i apologize if this subject has been addressed before. if you don't mind, i have a few questions about the fruitarian diet.

i understand the philosophy (but please correct me if i'm wrong) about the karmic value of foods, being that nuts/seeds are the reproductive elements of the plant/tree and should not be eaten. besides the whole karmic law, it is apparent to me that even if early human beings did eat nut and seeds, it would be in very small amounts since they would have to go through the process of deshelling them. also, it makes since that a lower fat diet may be more condusive to achieving better health. okay, enough said on nuts...i get this....


BUT....

i'm really confused on the whole greens thing. why do fruitarians believe that we should not consume leaves/greens? how do we know that early human beings did not consume vegetation? does it do harm to our bodies to injest greens? is our digestion system not physiologically set up to digest greens?

again, sorry if this is a repeat...but these questions are always on my mind when it comes to fruitarianism.

thanks ya'll!

love,
m.

Great questions! I'll take a stab!

-I've been eating all fruit for many years. It was a fairly natural evolution for me....and NOT something I did overnight! Ha! ha! That said....

My experience / opinions:

1) Nuts are POTENTIAL life. The seeds require nurturing and care...and correct conditions for life. As such, they can be a sustainable food for some - especially earlier on in transition. Unfortunately, fresh nuts are essentially non-existent in even the healthy persons diet. Small seeds like sunflower seeds are normally a better bet - as they can be confirmed viable via sprouting. Nuts are given freely by the tree usually in the form of a stunted fruit. As such, there is no karmic burden attached to eating them....or certainly very little. Especially if you plan on giving back by growing a tree or two! LOL.

2) For most, eating greens involves prematurely killing the plant before it has a chance to reproduce. Additionally, those leaves are not willingly given up by the plant! LOL. In many cases, some plants store excess waste products in their leaves and tissues. There IS a karmic thing attached to it. Still, one would have to keep it a BIT in perspective! Ha! ha! Additionally, you COULD simply grow many plants and eat individual leaves without killing the plants - although few actually would do this in practice.

-So: SOME all-fruit folks still eat things like greens or nuts. I personally do not.

-Just my experiences / opinions - which I hope are a little helpful!

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

also alot of greens are high in cellulose ..which our tummies dont break down easily in comparison to say cows an goats etc

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

well theres those ethical things possibly. alot more probably has to do with where one is at with their body. wheather the plants/nuts service them or not.

if you were to just up and give up everything but fruit..for ethical reasons..you might find yourself..ethical...not necc healthy

there is the other idea that humans are not chimps, and certainly arn't cows and goats...humans are unique with their own needs or lack there of...be it nutrition or whatever. You should eat what is right for your level of consciousness..not ethics which is a social construct.

I agree about lots of cellulose being a bad thing. also the seasonal rarity and impracticality that would be fresh raw nuts in a natural setting. On average..folks need greens because of the high mineral content and the state of their body (very acid...with many internal deposits and burried toxins). In all the purging of wastes you need the minerals from greens. prefeerably through vegetable juice, which have high ammounts of minerals/alkalinity without the bulk. Many folks need (again because of the state of the body, not because it is the natural diet of personkind) nuts/seeds to ground them and slow detox and also for a larger range in minerals/proteins etc...

alot of it is enviornmental also...if you live in a dirty enviornment. lack of sunshine and year-round warm climate, have alot of stress..physically inactive ....spend alot of time in front of the computer etc...ditching greens would be not be ethical to your body.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2007 03:46AM by anaken.

I like Anaken. She's smart

m, I have a similar question, and I hope you won't mind if I pose it here.

Do any of you all-fruit fruitarian folks recall having experienced any kind of difference in the way you feel when you eat greens, as opposed to when you eat fruit?

Fruit always makes me feel really alive, gives me energy, uplifts my mood, etc. Vegetables seem to have the opposite effect. In fact, they often make me feel really tired when I eat them.

I'm just wondering, have any of the all fruit people ever felt like that when they've eaten vegetables? Or noticed a difference in their appearance, etc.?

<<I like Anaken. She's smart >>

i second that esp. the part she says about veggie juices

Suncloud:

-My experience is that I have to move more energy to digest mixtures, nuts, and/or very fibrous vegetables & greens. These worked VERY well for me during my transition years.....but not in later years. So I eschew them (not chew them......heh...heh.....sorry couldn't resist.....it's early.)

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

How can you all eat only fruit? I can't even stay raw or vegetarian.

Mislu ..if you look at the reasons (or lack of reasons) why you want to be vegetarian, vegan , raw or fruitarian or anything else and those reasons arent strong enough for YOU ...then that may be why you can't stick with whatever it is you are seeking

some people do it for health reasons... some for ethical reasons .. spiritual reasons ..physcial reasons ...mental and emotional reasons...

for me its my health ... the thougth of going through 30-40-50 more years feeling like crap makes me want to eat healthy .. i dont feel im deprived of anything at the moment

find your motivation

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

hi everyone,

thank you for all your imput. David, you definitely cleared up the "karma concept" for me, thanks. and, Anaken, i do agree with you about most people needing greens to detoxify and promote alkalinity in the world we live in today, and especially if you have not been raw for very long. it seems like the longer you are raw (live David), the cleaner your cells become and, perhaps, the less chloraphyll containing foods one needs to detoxify.

Mislu,
not everyone here eats just fruit. many people here eat mostly foods that come from plants...whether they be cooked or raw. don't get discouraged! move at your own pace. i think it's more imporatant to focus on ADDING healthy, raw fruits and vegetables into your diet at a level you feel comfortable with.

love to you all,
m.

Mislu:

-It's a process. You no more CHOOSE to eat only fruit (having eaten a very poor diet traditionally).....then you wake up in the morning and CHOOSE to run a marathon....having never really walked around the block.

-Eat consciously and stretch from where you are NOW. Re-evaluate after a time. You might be surprised at where you are down the road! LOL.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Hey Mislu,
I've been raw for about 25 years and I find I still need to have greens, vegetables, and some fats alongside my fruits--- and I'm pretty healthy and happy. Don't despair; just find your own pathway and let things evolve naturally.

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

Very exotic there is no question about that but the truth is it is a prescription to long term starvation. And when it is too late, it is irreversable.

I found it very hard to believe that vegetable cellulose was difficult for humans to digest, but......

In the past few months, since being about 95%+ raw, I find that chewing vegs feels different in my mouth, (apples too). I really feel the bulk of the fiber. I don't think I'm doing anything differently, so I wonder if my saliva has changed.

It's not unpleasant, just different. I can see why - maybe - cellulose would become a factor in food choice. This whole subject, though apparently negligible, is fascinating because it's fundamental to philosophy - why we are here. So glad we have the fruitarian and other 'veterans' for their feedback.

This as I mentioned in another thread is very interesting to me. I'm at a point where nuts and seeds are not an issue and I have gone years without em while 100% raw. I eat plenty of raw veggies though and don't eat any greens and am doing fine. I just would be scared to give up on the veggies for fear of unseen trouble down the road. Also living in a seasonal(no farmers markets and cold winters) climate, winters and very limited choices of fruit with lack of sunshine is a concern also.

Is there anywhere to read up more on some reliable info on the fruitarian way??

Try here:
[z12.invisionfree.com]

Also you can sign up for my talk on it at the raw summit;
[www.1shoppingcart.com]

It's free

F1

Hey I am fruitarian for 2 years raw vegan since 2002-2003

Listen once in a blue moon I will eat one or two leaves off my mom's salad plate or something.

I just don't like it. Greens do not do anything for me.

I don't like anything that gets me off my fruit high.
Does that sound weird? I guess so.

I can't explain it then. It's just I feel the best when I am the lightest and greens are heavy. they are not bad, I just like the way I feel when I have sweet fruit in me.

It's personal preference to me. I have alot of experience.

Some fruitarians eat cooked fruit. Some eat greens. Some eat nuts.

I consider coconuts fruitm and I drink sugarcane juice, thats not a fruit. You can be picky, I guess. I like fructose and sucrose alot.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2007 01:43AM by coconutcream.

I had an interesting experience last winter when I did a week and a half of mono banana eating. I was kind of freaking out, not knowing if i could go for a week without greens. I was used to having at least a head of lettuce a day, sometimes more.

I was asking all the experts, are you sure this is OK for me? I felt like my body really needed them and i might not be able to do it. But, lo and behold, the time went by and i didn't really crave greens after all. I broke the mono diet with a head of buttercrunch lettuce, one of my faves, and it did absolutely nothing for me. I thought it would be sensational.

Since then, i eat lettuce sometimes, but not nearly as often as I used to, and not nearly as much out of that feeling of need. My guess is this might gradually fade over time. I never could have imagined it before, but I'm starting to see how it's possible for fruitarians to just not eat greens. I still do love baby spinach though!

Love,
Uma

Yes. Awesome Uma. Its really not until one is rather clean internally....and has done the leg work by light fasting, exercise, and mono-eating that one is able to determine what foods are very vital.....and FEEL and EXPERIENCE that bodily transition.......that one can shift gradually to a lighter form of eating.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

I've gone a only few months at most without greens and years without the nuts and seeds, but still wonder after the 5 year point if their is any troubles??

Thanks for the link Richard - Alot of newer articles I'd never seen. Kept me busy all day at work O)

Hey Mislu,
> I've been raw for about 25 years and I find I
> still need to have greens, vegetables, and some
> fats alongside my fruits--- and I'm pretty healthy
> and happy. Don't despair; just find your own
> pathway and let things evolve naturally.

hello kwan, what a great quote by pantanjali. Is that the sufi pantanjali or the gangster from the movie the Godfather? lol

By the way, if raw foods make you look that radiant, I will now be more motivated to make the transition to 100% raw fruits, although my teeth hurt from too much fruit at one time. I wonder if you are single. I am a 48 swm in Florida. Hmmmmmm....

Teeth hurting from too much fruit? that is crazy, fruit is soft.

maybe the teeth are so used to eating hard things like nuts and meats they get sore..

My teeth have never gotten sore on fruit, I have been eating it only for two years.

I am no fruitarian but I love fruit and I eat foods that I love he he.

Why does it have to be an intelectual explanation for what I eat? My natural urges and dislikes seem enough to me. If I don't like something, I do not seem to find a reason to eat it. I like enjoying my life and I like enjoying my food. And why not?

Now, as far as intelectual reasons to explain why I love fruit and why I feel great on it, of course they (and I mean hard-core scientific references, not some dietary-religious propaganda) exist. I do not use those as my motivation but rather, as explanation.

Ayone gets what I mean?

Gosia


RawGosia channel
RawGosia streams

Fruitarians know that greens are not good, because greens do not taste good, to them.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2007 05:17AM by coconutcream.