Death by Black Licorice

This news may be too much for me.  Turns out there is a compound found in black licorice, jelly beans, and some beers (Belgian beers for example) capable of killing you. 

Last year, a 54-year-old man from Massachusetts died following several weeks of eating a bag and a half black licorice every day.

According to an article I found on AP:

“The death was clearly an extreme case. The man had switched from red, fruit-flavored twists to the black licorice version of the candy a few weeks before his death last year. He collapsed while having lunch at a fast-food restaurant. Doctors found he had dangerously low potassium, which led to heart rhythm and other problems. Emergency responders did CPR and he revived but died the next day.”

This is scary stuff.  I just ate pretty much a whole bag of licorice two days ago. 

The issue here is the presence of impossible-to-pronounce “glycyrrhizic acid” found in licorice root extract.  Once in a person’s system, glycyrrhizic acid can lead to dangerously low potassium and imbalances in vital electrolytes.

The FDA permits up to 3.1% of a food’s content to have glycyrrhizic acid.

Black licorice is one of those flavors people tend to either really like or intensely dislike.  I am on the really like end of the spectrum.

—Mitchell Hegman

Source: AP