We are told that the key to a good day is a healthy, nutritious breakfast, and we often find this in a simple grapefruit. As a tart staple, the citron is oftentimes eaten in half with sugar lightly bedazzled on its half-spherical top with a speciality grapefruit spoon served alongside the fruit, with nutritionists lauding grapefruits as a perfect vessel for morning vitamins and fibers.
And yet, almost 33 million Americans have been warned against eating a bean-shaped segment, tasting the tart pulp, drinking the reddish juice. This is because, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 13% of the United States’ population are either prescribed or have taken antidepressants in the past year which have been found to have drastically negative reactions when exposed to grapefruit.
Certain medications including sertraline, fluoxetine and paroxetine can cause dizziness and drowsiness combined with grapefruit as this reaction can often stall and damage metabolic functioning. Thirty three million Americans take a risk in eating such a fruit, but why should we care?
It seems like an insignificant trade: The cost of lessening depression is just the inability to consume a lackluster citrus fruit. Who even eats grapefruit anymore?
But it’s less a discussion on whether or not being able to eat a grapefruit is paramount in someone’s life, that it overrides the benefits of anti-depression medication, and more so what are the tolls of taking antidepressants, no matter how big or small.
There are memories of grandparents and parents using a serrated knife to cut the fruit in half, sprinkling sugar onto the citron and placing a special spoon next to the cut grapefruit. These memories will not exist for most, but just the idea of this significance begs a fundamental question: What are we willing to give up, big or small, for happiness?
And this must be asked because happiness is what antidepressants offer, whether overtly or inadvertently. We often view depression and happiness as opposite emotions, and when we try to escape depression, we hurtle ourselves towards happiness, regardless of costs.
When we talk about medications, whether it be anxiety or blood pressure or pain, we always talk about what we cannot have or what we lose. This medication causes weight loss; this medication causes weight gain; absolutely do not get pregnant on this medication; absolutely do not have alcohol on this medication.
We hear about the ways in which medication can cause illness or headaches or, even, death, but does any of that matter in the face of losing grapefruit juice? Of course it does, but also, looking specifically at antidepressants, what if grapefruits bring happiness?
This is the line, right here. The line which every person must create to decide what they are willing to give up for a chance at happiness or the chance to not be depressed.
For some people, maybe most, grapefruit doesn’t even touch this line. But, in acknowledging such a line should exist, we protect our peace and our boundaries, something we find oftentimes incapable of executing in the face of chasing happiness.
