The Grapefruit Active Lifestyle Meal Plan: Should You Try It?

Grapefruit is a superstar among superfoods. Just one grapefruit packs more than 100 percent of the daily recommended serving of Vitamin C. Additionally, lycopene, the pigment that gives grapefruit its pink color, is linked to protection against heart disease, breast cancer, and prostate cancer, and it's been shown to help lower your "bad" LDL cholesterol.

So when we heard about the newly launched Grapefruit Active Lifestyle Meal Plan, a meal plan created by nutritionist Dawn Jackson Blatner with the aim of helping busy, active women get back into their athletic shoes this year, our interest was piqued. We managed to sit down for a few minutes with Jackson Blatner to get more information on why she believes grapefruit might be the key to getting healthy.

"The idea is that I want to try and be active, I want to try and live this healthy lifestyle, but sometimes you need a pick-me-up," Jackson Blatner says. "When that's the case, that flavor can really get you going."

When Jackson Blatner was creating the plan, she says her main goal was to ensure that everything was healthy and delicious, but above all, easy for women who are living an active lifestyle.

"The most important thing about this plan is that you can actually do this one when you're living a crazy, hectic lifestyle," she says. "For example, for breakfast you could just broil half of a Florida grapefruit quickly to bring out some of that natural sweetness, and then top with yogurt and walnuts, and you're ready to go."

The full meal plan is available on the Juicy Scoop Facebook page, but the diet includes three meals per day, along with two snacks, all of which Jackson Blatner says can be customized to fit a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.

"A typical dinner might be a steak and grapefruit salad with sweet potato croutons," she says. "The grapefruit adds a nice bold flavor to the salad, so that it doesn't feel like a normal boring salad, it feels robust and flavorful."

While the plan includes a good mix of healthy fats, protein, and carbs, as well as fruits and vegetables, it was designed with fitness-focused women in mind to include no more than 1,600 calories per day. Men and those who consume more or less calories for health or medical reasons may want to opt out of this plan or see their doctor to have it adjusted accordingly.

Further, grapefruit is known to interact with some drugs, such as cholesterol-lowering statin drugs like Lipitor because it blocks enzymes in the intestine that prevent medications from being absorbed in the body. When that enzyme is blocked, the medication can instead be absorbed into the body, which can raise the blood levels of those drugs and cause serious side effects such as high fever, fatigue, and severe muscle pain.

The bottom line: Before you make any drastic changes to your diet, it's important to talk to your doctor about whether it's right for you.

What do you think? Will you try the new Grapefruit Active Lifestyle Meal Plan? Leave a comment and share your thoughts!