This is part of a series I’ve been creating for Azumio. Azumio is an app company dedicated to improve health and wellness by tracking sleep and steps, monitoring your glucose levels and heart rate, and providing exercise libraries and routines.
Black toothpaste, black drinks, and black ice cream have all become a thing, thanks to activated charcoal. But just what is activated charcoal? How is it made? What would you even use it for?
Activated charcoal is made when carbon-based things, like wood, peat, or coconut shells, are burned and activated with gases and a high temperature. That activation makes the particles of the carbon super fine and makes it easy for the carbon to attract drugs and toxins through a process called adsorption.
Adsorption is activated charcoal’s superpower. Unlike absorption, adsorption involves something sticking to another thing, rather than being dissolved into a liquid or solid. Because of its adsorption properties, activated charcoal has been used to manage poisonings and drug overdoses in medical settings.