Do you like litchis? Well, prepare to be very, very careful before eating them the next time, at least on an empty stomach.

A joint study conducted by Indian and US scientists into hundreds of mysterious deaths in Bihar over the last two decades has found that the cause of death was none other than the litchi.

Don't skip dinner

According to the research, which is published in the British medical journal Lancet, skipping dinner causes night-time hypoglycemia (low-blood sugar), especially in children who already are low on stored glycogen and glucose in the body, and thus metabolism takes place by the breaking down of fatty acids in the stomach.


Consuming litchis in this state disrupts the metabolic process since the naturally occurring toxins in the fruit like hypoglycin A and methylenecyclopropylglycine c disrupt the metabolic process and the person suffers through an an acute sugar drop in the body, which hampers brain functioning. Thus the deaths are caused due to toxicity within the stomach.


This is the first study to provide any conclusive evidence as to the cause of the mysterious Muzaffarpur epidemic. The research also highlights the impact of skipping dinner at night since toxicity of this kind only occur on an empty stomach.
So the next time you think of skipping a meal, especially at night, think twice.