Will eating too many lychees make you sick, or even die? Keep these precautions in mind

It is said that the lychee harvest this year is good, so the price is very friendly. On a certain grocery shopping platform, a box of 300g of lychees was sold at a very cheap price of 6.9 yuan.

Now, many lychee lovers have started to "eat lychees as a meal". After all, only at this time of the year are lychees fresh, delicious and cheap.

Lychees are delicious, but some people are not happy after eating them. Some netizens who tried lychees complained on Weibo that they had fever, diarrhea and other symptoms after eating lychees, and even went to the hospital for intravenous drip.

In fact, these symptoms are not accidental or due to individual reasons, but manifestations of "litchi disease" caused by eating too much litchi.

1. What is litchi disease? Litchi disease is not a disease that turns litchi into fruit after eating. It is a rare acute disease, usually caused by eating a large number of litchis for several consecutive days. It often breaks out suddenly in the early morning and mostly occurs during the harvest season in litchi producing areas in southern my country.

If you get lychee disease, you will experience symptoms such as dizziness, headache, nausea, palpitations, fatigue, etc. Some patients may also experience thirst, hunger, abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, swollen and painful gums, etc. A few serious patients may suddenly become comatose, convulse, and even die.

2. Is the litchi disease really related to litchi? In fact, at the beginning, people did not find that litchi was the source of the litchi disease.

In 2013-2014, many children died of a "strange disease" in the lychee-producing area of ​​Muzaffarpur, India. As a result, the disease began to attract widespread international attention. The scientific community conducted many studies on this, and after eliminating many possibilities, they locked in lychees as the "culprit."

Medical literature recorded in my country between 1960 and 2017 showed that there were approximately 247 cases of litchi disease reported, with a mortality rate as high as 11%.

According to the traceability, all patients ate lychees (approximately 300 grams to 1 kilogram) within 24 hours of onset and ate them for 2 to 10 consecutive days. More importantly, except for one patient, all other patients lived in the southern provinces where lychees are produced.

Combining multiple clues, people gradually discovered that the source of this strange disease was actually litchi.

3. Why does litchi make people sick? At present, the scientific community has not yet made a final conclusion on the research progress of "litchi disease". It is only known that litchi disease is essentially a kind of hypoglycemia. There are currently two common views on the cause of this hypoglycemia symptom.

1. Lychees contain ingredients that lower blood sugar

According to a research paper in The Lancet: Litchi disease may be related to α-methylenecyclopropylglycine and hypoglycin A contained in litchi itself.

These are the ingredients in lychees, which can be considered two toxins. The content of the two toxins in unripe lychees is much higher than that in ripe lychees.

When the human body is in a fasting state, we consume body fat, protein and other substances to maintain blood sugar balance. This process is called gluconeogenesis. If these two toxins are consumed too much, it will interfere with the gluconeogenesis process, causing the body's blood sugar to drop, and then cause acute hypoglycemia.

2. Lychees contain a lot of fructose

Lychees are high in fructose, which is sweeter than white sugar, so lychees taste particularly sweet.

The fructose we eat cannot be directly used by the human body. It must be converted into glucose by the liver before it can be used by the human body. After eating a lot of lychees, there is an excess of fructose waiting to be converted by the liver. The accumulated fructose will interfere with the metabolism of glucose and insulin, and eventually lead to hypoglycemia.

The above two theories are the scientific community's current reasonable explanations for the cause of litchi disease. Of course, for most ordinary people, what we need to know more is how to eat litchi without getting sick.

4. How to eat lychees without getting sick? Eating lychees does not mean you will get sick. You will only get sick if you step on some minefields. We have compiled some precautions that you should keep in mind if you love eating lychees:

①Control the amount of litchi

The daily intake for adults is about 300g. Let's take a box of Feizixiao as an example. After conversion, 300g of lychees is about 12 pieces. If it is a smaller lychee like Guiwei, you can eat 1-2 more.

② Do not eat large amounts of lychees on an empty stomach

You can choose to eat it half an hour after a meal.

③Don’t buy unripe lychees

Unripe lychees contain higher levels of toxins, so it is recommended to choose fully ripe ones when purchasing.

④ Children, the elderly, and patients with hypoglycemia should not eat too much

According to previous reports, most of the people who get "litchi disease" are children. Children do not know how to control their food intake and are prone to overeating litchi. In addition, their metabolic capacity is not fully developed, so they are very likely to get sick. If they are weak and malnourished children, they are more likely to have hypoglycemia symptoms because they do not have enough liver glycogen and muscle glycogen reserves to break down the fructose they consume.

The pancreatic function of the elderly is often degraded, and they are unable to quickly break down the sugar they consume, making them more likely to develop symptoms of litchi disease.

Hypoglycemia patients already have low blood sugar levels, and if they consume a large amount of lychees, they are more likely to develop hypoglycemia.

For these people, it is recommended not to eat more than 5 lychees at a time.

⑤ People with diabetes should not eat too much

Diabetics are sensitive to sugar, and the sugar content of lychees is even higher than that of cola, which can easily cause blood sugar fluctuations. It is also not advisable to eat too much.

There is an ancient poem called "I can eat 300 lychees a day and I would be willing to live in Lingnan forever", which expresses Su Shi's love for lychees.

In ancient times when logistics and preservation technology were not well developed, lychees were a precious fruit that was hard to find outside of their production areas, so Mr. Su Shi wanted to "eat 300 lychees a day." But with modern logistics so advanced, if you want, you can taste lychees every day during this season. So we really don't need to eat so many every day.

Only take a few at a time so that you can eat every day. Restraint will give you more freedom.

Well, recently, Feizixiao, Guiwei, Nuomici, Lizhiwang and other lychees have been put on the market one after another. Which variety of lychees do you like best? Please leave a message in the comment area to tell us.

References: [1] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(17)30291-7/fulltext#back-bib1

[2]https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(17)30035-9/fulltext#seccestitle170

[3] Xu Lizhong, Lin Zhihai, Cheng Fangfang, Huang Fengqing. Analysis of emergency treatment of 48 cases of litchi poisoning[J]. Fujian Medical Journal, 2015, 37(02): 50-51.