Too much candy: Man dies from eating bags of black licorice

A Massachusetts development employee’s love of black licorice wound up costing him his existence. Consuming a bag and a part on a daily basis for a couple of weeks threw his vitamins out of whack and led to the 54-year-old guy’s middle to forestall, docs reported Wednesday.

“Even a small quantity of licorice you devour can building up your blood drive somewhat bit,” mentioned Dr. Neel Butala, a heart specialist at Massachusetts Basic Health center who described the case within the New England Magazine of Drugs.

The issue is glycyrrhizic acid, present in black licorice and in lots of different meals and nutritional dietary supplements containing licorice root extract. It might probably motive dangerously low potassium and imbalances in different minerals referred to as electrolytes.

Consuming as low as 2 oz of black licorice an afternoon for 2 weeks may just motive a middle rhythm drawback, particularly for people over 40, the U.S. Meals and Drug Management warns.

“It’s greater than licorice sticks. It may well be jelly beans, licorice teas, numerous issues over-the-counter. Even some beers, like Belgian beers, have this compound in it,” as do a little chewing tobaccos, mentioned Dr. Robert Eckel, a College of Colorado heart specialist and previous American Center Affiliation president. He had no function within the Massachusetts guy’s care.

The demise was once obviously an excessive case. The person had switched from purple, fruit-flavored twists to the black licorice model of the sweet a couple of weeks earlier than his demise ultimate yr. He collapsed whilst having lunch at a fast-food eating place. Docs discovered he had dangerously low potassium, which resulted in middle rhythm and different issues. Emergency responders did CPR and he revived however died tomorrow.

The FDA allows as much as three.1% of a meals’s content material to have glycyrrhizic acid, however many sweets and different licorice merchandise don’t expose how a lot of it’s contained in step with ounce, Butala mentioned. Docs have reported the case to the FDA in hope of elevating consideration to the chance.

Jeff Beckman, a spokesman for the Hershey Corporate, which makes the preferred Twizzlers licorice twists, mentioned in an electronic mail that “all of our merchandise are fit for human consumption and formulated in complete compliance with FDA laws,” and that every one meals, together with sweet, “will have to be loved moderately.”