October 28th, 2011
Reports the Wall Street Journal on their health blog:
Black licorice, like anchovies and Marmite, is a polarizing food — people either love it or hate it.
For those in the former category, the FDA has a word of warning: don’t eat too much of the stuff this Halloween. And if you’re 40 or up, be particularly careful about raiding your kid’s plastic pumpkin, since eating 2 ounces of black licorice a day for at least two weeks can possibly lead to an irregular heart rhythm.
The culprit, the FDA says, is a sweetening compound called glycyrrhizin, which can lead to a drop in potassium levels. And that, in turn, can cause arrhythmia as well as high blood pressure and edema.
No one is saying an epidemic of licorice-induced heart problems is filling up America’s hospitals. The FDA says it received one report last year “of a black licorice aficionado who had a problem after eating the candy.” And it refers to medical journals that have linked black licorice to health problems in people over 40, some of whom had existing heart issues.
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