system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does activated charcoal help against ingested poison?
gpt
Activated charcoal is charcoal that have gone through a process forming lots of extremely tiny structures in it. These structures will be able to trap bigger molecules like poisons but let smaller molecules like water and ions alone. So if you eat activated charcoal you will essentially slow down your digestion process as it will bind to any of the larger molecules and therefore slow down the absorption of poison into your body.