With the large-scale上市 of lychees, lychee disease has also begun to appear.
It has long been observed that after children eat a large quantity of lychees, they may experience symptoms the next day such as thirst, diarrhea, pale complexion, limb weakness, and profuse sweating. In severe cases, there may be neuropsychiatric symptoms like convulsions, paralysis, and coma, somewhat similar to hypoglycemia in diabetes. In response, Japanese scholars conducted specialized research. They discovered that α-methylenecyclopropylglycine, found in the seeds of lychees, has the effect of lowering blood sugar in the human body. Although this substance was not found in the lychee juice, nor were any other toxic components, they speculated that it might be due to children's immature and underdeveloped digestive functions; the flesh of lychees contains a large amount of fructose, and after binge-eating a large quantity, a significant amount of fructose enters the digestive tract and cannot be metabolized in a timely manner, temporarily disrupting sugar metabolism and leading to a decrease in blood sugar levels.
Furthermore, children are in a period of vigorous growth and development, and their energy requirements per unit of body weight are much higher than those of adults. When fructose cannot enter metabolism promptly and effectively, the energy needed for growth and daily activities must come from the gluconeogenesis of proteins and fats. However, these substances and energy are temporarily insufficient to meet the body's needs. Thus, children who consume a large amount of lychees one day may have low blood sugar the next morning. Additionally, after eating too many lychees, children lose their appetite for other foods. With increased metabolism but reduced food intake, glycogen reserves are inevitably depleted, which may also be a cause of hypoglycemia.
Once the cause of lychee disease is understood and its course of development is clear, treatment is not difficult. For milder cases, drinking some sugar water or eating a few pieces of fruit candy can alleviate the condition. For more severe cases, there is no need to panic; intravenous administration of glucose can lead to recovery in a short while.