Three months ago I found myself with a major crush on Panda Black Licorice Chews. I’m not a licorice eater, but there it was confronting me at the end of the cereal aisle–the pieces shaped like a Gatling gun aimed right at me–and, boy did it sound like a good idea to eat as much as I could.
Three months ago I was also 40 weeks pregnant, so the idea of eating anything in excess wasn’t strange, but why licorice? Four days and two boxes later,
I had my answer: licorice is associated with preterm birth, perhaps because it stimulates production of the hormone prostaglandin, which prepares the cervix for labor. For people who are full-term with their pregnancies, licorice may simply kick start what nature is about to do in the next few days. Somehow my body was smart enough to sniff out a natural and tasty labor stimulant.
After giving birth my craving subsided. Since then I learned that licorice has a dark side. Even a little bit eaten regularly—about the equivalent of one of my boxes each day for a week or two–can lead to high blood pressure, stroke, even liver toxicity. It’s also recently been shown to block the efficacy of a drug used by organ transplant patients so that their bodies don’t reject the organ.
Last week I remembered that I still have an unopened box in the glove compartment. Since I’m also an organ donor, maybe I should lay off…
