Who Had “Deadly Licorice” for Their 2020 Disaster Bingo Card?

Time to play our favorite game: 2020 Disaster Bingo! As always, in 2020 anything can happen and probably anything can kill you; 2020 is the Australia of years. On this edition we have "black licorice". Only a few select like it; I, personally do not like it. Twizzlers are a kind of licorice, as are Red Vines, but the black licorice, are the most polarizing of stringy candy- and now they're the most deadly.

As much as many people will tell  you "all in moderation" it would seem that no one told this guy in Massachusetts. A study published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine reports that a 54-year-old man died as a result of eating too much licorice. It all went down at a fast food restaurant where he lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital, only to die the very next day. It should be noted that doctors wrote that he had "a poor diet, consisting primarily of several packages of candy daily," and that three weeks before, he switched from eating fruit-flavored soft candy to licorice candy, which contained glycyrrhizic acid. Glycyrrhizic acid, or glycyrrhizin, a sweetening compound derived from licorice root, can cause a drop in potassium levels in the body, which in turn may cause high blood pressure, swelling, abnormal heart rhythms and even heart failure".

This dude ate several packages of black licorice not knowing that it would kill him. That factored in with his poor diet, and the fact that he nearly died in a fast food restaurant, was his demise. So, what have we learned? If you, for some weird reason, like black licorice, eat it in moderation. So if you had "deadly licorice" on your Bingo card, you may now mark it. Thank you for joining me for another "2020 disaster Bingo"- wonder what will be next?