Grapefruit diet characteristics

Grapefruit diet properties

WHAT IS GRAPEFRUIT DIET?

History of the Grapefruit Diet

The grapefruit diet was a diet that had a very prominent peak in the last third of the twentieth century. This type of diet was widely used by American actresses so it was also named ” Hollywood Diet”.

It was wrongly attributed to the Mayo Clinic, consequently it came to be known as “Diet Mayo”. With this type of diet, it was said that a person could lose up to 23 k in two months.

What is the grapefruit diet based on?

grapefruit
Grapefruit

Basically, it was the combination of grapefruit juice with eggs, meat and fatty foods of animal origin such as bacon, burgers, cheese, mayonnaise or butter. The latter was used as a frying fat. Plenty of bacon had to be eaten for breakfast.

It was said that the combination of animal fat with salads allowed the fats to be burned, whereas grapefruit act as a catalyst that initiated the combustion process. Many vegetal foods should not to be eaten, such as potatoes or other tubers, cereals, fruit, bread, etc.

Grapefruit diet required vegetables

Among plant foods, importance was given to vegetables such as tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, carrots and beans. With them salads were prepared for each lunch and dinner, as long as they were well dressed with animal oils or mayonnaise.

It was not allowed to eat “light” salad. In addition to salads, lunch and dinner had to be accompanied with a second meat dish and a glass of a quarter of liter of grapefruit. You could eat the desired amount of salad and meat and you were even advised to eat in a big quantity to remove more weight.

Grapefruit diet breakfast

Breakfast consisted of drinking a quarter of liter of grapefruit juice and eating two eggs and two pieces of bacon. At bedtime, you had to drink a quarter of liter of tomato or the same amount of skimmed milk.

People should eat for 12 days without lower the amounts of the suggested food, especially grapefruit juice. Then they rested a couple of days to continue again with another period of 12 days.

Consequences of grapefruit diet

Although doing this diet makes you lose a lot of weight, your body suffered the consequences of a poorly balanced diet in missing many essential nutrients. Furthermore, it was found that people who followed this diet very strictly, quickly regained the weight and even far exceeded once they left it.. This led to doctors and food specialists to advice against it.

The inclusion of the grapefruit in the current diet. A suitable use of grapefruit in the diet to lose weight

These considerations should not lead us to abandon the use of this food in normal amounts in the current diet. Studies carried recently have shown that the ingestion of half a grapefruit in every meal for three months has reduced the weight of people who performed it 1.6 K, while those who drank a glass of grapefruit in each meal lost 1.5 k.

Some participants came to lose up to 4.5 K in the same time period. This experiment was conducted in 2004 by Dr. Ken Fujioka at Scripps clinic with 100 people who maintained a balanced diet based on the use of natural foods, especially those high in carbohydrates, such as fruits, vegetables and whole cereals. This diet avoided the use of saturated fats, of animal or vegetable origin, and impacted on the importance of exercise.

In this study it was found that grapefruit might have an influence on insulin levels that occur after ingestion of foods. It seems that this food determines the insulin levels on blood to decrease, so the food is digested better, hunger does not reappear so quickly and the body fat is not stored so easily.

When you should avoid or diminish grapefruit ingestion

Caution: In spite of these fantastic results, we must point out that the routine use of grapefruit can interact with many drugs so that those who decide to pursue a diet based on this food should consult their doctor before starting it.

People with heartburn, those with a tendency to have diarrhea or those suffering from gastritis should be very cautious with this fruit.

punto rojo More information on grapefruit

This article was endorsed by Elisenda Carballido - Dietitian nutritionist. Postgraduate in Phytotherapy and master in Nutrition and Metabolism.
Editorial
Written by Editorial Botanical-online team in charge of content writing

25 October, 2023

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