Tart, juicy, and delicious. Three words that perfectly describe the grapefruit. This South American native is a natural cross between a pomelo and an orange. You’ve seen it before, it’s ruby red flesh filled with sour-sweet juice that makes your lips pucker just thinking about it.
Grapefruits are usually served with breakfast and are filled with vitamin C and other nutrients that promote a healthy body. If you don’t eat grapefruit often, here are some reasons why you’ll want to start including this amazing fruit into your diet more often.
Heath Benefits of Grapefruit
Reduces Stress
Most people don’t realize how grapefruit can help with reducing stress (as effective as these herbs), and you don’t even have to eat one for it to work! Studies have found that just the scent of a grapefruit is enough to inhibit stress and anxiety.
A study published in the 1995 Japanese Journal of Psychopharmacology found that grapefruit and other citrus smells the stress-induced suppression of the immune system and induced a sense of calm in stressed mice. This could be one of the reasons why people like to start their day with a grapefruit, as it can cheer and energize the mind.
Boost The Immune System
Large doses of vitamin C can help prevent colds or lessen the symptoms of one should you get sick. Well known in boosting the immune system, vitamin C also protects it from falling apart. Vitamin C also helps protect our bodies from stomach and oral cancers and the antioxidants in grapefruits help to fight free radicals in our body.
Fights Gum Disease
Scientists have found that eating two grapefruits a day can help prevent and reverse the damage caused by gum disease. Gum disease is a major cause of tooth loss and decay. When you suffer from gum disease, that bacteria can make its way into the rest of your body making you ill and leaving you at risk of heart disease.
Natural Fat Burner
Just the juice from this amazing fruit has been found to help people burn fat. A study conducted over a 12 week period found that people who ate half a grapefruit before each meal lost a total of 4 pounds compared to those who didn’t. That was without making no other dietary changes, so imagine what it could do when it supports a healthy and clean diet!
Prevents Kidney Stones
Kidney stones are comprised mostly of calcium built up in the kidneys and can be extremely painful. Drinking a litre of grapefruit juice a day can help block the formation of stones because of the compound naringenin, which give grapefruit its sour taste. It also has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that help reduce swelling and water retention in the kidneys.
Liver Detoxifier
You liver is your body’s natural detoxifier, but how can you detoxify your liver? Grapefruit does just the trick, and by detoxifying your liver you allow it to work better helping rid yourself of chronic health ailments like headaches, joint pain, and stiff muscles. Helping your liver do its best helps protect your body from cancer-causing toxins that are all around us.
Lowers Cholesterol Levels
Studies have found that eating grapefruit on a regular basis can help reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol levels by 15%! Triglyceride levels were also found to be reduced by up to 17%. This is significant if you’re one of the millions of Americans suffering from high cholesterol. Oh, and did we mention that these results were found after only 4 weeks? Amazing.
Boosts Metabolism
Just eating 1 grapefruit a day can help boost your metabolism, making losing weight that much easier. In fact, combining a healthy diet with some moderate exercise and an increased metabolism can help you lose up to 2 pounds a week. Not only that, an increased metabolism helps your body burn fat and calories even when it is at rest.
Prostate Cancer Protection
The antioxidants that are abundant in grapefruit help fight free radicals that are in the prostate. In fact, these antioxidants can repair the damage that free radicals cause our DNA. Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death, lung cancer being the first.
Lung Cancer Protection
Studies have found that 3 six-ounce glasses of grapefruit juice a day can help reverse the effects of smoking cigarettes and cigars on the lungs, by activating the enzymes that fight back against lung cancer. Naringenin also stimulates the repair of DNA in mutated cells which can protect the body from cancer.
Grapefruit is one of the most powerful citrus fruits with health benefits to spare! Eat it with breakfast or drink some of its potent juice every day and keep your body healthy and disease free.
SOURCE: http://naturalon.com/10-reasons-to-eat-more-of-this-one-incredible-fruit-gotta-love-5/3/
