Liquorice
Food · Other · Food, Typed Supps
Black liquorice contains a compound that can genuinely raise blood pressure. The coloured allsorts mostly do not.
Stage by stage
- Intake (Chewy matrix softens): The flour, sugar and syrup base hydrates and fragments in the mouth.
- Digestion (Rapid sugar release): Around 40g of sugar per 100g absorbs quickly; gut bacteria convert glycyrrhizin to its active form.
- Absorption (Glycyrrhetinic acid enters circulation): The active metabolite has a long half-life, so effects accumulate across days of regular intake.
- Over time (Sodium retained, potassium lost): Inhibiting 11-beta-HSD2 in the kidney lets cortisol act on the mineralocorticoid receptor, raising blood pressure.
Time to effect
- Days to weeks: Glycyrrhizin effects on blood pressure and potassium build over days to weeks of sustained intake and reverse over a similar period.
Allergens
None of the fourteen major allergens. May contain: Gluten, Soya, Sulphites. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.
Eating patterns
Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher. Depends on the product: Low-FODMAP, Gluten-free.
Satiety
119 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — moderate. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.
Cost band
Mid — roughly £4 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.
Key nutrients
Nutrition per 100g
- Calories: 307
- Protein: 5.7g
- Carbohydrate: 70.3g
- of which sugars: 40.6g
- Fat: 0.8g
- of which saturated: 0.6g
- Fibre: 3.5g
- Sodium: 120mg
Food vs. supplement
Liquorice root is sold both as a supplement and stripped of its active compound as DGL. That the industry removes glycyrrhizin deliberately is the clearest signal of what it does — and the concentrated extract delivers far more of it than any sweet.
Kitchen tip
If blood pressure or potassium is a concern, the ingredient list is the thing to read: liquorice extract or glycyrrhizin named on the label is what carries the effect, and its absence makes the product ordinary confectionery.
Common myth
"All liquorice sweets are basically the same thing." In reality: Only products actually containing liquorice extract carry glycyrrhizin, the compound with real blood pressure effects. Allsorts dilute it, chocolate-coated versions add fat around it, and many coloured ropes sold as liquorice contain none at all — while the sugar load is much the same across all of them.
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