Can grapefruit put a squeeze on obesity?

[Naveed Yaseen]

The humble grapefruit could prove to be a mighty — if bitter tasting — weapon in the fight against diabetes, scientists say.

A study found naringenin, a flavonoid found in citrus fruit, makes the liver burn fat instead of storing it after a meal.

Researchers believe the chemical would also help obesity sufferers and even fight diabetes, because it also helped balance insulin and glucose levels.

Naringenin gives citrus fruit, in particular grapefruit, its bitter taste.

But since the tests involved far higher doses of naringenin than those found naturally in the fruit, anyone interested in its fat-busting benefits will have to wait for scientists to develop a concentrated supplement.

Once available, it could help treat patients suffering from Type 2 diabetes, a main cause of heart disease.

The tests were carried out on mice by a team at the Robarts Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario, in Canada, and published in the journal Diabetes-Two groups of mice were both fed the equivalent of a Western diet to speed up their ‘metabolic syndrome’ — the process which leads to Type 2 diabetes in humans.

One of the groups ate food that had been treated with naringenin.

The non-naringenin mice became obese, their cholesterol levels rose and their bodies became resistant to insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar levels.

The mice given the chemical did not suffer from these ailments, despite eating identical diets to the others.

Any rise in cholesterol-was corrected by the naringenin which also ‘reprogrammed’ their livers to burn fat rather than store it.

Lead researcher Professor Murray Huff added: “Furthermore, the marked obesity that develops in these mice was completely prevented by naringenin. What was unique about the study was that the effects were independent of calorific intake, meaning the mice ate exactly the same amount of food and the same amount of fat.”

The team will now try to develop the chemical into a treatment for humans.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=189371