Stop Giving 'Disgusting' Grapefruit as a Holiday Gift

This terrible tradition needs to die: Katy Waldman
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 10, 2012 1:23 PM CST
Updated Dec 10, 2012 2:00 PM CST
Stop Giving 'Disgusting' Grapefruit as a Holiday Gift
This is not a good holiday gift.   (©)

It's the holidays, which means some clueless older relative is sure to force a grapefruit or 12 upon you. Giving grapefruit as a holiday gift started up during the Great Depression, because people wanted their gifts to be "nourishing" during such tough times. But the tradition—the absolute worst of the season, according to Katy Waldman—has continued. "Grapefruit is unwieldy, disgusting, and in some cases dangerous to eat. It is indisputably the worst fruit anyone has ever put on a plate," Waldman writes in Slate. And it's high time we stopped giving it to people we purport to love.

Waldman runs down the fruit's pros (turns out there aren't any, in her opinion—all of grapefruit's health benefits have been overhyped) and cons ("It's impossible to eat," and once you manage to do so, it "tastes ... like a bad-tempered orange soaked in kerosene." Plus, it's trying to kill you.) Her conclusion: "If you were even remotely thinking about shipping a box of grapefruit to someone you love for the holidays, kindly desist. Offloading a box of grapefruit on someone you hate, however—at least the revenge will be sweet." Click for Waldman's entire hilarious column. (More grapefruit stories.)

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