If you've been looking for the right diet to help you lose weight, you're probably familiar with the grapefruit diet. Although this "superfood" diet has been circulating in the fad diet scene for an indeterminate amount of time--possibly as early as the 1920s--only recently was it put into functional form by Daryl L. Thompson and M. Joseph Ahrens, who wrote "The Grapefruit Solution" in 2004. The authors, who have ties to the citrus industry, claim that the acidic properties in grapefruit "break down" food that is subsequently eaten. (Similar claims have been made by those who champion the apple cider vinegar diet.) While there are conflicting reports about whether grapefruit can aid in weight loss, one thing that experts agree on is that too much grapefruit in one's diet can cause serious complications if you take certain oral medications or have specific health conditions.
How Does the Grapefruit Diet Work?
Like the cider vinegar diet, the cabbage soup diet and other fad diets, there are numerous variations of the grapefruit diet that can be found on the Internet. Some grapefruit diets claim that dieters can eat anything they want--as long as they eat a half a grapefruit before meals. Others rigidly limit daily calorie intake to as low as 800 a day. Some grapefruit diets encourage all the black coffee the dieter wants to drink, while others limit caffeine intake to one cup a day. One variation of the grapefruit diet permits dieters to eat everything they want until they are "stuffed," including bacon, eggs and foods cooked in butter. The grapefruit diet is a 12-day diet; dieters who wish to continue the diet are urged to take two days off before resuming the diet. Regardless of which program dieters choose to follow, all grapefruit diet plans claim that eating a half a grapefruit before each meal can result in rapid weight loss--sometimes as much as 52 pounds in 10 weeks.
Grapefruit and Oral Contraceptives: A Risky Combination
Grapefruit juice is known to block enzymes that break down estrogen. As a result, blood clots can form because blood coagulates easily. In November 2008, a Washington woman who was on oral contraceptives (estrogen) risked leg amputation due to a blood clot. Studies concluded that it was probably the woman's use of the grapefruit diet, which she had begun three days prior, that was a contributing factor. Because grapefruit breaks down slowly, by the third day of the diet, the woman's estrogen levels would have been strikingly above normal--thus permitting the clot to form. Women who take oral estrogen will want to avoid the grapefruit diet.
Grapefruit and Other Drugs
According to experts at the Mayo Clinic, the chemicals in grapefruit interfere with enzymes that metabolize certain drugs. The possible result may be that a person taking certain drugs will have an excessively high level of the drugs in their system, thus increasing risk of side effects. Some of the drugs that are known to interact negatively when combined with grapefruit are used to treat heart arrhythmia, depression, seizures, high cholesterol and HIV. For a complete list of the drugs by trade names, see the Mayo Clinic site listed in Resources.
Grapefruit Diet: The Biggest Risk
From a dieter's perspective, the biggest "risk" of the grapefruit diet is that it won't work. The Scripps Clinic in California conducted a study to see if grapefruit had any effect on weight loss. The average weight loss of 100 men and women who ate grapefruit three times a day and increased their amount of exercise was 3.3 to 3.6 pounds after 12 weeks--a far cry from the purported 52 pounds in 10 weeks dieters are supposed to achieve while on the diet. In addition to setting up impossible expectations, experts from the Produce for Better Health Foundation point out that the grapefruit diet is high in saturated fat and cholesterol, both of which contribute to heart disease and cancer.
Healthier Methods of Weight Loss
Experts at the Mayo Clinic encourage dieters to take it slow and steady. One to two pounds per week is realistic--52 pounds in 10 weeks is not. The Mayo Clinic advocates using "process goals" rather than "outcome goals." While it's admirable to want to lose 50 pounds within a certain time period, there is no evidence other than anecdotal tales that such a weight loss can be achieved in the majority of people who choose this diet. So instead of engaging in an exercise in disappointment, they recommend you simply get out and exercise. To lose weight, you need to burn an additional 500 to 1,000 calories more than you consume each day.
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