Padd Solutions

According to ScienceDaily, our food is trying to kill us yet again. A study carried out by researchers from the University of Helsinki and the University of Edinburgh has explained that women that eat excessive amounts of licorice during pregnancy (100g or more) are at risk of bearing children with behavioral problems and lower intelligence levels. It also may lead to poor attention span and physically disruptive symptoms, ADHD included. The findings were documented in Finland, and since "consumption of licorice among young women is common" in Finland, this is apparently an unknown problem in the US as well. Probably to a much larger extent, too. Pun intended.


A number of eight year old kids whose mothers ate ridiculous amounts of licorice while they were pregnant were given a series of cognitive tests, along with other kids. The children with candy-obsessed moms performed poorer than normal.

Naturally, these results spell doom for us all. I mean, lots of people really like licorice. Why have a baby if you can't eat your Red Vines during the eight-month wait period anyway? This study adds to the list of substances which, when consumed during pregnancy, could cause ADHD in the fetus (along with lead and tobacco smoke). The research follows a study which suggested that licorice consumption is also linked to shorter pregnancies.