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I did some looking into what made black licorice taste so good and to see if enjoying it was genetic. I was surprised to find out it can be toxic. All of these
by mikecoles 6y ago
I did some looking into what made black licorice taste so good and to see if enjoying it was genetic. I was surprised to find out it can be toxic. All of these years my grandfather and I have been poisoning each other. Guess we should celebrate we survived it with a pint of sarsaparilla.
- jasonv 6y agoI've been eating a small handful of gluten-free licorice daily for the last couple of months.. dang.
- copperx 6y agoIs liquorice derived from wheat?
- thaumasiotes 6y agoNo, but the candy has to have some kind of structural element.
- pvaldes 6y agoNot, is from the root of a legume. Anything that substitutes cereal flour by legume flour is gluten free. Same if you just mash the dried root to extract the flavor, instead to eat the candy bar. The problem is that legume flour is normally very toxic in raw, and therefore more complicated to produce. Legumes have a much better reputation than Solanaceae, but they are still able to build some serious chemical weapons. Licorice belongs to the same tribe as Colutea, a genus used to poison mammals. Is the only genus seen as edible in its group if I'm not wrong. I don't know if it can be adulterated.
- jasonv 6y agoMost liqorices use wheat gluten to bind the ingredients into candy.. I was enjoying some rice flour variations.
- tachyonbeam 6y agoIt tastes absolutely horrible to me. I guess somewhere deep down, I knew all along that it's actually poison.
- boomlinde 6y agoPoisonous like water, table salt and other substances that are lethal in excess and benign or even essential in moderation.
- smoyer 6y ago> Poisonous like water http://dhmo.org/ http://dhmo.org/
- kenned3 6y agoNo, Poisonous like water : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication if you drink enough of it too quickly, it will overload your kidneys and kill you.
- gridlockd 6y agoYou wouldn't casually consume toxic amounts of water or table salt, but a bag and half of licorice per day doesn't sound all that excessive to me.
- vidarh 6y agoA bag and a half of licorice a day without adequate dietary sources of potassium. And a bag and a half of licorice a day for any length of time would wreak havoc on your digestion.
- Dylan16807 6y agoThose don't continue tasting good when you already have dangerous levels of them in your system. So no it's not poisonous in the same way.
- tootie 6y agoEverything is toxic in high enough quantities.
- crowbahr 6y agoLicorice is toxic in relatively low quantities though. > If you’re 40 or older, eating 2 ounces of black licorice a day for at least two weeks could land you in the hospital with an irregular heart rhythm or arrhythmia. https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/black-licorice-trick-or-treat https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/black-licoric...
- ThePadawan 6y agoThat phrasing so annoyingly waffley. "Could" might mean "if you're already predisposed to arrhythmia" or "if you're somewhat allergic to the ingredients". As it stands, I feel that sentence could apply to any atypical food, like pickled herring or durian fruit.
- wffurr 6y agohttps://xkcd.com/1260/ https://xkcd.com/1260/
- tyingq 6y ago"Well, sassafras and sarsaparilla both contain safrole, a compound recently banned by the FDA due to its carcinogenic effects."[1] Argh. [1] https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know/root-root-beer-sassafras https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know/root-root-bee...
- Scoundreller 6y agoYeah, I’m sure the ban on safrole had nothing to do with its use in making MDMA. But I see that the FDA still hasn’t banned cigarettes. Not enough evidence?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- kempbellt 6y ago> what made black licorice taste so good It's amazing that people can have such different tastes. I absolutely hate the taste of black licorice. Though the act of poisoning yourself and others for fun is an extremely normalized behavior, and has been for thousands of years. We just call it drinking (alcohol).
- Someone 6y ago“I absolutely hate the taste of black licorice.“ Liquorice is an acquired taste (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquired_taste https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquired_taste). You have to learn to like it.
- kempbellt 6y agoSo is beer and I've learned to enjoy beer. I've yet to learn to like licorice and lost interest in trying.
- gridlockd 6y agoI'm quite sure it is genetic. I've hated it since childhood, whereas my mutant childhood friends liked it. I've acquired several tastes since then, I've tried licorice multiple times, to no avail.
- sundvor 6y agoHere, have some Vegemite.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago> You have to learn to like it. This is absolutely untrue.
- wrp 6y agoGrowing up in the USA, my impression was that licorice is one of the most popular candy flavors among children. As an adult, I was surprised to discover that every Korean and Japanese I offered licorice to reacted violently to the taste...wouldn't even try to be polite about it. I doubt it's genetic, so I've often wondered what about their diet predisposes them to have such a negative taste sensation.
- rvieira 6y agoI find it incredible that some people enjoy liquorice (the stuff tastes vile to me). Ironically, I know some people that think the same of me when I tell them I love cilantro.
- asiachick 6y agoI am not a fan of licorice. I'm also not a fan of ouzo and similar liquors that are common around Greece, Italy, Turkey that all taste similar. On the other hand, Star Anise, which also tastes the same, is a common spice in Chinese food though it's just a spice and not the main flavor
- gherkinnn 6y agoLiking coriander (cilantro to some) is linked to genes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriander https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriander
- jrumbut 6y agoCould you describe the flavor? I understand there are differences in whether people but I'd love to hear if we are experiencing a similar and evaluating it differently or what. I can withstand the flavor but not sure I would ever seek it out.