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Trick or Treat: Don't Eat Too Much Black Licorice on Halloween, Warns FDA
It's that time of year again when ghoulish children turn up at your door, demanding payment in candy or threatening a sinister trick instead. But if you're keeping a bowl of sweets on stand-by, you might want to leave out the black licorice.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning ahead of Halloween—which it describes as the "biggest candy eating holiday of the year"—urging people not to overdo it on the medicinal-tasting candy or potentially face heart problems.
The problem is caused by glycyrrhizin—a sweetening compound derived from the root of licorice, a low-growing shrub that is found most in Greece, Turkey and Asia. When consumed in large amounts, glycyrrhizin can prompt potassium levels in the body to fall. Low potassium can lead to a variety of health issues, particularly abnormal heart rhythms, but also high blood pressure, swelling, lethargy, and even congestive heart failure.
The FDA warned that, for people 40 years old or over, eating two ounces of black licorice a day for two weeks can result in arrhythmia, or irregular heart rhythm. Potassium levels usually return to normal with no permanent health problems when a person stops eating it, according to the FDA's Linda Katz.
🎃💊 → 💀
Also at Business Insider.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday November 01 2017, @12:38AM (26 children)
I checked, and two pounds is nearly a kilogram, so I would not be at all surprised if someone eating anything in that sort of quantity got unwell.
(Score: 4, Informative) by coolgopher on Wednesday November 01 2017, @12:58AM (2 children)
Sure, but we're talking ounces, of which there are 16 in a pound. Or so google tells me - I don't deal with these weird units normally.
Two ounces is 57grams, which might be half a regular pack (100g being a common weight to buy sweet things in). Someone eating half a pack a day for two weeks is plausible, though you won't find me going anywhere near that foul stuff :)
(Score: 4, Funny) by Post-Nihilist on Wednesday November 01 2017, @01:15AM
I have practical experience with those units, let me help:
An once is rounded down to 28g
An lb is rounded up to 454g.
And 1g=1.5 6mm diameter x 70mm cannabis joints rolled using the Zig-zag 70mm Premium Automatic Cigarette Rolling Machine ;-)
Be like us, be different, be a nihilist!!!
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday November 01 2017, @01:20AM
I certainly misread that, yes 50-odd grams a day for two weeks would not be unreasonable.
Using ounces instead of grams just feels like the sort of thing my Grandfather would have done, were he still alive.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Snotnose on Wednesday November 01 2017, @01:17AM (11 children)
I find it funny people who use decent units have to stop and think about converting to our units, yet I can mentally convert metric to brain dead instantly. 2.2 kg = 1 lb, 39 inches = 1 meter, 28 grams/ounce, a liter is a quart, kilometer is 2/3 of a mile, etc. Not perfect but close enough unless your in a chemistry/physics lab.
How did I learn this? Oddly enough by dealing drugs in high school (70s). I'd buy a kg of weed and sell it by the oz. I'd buy an ounce of hash and sell it by the gram. etc etc etc. The km I learned as my car speedometer has both miles and klicks, learning a meter was 39 inches was easy to remember.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Snotnose on Wednesday November 01 2017, @01:20AM (3 children)
Errr, 2.2 lb = 1 kg. My bad.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 4, Funny) by takyon on Wednesday November 01 2017, @01:37AM (1 child)
That's the kind of thing people get shot over on the streets. God dayum!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Snotnose on Wednesday November 01 2017, @02:22AM
That's why I only sold pot and hash, after a couple good tokes nobody is getting shot :)
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 3, Funny) by jelizondo on Wednesday November 01 2017, @03:34AM
Yep, your bad. Maybe you're bad? Hey, this is what happens to your brain when you use the stuff you sell!
😎
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @02:18AM (6 children)
2/3 is OK
3/5 is better (what I used for years)
5/8 is excellent
It turns out that the bigger numbers aren't bad at all, since you can get rid of the 3. Both 1/8 and 1/5 have nice decimal representations.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Wednesday November 01 2017, @02:27AM (5 children)
Klicks to miles using 2/3. Halve klicks, add to original number. Bingo. Klicks to miles using 3/5. Umm, math. Klicks to miles using 5/8: Umm, math.
I don't need sub 10 meter accuracy. I need a frame of reference. Can I look at 2 points and say "Yepper, those are 3.2 miles apart"?. Nope, I say "those look like 3 miles, give or take a half mile".
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday November 01 2017, @02:52AM (4 children)
I live near the Canadian border. It must be YOU who comes down and sets your cruise at 67 mph -- 3 under the limit.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Wednesday November 01 2017, @03:29AM (3 children)
Nope, I set my cruise at 80 MPH, keep a sharp lookout for cops, and pay the penalty every 4-5 years on average.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday November 01 2017, @04:47PM (2 children)
I set my cruise at 80 MPH and don't worry about it. Because that's the speed limit on the highway [flickr.com] here in Montana. :)
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Thursday November 02 2017, @12:09AM (1 child)
Yeah, but you're sub-zero a third of the year. I'd rather wear shorts and hawaiian shirts year long and deal with Sacramento trying to screw me out of more money than usual.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Thursday November 02 2017, @11:32AM
This is true. :)
(Score: 2) by Absolutely.Geek on Wednesday November 01 2017, @01:52AM (10 children)
To be fair ounces and pounds are different measurements; I know the system the US uses is dumb but it is not that dumb. 2 ounces = 56.699g so eating ~57g a day for 14 days = 798g. It really isn't that much. Admittedly I wouldn't eat that much in one sitting but over two weeks sure no problem; I also quite like natural licorice.
Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Wednesday November 01 2017, @02:31AM
You sound like one of those damned furriners. It is not uncommon for a true red blooded 'merican to eat 2 lbs of licorice during a single 30 minute infomercial "Lose weight NOW! We'll show you HOW!".
Do your own math, I'm eating licorice.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday November 01 2017, @02:54AM (5 children)
I too like licorice -- I know I have on occasion eaten a whole bag, probably 6-8 ounces, over the course of an hour. Not often but when the craving hits. I guess I'll have to mix in some bananas but that combo sounds kinda gross.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @04:19AM (4 children)
If we were meant to do that, licorice wouldn't taste so bad that we had to invent the good stuff. Red licorice is completely immune to this particular problem by virtue of not being actual licorice.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday November 01 2017, @04:48AM (1 child)
There's something deep and complex about licorice that is intensely interesting.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday November 01 2017, @12:25PM
If you're a licorice fan, try salmiakki. It's salty at first, but after a minute you don't taste the salt and the flavors of the licorice come out better than in any sugared version.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday November 01 2017, @05:38AM
Red licorice would be false advertising. That's why they normally call it vines.
Unfortunately, most of the stuff you can buy as (black) licorice is also just black vines. And I think it's terrible. Real licorice, however, I really liked before I gave up on sugar.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 01 2017, @03:59PM
There is no such thing as "red licorice."
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday November 01 2017, @04:41AM (2 children)
> I know the system the US uses is dumb but it is not that dumb.
Yes it is that dumberer. Quite common to see ingredients given in the fun unit of mg per ounce. Is 75mg of sodium per 28g (1 oz) a lot of sodium, or not?
(Score: 2) by Absolutely.Geek on Wednesday November 01 2017, @06:58PM (1 child)
Wow as a citizen of a country that uses rational units; this just makes me laugh. But 75mg per 28g unit is pretty close to 3/1000 so not too bad on the mental calc scale.
Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday November 02 2017, @04:03PM
I should also mention that there are actually several kinds of ounces. There are 2 in common use that are measures of mass, at 28g (actually 28.35g but on food labels it's always rounded down to 28g), and the troy ounce at 31.1g, and the other commonly used one is a measure of volume, the fluid ounce, 1/128th of a gallon, about 28ml which is of course 28g if the substance is liquid water at 4 degrees C. Naturally, there isn't just one fluid ounce either, and while close, none of them quite agree with the volume that 28.35g of water takes at 4C.
Yeah, it's a mess, one that's peculiar to the US. Every place has their own oddball messes.