Food – Tropical Tangy Grapefruit

We can thank the Jamaicans for this relatively recent addition to the citrus family, with fruits spotted in the forests of the Caribbean on the island of Barbados in the middle 1700s. The grapefruit was known as the shaddock or shattuck until the 1800s. Its current name alludes to fruit grown in clusters as it resembles large clusters of yellow grapes on the tree, with premature fruit similar in shape to unripe green grapes.

The fruit we know today as grapefruit is most likely a natural cross between the pummelo and the sweet orange, now cultivated in many tropical, semi-tropical, and warm temperate regions worldwide for the sweet-sour fruit that often graces the breakfast, lunch, or dinner table.

Grapefruit come in white, pink and red varieties, colors that refer to the fleshy interior. Pink and red grapefruit contain over fifty times the carotenoid of white, which convert to healthy levels of vitamin A, an antioxidant required for maintaining healthy mucosa, skin, and peripheral vision. They are also high in lycopene, an antioxidant believed to help lower the risk of prostate cancer. White grapefruit contains the flavonoid naringin which is responsible for giving it its bitter taste and is essentially an antioxidant that seeks and destroys free radicals (cancer-promoting agents).

This luscious, nutritious fruit contains fairly high levels of potassium, important in controlling blood pressure, as well as the B vitamin inositol, helpful in metabolizing fat and cholesterol, reducing triglycerides, and critical for cell growth in the bone marrow, eye membranes, and intestines. Grapefruit is even more highly valued as a powerhouse of vitamin C–just a half provides nearly 70 percent of the recommended daily allowance. Vitamin C, a powerful natural antioxidant, aids the body in developing resistance against infectious agents by optimizing immune function. In addition, vitamin C is required for the maintenance of healthy connective tissue and early wound healing.

Some people with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and other inflammatory disorders find that eating grapefruit daily seems to alleviate these symptoms. This relief is thought to stem from plant chemicals that block prostaglandins, substances that cause inflammation.

Grapefruits do, however, contain a class of compounds known as furanocoumarin derivatives, that interfere with the action of various prescription medications, posing a potentially lethal health risk.

Consult your healthcare practitioner before consuming grapefruit or the juice if taking pharmaceutical drugs. People on medication for kidney disease must also be cautious when consuming grapefruit.

Soothe the inflammation of a sore throat and cough with the juice of a grapefruit combined with warm water and honey. Consume regularly until relief occurs.

Enjoy a sectioned grapefruit raw or briefly broiled. Nothing compares in flavor to a freshly squeezed glass of grapefruit juice. Frozen substitutes excellently when fresh is not available. Having a natural affinity for avocado, grapefruit can be combined in a salad with orange and tangerine sections arranged over baby greens or spinach topped with a creamy avocado dressing.

 

Recipe

Pomegranate Apple Grapefruit Juice

2 grapefruits, peeled ½ cup pomegranate arils
3 red or green apples, organic, if possible
Juice the grapefruits, apples, and pomegranate arils. Enjoy the delicious, refreshing, vitalizing boost of natural vitamins C and A.