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Recipes with Grapefruit: Carrot Salad with Orange Blossom, Raisins & Grapefruit
Grapefruit & Digestion
Grapefruit improves digestion. Its sour taste increases saliva and gastric juices. The fruits bitterness stimulates peristalsis and cleansing of the digestive tract. Grapefruit increases the effective potency and bioavailability of many drugs by inhibiting certain enzymes. It increases alertness and refreshes the body, due to sourness and bitterness.
Grapefruit, Fat Metabolism, & Cholesterol
Grapefruit improves fat metabolism and lowers cholesterol. Scientists have hypothesized that grapefruit reduces insulin levels, encouraging fat loss. Ayurveda's high regard for grapefruit lies in its taste, the combination of sour and bitter flavors. Sour and bitter tastes stimulate the flow of bile, which cleans the liver of congestion and prevents the formation of stones in the gall bladder. The removal of bile from the liver, due to its oiliness, also lowers cholesterol levels in the blood. Your spine will feel more cool and relaxed because the bile flow directly reduces Pitta.
The Grapefruit Diet
The grapefruit diet is a weight-loss program popularized in the 1930s. It is a low-calorie crash diet with the addition of 1/2 grapefruit per meal. As with many fad diets, use caution. Avoid starvation or crash diets that increase Vata and ultimately lower metabolism. A healthy diet with the addition of grapefruit can be a sustainable method for long-term weight loss.
Grapefruit & Aging
Grapefruit contains large quantities of spermidine, necessary for cell growth and maturation. As cells age their level of spermidine falls. Worms, fruit flies, and yeast fed spermidine have significantly longer life spans. Mice fed spermidine had reduced molecular markers of aging. Human cells fed spermidine also lived longer. A half grapefruit provides 78.1 percent of the daily recommended dose of vitamin C. High levels of the powerful antioxidant lycopene, shown to have anti-tumor activity, give grapefruit its characteristic red/pink color.
Contraindications
Grapefruit may interfere with enzymes that metabolize estrogen, possibly increasing the risk of breast cancer in women who previously used hormone therapy. Grapefruit can increase the risk of some types of kidney stones. Grapefruit also interferes with some beta blocker drugs used to treat high blood pressure, and cyclosporine, taken by transplant patients to prevent rejection of their new organs. Grapefruits are also contraindicated when using anti-depressants.
Recipes with Grapefruit: Grapefruit with Honey
About Grapefruit
Grapefruit is a relatively new addition to the citrus family. It is a hybrid first discovered in the 18th century. Described as tart, tangy, or sweet, the grapefruit is said to be one of the "Seven Wonders of Barbados, because legend says the fruit was first developed there. Its name comes from the tendency of grapefruits to grow in grape-like clusters on the tree.
Buying & Preparation
Available in white, pink, and red varieties, grapefruits are in season from winter to early spring. Grapefruit is also an essential food for spring that helps wakes up your body out of hibernation. It makes your eyes feel bright, refreshed, and moisturised.
Select grapferuits that are heavy for their size - they tend to have a thinner skin.
Cooking Grapefruit
Grapefruits can be eaten raw, sliced, peeled as an orange, or served as a half-shell. Grapefruits can be grilled and baked. Grapefruit with honey is a cleansing and healthy breakfast for Kapha. In Costa Rica the fruit is cooked to transform the sourness into sweetness, then served in a sweet dessert known as stuffed grapefruit. Sliced grapefruit with cilantro and chili peppers make for a spicy, refreshing, and juicy salsa. Grapefruit in salad actually helps in digestion of the salad greens. Serve room temperature rather than cold for a more juicy effect.
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AYURVEDA'S GUIDE TO VITALITY & WHOLESOME NOURISHMENT
Your Ayurvedic diet is tailored to your individual body and your specific imbalances.
With an Ayurvedic diet you feel joy and satisfaction because what you are eating truly nourishes and balances you.
Disease results from diets and lifestyles that are incompatible with your nature.
By eating a personalized diet matched to your body, you experience optimal health.
See How it Works.
Health Virtues of Grapefruit
Personalized medicine systems use biocharacteristics to classify the metabolic nature of food, hebs, lifestyle choices, indivdual constitutions, and disease.
METABOLIC NATURE / BIOCHARACTERISTICS
Metabolic Nature / Biocharacteristics
Ayurveda assesses metabolic imbalances through 20 main biocharacteristics
(vital qualtiies).
Aggravating them weakens your body and causes imbalance.
By knowing which biocharacteristics are habitually imbalanced in your body, you will be able to identify and correct metabolic imbalances before you get sick.
Every biocharacteristic has an opposite which balances it (i.e. hot balances cold).
You restore balance by favoring diet and lifestyle choices that increase the opposite biocharacteristic.
Taste is used to sense the most basic properties and effects of food.
Each taste has a specific medicinal effect on your body.
Cravings for food with certain tastes indicate your body is craving specific medicinal results from food.
Taste is experienced on the tongue and represents your body's reaction to foods.
Sweet taste causes physical satisfaction and attraction whereas bitter taste causes discomfort and aversion.
Kapha should use less sweet taste while Vata and Pitta would benefit from using more sweet taste.
One of the first signs of illness is that your taste and appetite for food changes.
The six tastes are sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent.
Do you crave foods with any of the tastes below?
Ayurveda is a metabolic theory of medicine that explains individual health, tendencies, and disease patterns through the concept of doshas, which can be understood as your metabolic patterns and tendencies.
Each dosha reflects a distinct metabolic nature and describes strengths & weaknesses in bodily function, and how these affect energy levels, digestion, susceptibility to disease, and many other tendencies.
Your metabolic nature not only affects your physical characteristics, but also influences your mental thought patterns, confidence, and enthusiasm.
Ayurveda balances these metabolic strengths & weaknesses to support your body's vitality and prevent recurrent disease cycles. This support is a critical aid, especially in chronic or incurable disease conditions.
The 3 metabolic body types
(doshas),
are Catabolic (Vata), Metabolic (Pitta), and Anabolic (Kapha).
Through dosha, Ayurveda empowers people to identify metabolic imbalances early, break repetitive patterns of disease, and cultivate habits that support long-term vitality and well-being.
Ultimately, these metabolic patterns also provide a framework for understanding yourself, including body, mind, and spiritual tendencies.
Ayurveda & Greek Medicine were the dominant form of medicine along the Silk Road from England to China and South Asia.
They work by assessing your metabolic type, patterns, and nature.
Greek medicine recognizes 4 metabolic temperaments, Melancholic, Choleric, Sanguine, and Phlegmatic.
Has a hot and dry metabolic nature. Enthusiastic, vibrant and bright. In excess burns up fluids and ojas, irritable. Corresponds to high bilirubin in the blood that irritates and heats up the body and liver.
Cold and dry with a slow, variable or erratic metabolism. Colicky, tense. Withdrawn, pensive, anxious, and hesitant. Analytical, intelligent, detail oriented and creative. Prone to ojas depletion, dehydration, an overactive nervous system, and depression.
A Phlegmatic has a cold and wet metabolic nature. The coldness implies a slow metabolism, the moisture that you are well-nourished. Phlegmatics tend towards sluggishness and thickened fluids, including mucus.
A hot and oily nature with a moderate metabolism and a well nourished body makes Sanguine individuals vigorous, vivacious, outgoing and generous, and prone to impulsivity and self indulgence. Bullish and intense when out of balance.
Medicinal Benefits, Uses & Herbal Actions of Grapefruit
Experiences are Personal
Experiences vary according to the person and constitution. Individual results may vary.
The list of herbal-actions below has not be approved by the FDA and should not be used to treat a medical condition.
A sialogogue increases saliva. Sour foods are often great sialogogues, and increase output of all exocrine glands. Salty taste is very moistening as well. Bitter, pungent and sweettastes also increase salivary output but to a
lesser degree. Astringents.
An herb that strengthens spleen function by improving strength of the blood. Spleen tonics Builds agni, brighten the person's appearances & firms up tissues.
Expectorants help you eliminate mucus from the lungs. These herbs often work by increasing the quantity of mucus, or thinning the mucus. Expectorants are indicated when phlegm congests the lower respiratory tract.
An antioxidant is a molecule that inhibits oxidation. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that can produce free radicals that lead to a chain reaction causing damage or death to cells. Antioxidants terminate these oxidation reactions.
Cholagogues stimulate the production & release of bile from the liver & gallbladder. This refreshes and cleanses these organs, as well as increases bile in the small intestines.
Scrapes fats / cleanses blood vessels by 1) purging bile, 2) strengthening the liver's ability to metabolize fats, 3) by increasing uptake of cholesterol in the liver, and 4) by inhibiting fat cells.
STRONG RUTIN
Rutin is a flavonoid with anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. Commonly used to treat conditions such as varicose veins, hemorrhoids, and high blood pressure.
Flavonoids are a colorful type of polyphenol. As all polyphenols, they have a strong antioxidant effect. Many flavonoids have an anti-inflammatory, and/or antiallergen effect.
Grapefruit may temper these symptoms.
The suitability of any food for a condition is highly dependent on the individual.
Please see your doctor before using this food to treat a medical condition.
We will use this information to better predict food that helps you.
CONTRAINDICATED FOR THESE SYMPTOMS
Grapefruit may be harmful or contraindicated for these symptoms.
Note this is not a complete list of all possible contraindications.
Please see your doctor before using this food to treat a medical condition.
Herb Drug Interaction Risk
Here are some potential herb drug interactions with Grapefruit. Please see your health care provider for more information.
Cholagogue: Anything that strengthens or cleanses the liver can clear drugs more quickly, requiring a higher dose.
Hypolipidemic: May magnify the effect of cholesterol lowering drugs.
Raises-thyroid: May magnify the effect of other thyroid medication.
View other ingredients for Spring
Grapefruit is recommended for Spring. Check out these other Spring foods here.
Eating Ayurvedically makes you feel nourished and energized. Food digests with ease when
right for your body type (dosha). Healthy digestion is seen as the cornerstone of well-being in
Ayurveda. Healthy digestion generally prevents illness. If you do get sick, a strong digestive fire
reduces the severity of illness and increases your resilience. It also improves your mood. Once
you begin eating Ayurvedically, you will feel refreshed, vital and strong.
John Immel, the founder of Joyful Belly, teaches people how to have a
healthy diet and lifestyle with Ayurveda.
His approach to Ayurveda is clinical, yet exudes an ease which many find enjoyable and insightful.
John also directs the Joyful Belly College of Ayurveda,
offering professional clinical training in Ayurveda for over 15 years.
John's hobbies & specialties include advanced digestive disorders, medieval Catholic philosophy,
& botany. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Harvard University.
John, his wife Natalie and their 7 kids live in Asheville, NC
“oh my gosh, I'm just reading this comment about the spine feeling better....I've been juicing grapefruits like crazy lately and realized that my spine feels more juicy and flexible!!"
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* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
The information and products on this website are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any
disease.
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