WEBVTT - From the Vault: Dangerous Foods III 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:07.800 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:10.800 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:13.280 Time for a Vault episode. This time we're going back 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:19.640 to November for Dangerous Foods three. The Dangerous food in 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:22.800 NG the third. It is another one of our Dangerous 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:25.759 Foods episodes where we talked about foods that could actually 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.440 poison you in some kind of context, or maybe just 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:30.960 some hype about things that people thought were poisonous and 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:33.080 weren't really, or things that will just get caught in 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:37.160 your throat because they're still writhing around that sort of thing. Uh. Yeah, 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:39.680 this one, this one was another fun one. Uh. I 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:41.960 don't know if this completed the trilogy or not at 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:44.480 this as we were according this new intro. I don't 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:47.880 think we've decided whether we're going to attempt a part 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:50.879 four yet. Are there enough Dangerous Foods left that we 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:54.120 can talk about without really stretching it? Yeah, I'm I'm 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:56.360 hoping what will happen is that we'll hear from listeners 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:59.160 that will ride in in response to these two Vault 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.080 episodes and say, oh, actually, here are some things you 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:04.480 should cover, and then we'll cover them. That'll take some 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:08.240 of the work and effort out of the whole the 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:10.840 whole enterprise. Right, Hey, you out there do our job 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:14.600 for us, all right. Well, on that note, let's dig in. 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.319 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:30.200 Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to stuff to blow your mind. 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:32.800 My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Joe McCormick. Hey, 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:35.399 And here in the United States is the week of 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:41.200 one of our weirdest national holidays, Thanksgiving, the celebration of eating, well, yes, eating, 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:46.360 and and family and sort of imperfect recollections of US 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:49.919 history as well as of course Mr Sentence Theater three thousand. 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:53.360 That's that's what I associated with the Turkey Day Marathon. Now, 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.480 I think Thanksgiving is a weird holiday, especially for listeners 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:58.880 outside the United States who probably have heard of it. 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.640 But you know you don't have in your own country. Well, 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:03.160 if you have it in Canada, you have it at 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:05.440 a different time of a year too, So really, I 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.840 didn't even know that Canadian Thanksgiving is so slightly different 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.240 than America. My ignorance has no bounds, But no Thanksgiving 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:14.080 is weird because I don't know, if you see it 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:19.000 this way, most holidays involve feasting as a feature of 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:22.720 the holiday, But Thanksgiving is the only holiday that is 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:27.400 about feasting. It seems like that is the content of 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:31.240 the holiday. Yeah, or at least the feasting aspect of 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:34.399 it has become so bloated that it eclipses everything else, right, 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:38.360 and and then likewise we become so bloated we eclipse 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.400 everything else as well. It's a tradition, and in the 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:44.400 spirit of continuing traditions, we're actually continuing a stuff to 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:48.200 blow your mind tradition here today with the third episode 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.520 in our Dangerous Food series, which is a sort of 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:55.080 cheeky look at foods that can actually have some negative 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:59.840 consequences if consumed under certain circumstances or uh, not consumed 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:02.399 in the right way, not prepared in the right way, 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:06.800 but also with an eye towards avoiding food panic. Right, Yeah, Like, 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:08.760 one of the important things to stress here is that 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:12.880 if you eat just about any food the wrong way, uh, 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.000 some bad stuff can happen. Yeah. Eating is sort of 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:21.320 like a really incredibly complicated chemistry experiment that you do 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:25.080 with your own life and your own health as the 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:28.359 like as the potential outcomes of the experiment, certainly when 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:32.840 you eat another organism, you're going to encounter its unique biochemistry. 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:36.280 So with with an animal that might be it's you know, 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:40.600 venomous glands or or you know, yucky viscera or whatever 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:43.880 it was eating. Correct, Yeah, pollution that it's that is 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.800 entered into its system. But also just about any spice 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:52.480 and so many different uh plants that we consume. You 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:55.360 also have to take into account what sort of uh 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:58.800 chemical weapons do they have as part of their biology 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:01.400 that we will be taking into ours. I don't know, 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:05.440 maybe you eat organisms. I I advocated an entirely synthetic 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:09.320 diet composed entirely of molecules fabricated in a lab. Or 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:12.640 what's the what's the soil and stuff? Right? Is that 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:17.120 made from organisms? Or is that just a complete, a 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.080 complete fabrication. You know, I'd actually have to assume that 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:23.960 almost anything you could eat is in some way derived 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:26.440 from an organism, even if it was never a living 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:29.480 plant or animal, it's a thing made from some kind 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:32.040 of plant or animal source. Yeah, we're not quite yet 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:35.680 at that Star Trek level of just push a few 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:38.400 buttons on a machine and it'll spit out an artificial 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:41.920 similacrum of of what you want to eat. Right, this 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:45.000 hamburger was not made from rocks. It might have been 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:47.760 made from plants, but not from rocks. So I see 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.520 people in the office drinking soilent, and it makes me 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:53.720 think that we might be there, that this might just be, 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:57.240 you know, a complete fabrication. It's brought here on a spaceship. 0:04:57.320 --> 0:04:59.440 I guess. Obviously the answer is that we should do 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.440 a ten Hart series on soilent. Probably that's what the 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:06.800 people want. So if I'm just kidding folks, please don't 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:09.600 run away. Yeah, I mean, unless you're soilent and you 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.120 want to advertise on our show, then I guess yes, Um, 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:15.159 we'll see. But hey, well, we're gonna make a lot 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:19.440 of enemies in uh in big big food nagrobusiness today. 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:22.159 So maybe once we've forever closed the door on getting 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:26.240 a sponsorship from Jolly ranchers or whatever, we can open 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.560 ourselves up to the to the evil soilent dollars. That's right. So, 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:32.840 as usual in this series, our goal here is not 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:36.760 to say oh at unusual foods or to cast as 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:42.880 xenophobic scorn on other culinary customs. Rather, these traditions are 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:47.280 fascinating and the risks associating associated with certain dishes. I 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:49.280 think they force us to re examine the foods that 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:51.960 we eat on a day to day basis. Yeah, they 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:54.200 force you to think about it in the terms I 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:57.000 brought up earlier, the fact that your diet, all the 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:01.680 food and drink you consume, is this ongoing chemistry experiment 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:04.720 with your body's health on the line. And most of 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.760 the time we really, I mean, we're we're playing kind 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.240 of fast and loose with this experiment. I mean we 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:14.360 we experiment on things because they taste good or because 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:16.840 they make you feel a certain way, not so much 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.800 because we've usually done deep research and exactly what the 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:23.120 chemical effects of them are once they enter our metabolism. 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:27.960 That's uh, that's something we find out, you know, decades 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.440 down the line in some cases, right, and you read 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:33.080 about in the British Medical Journal exactly. We'll take a 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:36.760 few fourays into that journal today. But first, for for 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:40.200 our first course in this multi course feast of potentially 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.560 dangerous foods, I think we should have dessert. Well, yeah, 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:45.800 let's let's do it. Let's start with dessert. Everything is 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:49.320 kind of super rich at Thanksgiving dinner anyway, So I've 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.120 always thought it doesn't matter what order you're taking it in, 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.160 right right, I mean, the sweet potato casserole is as 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:57.880 sweet as the dessert, and it served with the turkey. 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.640 So you know what's the difference. Are a sweet potato 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:03.920 cast role? Guy? It's a when I was a kid. Yes, 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:06.400 now I find it a bit too sweet. Yeah, I can't. 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:08.760 I can't do it. I can't deal with it. Okay, 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:11.400 Well I'll check you on another sweet food here, black 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:15.960 liquorice thumbs up, thumbs down. You've got thoughts, the black liquorice, 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:18.920 the candy like the black Twizzler. Yeah, the wax of 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.920 Belisle is that what they call it? Though this is 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:25.200 in the Demon Belisle. I think somebody calls in the 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:30.480 in the Wizard's Compendium. I I never had an appreciation 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:35.119 for candy licorice, black licorice as a as a child, 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:39.760 I always prefer the ultimately kind of equally grotesque twizzler candy, 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:42.280 the red Twizzler, you know, Oh yeah, it's just straight 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:48.400 up sugary. Doesn't have the kind of herbal bouquet of licorice. Yeah. 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:52.000 So the wax of Belisle is I think widely considered 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:57.560 a disgusting abomination. I can't so I'm weird because it's 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.200 often put in this family with other very similar or 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:04.280 flavors like annis and finnel and things like that. But 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.400 I like those flavors and I don't like black licorice, 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:09.600 And I'm not sure exactly what the difference is. Obviously 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:13.760 they've got some kind of flavor and aroma overlap, but 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:17.760 there's something about the black liquorice candy that just repels 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.320 me in a way that these other flavors don't. Well. 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:21.760 I mean, in one hand, you can say, like the 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:25.240 candy version of anything runs the risk of being grotesque 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:29.200 if at least you know to adult palettes or are 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:30.840 certainly I mean. The other thing you have to keep 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:33.400 in mind, too, is like when at what point in 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:36.200 human history you're eating liquorice. Are you eating liquorice when 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:40.480 it's one of the few choices for sweet candy, or 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:42.240 if you are you eating or you eating it in 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:45.920 the age of Snickers and Jolly Ranchers and what have you, 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.319 where you have kind of like the crack cocaine of 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:50.920 sugar available and you don't have to turn to some 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:55.199 of these more traditional ways of getting your fix. I 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:57.079 hadn't thought about it like that. But of course, another 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.360 aspect of liquorice will discuss in a minute is that 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.360 it's not just consumed for the taste. People of long 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:05.760 thought that I had some kind of medicinal, nutritional, or 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:10.000 therapeutic value. I think that's debatable. Um, but yeah, we 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:11.920 can get to that in a minute. So I mentioned 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:15.080 it's widely abhorred, but it's also widely beloved. There are 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:19.599 people who really really love black liquorice. So uh. To 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.480 get us into thinking about the possible effects of black 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:24.480 liquorice on the body, I want to start with a 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:27.080 gym from one of my favorite genres of old news 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:29.680 articles to dig up, which is the Vault of strange 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:34.160 food recalls. So in red Vines, you know the candy 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.320 company they make. Oh yes, yeah, they're kind of them, 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:42.680 like the B movie of Twizzlers. That's my opinion of them. Anyway. 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:44.839 It's funny you mentioned movies because I think of them 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:48.000 exclusively as a candy people buy in movie theaters. Oh yeah, 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:50.800 that's where I would always encounter because used to eating 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:53.240 red Twizzlers at the movie. That was my thing, Like 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:55.520 that was that was the food that I would have 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:58.600 food quote unquote that I would get, and sometimes they 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:00.960 wouldn't have twizzlers in you before to have red vines, 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:04.520 And yeah, in my experience, if you go in expecting 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:06.320 twizzards and you get red vines, it's just not going 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:09.079 to be a satisfying experience. So you sit down to 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.840 see Highlander to the Quickening on opening night, you've got 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:16.240 your red vines, and you're a little bit disappointed. Yeah, 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.720 because it's just not quite what you wanted. Yeah. Well, 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:22.360 so in twelve, that company, they issued a recall of 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:26.040 black licorice quote twists, I guess those are the twisty 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:31.000 the chords, the whips because the California Department of Public 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:34.560 Health tested some bags and found they contained elevated levels 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:38.520 of drum roll lead. Oh that's not supposed to be there, No, 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.400 probably not so. Guidelines at the time stated that children 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:44.080 and pregnant women should not be exposed to more than 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:47.079 six micrograms of lead a day. And then the bags 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:51.200 they tested, a single serving could contain more than thirteen 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.600 micrograms have lead. Uh, and who eats just a single 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:56.880 serving of anything? If you're at the movie theater, you 0:10:56.960 --> 0:10:59.840 bought that bag. You're gonna eat that whole bag. Uh 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:02.000 And if so, if you're just hanging out pounding bag 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:06.600 after bag of licorice twists, that lead can really add up. Now. Fortunately, 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.239 I think this seemed to be like an incidental contaminant 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:12.880 in some bags of candy. Not a problem with liquorice 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:16.120 in principle, but there are more fundamental issues with the 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:18.440 liquorice that might make you want to really think twice 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:22.360 about potential licorice binges. Will introduce you to the plant, 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:24.880 and then we'll come back to those things that might 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:28.719 give you second thoughts. Yeah, the liquors plant itself is 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:30.800 rather interesting, and uh, you know, I want to come 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:32.360 back for a second to what we were talking earlier 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:36.320 about the flavor of liquorice. So certainly, as a child, 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:39.959 I did not care for the licorice flavor. As I 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:45.719 have progressed, hopefully progressed as an adult, I have acquired 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:51.480 a certain appreciation for liquorice flavoring in certain things if 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.160 it's mild enough. So there are there are a number 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.800 of alcoholic beverages that have a liquorice flavor, and it varies. 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:03.440 There are some traditional middle Eastern licorice flavored drinks. Uh, 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:05.800 And I find those usually to be a bit too 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.240 strong in that flavor from me. Likewise, there's the whole 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:13.040 realm of Jagermeister and whatnot, which is also something I 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:16.400 never developed a taste for. But in a well balanced 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:21.120 cocktail you often have a liquorice flavor that, if it's 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:24.400 balanced right works. Yeah. It has this kind of um, 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:29.840 nice sweet but bitter herbal note. Uh. I think it's 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:33.040 usually considered like an appartif like it sort of increases 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:36.480 the appetite, maybe stimulates the production of bile or the 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.839 polast seems like it would. Yeah. Yeah, And and again 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:42.760 if it's it's it's balanced properly, I find that it works. 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:45.760 So I turned to one of my favorite cocktail books, 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:51.200 Amy Stewart's The Drunken Botanist, which is essentially a botany book. Uh. 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:55.120 That's all about alcoholic beverages and different spirits and beer 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:57.600 and wine, etcetera. It's killer. Yeah, it's it's a it's 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:00.360 a wonderful book. I'm always pulling it out the shelf 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:02.400 just to look up, you know, whatever I happen to 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.160 be consuming. But she points out that there are a 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:09.880 number of botanical sources that produce just the liquorice flavor itself, 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:14.280 and these include a knees star, a knees knees high stop, 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:18.199 Finnel high stop, and sweet seally. So there are many 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:22.280 sources for the flavor itself, many quite unrelated to each other. 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:25.679 But what they have in common is is this substance. 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:29.559 This actually this molecule, the liquorice flavor molecule that's known 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:33.199 as an ethol. And it's soluble in alcohol but not 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.360 in water. So and it separates from the alcohol when 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:40.480 water is added, causing a milky or green cloudiness which 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:43.560 you may have noticed if you've ever had a certain 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:47.920 alcoholic beverages that have a a liquorice spirit in them. Oh, well, 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:50.280 you certainly see that in for example, Absence, which we 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:52.880 talked about in the in the last episode where we 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:55.360 where we talked about Amy Stewart and the Drunken Botanist 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:59.360 Sails episode. Yeah, like you see that when it emulsifies 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:02.280 in the water, reads this cloudy luche. Now, the liquorice 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:07.520 plant itself, Glyceriza glabra is a small Southern European perennial 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.120 and it's actually a type of bean according to Stewart, 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:12.120 that reaches two to three feet in height and it 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.480 doesn't form a vine the p family. Yeah, and the 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:19.000 root is the part that we harvest, and this is 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:23.480 what contains the anthol as well as a natural sweetener. 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:27.960 And the natural sweetener is glycerizon or glycerizic acid. So 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:30.240 one of the funny things is I think that the 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:35.320 word licorice itself in English is a sort of way 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:39.640 down the flow of the of the language game corruption 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:44.160 of glyceriza, right, licorice glyceriza? Would it would it be 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:46.200 more appropriate you think for that, like just sort of 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.200 the taste sensation if we call it glicorice, you know, 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:53.840 like licorice sounds like just a little too sumptuous. But 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:56.160 if it was a go licorice, then that that that 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.640 that more sums up my response to a really hard 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:03.400 like rish flavor. Now that's an interesting psychology question. Why 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:08.320 are some consonant sounds less appetizing than others? The hard 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:12.600 g does not usually make my appetite leap up. Yeah, yeah, 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.400 unless it's sufficiently fringe sounding, I think. But and then 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:19.880 it then it maybe has lack up on the situation. Yeah. Well, anyway, 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:22.920 so so we're talking about the plant, uh, glyceriza, and 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:26.120 you said that the the licorice extract comes from the root. 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:29.320 That's true. You take the roots of this plant, not 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:31.760 the peas, not the beans in the pod, but the roots, 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:34.520 and you grind the roots up, you boil them, and 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.840 you produce this licorice juice, which you can then cram 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:42.000 into all kinds of recipes, licorice candy. Licorice is widely 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:44.680 used in tobacco products. Do you know that, Yeah, I 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:47.000 was really Stewart mentions this that it's used to sort 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:50.800 of mask the flavor of the of the cigarette or 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.440 what have you. Yeah, and this is, uh, that's funny 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:56.760 that they would need to mask the flavor flavor country 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:00.960 mask at all. But then also liquor flavorings are used 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.880 to mask other flavors, for example, in medicines to cover 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:06.400 the taste of the active compounds, which can often be 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:11.560 bitter otherwise unpleasant tasting. Um. And somebody out there, I'm 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:16.040 sure makes like artisanal liquorice mayonnaise. They're they're weird liquorice 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:18.560 products all over the place. For example, did you know 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:22.120 in in places in Northern Europe, like in Finland, salty 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:26.200 liquorice is a thing. Well, it's hard for me to 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:28.920 imagine that, but I'm going to keep an open mind 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:31.600 and and say that I could. I could see where 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.080 that could be good. Yeah, okay, So where does the 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:36.880 liquorice danger come in? Assuming your liquorice has not been 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:41.720 contaminated with lead in A pair of doctor is named 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:45.320 James Chamberlain and Igor A. Balnik published a case study 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:48.560 in the Western Journal of Medicine, and here's what went 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:52.120 down in their case. This previously healthy, sixty four year 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:54.680 old man shows up at a Salt Lake City, v 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.840 A hospital. He reports to them that he's had trouble 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:01.560 breathing after exertion. The he's got shortness of breath when 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:04.280 lying down, and he's got general fatigue. Now, if you 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:06.800 are a medical professional out there and you're listening to that, 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:09.280 you might be thinking like, okay, there could be signs 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:12.399 of congestive heart failure. Right. Tests showed that he was 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.720 suffering from pulmonary edema. This is a condition when fluid 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:19.159 collects in your lungs, making it hard to breathe. And 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.320 usually the reason this happens is congestive heart failure. But 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:25.879 this man had no real signs of having a history 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.600 of heart problems, and in the days leading up to 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:31.440 the hospital visit, the man didn't report any changes to 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:34.800 his behavior or diet, except one he'd been on a 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:38.080 licorice bench. Over the past three days, he had eaten 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:43.359 by himself a total of four packages of black licorice. Hershey, Twizzlers. 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:47.200 This is about one thousand, twenty grams or about two 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:51.080 point two four pounds of black licorice over three days. Well, 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.639 you know, I I can't relate to the black Twizzlers 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.879 on this, but uh, I can relate as far as 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:00.240 red Twizzlers go. U. I said that I don't really 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:03.680 eat Twizzlers much anymore, but occasionally I will give into 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:06.600 the temptation. So you're lying. Yeah, I guess I was 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:09.720 lying to myself, really, because there was a time in 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:12.440 the past couple of years where somebody brought a bunch 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:16.240 of Twizzlers to the Dungeons and Dragons game and I 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:18.320 kind of forgot that. I had a blood test the 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.639 next day from my doctor's exam, and I ended up 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:25.640 flunking my glucose glucose test because of all the twizzlers 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:27.840 I'd eaten the night before and I had to like 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:32.240 retake it later on after a you know, sane um 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:36.160 consumption of sugar. So I feel him on the twizzler bench, 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:37.880 That's what I'm saying. Do you think he ate two 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:41.240 point two four pounds? Uh? You know, I I really 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:42.800 don't want to do the math on that because I'm 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:46.600 afraid about I might find well anyway, So, once they 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:49.320 knew that he had eaten all this liquorice, the doctors 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:51.760 were able to say, oh, okay, we think we can 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:55.639 pinpoint the problem. It's the licorice overdose. And so they 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:57.960 treated him and they kept him in the hospital for 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:00.560 a couple of days, and his symptoms disappeared. The pulmonaria 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:03.639 demo went away. They did a new uh chest X ray. 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:05.639 You could see his lungs were all cleared up, and 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:08.200 he was fine. And he came back several months later 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.520 checked in, had had no more problems of a similar nature. 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:14.560 It appeared to just be the liquorice. The authors of 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:17.240 this case study report that it's rare for a liquorice 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:19.680 binge to lead to fluid collecting in the lungs, though 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:21.639 they were able to find a few other cases of 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.480 it in the literature. Only one other case was not 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:30.680 associated with comorbid conditions, but excess consumption of liquorice has 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:33.159 been linked to negative health effects such as hard a 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:38.200 rhythmias and hypertension. So what's going on here, Well, the 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:41.120 explanation seems to be that when a lot of black 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:44.640 liquorice comes into the body, it sort of sets off 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:50.000 a chemical chain reaction starting in your metabolism that makes 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:54.080 a crucial nutrient leave the body. So natural liquorice contains 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:58.439 an ingredient as we mentioned before, called glycerizon or glycerizic acid, 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:03.200 and when it gets metabolized, it eventually leads to the 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:07.760 renal system, especially the kidneys, purging potassium from the body. 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:10.200 And one other side effect is that it tends to 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:13.600 lead to increased sodium retention in the body, so your 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:18.840 body retains more sodium purges potassium. Medically, that's not good. 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:22.600 A potassium deficiency in the blood is known as hypokalemia, 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:26.760 and hypokalemia is bad news for your muscles, including your heart, 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:30.800 because the simple version is that your body uses potassium 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:35.639 to regulate the electrochemical communication between nerves and muscle cells. 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:38.920 Potassium is just very important for electro light balance in 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:42.040 your body. And if your electrolyte balance is off and 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:46.200 you're not getting enough potassium, your cells can't communicate properly. 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:49.120 So will a little bit of licorice hurt me? You're 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:51.440 probably one if you're one of those people who does 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:53.800 not believe in the wax of belile but believes in 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:57.640 the you know, the black manner from heaven. Uh, will 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.240 a little bit hurt you? I'd say no, probably not, 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:03.679 but you should be careful. You shouldn't overdo it. United 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:06.760 States FDA has said if you consume more than forty 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:09.320 grams of licorice a day for two weeks or more, 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:12.639 you can start to get dangerously low levels of potassium. 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:17.080 And forty grams that's not a whole lot. Yeah, certainly, 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:19.159 certainly that you wouldn't want to binge on it, but 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:22.160 that that's that's I would say, go light on the liquorice, 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:24.560 would be that. The take home from this, Yeah, don't 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:27.359 don't binge on it, and probably probably shouldn't eat it 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:29.119 every day, even if you only eat a little. Right, 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:31.400 there's a whole world of candies out there. You don't 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:33.480 have to just go all in on the liquorice. But 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:35.720 there is some good news. So if you are a 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:39.720 liquorice fan, not all candies or products labeled licorice actually 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:44.800 contain natural liquorice extract the stuff that poses the risk. Right. 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:47.359 We we mentioned all the various other places you can 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:50.040 get the liquorice flavoring. Yeah, so a lot of things 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:53.359 that are labeled licorice or actually just products flavored with 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:56.480 something like annus oil or other things that contain these 0:21:56.600 --> 0:22:00.360 similar herbal compounds that taste like licorice, but they don't 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:04.560 pose the same risk from the glycerizic acid. So you 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:06.920 can research your products on your own, try to find 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:10.439 out what goes in them, and make your decisions accordingly. Now, 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:12.760 on one hand, we don't like to be alarmist. We 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:15.159 don't like to say, you know, oh this food scary, 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:18.000 it's gonna hurt you. But some scientists recently have taken 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:21.639 a fairly harsh view of whether people should really be 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:27.320