Is that a grapefruit in your pocket, or ...

“So far I've always kept my diet secret but now I might as well tell everyone what it is. Lots of grapefruit throughout the day and plenty of virile young men at night." Angie Dickinson

Your grapefruit or mine? Legend has it that the grapefruit is the result of a happy accident: in the late 17th Century, a Captain Shaddock brought some pummelos to the West Indies which crossed with citrus, probably oranges, that had been growing in the region and hybridized into the grapefruit – Columbus was known to have carried limes in his stores to the New World to ward off scurvy, and other citrus followed. In the 1750s the “forbidden fruit” of Barbados was described to the western world called the small shaddock by many and botanically as the Citrus Paradisi; the popular name grapefruit appeared from the fact that the fruits grow in clusters like grapes. Pink and Red grapefruit varieties began to appear in Florida groves in the early 20th century and are now among the most popular varieties. The grapefruit has become more popular then the pummelo from whence it came for several reasons: the rind is much thinner, yielding more meat for its size, it’s smaller making it more single serving size and more sweet hybrids have been developed. Incidentally, the bitterness of the grapefruit is largely contained in the membranes around the sections and is often removed to reveal the sweeter juice sacs inside. And when frozen, these sacs rupture to impart pulpiness and bitterness to juice.

There is a lot more juice in a grapefruit than meets the eye… Anonymous