The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE found that grape fruit works just as well as the common diabetes pill metformin in lowering harmful blood sugars. US researchers have found that the so-called "grapefruit diet" which was popular in the Seventies and Eighties as the latest "Hollywood" diet secret followed by the likes of actress Brooke Shields may in fact have some scientific basis.The team, from the University of California, Berkeley, gave one group of mice an antioxidant called naringin, a bioactive compound in grapefruit juice that has been identified as a key agent in weight loss.

They gave another group metformin, the most common glucose-lowering drug prescribed for patients with Type 2 diabetes.Researcher Professor Joseph Napoli said: "The grapefruit juice lowered blood glucose to the same degree as metformin. The group of high-fat-diet mice that received naringin had lower blood glucose levels than the control group, but there was no effect on weight, suggesting that some other ingredient in grapefruit juice is also beneficial.

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