The grapefruit cardiac diet carries both irony and controversy. On the one hand, eating grapefruit has been said to be able to help fight against heart disease, making it seem very fitting for a healthy cardiac diet; on the other hand, grapefruit is known to be deadly dangerous if eaten while taking cardiac medications, which is where the irony comes to play and where the issue gets deadly serious.
Heart Health Benefits
According to a 2006 study by Shela Gorinstein at the Hebrew University of Jeruselem, eating one red grapefruit a day can greatly lower high blood cholesterol levels, which can in turn lower your risk for heart disease. According to Gorinstein's study, that was conducted on 57 men and women who had high blood cholesterol levels to begin with, eating red or white grapefruits greatly reduced their blood lipid levels. Red grapefruit was found to be the most effective in reducing blood lipids and especially effective in reducing blood triglycerides, which are forms of cholesterol that are known to create cardiac difficulties. According to British Dietetic Association nutritionist Jane Wilson, pink grapefruits can help to shield you from coronary heart disease because they contain lycopene, an antioxidant that helps the heart. She says that grapefruit contains the same amount of vitamin C as an orange and "One half of grapefruit a day provides one of your five-a-day recommended portions."
Interactions with Heart Medications
Grapefruit may be good for your heart, but it can prove lethal when combined with cardiac medications. This is because grapefruit is known to increase the level of cardiac drugs in the body, as grapefruit inhibits the CYP3A4 enzyme, which is supposed to metabolize drugs. You are therefore exposing yourself to a greatly increased amount of the cardiac medication if you have any grapefruit in your system while taking your cardiac medication. Nancy Chaytor, a Canadian nurse practitioner, says that even "a single glass of grapefruit juice can increase the level of a drug in your blood," and warns against including any grapefruit in your diet if you are on medications for irregular heartbeats, high blood pressure, or blood thinners. It is important to check with your doctor and do proper research before adding grapefruit to your diet if you are on any medications, heart-related or not, as the side effects are grave, including death. Nancy Chaytor has used the example of a 29-year-old man who drank grapefruit juice while taking an antihistamine and died after collapsing while mowing his lawn, to prove her serious point.
Birth Control Pills and Grapefruit
It is not just combining grapefruit and cardiac medications that can prove harmful to your heart. Combining grapefruit with the contraceptive pill, for instance, could cause heart attacks, along with strokes, clots and gangrene. As published in the "Lancet" medical journal, one woman decided to eat grapefruit as part of a plan to lose weight while on the Pill, and she had only been eating grapefruit for three days when she developed a blood clot, which led to a gangrenous leg that very nearly had to be amputated. The contraceptive pill contains estrogen, which very slightly elevates the body's risk for clotting, but if combined with grapefruit, the risk for clotting (and other serious side effects) becomes frighteningly high.
Medications With Adverse Interactions With Grapefruit
Medications that are known to adversely interact with grapefruit include: plendil, nicardipine nefedipine nimotop, plendil, nicardipine nefedipine nimotop, sular, DynaCirc, sular, desyrel, serzone, seroquel, buspar, halcion, versed, diazepam zaleplon, zocor, lovastatin. Lipitor, baycol, carbamazepine Seldane, Hismanal, loratadine, cordarone, Viagra, Propulsid, Invirase, Norvir, Viracept, agenerase, ethinyl estradiol, methylprednisolone, cyclosporine, prograf and rapamune. There may be many more, which is why it is prudent to research the possible interactions with any and all medications you are taking before deciding to try a grapefruit diet.
Considerations
The grapefruit diet was first promoted in the 1930s and was trendy in the 1970s and 1980s, not because of the heart, but because of the scale. Grapefruit has long been touted as a weight-loss food, and women desperate to achieve the thin ideal of beauty have followed the protocol of eating grapefruit with each meal so as to activate a supposed fat-burning enzyme unique to grapefruit for the past eight decades. Women -- and men -- are best advised to think of their heart rather than their waistline before consuming any grapefruit, if they are on any medications that could potentially adversely interact.
References
- The Evening Standard; Have a heart, Have a Red Grapefruit; Mark Prigg; Feb. 9 2006
- The Gazette; Grapefruit Inhibits Some Drugs: Can Be Toxic With Heart Medications; Charlie Fidelman; Oct. 26 2005
- The Daily Telegraph; Does It Work? Grapefruit; Amy Iggulden; Nov. 15 2005
- The New York Times; Experts Reveal the Secret Powers of Grapefruit Juice; Nicholas Bakalar; March 21 2006
- The Sun; Killer Grapefruit Alert To Slimmers; Emma Morton; April 3 2009
- The Western Mail; Grapefruit Linked To Blood Clot Risk For Women; (NO BYLINE); April 3 2009
