Baked Grapefruit Recipe with Maple Syrup and Cinnamon - Not Enough Cinnamon (2024)

FAQs

What do you sprinkle on grapefruit? ›

Salt Is the Secret to Sweeter-Tasting Grapefruit

While it may seem counterintuitive, salt — not sugar — can make grapefruit taste less bitter and more sweet. Sure, sugar can drown out the bitterness and sour flavor if you sprinkle it on thick enough, but salt actually balances these tastes rather than covering them up.

Sprinkle the fruit with salt.

Adding a light sprinkle of salt to grapefruit may sound odd, but it actually works. Paul Breslin, PhD, professor of Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers University, explains that sprinkling salt on the fruit reduces the tongue's ability to detect bitter compounds like naringin.

To eat for breakfast or as a starter, cut in half, then use a serrated, curved-blade grapefruit knife to separate the skin from the flesh (leaving the flesh still cupped in the skin), then use a small, sharp knive to cut between each segment. Alternatively, peel and separate the segments as you would as orange.

Grapefruit shines in dishes both sweet and savory. Enjoy its bright complexity raw in salads, smoothies, and sorbet, or try broiling or baking grapefruit with fish or meat.

It particularly affects certain anti-cholesterol statin drugs, as well as some medicines used to treat high blood pressure, irregular heartbeats and even allergies. Grapefruit and grapefruit juice can cause too much or too little of a drug to stay in the body.

Grapefruit, like other fruits, provides a good helping of fiber, which can help support: Heart health: Fiber-rich foods can reduce inflammation and ease high blood pressure. Gut health: Fiber helps prevent constipation and encourages beneficial bacteria growth.

The problem is that chemicals in the fruit can get in the way of the medicine breaking down, called metabolizing, in the digestive system. As a result, the medicine can stay in the body for too long or too short a time. More often, the problem is medicine staying in the body too long.

Many of us consider grapefruit's natural granular mate to be sugar. But it seems generations of Americans were more inclined to pair their grapefruit with another easy-to-sprinkle crystal: salt.

Grapefruit benefits are many – it's refreshing, it's low in calories and it's full of fiber to keep hunger at bay while you snooze. Compared to other, less-healthy late-night snacks, grapefruit is good for you (especially if you're watching your weight).

What does eating half a grapefruit do? ›

Half a grapefruit provides about 5% of your daily potassium needs (1, 16 ). Adequate potassium intake is associated with a reduced risk of high blood pressure. Additionally, it has been shown to lower the risk of death from heart disease ( 17 ).

Grapefruit is rich in vitamins and nutrients, including vitamin C, potassium, and fiber. Research shows that the fruit's health benefits range from faster wound healing to supporting heart health and reducing inflammation.

The grapefruit is very healthy eaten as a snack or as part of your breakfast. You can eat it any way you want: peeled or cut in halves, eighths, or quarters.

SALAD: Peel and cut the fruit in segments. Add the segments to any green salad. Good grapefruit pairings are red onion, lettuce, blue cheese, olive oil, ricotta cheese and avocado.

Not just for breakfast, the citrus burst of grapefruit is delicious in fruit salads, desserts, with seafood, or in co*cktails. They pair well with ingredients such as spinach, fennel, avocado, feta cheese, shrimp, mint, and cashews, among others.

Indeed, people often smother it in sugar just to get it down. And yet Americans were once urged to sweeten it with salt. Ad campaigns from the first and second world wars tried to convince us that "Grapefruit Tastes Sweeter With Salt!" as one 1946 ad for Morton's in Life magazine put it.

I halved a grapefruit and sprinkled brown sugar and cinnamon over the fruit. I placed the two halves under the broiler for a few seconds and they came out a bit warm covered in glassy, shiny sugar layer. It's sweet enough to cut back some of the grapefruit's bitterness without the grapefruit losing its essence.