Recent reports in the national press have hailed grapefruit as being a 'fruity cure' for diabetes and said that the fruit is able to 'do the same job as two drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes'.
It should be cautioned that the research in question is only preliminary and only looked at the effects of naringenin on human and rat liver cells in the laboratory. It has not identified a 'cure' for diabetes.
The research, carried out by researchers from Shriners Hospitals in Boston and other research centres in the US, Israel and France has been published in PLoS One, the peer-reviewed open-access journal of the Public Library of Science. It actually concentrated on how the chemical affected the fat metabolism of cells rather than processes directly related to diabetes.
An additional caution needs to be given in relation to these news reports. Grapefruit is known to interact with enzymes in the body that break down many drugs. This can mean that consuming too much grapefruit can interfere with people’s drug treatment and cause harmful effects in some cases. For example, people taking the statin simvastatin to control their cholesterol levels are advised to avoid drinking grapefruit juice as it can increase the chance of side effects from the drug. Grapefruit also is known to interact with a range of cardiovascular drugs and other medicines.
NHS Choices advise that people with diabetes or other individuals taking medications should not attempt to replace or supplement their prescribed medication with grapefruit.
What the research did reveal is that naringenin has anti-inflammatory properties and induces a chemical reaction called beta oxidation. The researchers say that these properties suggest it could be acting in a similar way to drugs which are used to treat people with high levels of fats in the blood and also to treat type 2 diabetes.
Until clinical trials are carried out in humans, it is not possible to say whether naringenin might be an effective medical treatment or whether it carries side effects. It has been advised that people with diabetes or other individuals taking medications should not increase their consumption of grapefruit or grapefruit juice based on this study’s findings.