Eat grapefruits for weight loss

Refreshing and delicious grapefruit is rich in phytonutrients such as vitamin A, beta-carotene, and lycopene. It is revered as fruit of "paradise" for its unique health-promoting as well as disease-healing properties, especially among health-conscious, fitness freaks.

Each fruit is largely oblate, ranges in diameter from 3-4 in and weigh up to 150 g. Characteristically the fruit has slightly thick and tough skin than that in oranges. Inside, its flesh is segmented as in oranges. The fruit is very juicy, acidic, and varying in color depending on the cultivars, which could be white, pink and red pulps of varying sweetness.

Few weight-loss solutions can compare with the grapefruit diet for controversy. Praised by starlets in the 1930s as the hollywood diet, a diet fad in the 1960s, and a debunked diet in recent years, the grapefruit diet promised miraculous weight loss of over 50 pounds in two months or 10 pounds in 12 days. The claim that linked numerous versions of a grapefruit diet was that grapefruit “burns” away your fat. When combined with lots of meat, so the theory went, weight could come off. The more grapefruit you ate or the more grapefruit juice you drank, the more fat was burned. Nutritionists now emphasize that there is no magic to grapefruit if you eat large portions of unhealthy foods as well. Expending more calories than what you take in, as when you exercise, is the only way to burn off extra pounds and to keep the pounds off. Recent research, however, suggests a link between grapefruit and metabolism.

Grapefruit, when added to meals, does not directly burn fat and make your fudge brownie’s calories obsolete, but grapefruit can lower your levels of insulin. Grapefruit enzymes reduce the amount of insulin that the body makes which helps the metabolism stay regulated. A well-regulated metabolism helps you to lose weight faster and more effectively. Scientists do acknowledge that grapefruit has properties that balance out blood sugar levels and help the metabolism. Research by scientists at the Nutrition and Medical Research Centre at Scripps Clinic in San Diego found that adding half a grapefruit or grapefruit juice to each daily meal helped study participants to lose weight. 

Delicious, grapefruit is very low in calories, consists of just 42 calories per 100 g. Nonetheless it is rich in dietary insoluble fiber pectin, which by acting as a bulk laxative helps to protect the colon mucous membrane by decreasing exposure time to toxic substances in the colon as well as binding to cancer-causing chemicals in the colon.

You can use grapefruit for your dietary and weight loss needs. Grapefruit is a low-calorie fruit that helps fill you up and keeps insulin levels low.