Some time back, people put out the idea of using wheatgrass as a cleanse after fire arts to 'get rid of the toxins'.

Well, I've done some study on the topic, grew my own, and am on day two. And though I must admit it seems to be having an effect, I know this isn't cleaning out the 'toxins' from fire performance. and here's why:

though it still hasn't been established that wheatgrass actually does "remove toxins" from the system, the places that do mention it indicate that they're biologically stored toxins (fat soluable, blood-born, etc). And that's dandy. Let's say it does, and it's better than garlic. Fine. The problem is, the chemicals in white gas, lamp oil, etc are biologically neutral. They're not stored in fat, they don't enter the blood stream. They slide into the spaces between cells and migrate out slowly through shedding. Deep, heavy build-up can cause interference between cellular communications and resource sharing. Organic bio-cleansers can't touch these toxins.

Now, it's true the afterburn soot can contain some biologically active substances, it's more likely that they'll have stuff like Carbon Monoxide. This "toxifies" you by locking onto the Iron in your blood. Usually, Iron connect loosely to Oxygen, allowing it to carry the O2 throughout the body, and release as necessary. But CO connects to these iron molecules and holds on like grim death. A couple of these monoxides and the red blood cell is useless. It can't carry O2 and becomes a useless bit of waste in your body. Eventually, the body passes them out.

Sorry