-activated-charcoal

8. Cooney, David, University of Wyoming Professor and chemical engineer, “Zanzibar Monkeys Eat Charcoal To Counteract Toxins,” Science Daily, September 1, 1997, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1997/09/970901072246.htm