grape fruit and tomato juice: energy drinks?

[gib65]

A lady told me that she substitutes grape fruit and tomato juice for coffee. She says its a real energy booster. She drinks a full glass of grape fruit juice in the morning and then at noon she has two glasses of tomato juice with her lunch.

 

Now I doubt this can have the same stimulating and energy boosting effects as caffeine but I'm wondering if there's anything to the claim that grape fruit juice and tomato juice can boost one's energy to even a small degree.

[PhDwannabe]

I think that there must almost certainly be at least something to this claim, and I predict that the effect would be quite strong.

[Hal.]

I read a few years ago in a U.S. army fitness training manual that caffeine increases the human bodies efficiency at taking energy from food . And , tomatoes are great with ham on brown bread and a glass of orange juice !

[gib65]

I think that there must almost certainly be at least something to this claim, and I predict that the effect would be quite strong.

 

I would think so, but I would think it's true of all fruits and vegetables. I was wondering if there's anything particular to do with grape fruit and tomato juice.

[Guest Loveyourbody008]

grapefruit juice:

 

Grapefruit does not only composed of vitamin C which is usually

 

known to be protective against cold or flu. It is not just one

 

nutrient that helps prevent a certain illnesses, but rather the

 

combination of many ingredients in it that does the trick. This is

 

the kind of nutritional power that we can find only in the way God

 

makes our natural food.

 

This juicy fruit contains citric acid, natural sugars, essential

 

oils like limonene, pinene and citral. It has high amounts of

 

vitamin C, and smaller amounts of vitamin A, B complex, E and K.

 

In the mineral department, larger amounts of calcium, folic acid,

 

phosphorus, and potassium are found. The nutritive phytonutrients

 

of this voluptuous fruit¾liminoids, flavonoids, lycopene and

 

glucarates¾help fight cancer and various diseases.

 

tomato juice:

 

Other vitamins that are available to us in tomatoes are Vitamins A,

 

B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 and B12. The importance of Vitamin A is to

 

maintain good bones and teeth as well as eyesight. Vitamin A also

 

helps in fighting infectious diseases. Health benefits from the B

 

vitamins include increased energy, healthy nervous system, good

 

digestion and healthy skin, hair and nails.

 

Another significant health benefit from drinking tomato juice is its

 

effect on preventing cancer. It is not known for certain why

 

tomatoes help fight cancer. However, scientists believe that

 

lycopene is the agent in tomatoes that wards off certain cancers.

 

 

food-allergy

[CaptainPanic]

Fruits are such an energy "boost" because part of the sugars (e.g. glucose) in fruits are in a form that you can take up directly. Your stomach or bowels don't have to do much. The glucose just has to go into your blood, and it's immediately available.

 

I hope our biology experts correct me if I'm wrong... I'm not the resident biology expert, but I think I have the answer, so I posted it.

[bbrubaker]

The only weird thing I know about grapefruit (aside from looking nothing like it's namesake) is that it contains a flavanoid called Naringin that is supposed to use up an enzyme that breaks down many drugs. People may ingest grapefruit to theoretically increase the potency of other drugs.

 

Not sure if that cuts the mustard here or not. Whatever.

[Leader Bee]

I read a few years ago in a U.S. army fitness training manual that caffeine increases the human bodies efficiency at taking energy from food . And , tomatoes are great with ham on brown bread and a glass of orange juice !

 

I guess this is the same reason you find caffeine in many off the shelf painkillers. How would guzzling down a few cups of Espresso with your headache tablets affect them?

Edited July 14, 2011 by Leader Bee

[Hal.]

I hope the point wasn't missed that caffeine and grapefruit juice may have something in them that increases the bodies efficiency at taking energy from food . They may not be the actual source of energy , they maybe just help the processes along .

Edited July 14, 2011 by Hal.

[ewmon]

Fruits are such an energy "boost" because part of the sugars (e.g. glucose) in fruits are in a form that you can take up directly. Your stomach or bowels don't have to do much. The glucose just has to go into your blood, and it's immediately available.

 

I hope our biology experts correct me if I'm wrong... I'm not the resident biology expert, but I think I have the answer, so I posted it.

Correct on both points. Glucose and fructose are the main sugars in fruits, and being simple/single sugars (technically called monosaccharides) they are small enough to pass through the walls of the digestive system, and so, they don't require enzymatic reactions.

 

Other sugars, such as sucrose (a disaccharide of fructose and glucose) and lactose (a disaccharide of galactose and glucose) are too large to be absorbed directly, and they require enzymes (sucrase and lactase, respectively) to split them into their monosaccharide components, which are then absorbed. Then there's the condition called "lactase deficiency", more commonly referred to as "lactose intolerance". It's not that the body can't tolerate undigested lactose in its digestive tract, but that the body fails to absorb this disaccharide, and when it passes into the large intestine, the bacteria there break it down and digest it and flourish, turning the large intestine into a fermentation vat and end up creating those characteristically rude symptoms (bloating, cramps, gas, diarrhea, etc).

 

Anyway, Composition of Grapes is well-written and informative publication by a staff member of Iowa Sate University (apparently the wine industry in Iowa is growing exponentially). In working out the math on the figures given below, I found that sucrose rates halfway between the values for fructose and glucose, which makes sense because sucrose is half fructose and half glucose. This helps explain why ripe fruit is tastier (ie, sweeter) than unripe fruit.

Glucose and fructose are the main sugars in [grape] juice. ... In unripe berries, glucose is the predominant sugar. At the ripening stage, glucose and fructose are usually present in equal amounts (1:1 ratio). In overripe grapes, the concentration of fructose exceeds that of glucose. In ripe grapes, there is some variation in the glucose to fructose ratio among the grape varieties. For example, Chardonnay and Pinot blanc are classified as high fructose varieties, while Chenin blanc and Zinfandel are regarded as high glucose varieties.

 

Fructose, glucose, and sucrose differ significantly in sweetness. The order of sweetness is: fructose is sweeter than sucrose, which is sweeter than glucose. In other words, on a sweetness scale, if fructose is considered to be 100, then sucrose is 84 and glucose is 66.

 

The only weird thing I know about grapefruit (aside from looking nothing like it's namesake) is that ...

Yeah, the name comes from their tendency to grow on trees in clusters reminiscent of grape clusters.

[Ahsan Iqbal]

You have to take into account the long term effects. I posted in this forum about a minute ago to the topic "Effects of Junk Food on Energy Levels. That answer I provided there will be closely related to what I am going to write here.

 

As I said, You have to take into account the long term effects. There is no doubt about how good caffeine can be in temporarily boosting the efficiency of a person. But in the longer run, it has quite a few side-effects. The person who uses it regularly becomes an addict. He will require more amount of caffeine to reach the same level of efficiency. A vicious circle develops, causing the person to take more and more caffeine and thus deteriorating his health further.

 

On the other hand, fruit juices won't give you an efficiency boost as caffeine. They would provide you the nutrients you need but won't activate you like caffeine does, but if you look in the longer run, using fruit juice have NO SIDE-EFFECTS AT ALL. You will stay healthy in you life.

[TonyMcC]

Can I inject a word of warning? Grapefruit juice can interfere with many drugs and people prescribed those drugs are advised not to drink it. I am one of those people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapefruit_drug_interactions#Affected_drugs

Edited August 10, 2011 by TonyMcC

[CaptainPanic]

Can I inject a word of warning? Grapefruit juice can interfere with many drugs and people prescribed those drugs are advised not to drink it. I am one of those people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapefruit_drug_interactions#Affected_drugs

A word of warning is always good.

 

Obviously, it's even better to read the Package insert / Prescribing information / Patient information leaflet, which will tell you what possible side effects and interferences can be.

[dnt4gett]

here is a little guide of nutrition in which you ill get some guide about these two kind of juices

1st:

tomatoes are Vitamins A,

 

B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 and B12. The importance of Vitamin A is to

 

maintain good bones and teeth as well as eyesight. Vitamin A also

 

helps in fighting infectious diseases.

 

2nd:

Grapefruit does not only composed of vitamin C which is usually

 

known to be protective against cold or flu. It is not just one

 

nutrient that helps prevent a certain illnesse.

and it is helpful too.

[Phi for All]

Now I doubt this can have the same stimulating and energy boosting effects as caffeine but I'm wondering if there's anything to the claim that grape fruit juice and tomato juice can boost one's energy to even a small degree.

Caffeine isn't really a stimulant. That's not the way to look at it scientifically.

 

It's an adenosine blocker. It keeps adenosine, which is responsible for that drowsy feeling you get when you remain stationary for a length of time (like before going to bed) from reaching the receptors it's normally released to.

 

It also encourages the release of catecholamines, the fight-or-flight hormones. You get some dopamine that increases your ability to concentrate. You get some adrenaline which raises your heart rate to send more blood to the muscles and tells the liver to release some sugar.

 

It's important to note the distinction, especially if you have a condition where neurotransmitters and hormones are imbalanced.

 

I would think so, but I would think it's true of all fruits and vegetables. I was wondering if there's anything particular to do with grape fruit and tomato juice.

This response doesn't sound like you actually read PhDwannabe's link to the Placebo Effect.

 

Fruits are such an energy "boost" because part of the sugars (e.g. glucose) in fruits are in a form that you can take up directly. Your stomach or bowels don't have to do much. The glucose just has to go into your blood, and it's immediately available.

 

I hope our biology experts correct me if I'm wrong... I'm not the resident biology expert, but I think I have the answer, so I posted it.

I think this is correct. Some meals can actually make you feel less energetic, despite all the calories you just consumed. Digesting a heavier meal requires a lot of energy from the body. Fruits don't require much to digest.

 

I hope the point wasn't missed that caffeine and grapefruit juice may have something in them that increases the bodies efficiency at taking energy from food . They may not be the actual source of energy , they maybe just help the processes along .

Hal. is right. Grapefruit is an actual food source, but caffeine obviously isn't the source of any energy. It just triggers hormones and neurotransmitters that in turn trigger other responses from the body.

[PhDwannabe]

Caffeine isn't really a stimulant. That's not the way to look at it scientifically.

 

It's an adenosine blocker. It keeps adenosine, which is responsible for that drowsy feeling you get when you remain stationary for a length of time (like before going to bed) from reaching the receptors it's normally released to.

 

It also encourages the release of catecholamines, the fight-or-flight hormones. You get some dopamine that increases your ability to concentrate. You get some adrenaline which raises your heart rate to send more blood to the muscles and tells the liver to release some sugar.

 

It's important to note the distinction, especially if you have a condition where neurotransmitters and hormones are imbalanced.

 

Well, that's sort of a subtle issue, to be honest. "Stimulant" gets validly used (both colloquially and scientifically) to describe either the immediate neurological effects or the final behavioral effects of a drug. So, caffeine, which tends to increase alertness and wakefulness and, to some extent, cognitive ability, can more or less get called a stimulant because of what its behavioral effects are. Something like methylphenidate (Ritalin) is also properly called a stimulant (often a "psychostimulant") even though we use it to treat kids who are hyperactive. "Why would we give a stimulant to hyperactive kids?" many an intro psych student wonders aloud. Well, because methylphenidate's dopamine agonism increases activity in the prefrontal cortex--that's what makes it a stimulant: it increases that activity. Its final behavioral effect is often "calming" because the PFC areas it stimulates are involved in behavioral inhibition, which allows the kiddo in question to more easily stop himself from, say, getting up from his desk and running around his classroom. Though it's a little imprecise, in psych and medicine, "stimulant" does indeed often get used to describe either neurological or behavioral stimulation.

 

 

gib65, on 10 June 2011 - 10:08 AM, said:

 

I would think so, but I would think it's true of all fruits and vegetables. I was wondering if there's anything particular to do with grape fruit and tomato juice.

 

This response doesn't sound like you actually read PhDwannabe's link to the Placebo Effect.

Ain't that the truth.