Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 2

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

Today's post: Friday, 6-9-2006

Only OK Occasionally Foods -- part 2

( I'm including this section in my blog because eating health-enhancing foods as a permanent lifestyle is a lot easier & more fun if you have some variety in your food.

The key to eating them safely is to eat them very occasionally & NOT more often than that.

Some might be OK 3 times a month, others might be safer once or twice a year.)

Three other keys are:

1. Eat less of them on the days you do eat them than the people do who are clueless about the health effects of the foods they eat.

2. Eat them with Superfoods or with foods that lessen or prevent their bad effects.

3. Some of these foods are OK for some of you but not others.

Today’s post is about one such food.:

Ruby Red Grapefruit.

For some of you these are a Superfood. (Why is later in this post.)

First, here are the two groups for which this is NOT true.:

1. The more important one is simple to diagnose.:

Are you on ANY medication that you take every day?

(And, over-the-counter drugs ARE included as medications in this question.)

If yes, it is IMPERATIVE (Commandingly serious & important !) that you NEVER eat grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice.

Unfortunately, grapefruit juice – both by itself & in whole grapefruits, has been shown to potentiate drugs.

This can kill you if you take the wrong drug & consume grapefruit juice.

For example, if you are on a blood thinner & eat two graefruit halves, you might bleed to death -- just as you would if you took a massive overdose of the drug.

And, if the drug you are taking has nasty side effects in larger doses than your doctor prescribed; & you drink a large glass of grapefruit juice, you may well get the dubious pleasure of enjoying the side-effects !!

The good news is that if you’ve kept yourself in good health or are younger & lucky, you may well NOT be taking a med every day.

For you -- but only on the days you aren’t taking a drug or taking an over the counter drug !! – grapefruit is OK.

The second group is much less scary; but you likely know if you belong to it.

Some people like grapefruit.

Some people – including me – can eat grapefruit but rarely do so as they don’t like it much.

But there are some who just can’t stand how bitterly sour the taste of grapefruit is.

This last group is the one for which Ruby Red Grapefruit is NOT a superfood
– because it’s NOT a food for YOU, if you refuse to eat it.

Here’s why it’s worth trying or eating occasionally otherwise &, in fact, is a Superfood candidate.:

1. Grapefruit zest & peel have the cancer fighters that oranges & lemons have -- as I understand it.

2. For those who wish to discard some unwanted body fat or keep it off, grapefruit is a good choice because:

it’s a bit too harsh to be at all easy to overeat;

it’s time consuming enough to eat that if you have the protein part of your breakfast first, by the time you finish your grapefruit, your body will have registered that you’ve been fed; & you will no longer be hungry;

AND, grapefruit itself is low in calories & moderately high in fiber.

But I’ve saved its strongest claim for Superfood status until last.

It’s been shown that people who eat Ruby Red Grapefruit regularly, drop their LDL cholesterol levels significantly.

(White grapefruit had the effect; but only about 40 to 50 % as much.)