Grapefruit Diet Blog & not only!

I have a letter today from Sally:

“For a month my husband & I tried a new diet & we lost 20 pounds each. Here is what we did.

This really helped us to where we have started the diet again last week and as of today 3/3/06 have lost 4 pounds. It is a healthy & simple way to loose weight & it gives us plenty of energy “

It’s 6:10 p.m. on Friday and you are still at work. Your husband calls and you’re so hoping to hear, “Honey, I’m parked outside your building. I have already ordered Thai from your favorite spot and picked up that black and white Audrey Hepburn movie you’re always gushing about. Shut down the computer so we can start the weekend.” But, this isn’t Notting Hill and your husband isn’t quite as charming as Hugh Grant. Hence, what you hear instead, “Are you still at work? I can’t believe I forgot to tell you this, but I sort of invited the two senior partners and their wives over for a little dinner. Tonight. They’ll be over at 8. Honey? Dear? Gorgeous wife? Are you there?”

How do you solve this monumental problem? How will you ever impress your guests without time to create a menu, much less research recipes on Epicurious? A hostess’ secret weapon and the moral of the story? Grapefruit. I bet you saw that coming. Simply add a bit of grapefruit to old stand-bys and you’ll get the wow-factor you’re looking for without the time or effort. Who’s the hero now? Are you a great wife or what?

By adding grapefruit zest to seafood or chicken your guests will leave the table asking, “What was the extra something in that dish?”

Cookies and cakes surely make sweet after-dinner offerings, but why not add a touch of healthy freshness by squeezing in a bit of fresh squeezed grapefruit juice into the batter?

Cocktails can get run of the mill, but by using grapefruit juice you can add zing to even the most common spirits. And hopefully your surprise dinner guests won’t be staying the night, but if they do, wake up their taste buds by sprinkling grapefruit zest into your pancake or muffin batter.

No one knows who first created the Grapefruit Diet, but since it first emerged it’s drifted in and out of being vogue, usually brought back into the spotlight by celebrities who decide to try one of the dozens of variations. The mainstay of the diet revolves around eating half a grapefruit or drinking an eight-ounce glass of unsweetened grapefruit juice before each meal. Proponents of the diet claim that grapefruit has a fat-burning enzyme, helping you eliminate fat, and their claims may not entirely off. A study from a 2006 issue of the ‘Journal of Medicinal Food’ revealed that people who ate half a grapefruit before each meal for 12 weeks lost 3.6 pounds. Likewise, people who drank a serving of grapefruit juice three times a day lost 3.3 pounds. However, many individuals in that study lost more than 10 pounds. Researchers suggest that grapefruit may lower insulin, which is a fat storage hormone. Yet it’s important to note that in this study, individuals ate healthy, balanced diets and could exercise up to three times a week. Note that this is substantially different from the Grapefruit Diet, which takes an unhealthy approach to weight loss and will inevitably set people up for diet failure.

Is the diet healthy?

No. Although eating a half a grapefruit or drinking a glass of grapefruit juice with each meal is a good way to sneak in three daily servings of fruit, eating only 800 calories a day total is neither sustainable nor healthy. It could put you at risk for nausea, dizziness, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies that could cause problems with hair loss, your immune and nervous systems and your bones. Also, if you’re on certain medications, including some antidepressants, immunosuppressant drugs, and drugs to treat high blood pressure, high cholesterol and arrhythmias, grapefruit could interact with those medications.

What do the experts say?

“Any diet that’s this low in calories and cuts otherwise healthy foods is extremely unhealthy and should be avoided,” says Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D., L.D., national media spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and a registered dietitian with the Northwestern Memorial Wellness Institute in Chicago. Blatner also can’t say that grapefruit is truly the magical component here, for any time your caloric intake drops this low, you will lose weight. “Yet as soon as you return to regular eating, you’ll gain it all back — and then some,” she adds.
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I asked this question before but did not get any good answers. I am not looking to go on it, but we have grapefruit trees in my yard and there are all over the place and my mum in law wants to try it.

You don’t have to have tried it, just some useful info on it this time please.

Does anyone REALLY know anything about grapefruit diet?

The Grapefruit Diet or Hollywood Diet, an 18-day diet, dates to 1930 Hollywood.

This so-called fad diet regained popularity in the mid-1970s as a bit of Xeroxlore. It is occasionally attributed (erroneously) to the Mayo Clinic, which has expressed a decidedly negative opinion of the diet, considering it unbalanced and possibly dangerous. However, a 2004 study led by Dr. Ken Fujioka at the Nutrition and Metabolic Research Center at Scripps Clinic found in a 12-week pilot study that on average, participants who ate half a grapefruit with each meal lost 3.6 pounds and those who drank a serving of grapefruit juice three times a day lost 3.3 pounds. Additionally, many patients in the study lost more than 10 pounds.

Dr. Fujioka found that grapefruit diet appears to reduce insulin levels and thus, affects blood sugar regulation. Bear in mind that pancreas secretes insulin in response to the amount of carbohydrate ingested (also affected by the glycemic index and glycemic load of a food or meal) and that grapefruit by itself is considered by some to be low glycemic.

Another theory is that the fruit’s low glycemic index is able to help the body’s metabolism burn fat.

Still another explanation for the weight loss in the Scripps Clinic study can be found in the report — participants “slightly enhanced their exercise regimens.” Depending upon what “slightly enhanced” means, this might well account for the weight loss observed.