Online biography ＂Eating litchi on an empty stomach causes children to die＂？ The authoritative interpretation is coming.
Now is the season when litchi is on the market. Litchi is tender and juicy, and many people like it very much. However, a recent article entitled "Eating litchi on an empty stomach kills 10 children! The article "The Doctor’s Appeal Rings the Alarm for Everyone" was circulated wildly in the circle of friends, which suddenly made many people "flinch" from litchi. Is it really fatal to eat litchi on an empty stomach?
Litchi disease is a rare disease, which occurs in the ripening season of litchi and has a high mortality rate.
Liu Ying, a pediatrician of the First People’s Hospital of Qinzhou City, Guangxi Province, presented an article entitled "Clinical Analysis of 71 Cases of Litchi Disease in Children". From mid-June to July, 1999, 71 cases of Litchi disease were rescued. These children were all from Litchi planting areas or litchi purchasing areas, and their ages were 2-10 years old. Among them, 61 cases were successfully rescued and 10 cases died. The cause of death was due to the failure to replenish concentrated sugar in time at the early stage of the disease, or the failure to see a doctor in time after repeated convulsions for more than 10 hours.
With regard to litchi disease, on August 28th, 1992, the Clinical Journal of Edible Pediatrics published the Exploration of Diagnosis and Prevention of Litchi in Children. In April 2015, "Clinical Research and Report" also published "Analysis of Emergency Treatment of 48 Cases of Litchi Poisoning". Litchi poisoning refers to "Litchi Disease".
In order to confirm the authenticity of the article, the reporter dialed the telephone number of the First People’s Hospital of Qinzhou City, Guangxi.
A staff member surnamed Chen said that there was indeed a doctor named Liu Ying in the pediatric department of the hospital, but now he has retired. About the paper, it is the doctor’s personal behavior, and they can’t verify the specific content, but the hospital has not received similar cases recently.
In addition, the hospital said that Dr. Liu was temporarily unable to contact because of his long retirement time.
There are no fatal cases in Zhejiang, but eating litchi on an empty stomach is really not recommended.
Regarding the death caused by eating litchi on an empty stomach mentioned in the article, Yang Renhua, director of the Nutrition Department of the First People’s Hospital of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, said that there is no similar case in Zhejiang at present, but it is really not recommended to eat litchi on an empty stomach.
Yang Renhua, Director of Nutrition Department, Hangzhou First People’s Hospital, Zhejiang Province：
There are no deaths, but eating litchi on an empty stomach is really not recommended. Some people have symptoms of dizziness and discomfort after eating. In fact, this is postprandial hypoglycemia, with symptoms such as nausea, fatigue, and even high fever, convulsions, coma, etc. This is the litchi disease that everyone has spread.
Fructose stimulates excessive insulin secretion, which is risky for the elderly and children to eat on an empty stomach.
Ren Dujing, the owner of Chinese medicine in Hangzhou Red Cross Hospital, Zhejiang Province, explained that litchi contains La- methylene cyclopropyl glycine, which has the effect of lowering blood sugar. In addition, litchi is rich in fructose, which can stimulate islet β Cells secrete a lot of insulin, which leads to a drop in blood sugar.
When the human body is on an empty stomach, blood sugar is lower than usual. Eating a lot of litchi and fructose will further reduce blood sugar and cause certain harm to the body.
Song Linglan, Attending Physician of Nutrition Department of Zhejiang Cancer Hospital:
To put it simply, so much fructose enters the human body, according to the human body’s balance mechanism, it is necessary to "suppress" these fructose and urge insulin to "work quickly", then insulin will "work overtime" when ordered, and its secretion will expand. When the nervous system and humoral regulation system of human body are not perfect, insulin will be over-secreted, which will lead to the decrease of postprandial blood sugar. When it is reduced to a certain value, it will cause brain cell damage.
Doctor Song also introduced: Adult’s endocrine system is relatively stable, and the nervous system is relatively perfect, so eating litchi is not a big problem. However, for the elderly and children, especially the younger children, the stress response of the human body is relatively imperfect, so the tolerance to blood sugar fluctuations is not as good as that of adults, so the probability of these symptoms is relatively high. Just in case, the elderly and children should not eat too much lychee on an empty stomach.
