White Grapefruit is very low in Cholesterol, Saturated Fat, and Sodium. It's also a great source of Dietary Fiber and Potassium, and an excellent source of Vitamin C.
The principal ancestor of this subtropical evergreen was called pomelo, brought by a captain Shaddock to Barbados from the Malay Archipelago. The pomelo fruit, borne in clusters that gave rise to the name grapefruit, was also called shaddock, and is quite different from the grapefruit we know today.
In the mid-1700's, grapefruit was called, "Forbidden Fruit."
The West Indies were the point of origin for grapefruit, probably as a cross between the pomelo and an orange. It came to Florida in 1840 where a seedless fruit was found fifty years later and propagated to give us the Marsh Seedless variety.