Man dies after eating bag of licorice every day for a few weeks

[Northerner]

A Massachusetts construction worker’s love of black licorice wound up costing him his life. Eating a bag and a half every day for a few weeks threw his nutrients out of whack and caused the 54-year-old man’s heart to stop, doctors reported.

“Even a small amount of licorice you eat can increase your blood pressure a little bit,” said Dr Neel Butala, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital who described the case in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The problem is glycyrrhizic acid, found in black licorice and in many other foods and dietary supplements containing licorice root extract. It can cause dangerously low potassium and imbalances in other minerals, principally electrolytes.

Man dies after eating bag of licorice every day for a few weeks

A Massachusetts construction worker’s love of black licorice wound up costing him his life, doctors say

www.theguardian.com

Never knew how licorice could affect you so severely! 😱

 

[Drummer]

When I worked at Allied Lyons we learned that a man had tried to commit suicide by eating nothing but Lyons ready cooked meat pies which he heaped up on the kitchen table each week, unrefrigerated, and ate whenever he felt like it. After some months of this without falling ill and dying, he went out and threw himself under a lorry.
He was found to be in need of help mentally, but to be in good health in general.
Meat pies are obviously a healthier choice than often made out - though back then they were made with animal fats in the pastry and the fillings were made in huge pressure cookers then the two were combined and steam baked before being sealed in plastic tubes, so they were quite sterile and fairly nutritious.

 

[Northerner]

When I worked at Allied Lyons we learned that a man had tried to commit suicide by eating nothing but Lyons ready cooked meat pies which he heaped up on the kitchen table each week, unrefrigerated, and ate whenever he felt like it. After some months of this without falling ill and dying, he went out and threw himself under a lorry.
He was found to be in need of help mentally, but to be in good health in general.
Meat pies are obviously a healthier choice than often made out - though back then they were made with animal fats in the pastry and the fillings were made in huge pressure cookers then the two were combined and steam baked before being sealed in plastic tubes, so they were quite sterile and fairly nutritious.

First time I've ever heard of that method! 😱 I wonder why he landed on that?

 

[Drummer]

First time I've ever heard of that method! 😱 I wonder why he landed on that?

It was in the early 70s when every medium was chanting 'fat bad' - and the pastry was made with lard!! He expected to die in weeks.

 

[Northerner]

It was in the early 70s when every medium was chanting 'fat bad' - and the pastry was made with lard!! He expected to die in weeks.

I suspect there are many people around at this very moment who live on little other than a diet of pies, and are actually enjoying them 😱

 

[Drummer]

Changes in the ingredients and the recipe might mean they are not as good as they might be, but they - and such things as pasties have stood the test of time, though few understand that the edging of the crust is not meant to be eaten, it is the handle.