It’s often reported that eating grapefruit, or drinking grapefruit juice will help you lose weight. For example the BBC reported in 2004 on a study at the Scrpps Clinic in San Diego saying:

Ken Fujioka and colleagues at the Scripps Clinic in San Diego California enrolled 100 obese patients with an average weight of 218 pounds in the study.

One group of volunteers ate half a grapefruit before each meal three times a day, while another drank a glass of grapefruit juice before every meal. A third did not include grapefruit in their meals.

After 12 weeks, those eating grapefruit had lost an average of 3.6 pounds, and some shed as much as 10 pounds.

The participants drinking grapefruit juice lost an average of 3.3 pounds. But those in the control group who consumed no grapefruit only lost an average of 0.5 pounds.

So it seems you can lose weight just by adding grapefruit to your diet. Awesome – if you like grapefruit. But there’s a few small problems with the idea that grapefruit will help you lose weight:

1. There doesn’t appear to be any further scientific research that collaborates this finding.
2. Dr. Ken Fujioka is quoted in news reports as saying: “The only dietary change, was the intake of Florida grapefruit and grapefruit juice“. When you consider that the research was funded by the Florida Department of Citrus which markets Florida grapefruit it does seem like the results of the study might have been somewhat skewed by commercial interests.

So does grapefruit help you lose weight?

I can’t say for sure, but I suspect that for many of us eating more grapefruit is a step in the right direction even if it’s only to help us eat the minimum of five portions of fruit and vegetables per day.