Red licorice is not good for you. It’s a candy made primarily from sugar, wheat flour, and corn syrup, with no meaningful vitamins, minerals, or other nutritional benefits. Despite the name, most red licorice doesn’t even contain licorice root, so it lacks the plant compounds that give actual licorice its (debatable) health properties. What you’re eating is essentially flavored, chewy sugar.
What Red Licorice Actually Contains
The ingredient list of most red licorice products tells the story pretty quickly: sugar, wheat flour, corn syrup, and artificial flavoring make up the bulk. The red color typically comes from synthetic dyes like Red 40, and the fruity taste comes from added flavorings rather than any fruit. Many American “licorice” products don’t contain licorice at all. They use anise oil or skip even that in favor of strawberry or cherry flavoring.
Real licorice root is a nutritionally interesting plant. It contains fiber, protein, trace minerals like calcium and iron, and a range of phytochemicals. But commercial red licorice candy uses wheat flour and sugar syrup as its base, with only 2% to 10% licorice extract at most, and often none whatsoever. The result is a product where sugar and refined starch account for nearly all the calories.
Sugar, Corn Syrup, and Your Body
A typical serving of red licorice delivers around 30 grams of sugar, most of it from a combination of table sugar and high fructose corn syrup. That’s roughly the same as a can of soda, packed into a few chewy pieces.
Diets rich in fructose, the dominant sugar in HFCS, are linked to fatty liver, high triglycerides, insulin resistance, and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Some research suggests HFCS-sweetened products may also contain elevated levels of compounds called advanced glycation end products, which promote inflammation throughout the body and have been linked to diabetes, kidney disease, and heart disease. Red licorice isn’t uniquely harmful here. It simply delivers the same metabolic load as any other sugar-heavy candy, with nothing beneficial to offset it.
The Tooth Decay Factor
Chewy candies are particularly bad for your teeth, and red licorice checks every box. When sugar and starch stick to tooth surfaces, oral bacteria feed on them and produce acid that lowers the pH in your mouth. That acid dissolves tooth enamel, a process called demineralization, and it’s the first stage of cavity formation.
What makes red licorice worse than, say, a piece of chocolate is the duration of exposure. Sticky, chewy foods cling to teeth and wedge between them, giving bacteria a longer window to produce acid. The combination of sugar and wheat starch in red licorice means it’s both sweet enough to fuel bacteria and gummy enough to stay in contact with enamel far longer than foods that dissolve or wash away quickly.
Red 40 and Synthetic Dyes
The bright red color in most red licorice comes from FD&C Red No. 40, a petroleum-based synthetic dye. In April 2025, the FDA announced an initiative to phase out Red 40 and five other synthetic food dyes from the American food supply by the end of 2027. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary cited concerns from parents and doctors about dyes that “have no nutritional benefit,” noting their removal is part of broader efforts to address childhood diabetes, obesity, depression, and ADHD.
The move signals a shift in how regulators view these additives. While Red 40 has been approved for decades, growing concern about its effects on children’s behavior and overall health has pushed both regulators and food manufacturers toward natural color alternatives. Some brands have already started reformulating, so the red licorice of 2028 may look different from what’s on shelves today.
It’s Not Gluten-Free
Wheat flour is a core structural ingredient in most red licorice, giving it that characteristic chewy texture. This makes standard red licorice off-limits for anyone with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. Some brands market gluten-free versions, but read labels carefully. Modified food starch, a common substitute for wheat flour, can still trigger reactions in people with celiac disease despite technically meeting gluten-free labeling thresholds.
How It Compares to Black Licorice
Black licorice has its own health concerns, but at least it contains real licorice root extract. That extract includes glycyrrhizin, a compound that ranges from 1% to 12% of the root’s content. Glycyrrhizin can cause serious side effects in large amounts, including dangerously low potassium levels and high blood pressure, but it also has documented anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties that have made licorice root a staple in traditional medicine.
Red licorice has none of these risks and none of these benefits. It’s nutritionally closer to a gummy bear than to actual licorice. If you’re eating it hoping for some health perk associated with licorice root, you won’t find it here.
The Bottom Line on Eating It
Red licorice is candy. It provides sugar, refined starch, synthetic dye, and very little else. It won’t poison you in small amounts, but there is nothing in it that qualifies as “good for you” by any nutritional standard. If you enjoy it as an occasional treat, the damage from a few pieces is minimal. But treating it as a regular snack means a steady intake of added sugar, sticky residue on your teeth, and synthetic additives that even regulators are now working to remove from the food supply.