Phenomenal Foods

Today's Phenomenal Food is:

Grapefruit!

Grapefruit is so, so yummy! I love it, but I never seem to buy it often. I think it's because it's a lot of effort to eat and it's hard to have time-consuming food in your lunch when you're a teacher and get maybe 10 minutes to eat. But, I'll have to start having one for breakfast or an after-school snack.
An article called Keeping-It-Off Superfoods from Webmd.com says, "Maybe there was something to the old grapefruit diet after all: A study found that grapefruit may help encourage weight loss and reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Study participants who ate a grapefruit at each meal for 12 weeks lost an average of 3.6 pounds (some in the group lost as much as 10 pounds), while a comparison group that didn't eat grapefruit lost 1/2 pound, according to a recent pilot study by Scripps Clinic in San Diego. The researchers noticed that after the meals, the grapefruit eaters also had reduced levels of insulin and blood sugar."
Another article called Say "Yes" to Grapefruit from DatHealth.com says that grapefruit has many other health benefits, too, such as:

• Enhance the immune system
• Large amounts of vitamin C helps in the fight against colds. According to studies, vitamin C is also an excellent fighter against diseases in the mouth and stomach.
• Preventing kidney stones
• Kidney stones are usually cumulative calcium. Once this problem occur, it is difficult to get rid of it, despite the many natural remedies and help from doctors. The best way to deal with kidney stones is drinking a liter of grapefruit juice per day.
• Naturally burns fat
• Grapefruit is also a great fighter against fat. Scientific studies show tremendous power in breakfasts that contains this fruit. The simplest way to melt pounds is a glass of grapefruit every morning.
• Improve Metabolism
• Grapefruit also speeds up metabolism and supporting efforts to lose weight. Combined with good nutrition and regular physical activity can significantly contribute to improving metabolism.
• Cleansing the liver
• Grapefruit helps the body to get rid of toxins. Drinking grapefruit juice will definitely help you feel better. This method of detoxification is simple and does not require much funding. It also helps you to get rid of depression, tightened muscles and chronic headaches.
• Prevention of lung cancer
• Studies also showed that grapefruit is an excellent prevention against lung cancer. According to them, only two cups a day is enough to remove the damage caused by cigarettes and other harmful gases. Grapefruit activates enzymes that fight against this deadly disease.
• Reduce bad cholesterol
• Studies show that with grapefruit you can reduce bad cholesterol by 15 % and triglycerides (another form of bad cholesterol) can be reduced by 17 %.

Sounds like a good enough reason to start buying some grapefruit to me! Mmm, mmm!

2 days until Weigh-In Wednesday!