Nutritional characteristics and health benefits of grapefruit

Good quality grapefruit has a turgid, smooth, glossy, and blemish-free peel. The fruit should be firm and the flesh should have reached an adequate total soluble sugar (TSS) – to-acidity ratio and have low bitterness. Grapefruit is low in calories which make it great for dieting. An 8 oz serving of grapefruit juice contains about 90 kcal.

Practically all grapefruit in the United States is grown in Florida, California, Arizona, and Texas. Basic Nutritional Facts:
• Grapefruit is a low-calorie food.
• An excellent source of vitamin C. Vitamin C is an important antioxidant and critical for production of collagen.
• A good source of inositol - a member of the vitamin B complex
• It is a common breakfast fruit, salad fruit, or juice fruit.

The grapefruit is known for its sour to semi-sour flavor. It contains grapefruit mercaptan, a sulphur, which in turn contain sterpene, influencing its flavor.

The major bioactive groups in grapefruit include flavonoids, carotenoids, limonoids, furanocoumarins, and organic acids.

White grapefruit has been reported to be slightly richer in flavonoids than pink and red ones. Pink grapefruit is rich in vitamin A, and acts as a natural antioxidant.

Red and pink grapefruits contain generous amounts of lycopene (1,419 μg per 100 g fresh weight), B-carotene (686 μg per 100 g fresh weight), vitamin A (1,150 IU per 100 g fresh weight), and flavanones, mainly naringin, which give the tangy or bitter taste to the fruit.

Grapefruit is an excellent cleanser for the digestive and urinary systems and the peel has many therapeutic properties.
Nutritional characteristics and health benefits of grapefruit