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

bbc.co.uk

151–160 of 374 posts

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

#151
post #77

Dr. Hibbert: Another broccoli-related death. Marge: But I thought broccoli was— Dr. Hibbert: Oh yes. One of the deadliest plants on Earth. Why, it tries to warn you itself with its terrible taste. I feel the same about Liquorice

I love the taste of broccoli :p.

(and have to admit, that occasionally I enjoy the taste of liquorice, though I only eat it extremely rarely)

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

#152
post #96
post #77

Dr. Hibbert: Another broccoli-related death. Marge: But I thought broccoli was— Dr. Hibbert: Oh yes. One of the deadliest plants on Earth. Why, it tries to warn you itself with its terrible taste. I feel the same about Liquorice

I have always wondered whether liquorice is an acquired taste. I find it vile, and I'm glad for that.

I've always wondered if it's something like cilantro. They've identified a gene that makes cilantro taste soapy to some. Maybe there's something similar with licorice since I've noticed many people seem to have a strong negative reaction to it. (I find the flavor mild but interesting, like vanilla.)

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

#153
post #70

Strong black licorice, "lakrids," abounds in Denmark. My brother visited me when I was living there and ate a pound or so of little, tobacco-pipe shaped licorice in an afternoon. He got profoundly ill with a racing heartbeat, lightheaded, dizzy and nauseous. I almost took him to the hospital but he refused. It took a couple of days before he felt good enough to get out of the apartment. Sometime after, I mentioned th…

Ah Then purpose of the salty licorice with ammonium chloride must be to prevent people from consuming too much in one sitting. Usually I can only make it 2/3rd through a single piece before the ammonia flavor is too over powering.

I loved eating that stuff as a kid growing up in Germany. Still do, but can't easily find it in Seattle.

It's a very acquired flavor... just like I absolutely cannot get used to the taste of IPAs.

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

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah Then purpose of the salty licorice with ammonium chloride must be to prevent people from consuming too much in one sitting. Usually I can only make it 2/3rd through a single piece before the ammonia flavor is too over powering.

The origin of salty licorice was as a throat lozenge (same reason a singer might gargle salt water ever so often to keep their throat healthy) in cold/freezing fishing waters. (The salt was the important bit, the licorice was just the flavor the fisherman really like to make it sweeter and easier to chew.) It wasn't invented to be an appetite suppressor, though for a lot of people it certainly is. (Not many people li…

As a person from a tropical country, I was puzzled with all those salty "candy" sold in the west. I ate one and thought who the hell would eat this horrible salty candy on purpose? So those are actually good for the throat on freezing climate?

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

#155

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_mineralocorticoid_exc... We actually learned about this in med school last week, but I never thought it actually happened to people... Licorice contains glycyrrhetinic acid which inhibits the conversion of cortisol to cortisone. If you have too much cortisol floating around because of this, that cortisol starts activating receptors in your kidneys that are normally activated by…

Can this imbalance occur transiently?

One time, I was awake for ~3 days straight. I ended up in the hospital (visual hallucinations) and the only thing remarkable was low potassium and high BP.

But I've had this long running hypothesis that body has trouble with cortisol regulation when I'm extremely fatigued. If I miss a night of sleep, the next night it is extremely hard for me to fall asleep (cortisol inhibits sleep) and I have that terrible 'stress sweat' odor.

Remeron will then knock me out... where as hypnotics will not. Remeron being interesting because it inhibits the production of cortisol.

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

#156
post #78
post #70

Strong black licorice, "lakrids," abounds in Denmark. My brother visited me when I was living there and ate a pound or so of little, tobacco-pipe shaped licorice in an afternoon. He got profoundly ill with a racing heartbeat, lightheaded, dizzy and nauseous. I almost took him to the hospital but he refused. It took a couple of days before he felt good enough to get out of the apartment. Sometime after, I mentioned th…

You'd think the package would have a warning on it?

Where do you draw the line?

People have died from drinking too much water, probably more than have been killed by liquorice.

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

#157
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have always wondered whether liquorice is an acquired taste. I find it vile, and I'm glad for that.

I've always wondered if it's something like cilantro. They've identified a gene that makes cilantro taste soapy to some. Maybe there's something similar with licorice since I've noticed many people seem to have a strong negative reaction to it. (I find the flavor mild but interesting, like vanilla.)

They identified a variation which is needed to distinguish a chemical in cilantro at all.

Having that variation is necessary but not sufficient for finding it has a soapy taste.

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

#158

There was a case when a woman in Germany also ate lots of liquorice on a daily basis and developed health problems. The case went to court because she thought that she should have been warned by the producer. It was dismissed with a reason like "common sense dictates that this was a bad idea" (think: "lol, wut? u dumb").

> It was dismissed with a reason like "common sense dictates that this was a bad idea" (think: "lol, wut? u dumb").

And this is why Europe is less litigious than the US (that and reasonable healthcare costs): the courts won't stand for frivolous cases.

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

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humor aside: oven-roasted or pan-seared broccoli with garlic, salt, and butter tastes amazing! And depending on how much salt and butter you add, is probably way safer to eat than black liquorice.

I don’t really buy that it makes that much of a difference. As a child I hated all forms of broccoli, could barely stomach it. Now that I’ve grown older I find even the plain steamed stuff edible. While I certainly like it prepped like you described, it still in the end has the taste of broccoli in it. I have a hard time imagining someone who hates the vegetable caring about how it was prepared.

It probably makes more of a difference if you kind-of liked it to start with. I will happily munch on broccoli and other green veg out of choice, but it can taste a bit plain. If you salt and butter it, it brings out the flavour, which is a good thing if you like the underlying taste.
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