8.Lethal Dose

Too much of anything is a bad idea. Shockingly, this principle applies to our favorite candies and treats. In a fit of morbid curiosity, researchers at the American Chemical Society conducted an experiment to determine just how much candy is a “lethal dose.” Using some of the most famous types of Halloween candy such as candy corn, dum dums, and sugar babies, scientists began calculating the deadly dose of sugar. “LD50,” a term used to describe “the quantity per kilogram that would kill half of an animal test population,” was applied to each candy.

For sugar, this number is 13.5 grams per pound. For an average adult of about 180 pounds (81 kg), about 5.4 pounds (2.5 kg) of sugar would be a deadly poison. Translated literally, 262 small candy bars or approximately 1,627 kernels of candy corn could send you to an early grave. For candies with higher levels of sugar such as sugar babies, blow pops, and nerds, it is even easier to reach the fateful 20,000 calories required for a sugary death. Although not as scary, candy is a deceptively dangerous type of poison.

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