Not many people aware of it, but grapefruit is actually a hybrid between an orange and a pomelo. You can find grapefruits for sale almost all year, however winter is the best time to fit them into your diet.
That is when grapefruits are in their best, and you get the most nutrients from drinking juice from fruits and vegetables at their peak season.
Grapefruit Types
Grapefruits come in different colors and sizes. There are ruby red grapefruits, white grapefruits, yellow grapefruits and pink grapefruits. Color is not the only differential between grapefruit types. Those citrus fruits vary greatly in taste as well. There are bitter grapefruits and there are very sweet grapefruits. Some grapefruits have seeds and others are completely seedless.
Health Benefits of Grapefruit
Grapefruit Juice Nutrition:
Grapefruits juice is full of nutrients. Grapefruits have very low caloric value and no cholesterol. Those citrus fruits are high in water and fiber. They are rich in vitamin C and flavonoids. Carotenoids in grapefruits produce good amounts of vitamin A. It is also a source of potassium, copper, biotin, vitamin B1 and other vitamins and minerals.
Grapefruit Juice Benefits:
- Since grapefruit juice is so rich in vitamin C, it plays a major role in supporting the immune system and is a great natural way to fighting cold.
- The flavonoids found in grapefruit juice have a role in fighting cancer.
- The pectin found in grapefruit helps with weight loss. Grapefruit juice has a positive effect on the antioxidant capacity.
- Drinking grapefruit juice prevents kidney stones.
- Grapefruit has also shown the ability to reduce insulin levels and prevent people from gaining weight.
Grapefruit Juice for Weight Loss
Grapefruits became most popular at the 70's. It was then, when lots of people looking to lose weight started incorporating grapefruits in their every meal. It was easy to convince people in the effectiveness of grapefruits and grapefruit juice diets because those fruits have almost no calories.
Grapefruits been recognized to reduce cholesterol levels in blood. Drinking grapefruits juice suppresses appetite and therefore helps with the process of losing weight.
Grapefruit Juice Diet:
Most grapefruit juice diets will include drinking a glass of grapefruit juice with every meal and will last for about 10 days. The truth is that drinking the juice with your meal will probably not produce any impressive results.
It is important to make sure you drink your grapefruit juice before your meals and not during them. Drinking the juice before you are planning to eat is what helps you eat less during your meal and therefore gain less weight as a result of it.
Grapefruit Juice Fast:
Although juice fasting in general may be beneficial to our health, it is not recommended to base your fast on drinking grapefruit juice. As described before grapefruit juice offers lots of health benefits. Liver detoxification is however not one of them.
Flashing toxins from the body is the main goal of any cleanse. Grapefruit juice slow down some of the enzymes and therefore allows some of the toxic compounds to stay in the liver for a longer period of time.
White Grapefruits Vs. Red and Pink Grapefruits
White and yellow grapefruits have different nutrition benefits than the pink and red grapefruits. When categorizing grapefruits into color groups we refer to their flesh color and not the color of their skin.
Apparently pink and red grapefruits have more antioxidants than the white and yellow ones. Only pink and red grapefruits have lycopene, which is known to fight oxygen free radicals that damage cells. Regularly drinking lycopene rich grapefruit juice may reduce man's risk of developing prostate cancer.
Both white and red grapefruits have the power to lower cholesterol levels in blood. However juice from red and pink grapefruits is much more effective.
Grapefruit Juice Side Effects
Although grapefruits can offer tons of health benefits there are some risks and possibly dangerous side effects you must be aware of:
Grapefruit Juice and Medications:
It is a well-known medical fact that drinking grapefruit juice or eating grapefruits while taking medications can cause interactions between them. Those interactions between grapefruits and drugs can have a dangerous effect on your health. Although it is a known medical phenomenon, most ordinary people are not aware of it at all.
Not all medications however will interact with grapefruits. Most of the drugs that are affected by grapefruits and grapefruit juice will state that as a warning label in their documentation. Many of the drugs that show interaction with grapefruit can be replace by others that do not have potential for interacting with this fruit.
Grapefruit and Statins:
Statins are drugs that are often used to lower cholesterol levels in blood. People taking statin drugs should completely avoid drinking grapefruit juice. Grapefruits juice increases the effect of statins in your body. That can be very dangerous and trigger diseases.
How to Make Grapefruit Juice?
It is important to drink fresh organic grapefruit juice and not the canned version of it, to get the most of the grapefruit juice benefits. To make fresh grapefruit juice you will need a juicer. You can use a regular juicer or a citrus juicer for making the juice.
Citrus juicers can be categorized into 2 groups: the manual juicers and the automatic juicers. Some prefer to use citrus juicers to make citrus juice because there is no need to peel the fruit to make the juice out of it.
If you already have a good masticating juicer, you can just use it to make your grapefruit juice. To make the juice in the regular juicer you will need to cut the peel, cut the fruit into pieces and insert those into your juicer's feeder.
Selecting the Right Grapefruits for Your Juice
You will know you are selecting a good grapefruit if it is heavy for its size. You should avoid purchasing grapefruits with brown dots on them. Grapefruits with wrinkles skin are also not recommended. Scratches on grapefruit's skin have no effect on the quality of the fruit.
Storing Grapefruits
Grapefruits can be stored for about a week in a room temperature. Room temperature actually increases the juiciness of the fruits and therefore provides the best conditions for it. If you need to store your grapefruits for a longer period, then it is better to use the refrigerator. Grapefruits can be stored in cold temperatures for 2 or in some cases even 3 weeks.
3 Best Grapefruit Juice Recipes for Weight Loss
The easiest grapefruit juice recipe would be just juicing your grapefruits in your citrus juicer. It takes about 1 average grapefruit to make one cup of juice. If you wish to make a more sophisticated juice, grapefruit can also be combined with other fruit and vegetables and still deliver the desired dietary effect.
Grapefruit and Fennel Juice
You will need grapefruits, lemons, green apples and fennel to make this juice. Fennel has enormous amount of health benefits, aiding weight loss being one of them. Lemon is a part of almost any weight loss program and there are even cleanses based entirely on lemon water. The pectin in apples will help with digestion. Combing all the above ingredients will result in delicious dietary juice.
Ingredients:
- 1 Red or Pink Grapefruit
- 1 Fennel
- ​2 Green Apples
- 1/2 Lemon
Green Grapefruit Juice
Use spinach, grapefruits and ginger to make this healthy green juice. The grapefruits will provide the weight loss effect, while ginger and spinach will bring lots of additional health benefits into this juicing formula.
Ingredients:
- 2 Cups of Spinach Leaves
- 2 Red or Pink Grapefruits
- 1 Piece of Ginger ( 1 inch thick)
Grapefruit and Orange Juice
Mix oranges and grapefruits to create a powerful citrus juice fusion. It is as easy as making a basic grapefruit juice, with the benefit of introducing a refreshing new taste.
Ingredients:
- 1 Red or Pink Grapefruit
- 2 Oranges
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