Ways to Eat Grapefruit to Combat Obesity

When Australia was named the world's fattest nation in 2008, U.S. doctors and nutritionists couldn't have been happier. No, they didn't have anything against the Aussies. But America had been the fattest country for so long that it seemed things would never change and that their advice was falling on deaf ears. Finally, they had something to be proud about. Unfortunately, it didn't last long.

In 2009, America once again waddled to the stage to accept the ignominious award. What went wrong? For much of that year, Americans had been hearing that the health of the nation had improved, that their weight was no longer on the rise. The experts predicted a slow and steady decline. Obviously, that didn't happen.

At last count, one out of every three Americans was officially obese and two-thirds of the population was merely overweight. Those are the highest numbers in the developed world. One of the most troubling consequences of this recent weight gain is the rise in type 2 diabetes. In the last decade, the disease had gone from a problem to a full-fledged epidemic.

The most recent estimates put the number of type 2 diabetes sufferers at over 15 million, nearly twice as many as there were in 2000. More disconcerting still is the fact that the disease rate for children has trebled since 1980. What does this have to do with weight?

There is a strong link between obesity and type 2 diabetes. In fact, it more than strong, it's undeniable! Between eighty and ninety percent of the people who are diagnosed with the disease are obese and millions more are overweight. To be perfectly frank, type 2 diabetes is largely a disease of choice. That is, it is the result of poor eating habits and unhealthy addictions, like cigarettes and alcohol. It is no coincidence that the disease is growing more rapidly in the southern states, the states with the highest rates of obesity.

What can Americans do? Learning about ways to eat grapefruit is a great start. Not only is it one of the healthiest foods on the planet, but recent studies have shown that grapefruit may promote healthy weight loss. The nutrient that is likely responsible for the fruit's fat-burning properties is called naringenin.

What is it? Naringenin is a bioflavonoid that is found in especially high quantities in red and pink grapefruit varieties. Researchers speculate that naringenin works by instructing the liver to burn excess calories, rather than storing them as fat in the body. The best ways to eat grapefruit for naringenin is fresh, though its juice also contains copious quantities of the healthy nutrient.

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