Can you eat lychee when you have diarrhea in summer?
Oct 14, 2022
Source: Cainiu Health
Dr. Zhao Haiming
Introduction
Lychees should be stored refrigerated. Due to their low temperature when chilled, eating them can easily irritate the gastrointestinal tract, worsening diarrhea symptoms and potentially causing abdominal pain by inducing contractions of the intestinal smooth muscles. Lychees are high in sugar, which can increase gastric acid secretion and hinder the improvement of diarrhea. Therefore, people with summer diarrhea should generally avoid eating lychees.
Can you eat lychee when having diarrhea? A more accurate way to phrase this question is: Can you eat lychee during summer diarrhea? Generally, you should not eat lychee when experiencing diarrhea in summer.
Lychee is a fruit that tends to spoil easily and usually needs to be stored in a refrigerator. Chilled lychees are quite cold in temperature, and consuming them may irritate the gastrointestinal tract, worsening diarrhea symptoms and potentially causing abdominal pain due to contraction of gastrointestinal smooth muscles. Lychee is also high in sugar; eating it may increase gastric acid secretion, further damaging the gastrointestinal mucosa and hindering recovery from diarrhea. Therefore, it's generally advised not to eat lychee when suffering from summer diarrhea.
When experiencing diarrhea in summer, intake of irritating foods should be reduced. Daily meals should focus on light, soft, easily digestible foods. Additionally, it's important to moderately increase fluid intake to prevent excessive electrolyte loss and dehydration. If diarrhea symptoms are severe, anti-diarrheal medications such as montmorillonite or loperamide should be used under a doctor’s guidance to suppress intestinal motility and alleviate symptoms.
