Another Article to Put Down High Fat Diets

The advocates against high fat diets are at it again. Only this time they may have crossed to the danger side. This time they are talking about grapefruit juice being able to curb the effects of a high fat diet. While more studies are being promoted, there are a few items that need consideration before adopting grapefruit juice.

I must emphasize that many of today's medications can become toxic when taken with grapefruit or grapefruit juice. The grapefruit family can cause very serious problems when taken with about 100 medications, at latest count.

The list includes some statins that lower cholesterol (such as atorvastatin, lovastatin, and simvastatin), some antibiotics, cancer drugs, and heart drugs. Most at risk are older people who use more prescriptions and buy more grapefruit. The gist of the situation is the grapefruit, which contains furanocoumarins, which block an enzyme that normally breaks down certain medications in the body. When this happens, medication levels in the body can become toxic. This is still not on the FDA's list of things to watch for, but should be. Read my blog here from December 10, 2012.

Some doctors are aware of this, but many just are not. This is one side effect of many medications that grapefruit and grapefruit juice that can be extremely dangerous to your health. Doctors were saying it was not new news. I wish this would get more publicity, but the media does not think it is important enough or will generate enough interest.

A new study by researchers at the University of California-Berkeley claims it did for mice fed a high-fat diet, and it even lowered blood glucose levels and improved insulin tolerance. This could lead readers to believe that the diet could have been low carb, but that is not stated in the study.

The researchers say, “It is common knowledge that a diet high in fat can lead to weight gain.” This adds to the confusion and indicates a high carb diet. This is also not stated in the study.

The study was actually using rodents, which indicates nothing as the dietary habits seldom translate to humans.

The researchers stated that the research was funded by the California Grapefruit Growers Cooperative.