A Juicy New Year!

 

Ahhh, the holidays! This year, Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa all take place during the same week. While these may be different holidays, they share quite a few things in common: time with friends and family, gift exchanges, candles, lights, and food...lots and lots of food. 

Making Resolutions

Coming right on the heels of equally food-centered Thanksgiving, this season is definitely one that gives us a little too much permission to overindulge. As such, it is hardly surprising that the number one New Year's resolution in 2025 (and most years) for most adults is to improve health via better fitness, weight loss, and healthier eating. Second to these goals, people list money management and stress relief as their primary resolutions.

These aspirations are very much related to one another.  After all, stress can induce overeating and lack of motivation to exercise and eat right, which can then create a sense of malaise and a lack of energy to accomplish one's goals. This can in turn induce more stress, and the cycle continues. In fact, Forbes did a recent study which revealed that most people quit their resolutions before the summertime, after only 3.74 months. 

We need tools to help us navigate the choppy waters of making and failing at New Year's Resolutions, so that we can see them through. Studies have shown that it's easier to add to your daily routine than restrict your habits, and one of the easiest ways to do this is by adding more water, fruits and vegetables to your existing diet.  And one of the easiest ways to get a variety of fruits and vegetables regularly--with the added bonus of critical hydration-- is by drinking them!

How Juicing Helps Literally Everything

Remember how resolutions are interconnected? By strategically targeting nutrition and hydration, other challenges such as stress and weight management start to ease all by themselves.  There is a proven stress-diet connection that can be addressed proactively. Better eating and greater hydration bring on a better sense of well-being, sometimes immediately, which in turn relaxes both mind and body for a less stressful mindset. From here, other life challenges can be faced from a healthier perspective, such as money, work, and relationship issues.  Heck, if everyone started juicing regularly, world peace might not feel like such a pipe dream. 

People often associate juicing with a bad taste and the calorie and carbohydrate density of store-bought juices. In fact, store-bought orange juice is not nearly as healthy as fresh-squeezed and often contains an additive to replace the flavor and nutrients lost during packaging, when dearation (the removing of oxygen to prevent the juice from spoiling) takes place. By contrast, freshly juicing your oranges and grapefruits results in a nutritious, hydrating, and deeply satisfying flavor powerhouse! Another consideration that makes folks reticent to make their own juice is the myth that it is a labor-intensive process. While there are indeed fancy juicing machines available to buy and complicated recipes to explore, it can be a very simple and inexpensive process to juice. But how to do it?

Citrus Juicing 101

If you have a juicer or a reamer, great! However, it is important to note that unless you need to make gallons of juice, no equipment is required. If you have some oranges, grapefruits, or any other varieties of freshly picked citrus, a knife, and a bowl, you are ready to go! 

First, wash the fruits well. Then cut them in half, quarter the halves and simply squeeze each quarter into the bowl until no more juice comes out. If there are seeds, it can be helpful to place a mesh strainer or piece of cheesecloth over the bowl to catch them, so you don't have to fish them out later. Here's a little-known tip: if you heat the orange quarters or halves for ten seconds in the microwave, they become more pliable and thus much easier to squeeze! You can also make incisions throughout the flesh of the fruit (not the rind) before squeezing to help break up the fibers and release more juice.

The above equipment-free method is perfect for a cup or two of instant delicious nutrition. Plus, the citrus essential oils that are released during the squeezing process are proven mood-lifters!  Finally, taking a few minutes to ritually prepare the fruit, squeeze the juice and savor the result can be a powerful mindfulness exercise that takes only minutes out of your morning but can have sustaining effects on your peace of mind. 

Here's to your happy, healthy New Year, from all of us at Florida Fruit Shippers!

Sources:

What are Americans’ New Year’s resolutions for 2025? | YouGov

New Year’s Resolutions Statistics (2024) – Forbes Health

New year, healthier you? Here's how to gradually improve your eating patterns | American Heart Association

Keep your New Year's resolutions: 8 expert tips

The Stress-Diet Connection - Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter

The Truth About Store-Bought Orange Juice: It Doesn't Actually Taste Like Orange Juice

How To Juice Oranges Without A Juicer - Foods Guy

I'm Dreaming of a White Grapefruit

To the tune of "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby:

I'm dreaming of a white grapefruit

Just like the ones I used to know

Where the treetops are bursting            

With fruit for which I'm thirsting

For the sweet tangy flavor I love so....

I'm dreaming of a white grapefruit

With every Christmas card I write

May your days be merry and bright

And may all of your grapefruits be white!

While we admit that Bing Crosby would probably never have guessed that a grapefruit would be the topic of a rewrite of his snow-wistful lyrics, let's be real: even though Florida does have to contend with occasional freezes during citrus season, the last time it snowed in Florida was on December 23, 1989 (also known as "Florida's first white Christmas"). The snowfall was near Jacksonville, well north of central Florida's citrus belt, and it completely melted within a very short time.  

Those who live in the "citrus belt"-- areas in the southern U.S. such as Florida, California, and Texas that are ideal for citrus growing--are not familiar with snow. However, true to Mother Nature's perfect design, those southern holiday cold fronts are mighty beneficial for growing sweet, juicy, citrus.  This fact is especially relevant to the white marsh grapefruit, since some consumers mistakenly believe it is sour tasting. As such, they overlook the white grapefruit for other delicious varieties that are well known to be sweet, like ruby red grapefruit, deep red grapefruit, oranges, and tangerines, not realizing that the white grapefruit is both tart and sweet and thus bright and refreshing to the tastebuds--a true delight. Cold weather brings out the sweetness in all citruses, and when it comes to the tangy white grapefruit, that extra dose of sweetness only accentuates the hybrid flavors. 

The Marsh White grapefruit is also known as the Marsh Seedless, Whitney Marsh, Zinbaa Rose, and Marsh Jibarito. It is a little-known fact that this type of white grapefruit, discovered in Lakeland Florida in the mid-nineteenth century, is actually a hybrid of a sweet orange and a pomelo. It is almost totally seedless, and the other seedless grapefruits such as the ruby red and pink marsh grapefruits were developed from it. By comparison, the better-known Duncan white grapefruits have a more bitter taste and are loaded with seeds.

Whether you go for the white marsh grapefruit or any of the other grapefruit varieties, you can't go wrong incorporating their deliciousness into your holiday meals, snacks, and New Year's resolutions! All citrus fruits are famous for their concentrated vitamin C content, but grapefruits come out ahead in Vitamin A and phosphorus. A short list of the overall health benefits of grapefruits include hydration, weight management, cancer-fighting, heart and digestive health, glowing skin, and weight management. One thing to note, however, is that grapefruit can affect the efficacy of some prescription medications such as statins, blood thinners, and corticosteroids, so do check with your doctor if you are taking these or other prescribed drugs.

Here's to Bitter--I Mean Better--Health

It's true that grapefruits--and especially the white ones--can have a distinctive bitter note that is exclusive to this type of citrus. It's even sometimes referred to as the "grapefruit taste," and is caused by flavonoids called naringin and limonin that are in much higher concentrations in white grapefruits than any other type of citrus. These compounds are extremely effective in reducing inflammation and promoting healthy digestion and metabolism. In the olden apothecary days, doctors advised folks to take their "bitters" for a long and healthy life, and they were administered as a barely palatable tincture. Now you can get your bitters in a much sweeter package!

How to Enjoy a Grapefruit

The simplest way to enjoy a grapefruit is fresh and raw. You can peel and section the fruit and serve it on a plate, or cut it in half and simply spoon-scoop the segments with or without a drizzle of honey on the top. You can add grapefruit segments to fruit salads or greens mixed with gorgonzola cheese and walnuts. Grapefruits are perfect for juicing with other fruits and vegetables. They can also be flavorful stand-ins for lemons when cooking seafoods, sauces, marinades, and even frostings. And through it all, the scent of grapefruits can be enjoyed as aromatherapy, warming up a room and your mood on a cold winter's night.

May your holidays be bright and may all your grapefruits be white (or red)!

SOURCES:

Has It Ever Snowed in Florida? - WorldAtlas
Citrus Trees Weather Sub-Freezing Nights - Specialty Crop Grower
14 Types Of Grapefruit You Should Know
Grapefruit 101: Nutrition, Benefits, How To Use, Buy, Store | Grapefruit: A Complete Guide - Fas Kitchen
Types of Grapefruit: Pink, Yellow, Green, Sweet and More Varieties
Orange vs. Grapefruit — Health Impact and Nutrition Comparison
10 Amazing Benefits of Phosphorus | Organic Facts
6 Health Benefits of Vitamin A, Backed by Science
14 Medications to Avoid Mixing With Grapefruit

Naringenin — Structure, Sources, Health Benefits, and Supplements