Is it a good idea to eat gold (in the form of gold leaf)? Prof. Koichi Imai, D.D.S., Ph.D of the Dept. of Biomaterials, Osaka Dental University, Japan (and other places), is of the opinion that the answer might well be ‘no’. Pointing out that although :
“Gold leaf flakes are considered to pass through the body and excreted without reaction with digestive juices.”
– there is a possible, and previously underplayed, potential problem :
“ [..] small gold leaf particles are likely to stay in the human digestive tract for a long time.”
Therefore :
“Ingestion of pure gold as food is not useful for humans, and the risk of carcinogenesis is considered. It is necessary to develop a safe edible gold leaf alloy which is completely dissolved in the digestive tract.”
See: Concern of carcinogenic risk of eating gold leaf (gold foil)-in relation to asbestos carcinogenesis mechanism in Nano Biomedicine, 2018 Volume 10 Issue 1 26-30.
Photo Credit : “Hamachi” by Wojohowitz is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
Research research by Martin Gardiner