Revealed: The foods that can stop your medicines working according to doctors, from cereal and mints to bananas By Judith Keeling Published: 12:01, 5 June 2024 | Updated: 12:03, 5 June 2024 e-mail View comments Some medicines should be taken on an empty stomach, others must be swallowed with food — these are the kinds of basic instructions you get on the packet to ensure the drugs you have been prescribed work as they should, with minimal side-effects. But could what you actually eat and drink have a significant impact, too? For instance, citrus fruits, particularly grapefruit, is known to disrupt the absorption of at least 85 different medicines, from statins to antidepressants. This effect is being held partly to blame for the drop in sales of grapefruit juice — which have halved since the pandemic, market analysts Kantar reported today.
(While this might explain older consumers’ change in habits, younger shoppers seem to prefer sweeter tastes, said experts.) The problem with citrus fruits is that they contain compounds, called furanocoumarins, that can interfere with an enzyme in our body that breaks down these drugs, potentially leading to dangerously high levels in our bloodstream. Certain medications are told to be taken alongside a meal - but could the food you are consuming stop the drug from working its magic? Under normal conditions, this enzyme reduces the amount of the drug that enters your blood — and the quantities you are prescribed take this process in.
