Now is the perfect season for eating pomelos. Pomelos are highly nutritious, containing very rich proteins, organic acids, and essential elements for the human body such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and sodium, which are hard to find in other fruits. The pomelo pulp is also rich in components like vitamin C and insulin-like substances, which have effects such as lowering blood sugar, lowering blood lipids, weight loss, and improving skin and complexion. Regular consumption can have an auxiliary therapeutic effect on hypertension, diabetes, and vascular sclerosis, and it has the function of strengthening the body and improving complexion for obese people. In addition, pomelos contain the physiologically active substance naringin, which can reduce blood viscosity and prevent the formation of thrombi, thus also having a preventive effect on cerebrovascular diseases.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that pomelos are sweet and sour in taste, and cold in nature. They have the effects of regulating qi, resolving phlegm, moistening the lungs, clearing the intestines, nourishing blood, and strengthening the spleen. They are an excellent fruit for nourishing the lungs in winter and relieving coughs after a cold. There are also taboos when eating pomelos:
1. Pomelos cannot be taken with certain medications. Clinical findings have shown that when a patient with hyperlipemia takes one tablet of a lipid-lowering drug with a glass of pomelo juice, the effect is equivalent to taking 12 to 15 tablets of the same drug with a glass of water. The patient may experience muscle pain and even kidney damage. Some patients who take the antihistamine terfenadine may experience dizziness, palpitations, arrhythmia, and other mild symptoms if they eat pomelos or drink pomelo juice; in severe cases, it could lead to sudden death. Other drugs that have adverse interactions with pomelos include cyclosporine, caffeine, calcium channel blockers, and cisapride. The possibility of an interaction between pomelo juice and medication can last for 24 hours. Therefore, patients taking medication, especially the elderly, should avoid eating pomelos or drinking pomelo juice.
2. Women taking birth control pills should avoid them. A study in the United States shows that the effect of pomelos on birth control pills is most prominent. Experts say, "If a woman on birth control pills eats 1 to 2 pomelos after sexual intercourse, or takes the pill directly with a large glass of pomelo juice, she could become a mother, because the pomelo hinders the absorption of the contraceptive pill by the woman."
3. Pomelos are cold in nature. People with a weak spleen who experience diarrhea will have worsened symptoms after eating pomelos. Therefore, people with a weak and cold constitution should not eat too many.