Grapefruit is good… but also bad?

Grapefruit is known to be low in calories but full of nutrients. They help you gain clear, healthy skin, help lower our risk for many diseases and conditions and even help with weight loss. Grapefruit contains protein, vitamin C, vitamin A, calcium, and magnesium. It also contains vitamin E, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, pantothenic acid, potassium, phosphorus, manganese, zinc and copper. It is also known to prevent and treat disease, reduce the risk of cancer, and reduce the hardening of the arteries.

In 2012, many studies came to the conclusion that grapefruit interacts badly with certain prescription drugs. Apparently many doctors are unaware of this still today and the number of people that take prescription medicine has doubled. Grapefruit can have life-threatening effects when combined with people’s medicines.

Side effects that grapefruit can have on people taking medicines, which interact poorly together, are sudden death, severe kidney failure, respiratory failure, and gastrointestinal bleeding. My grandparents take drugs to help with their blood pressure and they cannot eat grapefruit because their doctor told them their medicine will not work. Research shows that pills taken orally do not metabolize well and in some drugs, when pills are taken with some grapefruit, it can increase the dosage of the drug that enters the blood stream, which obviously can have bad effects.

Research shows that furanocoumarins are responsible for the bad effects grapefruits have when people take certain medications. When taking drugs that interact poorly with grapefruit, it is advised to not consume grapefruit AT ALL because no amount of time that passes will allow for you to eat grapefruit without there being any poor side effects.

Statistics show that people over the age of 45 are more likely to eat grapefruit as well as more medication than younger people. These are the more people at risk. More complications arise as people get older. Statistics also show that one out of every five Americans eat grapefruit for breakfast which is also when a lot of people take their medications.

Based on this research, grapefruit and drug interaction leads to unpredictable and hazardous levels of certain drugs that people need for good health. My grandparents need to take their blood pressure medicine because without it they immediately feel sick. It is best to talk to your doctor when on medication to make sure that grapefruit does not reduce or increase the dosage of medicine that you take. Here is a list of medicines that you cannot eat grapefruit with.

There are not any experiments shown online because it would not be ethical to have a person take medicine that interacts poorly with grapefruit and then give them grapefruit to see what happens. Reports are based on facts and experiences people have had.

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http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/11/26/more-new-drugs-a-bad-fit-with-grapefruit-study-finds

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/280882.php

7 thoughts on “Grapefruit is good… but also bad?

  1. Alison B Mamtsis

    Like many of the other commenters i just scrolled past, I never knew this and am wondering why this information isn’t on the news and being heavily publicized? I guess more concrete studies must be done to show this connection. But i’m curious why just grapefruits and not other citrus fruits like lemons or oranges. I always find it interesting that there are so many problems with citrus fruits, namely their acidity, which is apparently so bad that babies aren’t supposed to eat oranges until a certain age because of the acidity. That’s so strange to me. I also wonder if maybe this grapefruit theory is only true of those who don’t eat grapefruit often and aren’t used to it?

  2. Erica Brooke Plaener

    I love grapefruit so this makes me sad. Because it is a highly nutritious fruit, i would eat it especially when i was sick and on antibiotics, thinking that it would only benefit me rather than just the opposite. i wonder if similar fruits like oranges do the same thing? Ever since i was little i was told that if i was sick to drink orange juice, so i would like to see if this fruit, rich in vitamin C would have a similar effect. Great blog!!

  3. Macy Cellitti

    I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this before! Shouldn’t this be on the news, informing people of this potential danger? Included on the list of drugs you linked to is simple pain medicine. That is an extremely common drug that many people take, including myself. I was always under the impression that grapefruit is extremely good for you and nothing more. I’m really glad I came across your post!

  4. Hannah Elizabeth Boothman

    I have heard of a bunch of things we are not allowed to do when on prescription drug medicine, but I never knew anything about why grapefruit is bad. It has to be someting that is in the grapefruit and my only guess is that maybe the citrus in the fruit is too acidic. But then that can be counteracted because it is not the only citrus fruit. Great post, thank you for sharing!

  5. Carly Drew Gerson

    This blog post was very surprising to me. I eat a grapefruit every day for breakfast and I had no Idea that it had any negative side effects. I was always told that a grapefruit is one of the healthiest things that you could eat and that it even contributes to weight loss! I had never thought about any reason to not eat a grapefruit every day. After reading this post I will definitely take this into account. On the other hand, if you are not taking any medications, I found an interesting article as to how grapefruits are beneficial to your health. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/280882.php

  6. Matthew Price Knittel

    I am actually glad I read this. It is something I would never have really thought to be a dangerous combination. This freaked me out a little so I did a little research and I found out that cranberry juice and a blood thinner called warfarin can also be a life threatening combination. This issue needs to advertised with more force because this is a very simple mistake that could cost someone their life. Here is the article I found on this.

    http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2008/09/fruit-juice-and-medications-don-t-mix/index.htm

  7. Caitlin Marie Gailey

    I had no idea fruit could affect your medication! I have previously been told with my doctor to take antibiotics with certain foods but I have never been prohibited from eating something. If this study really is true then I think this fact should be more widely spread. I found the correlation between age, medicine and increased grapefruit consumption interesting. I fear for those individuals who have physicians who aren’t knowledgeable enough to know this and are treating their patients with medication that is being nullified by what they are eating.

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