What is Chlorophyll?
Chlorophyll is a compound created and used by all green plants allowing them to perform photosynthesis, which is the process by which plants convert sunlight into energy. Chlorophyll benefits the body in a variety of ways. Photosynthesis, simply put, allows a plant to transform carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen. Different plants use chlorophyll is somewhat different ways, but that’s the base function of chlorophyll in all living plants. Surprisingly enough, chlorophyll is actually very similar to human blood, to the hema in human hemoglobin. Because of that, chlorophyll has been called plant blood. Hemoglobin is the component of the blood that carries oxygen. It contains a single molecule of iron, as does chlorophyll. That’s one of the reasons why chlorophyll is so beneficial to the body. It can help to oxygenate the blood in a similar way to hemoglobin, which we’ll talk about next.
How Does Chlorophyll Detoxify the Body?
Chlorophyll benefits the body through detoxification in two primary ways. First, because chlorophyll is so similar to human blood and stimulates blood production and nourishment, it promotes oxygenation of the blood which helps the body to cleanse itself. Since the blood is the pipeline for all compounds in our bodies, healthy blood flow and an abundance of oxygen helps the body to cleanse itself of impurities and carry then away. But chlorophyll does more than that. It also binds with toxins like heavy metals and releases them from where they were lodged inside the body so that they can be carried away and processed.
It has also been theorized that chlorophyll can benefit people with iron deficiency, also known as anemia. Because chlorophyll contains a single atom of iron just like human hemoglobin, and can help to oxygenate the bloodstream, many people believe that chlorophyll benefits people with anemia and can help them to keep their bloodstream oxygenated even through an iron deficiency. Chlorophyll has also been shown to help build up red blood cells, which is an obvious benefit to people suffering from anemia.
Can You Take Too Much Chlorophyll?
There are differences of opinion in the medical community about this question. Chlorophyll, because it is such a powerful detoxifying agent, can affect a body very strongly. A person who has a lot of stored toxins in their system can experience side effects from the detoxification process. When toxins are released into the bloodstream for processing, it can have many unpleasant symptoms, which we’ll talk about more in a later post. Because of this, many experts have thought it a good idea to not take an overabundance of chlorophyll, especially not at first, until a person knows how it’s going to affect them.


