An American man died after eating a bag of black licorice every day

NEW YORK - He had no history of heart problems. He walked his dog regularly and worked a physically demanding job as a construction worker, according to his doctors.The likely culprit? Black licorice, according to the doctors who treated him and who this week published their findings about the unusual case in The New England Journal of Medicine.

"We almost didn't believe it when we figured it out," said Dr Jacqueline Henson, who treated the man while she was a resident at the hospital."We were all shocked and surprised." The man in Massachusetts had a poor diet and smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, according to his friends and family, his doctors said. But it was a switch from red to black licorice three weeks before his death that doctors said proved fatal.

There was no family history of cardiac disease or other conditions that would have led to low potassium levels, said Dr Henson, who is now a fellow at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.The case"raises a public health issue that consuming large amounts of licorice can be hazardous to your health," said Dr Neel Butala, one of the authors of the study and a fellow at the interventional cardiology unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"The FDA is committed to protecting public health and ensuring the safety of our nation's food supply," the agency said in an email."We are aware that the naturally occurring compound found in black licorice can have adverse health effects."

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