This fruit is now on the market in large quantities! But be careful of "poisoning" if you eat too much, it can be fatal!

It’s the season for eating lychees again. As the saying goes, “If I can eat 300 lychees a day, I’d be happy to live in Lingnan forever.”

The deliciousness of lychees has not only been strongly "endorsed" by the "foodie poet" Su Dongpo in his poems, but it is also a seasonal delicacy that Yang Guifei introduced to the world with the poem "A horse gallops through the red dust, and the concubine smiles; no one knows that it is lychees coming."

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Peel off the attractive red shell to reveal the tender white flesh, which is so juicy that it seems about to burst. Just take a light bite and the smooth flesh will roll onto the tip of your tongue.

It’s so delicious!

If my wallet wasn't limiting me, I would really like to eat 300 lychees a day like Su Dongpo. However, even if your wallet allows, it is not recommended to eat too many lychees in one go. After all, every summer there are news reports of people being hospitalized for eating too many lychees in one go .

There is a lot of negative news about lychees every year.

"Eating too many lychees will cause lychee disease" and "Excessive consumption of lychees has serious consequences, even death" ... This has made many people panic, and they don’t know whether to buy their beloved lychees.

01

What is litchi disease?

Once litchi disease occurs, it will cause hypoglycemia in the human body and may even cause hypoglycemic encephalopathy .

People with mild symptoms may experience dizziness, sweating, pale complexion, fatigue, palpitations, thirst, hunger, etc. People with severe symptoms may experience cold limbs, low blood pressure, and even convulsions, coma, and even shock and death.

Therefore, although the occurrence of litchi disease is rare, it should not be underestimated.

So, how does litchi disease occur? In fact, the pathogenesis of litchi disease and the cause of litchi disease have not been fully understood in medicine.

However, through the summary of a large number of disease processes, eating a large number of lychees on an empty stomach is a key factor in causing the disease.

Therefore, you can eat lychees, but avoid eating them on an empty stomach, and don't eat too much. Just know when to eat .

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In addition, litchi disease is more common in children, so children should pay more attention to it .

After eating a large amount of lychees, since lychees contain more glucose, sucrose and fructose, eating too much at one time will stimulate the body to produce a large amount of insulin in a short period of time, lowering blood sugar concentration. Children are more likely to suffer from hypoglycemia because of their insufficient self-regulation ability and insufficient ability to inactivate insulin.

At this point, some people may wonder: Although lychees are sweet, other fruits are also sweet and contain a lot of sugar. Why are there no watermelon diseases, strawberry diseases, or mango diseases?

This is because what causes litchi disease is not only the large amount of sugar, but also two toxins in litchi: Hypoglycin-A and α-(Methylenecyclopropyl) glycine (MCPG).

These two toxins are not unique to lychees. For example, hypoglycin A is a non-protein amino acid found in plants of the Sapindaceae family and is the culprit for the Jamaican vomiting sickness. This disease can actually be considered a "lychee disease" because people will vomit after eating a large amount of the fruit of the ackee tree, known as the West African lychee. In severe cases, it can also lead to death. This disease often occurs in the Caribbean and West African countries where the ackee tree is widely grown.

Therefore, sugar alone is not enough to cause litchi disease, and the two toxins need to work together. After all, in our daily lives, we not only consume sugar when eating fruits, but also many beverages we drink are flavored with sugar. Although litchi disease exists, there is no need to misunderstand sugar.

02

If symptoms occur, what first aid should be given?

If you eat lychees and develop symptoms of hypoglycemia, as long as you don't have serious symptoms such as convulsions or coma, you can first relieve the symptoms by consuming common household foods such as candy, honey, white sugar, and biscuits .

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However, it should be noted that sweetened drinks flavored with fructose syrup, milk, other fruits, ice cream, chocolate, etc. are not effective and are not recommended for emergency use.

In addition, if more serious symptoms have appeared, such as convulsions, unconsciousness, etc., it is recommended to call the emergency number directly for medical treatment . Do not feed food or water without permission to avoid suffocation.

03

How to avoid the occurrence of litchi disease?

Although litchi disease exists, we cannot give up on this delicious food just because of fear.

So what can we do to avoid the occurrence of litchi disease when eating litchi?

First of all, you must avoid "eating on an empty stomach" and "excessive consumption" . An empty stomach is easy to understand. You can just eat some carbohydrate-containing foods before and after eating lychees.

But many people may have different understandings of the standard of "excessive consumption". In fact, it is enough for an average adult to eat about 200g of lychees a day , which is about 10 lychees of normal size. If it is the super-large lychee king that has been popular in recent years, about 4 to 5 are enough.

If children want to eat it, do not exceed 100g .

If you are a diabetic, don’t consider your age, you cannot eat any lychees!

In addition, when eating lychees, you must choose ripe ones and avoid unripe ones. Unripe lychees have higher toxin content, greater risks, and do not taste good.

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However, it should be noted that the ripeness of lychees cannot be judged solely by whether the shell is green .

After all, varieties like Feizishao are still green even when ripe, so judging the ripeness of lychees must be based on the characteristics of the variety.

Author: Hydra Science Author

Reviewer: Chen Ran, Associate Research Librarian (Science Communication) / Senior Engineer, COFCO Nutrition and Health Research Institute