Love of jelly beans lands 51-year-old Canadian in hospital

Most of us love jelly beans and will continue eating them for hours on end till the bag either goes empty or our mums snatch it out of our hands.

But a 51-year-old man was recently admitted to hospital for consuming a bag of liquorice jelly beans each day, which led his blood pressure to be registered at an unusually high level during a check-up. In addition, potassium in his body was also found to be low against the standard.

The patient “suffered from abdominal pain for three days, followed by a loss of appetite, vomiting, and a dry mouth,” Huffington Post reported citing Postgraduate Medicine journal.

While an online medical consultant advised that if “more than 57g of black liquorice a day [is consumed] for more than two weeks, it can cause serious problems with your heart,” no matter the age, the publication mentioned that the jelly bean lover had no history of cardiac issues.

Jelly beans are “particularly dangerous to people over 40 years old” with a history of myocardial problems, the doctor stressed. This is because black liquorice includes a compound that reduces body’s potassium, which, in turn, negatively impacts the heart.

So go slow on those beans then, okay?