Eating extremely sour candy (the sort that can make you wince) is often viewed as a challenge rather than a comfort. But for some people the opposite is true: these mouth-puckering sweets can also be an effective relief for anxiety and panic attacks.
Founder of Re-Route Wellness, Allison Zaluski, is among those who have found them to be a useful tool. Speaking from her home in Florida, she explained that reaching for confectionery like Warheads and Toxic Waste had become part of her coping mechanism.
“I used to deal with really bad panic attacks and really bad panic disorder,” the 23-year-old explains, “and something my therapist would always tell me to do was to use sour candy to help distract my brain.”
In 2024, the concept went viral online after users began sharing their experiences, racking up millions of views on platforms like TikTok, and pushing the idea further into the mainstream.
“I think a lot of therapists recommend that to their patients now because it’s caught on, which is good that it’s something that can actually help people in the moment,” Zaluski says. “Obviously it doesn’t always get you out of a panic attack completely, but most of the time it did at least help me calm down.”
TikTok trend or not, the benefits of occasional use of sour candy are backed by science.
Sour tastes stimulate saliva production to neutralise and dilute the acidity of the food. Zaluski explains that this activation then “stimulates your vagus nerve, which is linked to your gut-brain connection”.
The nerve is part of the body’s parasympathetic nervous system: the part responsible for many autonomous bodily functions and supporting relaxation and lower heart rate.
On top of that, attention in the brain is diverted towards the part responsible for processing taste (the gustatory cortex), enabling greater mindfulness and grounding in the moment. Zaluski continues: “When you’re focusing on the sweet, it’s really hard to focus on anything else.”
A 21-year-old woman, who wished to remain anonymous but uses other brands of sour sweets as a coping mechanism for her anxiety, explained how this matches with her own experiences.
“I think an intense sour taste almost snaps my brain out of its low state, perhaps even kicks it into working,” she told Forkful.
“Sour tastes aren’t always the most pleasant — I’d sometimes rather eat a bag of Haribos — but it’s really helpful for shock-starting my brain into getting out of a low, often heavy, place.”
Zaluski set up Re-Route Wellness in 2024, with the aim of creating an all-natural sour candy for people who also use them in this way. The business’ flagship product, Grounding Sours, goes “further than just being a candy”, with natural ingredients and additional supplements to support brain function. A stock of 200 bags in the first batch of sales sold out, with more now going on sale this month.
“I’ve been using sour candy for years to help with panic attacks, and then I was using holy basil supplements to help my anxiety because I’ve never really liked medications for myself, they just didn’t work,” Zaluski recalls. “I thought ‘why is there not a natural version of this? Something that’s also further than just being a candy?’
“I put everything together in one, so it didn’t have bad ingredients that would make your anxiety worse, and then I also had the additional supplements to help further than just helping distract your brain.”
L-Theanine and Holy Basil – two of the supplementary ingredients – also have psychological benefits for stress and anxiety. Studies suggest that both boost serotonin and dopamine production as well as stimulating levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which prevents overactivity in the brain.
The sourness in the products comes from citric acid, while fruit juice can also a little “tartness”. Grounding Sours are also a hard candy, inspired by Zaluski’s own experiences of what worked for her. “I would use Warheads or always a hard sour candy, not a gummy or sour strip. Anything chewy I didn’t use because it made my anxiety worse. When you chew, your breathing patterns can get weird,” she says.
Those in her customer base have reported positive experiences. “That’s the reason that I wanted to keep going with my business in the first place, because I wasn’t expecting to get so many good responses from people. I’ll get DMs and emails, and honestly, that’s why I started my business, and it makes me really happy.”
She adds of sour sweets: “It’s obviously not a cure, but it is a tool.”
Sour candy is not the only confectionery with hidden benefits. Did you know chewing gum can reduce stress and boost focus? Read more here.
