I don’t know if any of you have heard about this.There was an article in the Daily Mail a while ago mentioning if you have had Breast cancer be cautious about eating grapefruit. Apparently it has plant estrogens in it. Even a quarter of it has quite a high amount! I emailed the website nurse and she agreed with the article. There has been some scientific research into this. I havn’t eaten any grapefruit since. I used to love that pink grapefruit squash and I used to drink it quite a lot. But I don’t touch it now!
I seem to remember they said it was bad for post menopausal women - could actually cause it never mind bringing it back.
But aren’t there plant oestrogens in lots of veg? It’s a minefield!
Grapefruit was the only food I was told to avoid when I was on Capcetabine (Xeloda)… not sure why. It wasn’t a problem for me, as it’s not something I eat regularly anyway. When I was on the Epirubicin, I could anything, so it’s presumably something linked with the specific drug…
I’m on Xeloda and it’s interesting to hear that you were told to avoid grapefruit but, like you, it’s not a huge problem for me. A friend of mine was on Lapatinib (Tykerb) and was told that she shouldn’t drink grapefruit while on that.
Research showed that grapefruit and g/juice can interfere with the ways in which drugs are metabolised within the body. It is best to avoid them until treatment is finished.
I have looked up the research that triggered the “grapefruit causes breast” headlines. They did a trial of post menopausal women eating different amounts of grapefruit. Only those having 60g or more a day had a poorer outcome.
I have just read an article on the Telegraph website, and this is part of what it says about the risk of eating grapefruit in post menopausal women:
As little as 1/4 of a grapefruit can increase risk of BC by 30 per cent, in post menopausal women. It boosts blood levels of the hormone oestrogen
Researchers from the universities of South California in Los Angeles and Hawaii in Honoluo, done studies on 50,000 post menopausal women, including 1,657 with bc. They concluded that eating grapefruit, was ,significantly associated’ with increased risk of bc. They say that, since it is well established that oestrogen associated with bc risk, it is plausible that a regular intake of grapefruit, would increase a woman’s risk of bc!
I don’t know how much truth there is in this, or whether its just more scare mongering, but I’ve avoided grapefruit and anything with grapefruit in it, to be on the safe side,
Have just looked up Pomelos. It looks very much like a grapefruit and is apparently an ancient ancestor of it. It is commonly called a Chinese grapefruit. I’m not sure about if there is any risks with eating it. But as it is closely linked with grapefruit, it might be best to err on the side of caution!!