Easy Ways to Eat More Grapefruits

Grapefruit are extremely nutritious and have a wide range of health benefits, including weight loss. It’s very true that eating grapefruit can help you lose weight. But, other than eating grapefruits with your breakfast in the morning how can you work grapefruits into your busy schedule? It’s easy, if you get creative.

The health benefits that you’ll get from eating grapefruits make it worth the time and effort to find new and fun ways to get more grapefruits into your diet. There are a lot of creative tips from diet and nutrition experts on how to eat more grapefruit without getting bored that you can incorporate into your everyday life.

One of the easiest ways to get more grapefruit into your diet is to keep grapefruits wherever you are going to be. Buy a case of grapefruit and divide it up. Keep some at home, keep some in your desk drawer or in the lunchroom at work. Keep a few in your bag for when you need a quick snack or when you need a quick energy boost on your way to the gym. Pack grapefruits in your kid’s lunches and serve grapefruits as an after school snack. In order to protect your grapefruit from bruising when you’re carrying it in a bag or when your kids take them to school in a backpack you can buy or make a grapefruit jacket. A grapefruit jacket is a small knitted sack that goes around a grapefruit and closes with a hook or a button and protects your grapefruit from getting banged up while traveling. An inexpensive grapefruit jacket makes grapefruits a perfectly portable snack for you and your whole family.

If you don’t want to carry grapefruits around with you then you can fill a re-useable bottle with pure grapefruit juice in the morning and keep it with you all day. Fresh squeezed grapefruit juice is delicious and very nutritious. The vitamins and minerals in the juice will give you a natural boost when you’re starting to fade during the day. Fresh fruit juice is a great alternative to heavily caffeinated drinks or energy drinks which can end up leaving you dehydrated and wiped out. You can also use freshly squeezed grapefruit juice instead of water in smoothies and yogurt drinks. Using juice instead of water will give smoothies an extra nutritional punch and make them naturally sweet so that you don’t need to add sugar or other sweeteners.

Grapefruits aren’t just for snacks of for breakfast. Grapefruit segments added to salad create a salad that is visually appealing as well as tasty and nutritious. Grapefruit juice can be used with breadcrumbs to create a slightly sweet and slightly tart breading for meats and fish. And of course grapefruit juice and grapefruit segments can be used in endless ways in different dessert dishes. You can make intricate and complicated fruit desserts with grapefruits or you can make desserts as simple as gelatin and grapefruit segments and they will all be delicious and nutritious.

Understanding Organic Citrus

When it comes to citrus fruits “organic” refers to how the fruit is grown.  Organic farming uses only natural pest control and fertilizers and never uses chemical weedkillers or pest killers on the citrus trees as they are growing. 

Fertilizers are usually mixed right on the premises and consist of potting soil, compost, hay, and other natural materials.  Growing citrus organically presents some unique challenges to citrus farmers because of the processes that they need to use in order to control pests and fertilize their citrus trees.

When people think of a citrus grove they usually think of a commercially managed grove full of well manicured citrus trees, but an organic citrus grove is a little more chaotic looking than a traditional commercial grove. 

An organic citrus grove will usually have some type of ground cover plant hovering near the trees and there will be weeds everywhere. Weeds and ground cover encourage insects which are the natural predators of insects that destroy citrus trees to make their homes in the grove. Then those insects keep the pests that would ruin the citrus trees under control which eliminates the need for commercial pest control.  The ground cover plants also help insulate the citrus trees in case there is a cold snap or some other inclement weather that could damage the trees.
Another problem that organic citrus farmers face is the issue of how their final products look. 

Commercially grown fruit is treated with preservatives and often covered with a thin layer of wax to prevent damage and to make it look more attractive. Organic fruit doesn’t have those cosmetic touches. Some buyers are put off by citrus fruit that can have dents or minor cosmetic flaws even though the organic fruit is healthier for consumers to eat.  Without preservatives organic fruit also must be rushed from the field to the market, which increases the cost of the fruit.  Even though organic farming is more time intensive and more expensive, which means the final product is more expensive, many farmers are switching to organic farming methods.