An American man dies after eating too much liquorice
Updated | By East Coast Radio
The man ate an excessive amount of one-and-a-half bags a day.
The 54-year-old construction worker suffered no symptoms, but he suddenly went into cardiac arrest in a fast-food restaurant.
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When Emergency medical technicians arrived, they found that he was suffering from abnormal heart rhythms that leaves the heart unable to pump blood effectively, also known as ventricular fibrillation.
They performed CPR before taking him to the hospital where 32 hours later, he passed away.
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So how did they determine that the liquorice was the culprit?
Well, the black variant of the sweet contains glycyrrhizic acid, unlike the red liquorice.
It was found that the patient ate a lot of the candy during his life and studies have shown that the glycyrrhizic acid can cause hypertension, hypokalemia (low potassium levels in the blood), renal failure, and more.
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The patient was found to have low potassium levels and many of the issues associated with consuming large quantities of liquorice.
Unless you plan on eating this amount so regularly, you should be out of harm's way.
But luckily now we know that there is too much of a good thing.
Main image courtesy of iStock
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