The FDA Warns Us, Once Again, Not To OD On Black Licorice This Halloween

Socrates Johnson8 years ago

With Halloween falling on a Tuesday, we’re all presented with quite the dilemma. Do we a) recover from the weekend’s debauchery by having a quiet night on the couch or b) throw on last Saturday’s beer-soaked costume and get shit hammered with the rest of the degenerates? For those of us who opt to go with the former option of flipping to ABC Family’s 13 Days of Halloween and indulging in some packaged diabetes, the FDA has issued one doozy of a warning. And it applies to maybe 0.02% of the entire U.S. population.

From CNN:

Just as it does each Halloween, the Food and Drug Administration has posted a reminder on its website urging folks to keep their black licorice consumption to a minimum.

The reasoning? Too much of the old-fashioned favorite can cause health problems such as irregular heart rhythm, especially in people over 40.

Black licorice contains a sweetening compound called glycyrrhizin, which can cause a drop in potassium levels. With low levels, some people might experience high blood pressure, swelling and even congestive heart failure, the FDA says.

The good news is that potassium levels return to normal after you stop eating copious amounts of black licorice.

That’s right, the FDA is convinced that there are enough people out there who are eating black licorice to feel the need to address the issue of potential overdosing, which is absolute craziness. No one is even casually munching on black licorice, let alone having enough to OD.

Black licorice is probably tied with candy corn as the worst candy of all time. In fact, I’m convinced that the only reason that anyone under the age of 40 even knows what black licorice tastes like is because of jager (it turns out that just because a liquor tastes like candy, it doesn’t mean it’s smart to drink a fifth of it in an hour and a half on a dare).

Maybe there’s some weird FDA bylaw that says that they have to issue a warning to everyone just because some lady at a West Palm Beach nursing home keeled over after eating her body weight in black licorice 50 years ago. Thanks a lot, Myrtle.

Seriously though, if anyone at the FDA thinks that black licorice is Public Enemy No. 1 on Halloween, they need to get out more..

[via CNN]

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