1. Grapefruit Sugar Content is Relatively Low
While eating any fruit generally qualifies as a nutrition win, grapefruit scores even higher because it has only about 6 grams of sugar per 100 gram serving. Compare that to dates (73 grams), bananas (20 grams), figs (19 grams) and pomegranates (17 grams). Less sugar translates to fewer calories in most cases, and joining grapefruit at about 30 calories per serving (about a half grapefruit, depending on size) are apricots (36 calories), cranberries (16 calories), kiwis (40 calories) and cantaloupe (29 calories). Even if you sweeten a grapefruit with a teaspoon of sugar, it adds only about 6 grams of sugar (25 calories).
2. Grapefruit Delivers Other Nutritional Benefits
Grapefruit is also known for containing fiber (about 4 grams per fruit), 64 percent of the recommended daily intake (RDI) of Vitamin C, and 28 percent of Vitamin A RDI. According to Paramount Citrus, the largest orange and lemon packing facility in North America, the appeal of grapefruit is manifold: it is free of fats, cholesterol and sodium, and the fiber content helps fill you up. By many researchers' findings, Vitamin C is a natural antihistamine that reduces the severity of colds and allergies, helps heal wounds and keeps gums and teeth healthy.
3. The Glycemic Factor in Grapefruit is Notable
The book "The Glucose Revolution" (Jennie Brand-Miller, Ph.D., et al, Marlowe & Co., 1996) helped raise awareness of the rate at which different foods are digested. Slower digestion is kinder to the body overall, and helps stave off hunger longer, thus limiting overall caloric consumption. Grapefruit weighs in as a low GI selection; conversely, baked sweets have a high GI. In fact, if eaten at the beginning of a meal, grapefruit is believed to slow blood sugar release from the other foods that follow because the acidic nature of grapefruit causes slower digestion. Author Brand-Miller and other proponents of measuring glycemic loads of foods, including Harvard Medical School's Dr. Andrew Weil, believe this can lead to better weight management, reduction of heart disease, and management of diabetes, improved athletic performance and better wellness overall.
4. Sweetening Grapefruit Can Increase Its Appeal
Do you have trouble eating unadorned grapefruit? The relative tartness of grapefruit may occasionally leave you reaching for a sweetener, which probably is of little negative impact on the healthfulness overall of this fruit (given all its health benefits, better that you eat some grapefruit than skip it). Some facts: a packet or tablespoon of sugar contains about 46 calories, while a packet of aspartame-based sweetener will contain about 4 calories per packet and saccharine, sucralose and acesulfame-potassium/K each have zero calories.
5. The Grapefruit Diet Might Work-a Little
The Mayo Clinic considers this and other single-food diets to be unbalanced. But a 2004 study (Fujioka, Scripps Clinic) found that persons who ate grapefruit with each meal lost 3.6 pounds. Exercise factors were not controlled for in that study.
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