Grapefruit – The forbidden fruit

Griffith Hughes recorded the first ever description of the grapefruit — calling it the ‘forbidden fruit.’Grapefruit is not grape. It belongs to the family of oranges. It is believed that grapefruit is a hybrid between pommello and orange. Its outside is yellow coloured and inside is a mixture of red and orange colour. It is different from “Musumbi”. It is not seen very commonly in Kerala and is usually seen in supermarkets where imported fruits are sold. It is a favoured fruit in the western world.

Grapefruit -Think before you drink!

Grape fruits have a lovely tangy-sweet flavor and are great eaten plain or with a light sprinkle of salt or sugar. Grape fruit can also be baked or broiled.Nutrition highlights of this fruits are high in vitamins A and C.

This fruit contains furanocoumarin, an ingredient which inactivates an enzyme in the liver called P450. This is needed to maintain certain drug levels in the blood under control. Eating this fruit can, therefore, raise the blood levels of those drugs that are inactivated by P450. There are many drugs that fall in this category, the most important of which are sleep medicines, cholesterol lowering drugs, some cardiac drugs, blood pressure medicines, drugs controlling allergy, and antidepressants,

On the other hand, this fruit juice may interfere with absorption of certain drugs and thus, reduce their efficacy. The various effects that grapefruit juice can produce go off from the body only slowly. Therefore, patients taking any of the medicines mentioned above should avoid taking this fruit

Selecting and storing of grapefruits

For best quality select grapefruits that are heavy for their size and are free of squishy brown spots or dull wrinkled skin.Grapefruits can be stored for 1 week at room temperature or for 2 to 3 weeks in the refrigerator.