Osterly Market Organic Coconut Activated Charcoal 1200 mg

1200 mg per serving. Take it two hours away from everything else.

Steam-activated charcoal from coconut shell, with the one instruction that actually matters printed on the front instead of buried.

What it's for

Activated charcoal is carbon processed until it is riddled with pores, giving a gram of it a surface area measured in hundreds of square metres. Molecules stick to that surface — adsorption, not absorption. Hospitals use it for certain poisonings, at doses many times this one and under supervision; that is a medical procedure and not a reason to take it with your breakfast. People buy it off the shelf mostly for gas and bloating, where the evidence is thin and mixed. The property that makes it interesting is exactly the property that makes it awkward: it does not distinguish between what you want bound and what you do not.

How to take it

• One capsule with a full glass of water, away from meals
• Leave at least two hours between charcoal and any medication, supplement or meal — it binds those just as readily, including the oral contraceptive pill
• Drink plenty of water with it. Charcoal constipates
• Not for continuous daily use. Over time it binds nutrients along with everything else
• Your stools will turn black. That is expected and harmless
• Not for anyone with a bowel obstruction or slow gut motility

On the label

• 1200 mg per serving
• Coconut shell source, steam activated
• 30 capsules

What this is not

• Not a poisoning treatment — that is a hospital procedure, not a shelf product
• Not a liver or kidney detox
• Not something to take alongside your other supplements. It will bind them

The straight answer

The only reason charcoal does anything is that it binds molecules indiscriminately. That means it binds your medication, your contraceptive and your vitamins exactly as willingly as whatever you took it for. Two hours' clearance either side, every single time, or there is no point taking it at all.

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These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Talk to your doctor before starting any supplement, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, or taking prescription medication.