Having some fruit or snacks is a good way to pass the time in a traffic jam, but not all fruits are suitable for drivers. So, which fruits should drivers avoid eating too much of?
1. Bananas
A foreign traffic police department once surveyed 128 drivers who frequently eat bananas. The results showed that 25% experienced numbness in their limbs while driving, 33% had drowsiness, and 19% had been involved in traffic accidents.
After driving for a long time, the body consumes a lot of energy, which mainly comes from carbohydrates in food. Bananas have a high sugar content of up to 20%, making them an ideal food for replenishing carbohydrates.
However, bananas contain a large amount of magnesium. When consumed in large quantities on an empty stomach, the magnesium level in the blood increases significantly, which can inhibit the cardiovascular system. A change in the ratio of magnesium to calcium in the body's fluids can lead to symptoms such as obvious numbness, muscle paralysis, drowsiness, and fatigue. Driving under these conditions is the most likely to cause traffic accidents.
Therefore, drivers should not eat a large number of bananas on an empty stomach, and certainly not to replace a meal.
2. Lychees
A normal person's fasting blood glucose level is 80-120 mg/100 mL. When the blood glucose concentration drops below 80 mg/100 mL, some symptoms of hypoglycemia may occur: hunger, palpitations, hand tremors, dizziness, sweating, irritability, anxiety, and general weakness. Some patients may also experience nausea, vomiting, over-excitement or slow reactions, lack of concentration, and in severe cases, convulsions and coma. For a driver, hypoglycemia is very dangerous.
And eating lychees can cause hypoglycemia.
The sugar in lychees is fructose. After entering the human body, this fructose quickly enters the bloodstream, but it can only be converted into glucose through a series of enzymes in the liver before it can be stored as glycogen for the body to use.
If too much fructose enters the bloodstream, the liver's enzymes cannot handle it all at once, and the fructose will flood the bloodstream without being converted to glucose. A large amount of lychee pulp entering the gastrointestinal tract, along with the large amount of water it contains, can dilute digestive juices, leading to loss of appetite and indigestion, causing temporary hypoglycemia.
Therefore, drivers should not eat too many lychees before or while driving.