The Health Benefits of Grapefruit

photo: flickr.com

As a citrus fruit, grapefruit is full of vitamin C, although this is not the only one benefit that you can enjoy eating or drinking grapefruit (juice). Grapefruit has other very important benefits for your health. Please find some of them below:

1. Grapefruit Helps in Preventing Cancer

The pigment responsible for the grapefruit's red color is Lycopene, which is the powerful agent preventing you from tumors and cancers. It works best with vitamins A and C - found also in the fruit. There is another antioxidant compound in grapefruit helping damaged DNA repair in prostate cancer cells and it is called Naringenin. DNA repair contributes to cancer prevention as it obstructs the cancer cells' reproduction.

2. Grapefruit Helps in Losing Weight

Grapefruit has a great combination of three main characteristics which make it the perfect food for increasing your body’s metabolism. These are: high water content, special enzymes burning fats and less sodium. Thanks to them, by drinking a cup of grapefruit juice or eating grapefruit every day, you will notice very quickly losing some extra pounds.

3. Grapefruit Helps in Lowering Cholesterol Levels

Full of antioxidants, grapefruit helps you lower your cholesterol levels. But have in mind if you are on prescription drugs, do not eat/drink grapefruit daily. This is due to the fact that grapefruit has a negative reaction against many prescription drugs. For example:  those for treating depression, seizures, high blood pressure, impotence, allergies, heart palpitations and HIV. If you take medication for any of these, please inform your physician in order to eat grapefruit on a daily basis.

4. Grapefruit Helps in Preventing Arthritis

The salicylic acid contained in grapefruit helps break down your body’s inorganic calcium, which on the other hand piles up in the cartilage of joints and may cause arthritis. In order to avoid arthritis or even if you already have one, try drinking grapefruit juice with apple cider vinegar every day. This will reduce your arthritis symptoms and will feel much better.

5. Grapefruit Works as an Antiseptic

The same salicylic acid, which helps in preventing arthritis, also works as a powerful antiseptic. For example, an extract from grapefruit seed can be added to water in order to make an antiseptic spray for treating bacterial and fungal infections.

6. Grapefruit Helps in Treating Common Ailments

Eating grapefruit will help you treat common ailments such as cold and fever, boost liver function, dissolve gallstones, and increase immunity against infections. In addition, if you want to have a clear skin, include grapefruit in your daily routine.

The grapefruit's benefits do not end here. It also contains essential elements for your healthy living: iron, potassium, manganese, calcium, magnesium, folic acid, phosphorus and B vitamins. So try drinking a cup of fresh grapefruit every day and you will feel just fine.

7 true but horrific facts about smoking

picture: afreeman.org

According to a research of the World Bank, 1.142 billion people in the world smoke. This makes at about 29% of the whole population on Earth. And this is horrific!

There are some sayings considered myths and others - considered true facts. I'll give you right now the true but awful facts about smoking.

1. Smoking cigarettes kills more people in two days than cocaine kills in a year.

2. Tobacco contains over 4 000 different chemicals. 200 of them are considered very harmful and poisonous.

3. Secondary smoking is as harmful as active smoking. Each year cigarettes kill more non-smokers than illegal drugs, AIDS, and teenage drinking all combined.

4. One of every 6 deaths in the USA is a cause of smoking.

5. Smoking can cause a lot of different types of cancer such as: cancers of the mouth, lip and throat, kidney cancer, cancer of the liver, pancreas cancer, cancer of the stomach and leukaemia.

6. Smoking cigarettes increases the risk of stroke and brain blood curdling by 300 %.

7. More than 40 % of the high-school students smoke or use other tobacco products. Students of different ethnic groups smoke even more.

After you have read all these awful facts about smoking, the only thing you should do is just QUIT SMOKING! You want to be healhty and alive, right? So QUIT SMOKING! Do not wait or put off for tomorrow, QUIT SMOKING today!