Friday Favorites: How Much Licorice Is Safe?

0:00The three ways to alleviate the fattening effects of stress are number one, treat the cause by alleviating the stress. That's not possible. You can number two, modify your diet to lower the production of the adrenal stress hormone cortisol as I described in my video on the effect of animal protein on adrenal function. And if all else fails, you can, number three, try to block the effects of cortisol on our fat cells. If you drip cortisol onto fat samples, taking deep inside people undergoing abdominal surgery, you can accelerate the formation and growth of new fat cells. But you can disrupt this process with a compound that blocks the enzyme that activates cortisol and body fat. The compound is called glycerotinic acid, which is what our gut bacteria make and ferry into our bloodstream when we eat glycerin. Many guests asked to wear on our diet glycerin is found.

1:02I'll give you a hint. It dries from the Greek words glycosmening sweet and rhizamine root. We may build a block some of the effects of cortisol in our body fat when we eat licorice. What works the slim fat cells in a petri dish or mice in a lab may not work in a person, but the licorice compound appears to work even when just applied to the skin. Researchers in Italy tried rubbing the licorice compound on women's thighs to see if it would help with cellulite. After a month of application, the thickness of the superficial fat layer on their thighs, as measured by ultrasound, was significantly reduced. The reason we know it wasn't just due to massaging it in is because there was no change on the control thigh or among the women that rubbed on placebo. The difference was only a few millimeters, but the researcher suggested it could be a gentler alternative to cosmetic surgery.

2:02What about eating licorice or drinking licorice tea? Dozens of trials have been published on the effects of various licorice preparations on weight loss and overall, there's just a small effect about a pound of extra weight loss over a month or two, compared to placebo. One reason it may not be higher is that licorice causes you lose body fat, but retain water. Look at this out. After two months on licorice, no change in overall weight, but the women dropped their percentage fat mass by nearly 3%. At the same time, though, increasing their water retention by about the same amount. Then when they stopped the licorice, they lost the water, but gained back the fat. Licorice can cause you to burn so much fat the surface of your abdomen heats up a degree within an hour of consumption, but it has the opposite effect on cortisol on your kidneys which it turns out is actually a problem. In body fat, licorice blocks an enzyme that activates cortisol, but in our kidneys, licorice blocks a difference that deactivates cortisol, causing your kidneys to hold on to extra water

3:07and sodium and to lose potassium. If you lose too much potassium in cause weakness and abnormal heart rhythms, which is why the FDA sent out a consumer advisory warning if you're 40 or older eating two ounces of black licorice a day for at least two weeks could land you in the hospital with an irregular heart rhythm. No matter what your age don't eat large amounts of black licorice at one time, if you have been eating a lot of black licorice and have an irregular heart rhythm or muscle weakness, stop eating it immediately and contact your healthcare provider. Just because licorice is one of the oldest and most popular herbal medicines in the world doesn't mean it's safe to eat in large amounts. The retention of fluid and sodium can lead to blood pressure elevation eating less than two ounces of licorice a day. The regular consumption of just a few ounces a day can land you in the hospital in a coma with a blood pressure of 200 over 140. As many as 3% of hospitalizations due to high blood pressure are caused by licorice.

4:10Those with hypertension should probably avoid licorice completely, as should pregnant women, as licorice use during pregnancy is associated with preterm delivery and infant cognitive dysfunction. For non-pregnant individuals with normal blood pressure, what would be a safe dose? The problem is that glycerizing levels vary in different licorice products and some people are more sensitive than others. Now a lot of licorice sold in the US doesn't even have any true licorice and instead artificially flavored or cut with anus oil. So ironically it's the black licorice you might find at a natural food store that may pose the greatest concern. Including a broad safety factor, European scientific food committee suggests regular consumption of no more than 6 grams of genuine licorice candy a day. A Hershey Funded study found that hard-coded licorice candies have 0.06 mg per gram, presuming that's referring to good and bloody, the limit would be about a box a day.

5:15Licorice tea allows you to access the herb without all the crap in candy, but a study of 33 brands found such varying levels of glycerizing that the safe daily dose ranges from just a tenth of a cup up to 20 cups a day. A life-threatening arrhythmia reported in the case entitled dying for a cup of tea was in a woman who was drinking 15 bags a day. Based on the average level, a half a cup of licorice tea should be safe for most people, though it's not clear that there would be enough to have a fat-reducing effect, which is why licorice never made it into my book How Not to Diet. Finally, cortisol isn't the only steroid hormone licorice can muck with, it also interferes with the production of testosterone. Feed men the equivalent of about 50 boxes of good and plenty, 9 ounces of black licorice or just a tablespoon of licorice root powder every day, and they experience a 44% drop in testosterone levels within four days, though blood levels bounce back within four days

6:17of stopping. The researchers suggest men with high blood pressure or decreased libido should be questioned about their licorice habits.