Tangy Fruit Battles the Bulge

Excerpt from FC&A's Amazing Diabetes Breakthroughs.

The old-fashioned "grapefruit diet" may be just a fad, but including this citrus fruit in your weight-loss plan really works. Research shows eating grapefruit three times a day helps you curb your appetite and regulate your insulin. Overweight people who ate half a grapefruit before each meal lost an average of 3.6 pounds in a 12-week study. They also enjoyed small improvements in their insulin levels.

People in other test groups tried drinking grapefruit juice and taking capsules of dried grapefruit. These groups lost some weight, but not as much as the fruit eaters. Only the real fruit helped regulate insulin. Along with these benefits, experts say naringin, a flavonoid in grapefruit, slows absorption of fats and carbohydrates in your intestines.

A word of caution - drinking grapefruit juice can cause certain medications, like blood pressure drugs, to build up to toxic levels in your body. Ask your doctor or pharmacist if grapefruit juice will affect your medication.