6 ms·

Bollocks. There are a lot of people who regularly consume dangerous amounts of salt, ultimately resulting in heart disease in the long term. Water, maybe not so

Bollocks. There are a lot of people who regularly consume dangerous amounts of salt, ultimately resulting in heart disease in the long term. Water, maybe not so common, but among runners or during heat waves people get sick from overconsumption. Neither will somehow change taste, although it's hard to consume an acutely lethal amount of salt because it simply doesn't taste good in concentration. People with healthy lifestyles will feel when they're having too much licorice for their own good. This was a person with a poor diet in general and possibly didn't notice the negative effects of his overconsumption because he was already used to high blood pressure, shitting salsa and having his heart play math rock.

Dylan16807 6y ago
Excess salt is complicated and likely only dangerous to some people and it's not nearly the same thing as directly poisoning you to death. And for water you had to talk about exceptional circumstances like runners for a reason. In a heat wave I'd say it's not the water itself at fault either. You're still in danger if you drink less of it too. > People with healthy lifestyles will feel when they're having too much licorice for their own good. That's quite a claim, especially if we consider the possibility of low-sugar licorice. I think it requires some evidence. He might notice some negative effects before dying but that doesn't mean he'd reasonably be able to tell what caused it, and it might already be too late.
- boomlinde 6y ago
  > Excess salt is complicated and likely only dangerous to some people and it's not nearly the same thing as directly poisoning you to death* What does it mean to "directly poison to death"? Licorice is harmful if ever by causing potassium deficiency which can lead to heart disease among a range of other easily noticeable symptoms. It doesn't "directly poison you to death" in any sense that consuming a lot of salt or water doesn't; you overconsume it and it causes a harmful chemical imbalance in the body. > And for water you had to talk about exceptional circumstances Let's talk about exceptional...this guy, according to the journal, "had a poor diet, consisting primarily of several packages of candy daily" and that "3 weeks earlier [to the cardiac arrest], he had switched the type of candy he was eating [to a licorice]". So basically no source of potassium in his diet to begin with, and then three weeks after switching to a different type of candy that may in itself cause hypokalemia he suffered a heart failure, somehow without noticing any of the rather obvious symptoms associated with hypokalemia. That is exceptional. > That's quite a claim, especially if we consider the possibility of low-sugar licorice. I think it requires some evidence. What does sugar have to do with anything? For evidence, look up any medical source on the symptoms of potassium deficiency. These are not symptoms that would pass an otherwise healthy person by. > He might notice some negative effects before dying but that doesn't mean he'd reasonably be able to tell what caused it, and it might already be too late. Reasonably, if I'm on a diet "consisting primarily of several packages of candy daily" and start experiencing any of the symptoms of potassium deficiency, I'm going to reconsider my diet. We can discard the notion that this might have been a person with a reasonable attitude towards his health in the first place.
  - Dylan16807 6y ago
    > What does it mean to "directly poison to death"? Licorice is harmful if ever by causing potassium deficiency which can lead to heart disease among a range of other easily noticeable symptoms. It doesn't "directly poison you to death" in any sense that consuming a lot of salt or water doesn't; you overconsume it and it causes a harmful chemical imbalance in the body. Water does directly poison you, the way I meant it. Let's put it this way: the harmful chemical imbalance is the cause of death. This happens with too much water, and happened from the licorice here. Salt causing long-term damage is not the same thing. That's not overdosing on salt. So I'm considering that something different. An actual salt overdose is something that won't taste good. > somehow without noticing any of the rather obvious symptoms associated with hypokalemia > These are not symptoms that would pass an otherwise healthy person by. It's not just being able to notice symptoms, it's having licorice start tasting bad to you. If you have a lot of salt in you, salt starts tasting bad. If you have a lot of water, you're not thirsty, under the vast majority of circumstances. You can tell that you should stop eating the thing. It's very likely he noticed the symptoms and had no idea what was causing them. > Reasonably, if I'm on a diet "consisting primarily of several packages of candy daily" and start experiencing any of the symptoms of potassium deficiency, I'm going to reconsider my diet. > What does sugar have to do with anything? What I'm saying is that you could get the same amount of licorice active ingredient without it being a huge portion of your diet. You could even have a healthy-seeming diet that happens to be low in potassium. And then what do you do, when you have mystery symptoms? With that amount of sugar, someone with a healthy lifestyle could plausibly "feel when they're having too much candy for their own good". But if you get rid of that part, and focus on just the licorice, the claim that someone will "feel when they're having too much licorice for their own good" needs proof.
    - boomlinde 6y ago
      > Salt causing long-term damage is not the same thing. Yes it is. Overconsumption of salt eventually leads to health problems because of the chemical imbalance it causes. This was not someone who ate a bunch of licorice at once and immediately died from it. He adopted a diet almost solely based on licorice candy for three weeks. It's very much a long term effect of eating too much of it. > An actual salt overdose is something that won't taste good. Based on personal experience, as a lover of licorice, neither will a licorice overdose. I can't imagine eating pretty much only licorice for weeks on end because eating too much gives me headaches and stomach pains. > It's not just being able to notice symptoms, it's having licorice start tasting bad to you. Again, salt doesn't start tasting bad. It just doesn't have a good taste in concentration. An undiluted teaspoon of salt won't kill you, but it'll taste like crap to most people. To others it will taste good, which is partly why salt poisoning still occurs. > If you have a lot of salt in you, salt starts tasting bad. If you have a lot of water, you're not thirsty, under the vast majority of circumstances. ...and after a couple of weeks of living on licorice? > What I'm saying is that you could get the same amount of licorice active ingredient without it being a huge portion of your diet. You could even have a healthy-seeming diet that happens to be low in potassium. And then what do you do, when you have mystery symptoms? Go to a doctor? What would you do if you started experiencing frequent palpitations and constant headaches with no clue as to what caused it? The idea that death from licorice will somehow creep up on you unnoticed although you have a "healthy-seeming" diet is entirely speculative. This case is extremely rare, even compared to water and salt poisoning, and the circumstances around it—that someone pretty much sustained themselves on mostly licorice—are absurd and grotesque. But yes, by the weasely nature of the term "healthy-seeming" I guess it's true in the sense that it could happen to anyone to whom eating primarily licorice for weeks on end seems healthy. > With that amount of sugar, someone with a healthy lifestyle could plausibly "feel when they're having too much candy for their own good". But if you get rid of that part, and focus on just the licorice, the claim that someone will "feel when they're having too much licorice for their own good" needs proof. You mean that "Oh I'm having constant headaches and my heart is playing King Crimson songs but it's probably just sugar so I don't have to do anything about it" is a reasonable attitude, or do you mean for me to prove to you that hypokalemia has symptoms?

Dylan16807 6y ago

Excess salt is complicated and likely only dangerous to some people and it's not nearly the same thing as directly poisoning you to death. And for water you had to talk about exceptional circumstances like runners for a reason. In a heat wave I'd say it's not the water itself at fault either. You're still in danger if you drink less of it too. > People with healthy lifestyles will feel when they're having too much licorice for their own good. That's quite a claim, especially if we consider the possibility of low-sugar licorice. I think it requires some evidence. He might notice some negative effects before dying but that doesn't mean he'd reasonably be able to tell what caused it, and it might already be too late.

boomlinde 6y ago
> Excess salt is complicated and likely only dangerous to some people and it's not nearly the same thing as directly poisoning you to death* What does it mean to "directly poison to death"? Licorice is harmful if ever by causing potassium deficiency which can lead to heart disease among a range of other easily noticeable symptoms. It doesn't "directly poison you to death" in any sense that consuming a lot of salt or water doesn't; you overconsume it and it causes a harmful chemical imbalance in the body. > And for water you had to talk about exceptional circumstances Let's talk about exceptional...this guy, according to the journal, "had a poor diet, consisting primarily of several packages of candy daily" and that "3 weeks earlier [to the cardiac arrest], he had switched the type of candy he was eating [to a licorice]". So basically no source of potassium in his diet to begin with, and then three weeks after switching to a different type of candy that may in itself cause hypokalemia he suffered a heart failure, somehow without noticing any of the rather obvious symptoms associated with hypokalemia. That is exceptional. > That's quite a claim, especially if we consider the possibility of low-sugar licorice. I think it requires some evidence. What does sugar have to do with anything? For evidence, look up any medical source on the symptoms of potassium deficiency. These are not symptoms that would pass an otherwise healthy person by. > He might notice some negative effects before dying but that doesn't mean he'd reasonably be able to tell what caused it, and it might already be too late. Reasonably, if I'm on a diet "consisting primarily of several packages of candy daily" and start experiencing any of the symptoms of potassium deficiency, I'm going to reconsider my diet. We can discard the notion that this might have been a person with a reasonable attitude towards his health in the first place.
- Dylan16807 6y ago
  > What does it mean to "directly poison to death"? Licorice is harmful if ever by causing potassium deficiency which can lead to heart disease among a range of other easily noticeable symptoms. It doesn't "directly poison you to death" in any sense that consuming a lot of salt or water doesn't; you overconsume it and it causes a harmful chemical imbalance in the body. Water does directly poison you, the way I meant it. Let's put it this way: the harmful chemical imbalance is the cause of death. This happens with too much water, and happened from the licorice here. Salt causing long-term damage is not the same thing. That's not overdosing on salt. So I'm considering that something different. An actual salt overdose is something that won't taste good. > somehow without noticing any of the rather obvious symptoms associated with hypokalemia > These are not symptoms that would pass an otherwise healthy person by. It's not just being able to notice symptoms, it's having licorice start tasting bad to you. If you have a lot of salt in you, salt starts tasting bad. If you have a lot of water, you're not thirsty, under the vast majority of circumstances. You can tell that you should stop eating the thing. It's very likely he noticed the symptoms and had no idea what was causing them. > Reasonably, if I'm on a diet "consisting primarily of several packages of candy daily" and start experiencing any of the symptoms of potassium deficiency, I'm going to reconsider my diet. > What does sugar have to do with anything? What I'm saying is that you could get the same amount of licorice active ingredient without it being a huge portion of your diet. You could even have a healthy-seeming diet that happens to be low in potassium. And then what do you do, when you have mystery symptoms? With that amount of sugar, someone with a healthy lifestyle could plausibly "feel when they're having too much candy for their own good". But if you get rid of that part, and focus on just the licorice, the claim that someone will "feel when they're having too much licorice for their own good" needs proof.
  - boomlinde 6y ago
    > Salt causing long-term damage is not the same thing. Yes it is. Overconsumption of salt eventually leads to health problems because of the chemical imbalance it causes. This was not someone who ate a bunch of licorice at once and immediately died from it. He adopted a diet almost solely based on licorice candy for three weeks. It's very much a long term effect of eating too much of it. > An actual salt overdose is something that won't taste good. Based on personal experience, as a lover of licorice, neither will a licorice overdose. I can't imagine eating pretty much only licorice for weeks on end because eating too much gives me headaches and stomach pains. > It's not just being able to notice symptoms, it's having licorice start tasting bad to you. Again, salt doesn't start tasting bad. It just doesn't have a good taste in concentration. An undiluted teaspoon of salt won't kill you, but it'll taste like crap to most people. To others it will taste good, which is partly why salt poisoning still occurs. > If you have a lot of salt in you, salt starts tasting bad. If you have a lot of water, you're not thirsty, under the vast majority of circumstances. ...and after a couple of weeks of living on licorice? > What I'm saying is that you could get the same amount of licorice active ingredient without it being a huge portion of your diet. You could even have a healthy-seeming diet that happens to be low in potassium. And then what do you do, when you have mystery symptoms? Go to a doctor? What would you do if you started experiencing frequent palpitations and constant headaches with no clue as to what caused it? The idea that death from licorice will somehow creep up on you unnoticed although you have a "healthy-seeming" diet is entirely speculative. This case is extremely rare, even compared to water and salt poisoning, and the circumstances around it—that someone pretty much sustained themselves on mostly licorice—are absurd and grotesque. But yes, by the weasely nature of the term "healthy-seeming" I guess it's true in the sense that it could happen to anyone to whom eating primarily licorice for weeks on end seems healthy. > With that amount of sugar, someone with a healthy lifestyle could plausibly "feel when they're having too much candy for their own good". But if you get rid of that part, and focus on just the licorice, the claim that someone will "feel when they're having too much licorice for their own good" needs proof. You mean that "Oh I'm having constant headaches and my heart is playing King Crimson songs but it's probably just sugar so I don't have to do anything about it" is a reasonable attitude, or do you mean for me to prove to you that hypokalemia has symptoms?