It's cold on my back porch and i purchased loads of grapefruit.

[Bethanie]

:) I can juice them and eat them but so i won't get tired of them is there anything else i can do with them?
Is it true that they can help with weightloss also?
Thanks for the help.
B. :)

[Cinnamon]

I just juice them and eat them too, it will be fun to see ideas that other have! I bought several big bags of organic ones last week so I have a lot of them too.

My mom always made us grapefruit/avocado salads and the combination was really good. I haven't done that in years, maybe I'll try that salad this week also.

[madmel]

Grapefruit juice is also a great sub for vinegar and I love to have some orange/grapefruit pieces in a green salad - very yummie!

cheers,
madmel

[RowanC]

If it's not freezing, they'll last out there a long time!

I love grapefruits! I peel them, then I use my teeth to bite along each section, peel down the white membrane and eat the insides. I find the membrane too bitter for me, but get some wierd oral satisfaction from doing all of this while I eat them... not sure why.. maybe I need a psychologist! roflol!

[Veganforlife]

Oh lucky you! Grapefruit are wonderful fruits. And yes, they will help with weight loss AND moving/cleansing your system.
Why not juice some and freeze the juice in ice cube trays? Or even freeze the sections to add into a smoothie? YUM=MEE!!!!!!!!

[Veganforlife]

Weight Loss Benefits of Eating Grapefruit

Eating grapefruit can benefit weight loss in many ways. They are low in calories, low in sodium, high in potassium and high in fat burning enzymes. These can benefit weight loss in different ways. The low calories means we can eat grapefruit freely without consuming too many calories. A low sodium intake helps flush away excess water weight caused from high sodium foods. And, the enzymes present in grapefruit help increase fat burning.

Another positive benefit of eating grapefruit is the high water content. Grapefruits are almost 90 percent water. Eating any fruit with a high water content helps boost water ingestion and research has shown that increasing water consumption can give more energy and help increase the metabolism. Many people are discovering the benefits of eating high water foods like grapefruit and many other fruits for help in losing weight.

Tart and tangy with an underlying sweetness, grapefruit has a juiciness that rivals that of the ever popular orange and sparkles with many of the same health promoting benefits. Although available throughout the year, they are in season and at their best from winter through early spring.

Grapefruits usually range in diameter from four to six inches and include both seed and seedless and pink and white varieties. The wonderful flavor of a grapefruit is like paradise as is expressed by its Latin name, Citrus paradisi.


Slice open a succulent grapefruit or pour yourself a glass of chilled grapefruit juice this winter and you'll be getting more than just a pucker and some vitamin C.

FIBER

All fruit contains fiber. An orange will give you seven grams, an apple five, and a banana four. But half a grapefruit provides six grams. That's about a quarter of the amount health authorities recommend. As with most fruits, roughly half of grapefruit's fiber is insoluble (which helps prevent constipation and which may reduce the risk of colon cancer) and half is soluble (which helps lower cholesterol levels).

There's a catch, though. To get all that fiber you have to eat the walls that separate the segments (It's okay to skip the stringy white stuff that's attached to the inside of the rind). That means peeling and eating your grapefruit like an orange, or digging out the walls with your spoon.

Don't like the chewy walls? You'll still get about two grams of fiber from spooning out the flesh from half a grapefruit. Grapefruit juice has no fiber. "Grapefruit can increase remarkably the absorption of certain drugs," says Paul Watkins, director of the University of Michigan's General Clinical Research Center in Ann Arbor.

Key benefits of grapefruit
All citrus fruit are excellent sources of Vitamin C, which helps to maintain the body's defences. The flavonoid narigenin is found in grapefruit. It is thought to reduce the risk of some cancers. Grapefruit can improve blood circulation and lower blood cholesterol levels.


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How much grapefruit should you eat?
Citrus fruit can be eaten freely. Two or three citrus fruits can provide the body with 20 percent of its potassium requirements.

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Maximising the benefits of grapefruit

Grapefruit is best eaten peeled and raw. This is more beneficial than grapefruit juice. It is important also to eat the skin around the segments. Grapefruit is best eaten when fresh and chilled as this maximizes its vitamin C content.

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Nutritional values of grapefruit
Calories 20
Vitamin C 24 mg
Fibre 0,9 mg
Folate 18 mcg
Carbohydrate 9 g
Starch 0
Sugars 9 g
Glycaemic Index high
Per 100g

Health benefits of grapefruit
By Dr Ali Muhammad Khushk & Nusrat Laghari

Grapefruit occupies a high place among the citrus family because of its flavour, appetizing properties and refreshing qualities.

The fruit is nutritive and refrigerant and possesses very much the same properties as orange, lemon and lime. The seedless variety is the best as it often contains greater amount of sugar, calcium and phosphorus. The nutritional value of the fruit varies with colour (white, pink, or red).

Red and pink grapefruits have a higher amount of vitamin A. It also has 325mg of potassium, 25mcg (micrograms) of folate, 40mg of calcium, and one mg of iron. Pink and red are high in beta carotene, an antioxidant that the body converts to vitamin A.

Grapefruit peel is candied and is an important source of pectin for the preservation of other fruits. The peel oil, expressed or distilled, is commonly employed in soft-drink flavouring.

Grapefruit seed oil is dark and exceedingly bitter but, bleached and refined, it is pale-yellow, bland, and like olive oil in flavour.

Grapefruit is an excellent appetizer as it promotes salivary and gastric digestion. It is an important health-builder and a tonic.

In spite of its sharp, sub-acid taste, the fresh grapefruit has an alkaline reaction after digestion. The citric acid of the fruit is oxidized in the human system and hence the effect is to increase the alkalinity of the fluids of the body. Its juice is beneficial in the prevention and treatment of acidity and many diseases caused by too much acid in the system.

The fruit is valuable in relieving constipation. The pulp, when wholly taken, supplies healthy bulk to aid bowel action. It is beneficial in maintaining the health of intestines and is regarded as a preventive food item against dysentery, diarrhoea, enteritis, typhus and other infective diseases of the digestive tract.

According to an expert, “grapefruit is a super thing in the food of diabetic patient. If grapefruits were eaten more liberally, there would be much less diabetes. A diabetic patient can use three grapefruits three times a day. A non-diabetic but with a tendency should use three fruits a day.

The juice of grapefruit is an excellent remedy for influenza as it helps in reducing the acidity in system and its bitter properties arising from a substance called ‘Marin gin, tones the system up. It quenches thirst and removes the burning sensation of fever.

It contains natural ‘quinine’ and hence is valuable in the treatment of malaria. This ‘quinine’ is also beneficial in feverish colds. It can be extracted from fruits by boiling a quarter of a grapefruit and straining the pulp. It is beneficial in the treatment of fatigue. Taking a glass of grapefruit and lemon juice in equal parts is an excellent way of dispelling fatigue and general tiredness after a day’s work.

Grapefruit stimulates the appetite and is used for digestive, stomachic, antiseptic, tonic, and diuretic qualities. Over the years a number of people have promoted the grapefruit as possessing a unique ability to burn away fat. People following grapefruit diets lose weight.

Grapefruit is high in pectin, a soluble fibre that helps lower blood cholesterol. Pink and red grapefruits are high in lycopene, an antioxidant that appears to lower the risk of prostate cancer.

Researchers have not yet identified lycogen’s mechanism of action, but a six-year Harvard study involving 48,000 doctors and other health professionals has linked 10 servings of lycopene-rich foods a week with a 50 per cent reduction in prostate cancer.

Other protective plant chemicals found in grapefruits include phenolic acid, which inhibits the formation of cancer-causing nitrosamines; limonoids, terpenes, and monoterpenes, which induce the production of enzymes that help, prevent cancer; and bioflavonoid, which inhibit the action of hormones that promote tumour growth.

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

People who are allergic to citrus fruits are likely to react to grapefruits, too. The sensitivity may be to the fruit itself or to oil in the peel. Grapefruit has serious interactions with many commonly prescribed medications. Its juice inhibits a special enzyme in the intestines that is responsible for the natural breakdown and absorption of many medications. When the action of this enzyme is blocked, the blood levels of these medications increase, which can lead to toxic side effects from the medications.

The grapefruit juice research suggests that flavonoids and/or furanocoumarin compounds are the substances that block the enzyme in intestines that normally metabolizes many drugs. The grapefruit juice-drug interaction can lead to unpredictable and hazardous levels of certain important drugs. These medications should not be consumed with grapefruit juice unless advised by a doctor: The juice of grapefruit is extremely rich in vitamin C and potassium. It can, therefore, be beneficially used as a medicine in scanty urination caused by liver, kidney and heart disorders.

Grapefruit pectin is a natural source of soluble dietary fibre and offers many other health benefits that are supported by scientific evidence. Scientists are studying grapefruit for its medicinal value in connection with the following conditions:

Heart disease and high cholesterol: Grapefruit has been observed to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. There is only limited research to support the use of grapefruit pectin in connection with heart disease in humans. It is not clear what dose is safe or effective.

Eczema: One study suggests that grapefruit may provide benefit for those with eczema. However, the study is small, and therefore it is unclear whether there is any benefit from grapefruit for this condition.

Many claim that grapefruit pectin produces a variety of health benefits in addition to those described above. It is now being recognized as a natural and tasteful means for reducing cholesterol and triglycerides.

The other benefits are: The waste from grapefruit packing plants has long been converted into molasses for cattle. After oil extraction, the hulls can be used for soil conditioning, or, combined with the dried pulp, as cattle feed.

A detoxification process must precede the feeding of this product to pigs or poultry. Old grapefruit trees can be salvaged for their wood. The sapwood is pale-yellow or nearly white, the heartwood yellow to brownish, hard, fine-grained, and useful for domestic purposes. Mainly, pruned branches and felled trees are cut up for firewood

[Veganforlife]

Grapefruit Salad
INGREDIENTS:
2 whole grapefruits
2 avocados
1/2 cup chopped cashews
1/2 cup coleslaw salad dressing (make your own)
PREPARATION:
Peel grapefruits and section. Place sections in medium bowl; squeeze juice from membranes over fruit. Peel avocado and remove pit. Cut into chunks and gently toss with grapefruit in bowl. Sprinkle with nuts and drizzle with salad dressing.
Serves 4

Minty Melon and Grapefruit Salad tossed with a Sherry Vinegar, Honey and Dijon Vinaigrette Dressing

Makes 4 servings.
INGREDIENTS:
1 (about 2 lbs.) canteloupe or honeydew melon
1 ruby red grapefruit
1 pink grapefruit
1 white grapefruit
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (again, make your own raw)
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon chopped mint
To Decorate: a whole mint leaves

Spinach and Pink Grapefruit Salad

INGREDIENTS:
6 cups baby spinach leaves
1 small pink grapefruit, peeled, pith removed, segmented, and sliced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup fresh raspberries
2 tbsp walnut pieces, chopped
PREPARATION:
Rinse, drain and dry baby spinach leaves; arrange on 4 salad plates. Arrange grapefruit pieces on top, followed by onion slivers and mushroom slices. Scatter raspberries and walnut pieces on top.
Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of your favorite low fat or fat free citrus or raspberry vinaigrette.

Or make your own dressing using 1 part good-quality olive oil to three parts orange, lemon or grapefruit juice. Place in a small screw-top jar and shake vigorously.
Serves 4 as an appetizer.

[Bethanie]

:D :D :D Thanks for all the GREAT INFORMATION on grapefruit, i never knew and now that i do i will keep eating grapefruit and smile each time i take a bite.
Also thanks for the recipes, you all are sooooo sweet to me.
God Bless You All.
I can see my grapefuit bounty from my kitchen window and they will last for quite awhile because it cool out there, i'm so glad that i have them.
I never knew all the health benefits i would receive from eating them :) .
B.

[Veganforlife]

You should take a picture of the bounty.
And U R welcome! That's what we are all here for. You touched a fondness of mine - grapefruit. I eat them all the time. Like oranges. My mouth is watering right now thinking of them! :D

[Fireheart]

I have a Brevelle Juicer. Can I just cut up the grapefruit and send through my juicer? I often read about adding a 'blank' but never knew what that was. Can I use the same juicer for grapefruits as I do my greens?

Sorry I took this thread of topic a bit. Thanks in advance though for any insight.

Fireheart

[Bethanie]

:D I wish i could take a picture and post it, i wish i did know.
We have a digital camera but not sure how to use it.
B.