Citrus fruits

Alexandra100

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Can we eat Citrus food in diabetes..
Like oranges and grape fruits
If you want to control or even reverse your diabetes by eating low carb, these fruits probably won't fit in to your diet. There are fruits that are much lower carb, or some of us have given up on fruit altogether in favour of leafy vegetables. If you follow this link to Diet Doctor's visual guides you will see exactly how much each fruit will "cost" you:
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/fruits
Frozen berries are especially convenient as they can be stored almost indefinitely and are delicious partly defrosted with eg Low carb hight fat Greek yoghurt.
 

In Response

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If you are treating your diabetes with metformin, grapefruit is not a good idea.

“Some of the chemicals found in grapefruit can bind to and inactivate an enzyme in your body that’s found in your intestines and liver. This enzyme helps break down the medication you take.

Normally when you take a drug orally, it’s broken down slightly by enzymes before it reaches your bloodstream. This means that you receive a little less of the drug in your bloodstream than the amount you initially consumed.

But when the enzyme is inhibited — as it is when it interacts with the chemicals in grapefruit — there’s a dramatically larger amount of the drug that makes its way into your bloodstream. This leads to a higher risk of overdose.”

This has nothing to do with the carbs in grapefruit and is not the same for oranges.
 

Andydragon

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If you are treating your diabetes with metformin, grapefruit is not a good idea.

“Some of the chemicals found in grapefruit can bind to and inactivate an enzyme in your body that’s found in your intestines and liver. This enzyme helps break down the medication you take.

Normally when you take a drug orally, it’s broken down slightly by enzymes before it reaches your bloodstream. This means that you receive a little less of the drug in your bloodstream than the amount you initially consumed.

But when the enzyme is inhibited — as it is when it interacts with the chemicals in grapefruit — there’s a dramatically larger amount of the drug that makes its way into your bloodstream. This leads to a higher risk of overdose.”

This has nothing to do with the carbs in grapefruit and is not the same for oranges.
Can you please cite the research that discusses this. Whilst some drugs do have negative interaction with grapefeuit juice I have never seen it mentioned in any of the paperwork that comes with Metformin and would be interested to see this research
 

In Response

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Can you please cite the research that discusses this. Whilst some drugs do have negative interaction with grapefeuit juice I have never seen it mentioned in any of the paperwork that comes with Metformin and would be interested to see this research
This is the one I quoted but there are quite a few if you Google.
It is definitely something I have read before about metformin which is why I searched for it.
 

Andydragon

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This is the one I quoted but there are quite a few if you Google.
It is definitely something I have read before about metformin which is why I searched for it.
Thanks for the link, it says that "metformin isn’t broken down by the same enzyme as the drugs listed above. It’s unprocessed by your body and expelled in your urine."

It also states there is a hypothesis on increased risk of lactic acidosis but only limited research carried out on non diabetic rats so not a strong correlation yet, maybe further research to be done

Not an expert but not seeing anything to say Metformin in particular and grapefruit juice are a problem. The carbs may well be a problem in general for T2 mind you, as they are in most (all?) Fruit juices
 

chaoticliloj

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I believe grapefruit will affect you if you’re on statins but not metformin
 

TriciaWs

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Yes there are drugs to avoid with grapefruit, this is a UK list (the USA uses different drug names for some products): https://bnf.nice.org.uk/interaction/grapefruit-2.html

Half a medium grapefruit has around 5-6g of carbs so similar to a portion of berries, as long as you don't add sugar (I use erythritol).
I also use a little lemon or lime juice on fish or chicken, but avoid oranges as they contain more sugar.
 

TriciaWs

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If you want to control or even reverse your diabetes by eating low carb, these fruits probably won't fit in to your diet. There are fruits that are much lower carb, or some of us have given up on fruit altogether in favour of leafy vegetables. If you follow this link to Diet Doctor's visual guides you will see exactly how much each fruit will "cost" you:
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/fruits
Frozen berries are especially convenient as they can be stored almost indefinitely and are delicious partly defrosted with eg Low carb hight fat Greek yoghurt.

Grapefruit is low carb, about the same per portion as raspberries. I sometimes have it for breakfast with a half slice buttered very low carb bread plus milky coffee - a total of 15g of carbs.
 

Alexandra100

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Prediabetes
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Grapefruit is low carb, about the same per portion as raspberries. I sometimes have it for breakfast with a half slice buttered very low carb bread plus milky coffee - a total of 15g of carbs.
@TriciaWs I should have written, "VERY low carb". Strongly influenced by Dr Bernstein, I follow his <30gc daily protocol with least carbs for breakfast when we are according to him most insulin resistant. I tend to forget that others can tolerate more carbs than me. Warm congratulations on keeping your T2 in remission while coping with so many other health problems
 

Resurgam

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I can eat a grapefruit - I have sometimes taken them with me on days out when I don't want to risk a normal meal after long hours out in the sun.
A couple of times I have laughed when someone pinched a piece of my 'orange' and then discovered their mistake - one choked on the juice so violently that they were thought to be in danger of asphyxia.
This is after years of eating low carb with very little sweetener - these days peas and beetroot taste sweet to me.