Introduction: Fresh lychees should be vibrant in color, large and uniform in size, with thin skin, thick flesh, a tender texture, and juicy, sweet, and aromatic. When selecting, you can gently squeeze them in your hand; a good lychee should feel firm and springy.
1. Not suitable for consumption on an empty stomach
Fresh lychees are very high in sugar. Eating them on an empty stomach can irritate the gastric mucosa, leading to stomach pain and bloating. Moreover, consuming them in large quantities on an empty stomach can cause a sudden influx of high sugar into the body, leading to "hyperosmolar coma."
2. Not suitable to eat large quantities of lychees
Eating a large amount of lychees while consuming very little food can easily trigger acute hypoglycemia, resulting in dizziness, thirst, nausea, sweating, stomach pain, and palpitations. In severe cases, it can lead to coma, convulsions, and arrhythmia. These symptoms are caused by acute hypoglycemia after consuming a large amount of lychees, which is medically known as acute lychee poisoning, or "lychee disease." This is because most of the monosaccharides in lychees are fructose. After being absorbed by the body, fructose must go through a series of enzymatic reactions to be converted into glucose for energy or into glycogen for storage, to be oxidized and utilized by tissue cells. If a large quantity of lychees is consumed at once, it can cause a significant drop in blood sugar levels, leading to hypoglycemia. Therefore, lychee disease is an acute condition caused by hypoglycemia, characterized by an onset in the early morning, often with initial symptoms like sweating, cold limbs, fatigue, and mild diarrhea, followed by sudden convulsions and coma. If symptoms of "heatiness" (上火) appear, you can eat some watermelon, which is considered "cooling" in nature, to relieve the heat.
Do not eat more than 10 lychees at a time, as excessive consumption can cause liver fire to rise, leading to a dry throat and tongue. In severe cases, it can cause nausea, limb weakness, and dizziness. For children, 3-4 pieces are sufficient, as eating too much can easily lead to "heat-related" illnesses.
3. Diabetics should consume with caution
Lychees are very high in sugar, so diabetics should consume them with caution. At the same time, people with yin deficiency and excess internal heat, or those showing symptoms of "heatiness," should not eat them to avoid worsening the condition. Those with symptoms such as a sore throat, swollen gums, or nosebleeds should also avoid them.
4. Try not to eat water-soaked lychees
Many lychees on the market today are soaked in water, which means they contain a lot of moisture. When a large amount of water enters the gastrointestinal tract, it can dilute digestive juices, leading to loss of appetite or indigestion, and can also cause temporary hypoglycemia.
Some water-soaked lychees may contain toxic components such as detergents, which can also cause dizziness.
Tips for Selecting Lychees
Fresh lychees should be vibrant in color, large and uniform in size, with thin skin, thick flesh, a tender texture, and juicy, sweet, and aromatic. When selecting, you can gently squeeze them in your hand; a good lychee should feel firm and springy. In terms of appearance, fresh lychees are generally not overly vibrant in color. If the tip of the lychee is relatively sharp and the "bumps" on the skin are densely packed, it indicates the lychee is not yet ripe. Conversely, a mature lychee will have a flatter tip. If the shell's "tessellated" sections are flat and the suture lines are distinct, it will definitely be very sweet.
How to select different varieties of lychees?
Guiwei: The fruit is spherical, of medium size, light red, with a thin, crisp shell. The peaks of the shell's tessellated sections are sharp and prickly, and it has a osmanthus fragrance.
Nuomici: The fruit is heart-shaped, large, and bright red. The surface sections are smooth, with one shoulder of the fruit significantly raised. The flesh is thick and the pit is small.
Feizixiao: The fruit is large, with an average single fruit weight of 30 grams. The flesh is tender and juicy.
Heiye: The fruit is oval or irregularly heart-shaped, of medium size, dark red, with a thin shell. The tessellated sections on the surface are flat and blunt, uniform in size, arranged regularly, with distinct cracks and suture lines. The pit is relatively large.
Baila: The fruit is heart-shaped, of medium size. The peel is light red with a yellowish waxy hue, thick and crisp. The tessellated sections are smooth. The flesh is soft and smooth, sweet, and juicy.