If you look on various food products like candy bars, yogurt, protein powders, baby milk powders, rice milk powders, toothpaste and animal and pet foods; you will notice a peculiar ingredient: Sodium Bentonite. This substance expands when wet, absorbing as much as several times its dry mass in water. Despite its fancy name, sodium bentonite is really just clay. Because of it’s absorbing properties, bentonite clay has been used the world around for medicinal purposes. The first known use of clay for medicine was in ancient Mesopotamia where physicians used the material as an anti-inflammatory agent and antiseptic. A recent study has found that Bentonite clay is actually anti-bacterial even able to take on the super bacteria MRSA. Further use of clay is by taking it internally to sweep away harmful toxins and heavy metals that may be residing in the body. In the stomach, the negative electrical charges of tiny clay particles attract positively charged toxins from stomach fluids. This clumping prevents very small particles, such as toxic molecules, from passing through the walls of the intestines and entering the bloodstream. The toxins and the clay are then expelled from the body in the normal bowel movements.

The actual use of the clay is fairly simple. One way you can use it is in a face-mask. The anti-bacterial properties and the toxin absorbing properties of the clay will work effectively against various types of acne. The clay will also give you skin a radiant glow. To make such a mask, you just need to get a quarter of a cup of bentonite powder and mix in enough water to make a substance that is similar to room-temperature butter. After applying the clay to your face and allowing it to dry, wash off the clay and apply a gentle moisturizer to replace any rancid oil that the clay has removed from your skin.

To take the clay internally, you will want to start out with no more than a teaspoon of clay in an entire glass of water. Your body will need to adjust to the clay just as it does to adding fiber to your diet. The key is to not intake too much clay as to have it start absorbing water from your body making you dehydrated. The more clay you drink, the more you may notice your bowel movements to turn grey. This is normal but it does mean you should not increase the amount of clay you are intaking.

Overall, bentonite powder is a nice natural way to gently flush your body of harmful toxins and heavy metals as well as making your skin look amazing.