Great Fruit

You know that crazy grapefruit diet that never goes away? Someone needs to drop-kick it off the planet.

Grapefruit itself, on the other hand, is practically the definition of a whole-beauty food.

It protects your skin.
It helps you breathe.
It’s the secret ingredient in an utterly irresistible fragrance.
And, oh yeah, it actually does help you lose weight -- though not via that extreme fad diet (think 800 calories a day of nothing but black coffee, boiled eggs, and grapefruit).

Since this is the season for grapefruit, here’s how to get the most out of it:

Make it your skin’s main squeeze. Like other citrus, the zest of grapefruit peel is high in d-limonene, a compound that seems to keep skin-cancer cells at bay. For a delicious flavor twist, grate a little grapefruit peel over salads, grilled fish, sorbets, hot tea, or sparkling water.

Breathe easy. Grapefruit is loaded with vitamin C, an all-star antioxidant that may reduce the wheezing, gasping symptoms of adult asthma.

Smell amazing. If you’ve never inhaled In Love Again -- one of Yves Saint Laurent’s stunner fragrances -- try it the next time you’re in a fancy perfume store. The essence of its essence is grapefruit, but I won’t even try to explain its effect. Just go. Smell. Take your credit card.

Lose weight. Somewhat to the chagrin of everyone -- scientists, editors, doctors, the founder of Weight Watchers, me -- who ripped into the grapefruit diet for years, some highly reputable scientists recently found that people who start every meal with either half a grapefruit or a glass of grapefruit juice lose about half a pound a week. Without dieting. Or going crazy on the treadmill. Or doing anything differently, except eating grapefruit like there’s no tomorrow.

The apparent reason is that grapefruit contains certain plant compounds that lower insulin levels, which encourages weight loss. Whatever. Of course, now that crazy grapefruit diet will really never go away.