Grapefruit Diet - An Example of A Fad Diet

Return to...Page 1

The Science

The problem is that most people and indeed food dieticians will testify that there really isn’t anything special about grapefruit besides it being a very nutritious fruit and having a very low calorie count per serving. Most Grapefruit Diet proponents will say that the fruit contains some sort of enzyme that can help the body release the fats that it has stored and burn them up. When asked what this enzyme was the proponents will end up coming up with some sort of pseudo science explanation that simply cannot be believed.

Almost all professional nutritionist and weight loss professionals will agree that the Grapefruit Diet is merely a crash diet that is made to sound better with the addition of fruit to divert the attention of the mass public. The then president of the American Diabetic Association commented that there wasn’t any evidence of any miracle enzyme that exists in a grapefruit; he also went on further to say that there is no magic bullet that can make weight loss happen over just a few weeks.

The director of the Hudd Center for Food Policy also commented that there wasn’t any scientific basis to the claim that the humble grapefruit was special in this way. He said that the grapefruit is indeed a good fruit which is packed with essential vitamins but no evidence existed to suggest there were properties in the fruit that enabled weight loss at a greater rate than normal.

Dieticians almost unanimously agree that the effectiveness of the Grapefruit Diet has more to do with the restrictions placed on the diet rather than the use of the grapefruit. The effectiveness in the medium to long term however is highly doubtful as the small serving portions and limited selection of food will undoubtedly bring about boredom, monotony and also taste fatigue among dieters. It is for this reason that the effectiveness of the Grapefruit Diet is severely hampered. Most people that go on this diet will inevitably gain back whatever weight they have lost, some will even overcompensate and gain more.

Our Recommendation

Although we see the grapefruit as a very good fruit with many benefits such as good amounts of vitamins and minerals, it isn’t the miracle substance that many of these Grapefruit Diets make them out to be. Rather a sensible diet that doesn’t restrict your food types too much and regular exercise will see a result that is much more convincing and allow you to keep the weight off. Weight Loss is a change of lifestyle rather than a quick fix.