Grapefruit diet risks cancer

The sight of grapefruit on market displays makes you think about the deficiency of vitamins in the body and the desire to cheer yourself up with a tasty morsel of bright and healthy fruit. Every woman knows that it has the ability to burn fat, invigorate and have an antibacterial and antifungal effect. But few people know that “paradise citrus” is not so beneficial for our body.

Grapefruit and women

A group of American scientists from the universities of Southern California and Hawaii, having studied the health of 50 thousand women, came to a sensational conclusion: women who ate at least a quarter of a grapefruit a day had a 33% higher risk of breast cancer than those who did not. used. However, a number of fairly significant caveats should be made. First, this finding only applies to postmenopausal women. Secondly, other risk factors were not taken into account - solar radiation (after all, Los Angeles and Hawaii), the absence or presence of childbirth/abortion and other gynecological diseases. In addition, estrogen metabolism (its disruption is precisely associated with female oncology) is affected not only by grapefruit, but also by the condition of the liver. For example, if you have liver failure, you definitely shouldn’t eat grapefruits. Scientists have yet to prove the potential oncogenicity of grapefruit. But just in case, you should be careful.

The connection between grapefruit and cancer

The liver is a laboratory in which food is disassembled into “spare parts”. Several enzyme systems are responsible for this process; One of the most powerful and multifunctional is the cytochrome system. If you slow down its work, the speed of “disassembly” of chemical compounds entering the body will also decrease. Substances with this ability are called inhibitors. Several potent CYP3A4 inhibitors have been found in grapefruit. According to researchers, the main troubles are associated with them. After all, this system also deals with the utilization of female sex hormones, in particular estrogen. And its increased concentration in the blood is considered one of the main causes of oncology in the mammary gland.