It’s summer! Time to fire up the barbecue to cook up some delicious meats, vegetables, or veggie burgers over a glowing charcoal fire. But why limit the charcoal to the barbecue? If you’re hip to the latest health trends, you’ll know that charcoal, or, more specifically, activated charcoal, is something people are using more and more in a variety of ways for its supposed health benefits.

What?

Go ahead and search for it on the internet. Activated charcoal, or active carbon, is everywhere, and it seems to have a million health benefits, everything from removing toxins from your body to preventing hangovers. But what’s the truth? Does consuming charcoal actually have any positive effect on your health? To me a glass of juice infused with charcoal seems like you’re drinking a big glass of dirt. But let’s look into it to try to figure out why people are trying charcoal in the first place.

How?

Activated charcoal is created when regular charcoal is formed in the presence of certain gases at high temperatures. This results in the creation of charcoal with many tiny pores that give it a huge amount of surface area for toxins to adhere to. If you use a water filter at home, you might have noticed that the filter is made of active carbon, which serves to purify the water. Carbon filters have also been long used in other products such as air purifiers and respirator masks, as they do well at trapping compounds and particles. But lately it’s being incorporated into foods and drinks.

Why?

Detoxing and cleansing has been a craze for a while now, despite a lack of clinical evidence of any health benefits. Over the past few years, influential people and health food companies have been recommending various charcoal-based edibles as a way to enhance the detoxing process, especially in the form of juices.

Does it do anything? Most medical reports suggest the answer is a resounding “no.” Most of the actual medical uses of active charcoal are related to incidents of oral poisoning. The tiny pores do well at binding to drugs or poisons that are still in the stomach or small intestine. Long story short: I’d suggest if you’re going to try consuming charcoal, talk to your doctor first and read up on it from reputable scientific sources. The health benefits seem dubious.

Do you detox with activated charcoal? Let us know how it’s working out in the comments and on Twitter at @luvoinc.