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Man dies from eating more than a bag of liquorice a day

bbc.co.uk

11–20 of 374 posts

Re: Man dies from eating more than a bag of liquorice a day

#11
post #7

I did some looking into what made black licorice taste so good and to see if enjoying it was genetic. I was surprised to find out it can be toxic. All of these years my grandfather and I have been poisoning each other. Guess we should celebrate we survived it with a pint of sarsaparilla.

Everything is toxic in high enough quantities.

Licorice is toxic in relatively low quantities though.

> If you’re 40 or older, eating 2 ounces of black licorice a day for at least two weeks could land you in the hospital with an irregular heart rhythm or arrhythmia.

https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/black-licoric...

Re: Man dies from eating more than a bag of liquorice a day

#12

I did some looking into what made black licorice taste so good and to see if enjoying it was genetic. I was surprised to find out it can be toxic. All of these years my grandfather and I have been poisoning each other. Guess we should celebrate we survived it with a pint of sarsaparilla.

[deleted]

Re: Man dies from eating more than a bag of liquorice a day

#14

I did some looking into what made black licorice taste so good and to see if enjoying it was genetic. I was surprised to find out it can be toxic. All of these years my grandfather and I have been poisoning each other. Guess we should celebrate we survived it with a pint of sarsaparilla.

> what made black licorice taste so good

It's amazing that people can have such different tastes. I absolutely hate the taste of black licorice.

Though the act of poisoning yourself and others for fun is an extremely normalized behavior, and has been for thousands of years. We just call it drinking (alcohol).

Re: Man dies from eating more than a bag of liquorice a day

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It tastes absolutely horrible to me. I guess somewhere deep down, I knew all along that it's actually poison.

Poisonous like water, table salt and other substances that are lethal in excess and benign or even essential in moderation.

> Poisonous like water

http://dhmo.org/

Re: Man dies from eating more than a bag of liquorice a day

#17
post #8

I did some looking into what made black licorice taste so good and to see if enjoying it was genetic. I was surprised to find out it can be toxic. All of these years my grandfather and I have been poisoning each other. Guess we should celebrate we survived it with a pint of sarsaparilla.

"Well, sassafras and sarsaparilla both contain safrole, a compound recently banned by the FDA due to its carcinogenic effects." [1] Argh. [1] https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know/root-root-bee...

Yeah, I’m sure the ban on safrole had nothing to do with its use in making MDMA.

But I see that the FDA still hasn’t banned cigarettes. Not enough evidence?

Re: Man dies from eating more than a bag of liquorice a day

#18

It can also raise blood pressure.

I've been thinking I wanted to incorporate it into my next powerlifting meet as a game-day PED because I can absolutely notice my blood pressure going up while eating it. Great now I need to write a grant proposal for the study…

Re: Man dies from eating more than a bag of liquorice a day

#20
The condition -- not mentioned in the article -- is Apparent Mineralocorticoid Excess (AME). It is something that we read about 20 years ago in physiology textbook but I have yet to ever see in real life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_mineralocorticoid_exc...

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