Advantages of Red Grapefruit for the Body

Grapefruits are large citrus fruits, categorized as blond (white) or red (pink or ruby). Red grapefruit is an important part of a healthy diet, as the advantages of eating red grapefruit are many. Red grapefruit is rich in vitamin C as well as other essential minerals and nutrients that aid in the prevention of disease.

Vitamin C

Red grapefruit is rich in Vitamin C, which helps fight off colds and protects your body against free radicals. A diet rich in vitamin C helps to reduce your risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease and stroke.

Prevents Kidney Stones

Consuming one liter of grapefruit juice each day increases your urinary pH value, which lowers your risk of forming kidney stones (calcium oxalate stones).

Lowers Blood Pressure

The Florida Department of Citrus recommends drinking 8 ounces of grapefruit juice to get 11 percent of the recommended daily value of potassium. Potassium aids in maintaining fluid and electrolyte balance in your body's cells. Potassium is also important to cardiovascular health, and helps reduce your risk of high blood pressure and stroke.

DNA Formation

Drinking 8 ounces of grapefruit juice gives you 6 percent of your daily value of folate, which is important for growth and development and plays a crucial role in the formation of DNA and cell division. Folate also reduces the risk of birth defects in the brain and spinal cord. Women are advised to include folate in their diets for this reason.

Boosts Metabolism

Red grapefruit is low in sodium, high in enzymes that burn fat and helps to flush out excess water retained through high sodium diets. Grapefruit's high water content along with the niacin it contains helps get your body's metabolism working. The Florida Department of Citrus recommends drinking 8 ounces of grapefruit juice to help your body turn the food you eat into energy.

Detoxifies

Grapefruit juice increases the production of enzymes in your liver that eliminate toxic compounds from your body. Your liver removes toxins using a process that is divided into two phases. In the first phase, certain enzymes prepare toxins for the second phase of detoxification. Some foods increase the action of the first phase without stimulating the second. Red grapefruit boosts both phases, which increase your liver's ability to remove toxins from your body.

Fights Cancer

The pink and red colors you find in red grapefruit are from a phytonutrient called lycopene, which according to The World's Healthiest Foods, has anti-tumor activity. Lycopene also has the highest ability among dietary cartenoids to fight oxygen free radicals (compounds that damage cells). This helps reduce your risk for some forms of cancer. Grapefruit also contains large amounts of a flavonoid called naringenin, which helps repair DNA in prostate cancer cells, making it beneficial in the fight against prostate cancer. Drinking three 6-ounce glasses of grapefruit juice each day helps reduce enzymes that activate the cancer-triggering chemicals found in tobacco smoke.

Lower Cholesterol

Red grapefruit contains pectin, which is a soluble fiber that helps to reduce bad cholesterol levels (LDL). Red grapefruit also reduces triglycerides (chemical form of fats in your body and in food). This helps to lower cholesterol levels in your body.