I seem to be heading towards being a fruitarian. I guess I am hesitant because I want to be 100% sure that I am not missing out an any essential minerals that are not in most fruits. So I guess my question is, what do you do to make sure you aren't missing out an anything essential? Do you supplement with some sort of mulitvitamin/mineral? I don't want to be 50 years old and realize that my health is in trouble because I was missing something essential! Know what I mean? Did any of you worry about this, or did you just jump into being a fruitarian?

takes a seat in the front row and grabs some popcorn, er, cherry tomatoes.

I'm also transitioning and my idea is to drink 6 - 16 oz of sprout and vegetable juices a day. Grass juice is the most nutritious followed by the juice of other sprouts and greens. Of course carrot juice is a health staple.

I'm also looking into other fruits. Trade Winds Fruit has alot of seeds for cooler climates that look good. Some of the wild fruits in central California here seem to have a higher vitality. Wild grapes (or domestic ones in untended orchards) are real good. The wild fig trees growing along the Stanislaus River are special. One fig, when ripe, is green with a sweet creamy inside, and an area chock full of pollen, a 3 part meal. I think that the supermarket fruits may not have the vitality to nourish a 100% fruitarian.

Plus seeds are not fruits in spite of the wishful thinking of some. All fruits have seeds, botanical definition included, but the seeds have never been included as edible when human or animal nutrition is discussed.

I sometimes worry about that stuff, I don't feel I lack anything and feel a million times better than on raw food..and I did raw for 5 years.. if I ever get worried I will have some 92 mineral wheatgrass with my pineapple juice, I think they call that a hopper.

brome Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Plus seeds are not fruits in spite of the wishful
> thinking of some. All fruits have seeds,
> botanical definition included, but the seeds have
> never been included as edible when human or animal
> nutrition is discussed.

Sorry, but this doesn't make any sense at all. If the seeds of a fruit are edible then it makes much more sense (from a eating as nature intended ponint of view) to eat them than to cut them out, eg apples, pears, figs, most berries, melon, cucumber, etc. All fruits should have seeds but due to human intervention, they don't all have them anymore.

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

*sits in front row seat & shares cherry tomatoes with Narz*

Yes I have noticed that. It's sad. But eating seedless fruit is much better than a hamburger at checkers LOL joke

I know some fruitarians, alot actually that eat seeds, even write books and stuff, so mmm, you know, I mean fruitarians love coconuts and well.. its tough..you get your nazis posting everywhere that fruitarians can't use toilet paper because it comes from trees, so, who is to say anything is anything, we are all pioneers

FunkyRaw, The plant generally does not intend for the seed to be food. If swallowed the seed is intended to be passed thru the animal undigested. The seeds of apple, peach, apricot, and cherry contain cyanide and should not be broken into and eaten.

Opinion:

-I think eating all fruit is a tool - like anything else - but a powerful one. Many folks will be uncomfortable eating this way all at once. Some might experience powerful detox symptomology....and associate this with the eating of fruit. This is common. I certainly advocate an aware regulation of one's own detox by knowing which 'heavier' raw foods (like avocadoes, nuts, etc) can help slow detox....while which 'lighter' raw foods (like tropical fruits & fruit juices) can help speed detox. It's up to the individuals to utilize the right tools.

-Some have been mentally and physically preparing for years....and it seems like they can switch right away and not have problems. For most, using the more powerful tools slowly, in small doses and with greater caution (things like fasting, mono-eating, all-fruit eating, etc.) will enable them to feel more confident and successful - and give them the option of speeding up. Whereas trying something large and simply failing often creates great feelings of failure. LOL.

-My own experience is that I have eaten nothing but fruit for years now, and am the healthiest person I know. I stopped supplementing perhaps 4 or 5 years ago...when each of the various supplements made me ill. Since then, I have had little illness...and felt better and better every day. Just my experiences.

-What do you think?

-David Z. Mason

David,
Do you eat any vegetables? Spinach,lettuce,celery,etc.
Brian

I like the idea of fruitarianism. In theory. But in practice I think it can be difficult.

I think it would work better in the long term with some nuts/seeds and greens and with more emphasis on the nonsweet fruit (cuke, tomato, peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, etc.)

And maybe even a kid's multi 2-3 times a week, or at least B12, D, and half a zinc tablet every other day or so.

And maybe juicing a cup or so of greens every day, this is not going to provide many kcals (10-40) but will go a long way to providing minerals, i.e. you will still be like 99.5% fruitarian if you add a cup of green juice to your diet.

I'd suggest using one of the online nutrient calculators to see where the problems might be and finding sources for those problems.

Nutritiondata.com and the cron-o-meter are better than fitday.com because they provide individual fatty and amino acid data.

[nutritiondata.com] (now owned by conde nast and going downhill fast)

OR, my current favorite:

freeware, no commercial interest:

[spaz.ca]

It requires downloading Java, free, from Sun Microsystems

[java.com]

Bryan:

-No...no vegetables. But I certainly support those that do!

-David Z. Mason

Ok.Thanks, David.

I would hate to restrict myself to following some regime. Instead, I eat what I like. And it happens that what I like most is fruit. I also like tender greens. Am I a fruitarian? What would that mean? That I eat mostly fruit because I am fruitarian? If so, then no, thanks, I'd rather not. I prefer to observe what happens rather than make happen what I want to observe. I hope this is not too confusing ha ha!

Say it differently. The law of gravity is something that I observe rather than make happen. If my body likes fruit, then this is something that I observe rather than make happen.

I have not made a mental decision to eat fruit for the sake of some intelectual reasons. Instead, I can't resist fruit. Fruit is delicious! I don't mind the term fruit lover.

Supplements? Nah, grrr brrr yuck. I think if anyone needs them, that would be the cooked foodists who miss out on lots.

To make sure that I am not missing on anything essential I listen intensly to the signals my body gives me. My body is very good in this, it usually lets me know when it needs or hates something pretty fast. I learn to be a better listener.


Gosia


RawGosia channel
RawGosia streams

If your missing something your body will let you know which fruit you need to make it up with.....

These days I am eating mostly fruit. What I notice since I started doing this -- earlier in raw I would force myself to eat greens or vegetables when they didn't taste appealing just because it was drilled into me to eat my greens. But when I stopped making myself eat them when I didn't want them, I find that I might go for a little while without any but then suddenly I will be craving them and will joyfully eat a couple heads of lettuce at one sitting or a whole bunch of celery. It's much more fun this way. I feel like I'm starting to trust my body somewhat.

I don't know if the greens craving has anything to do with whether my body starts to crave minerals. But I used to take a TON of supplements during earlier raw times for fear of missing something, and never felt as healthy as I do now taking absolutely NO supplements.

Love,
Uma

I find it easier to eat sweet fruits over stuff like bell peppers..it's transition, it is..

Thanks for all the replies. And just to clarify, when I said I seemed to be heading towards being a fruitarian, I just meant that I seem to be wanting and craving mostly fruits. I do still have at least two smoothies a day with different greens in them, and I love those. And I don't see myself stopping those anytime soon. I also love to wrap different fruits in either collard leaves or romaine lettuce leaves. Yum. So I guess I will just continue to listen to my body about what it craves and try not to worry so much!

arugula, thanks for the links to those sites. I will check them out. Also, why do you recommend a kids multi-vitamin?

There are a few problems with standard multivitamins:

too much preformed vitamin A, bad for the bones, etc.

too much beta carotene: no raw veg*n needs to take extra carotenoids! We get plenty in our diets and will have adequate conversion to real vitamin A.

vitamin E: the whole family includes alpha, beta, gamma, and delta forms of tocopherols and tocotrienols. But, most if not all multis emphasize the alpha form of tocopherol. When we get E from food, we get a good mix of all the forms. Taking in too much of the alpha form can depress levels of the other 7 in the body, which is not good. If you eat avocado you get plenty of vitamin E and there is no need to supplement any. In fact most raw foodists surveyed in the literature have outstanding E status even without deliberate use of avocado.

wrong copper:zinc balance for veg*ns--we already get too much copper, not enough zinc, but multis add even more copper.

iron: this is probably ok for premenopausal women but men and postmenopausal women usually don't need any extra beyond what they can get in their diets. You want adequate iron, but not excessive iron.

--

With a child's multi, there are smaller amounts of everything, and all of these problems will be lessened. They provide just a little bit of insurance that you won't run into deficiences, although if your diet is pretty good, all you really need to watch is B12, D if you don't deliberately sun, and possibly to probably, zinc, which is hard, even when you choose plant foods high in zinc because it isn't so available when it comes from plants. Many of the beneficial phytochemicals in plants also tend to be chelators which bind up metals making them less available to the body.

Selenium can also be tricky if you don't eat brazil nuts.

BTW I don't take a multi anymore, just B12 and D2 along with occasional zinc. But I do use nutrient calculators to make sure that I am staying on track. I just can't get the numbers to work out if I eliminate greens from my diet on my 1500 kcal budget so they stay in.

Also I don't think there is a general consensus on multis. Some experts are advising one daily just as insurance. Others say that they aren't necessary if the diet is good. They are all over the map as to their personal practices, but most of them are not vegan, let alone raw.

Since a number of studies have shown some weak spots in raw vegan diets, I think it is prudent to make up for those few. I respect that many prefer no supplements, but I feel more fear for developing deficiencies in B12, D, and zinc than "free-floating aversion to supplementation" so I do take pills for those.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2007 05:58PM by arugula.

Hi there,

I eat mostly fruitarian and I don't worry about getting any particular nutrient. Nutrient deficiencies are actually quite rare. Most people suffer from eating too much, not too little of anything. Occasionaly greens will seem appealing and I will eat them then. I don't worry. This lifestyle is beautiful in its simplicity.

All the best,

Audrey
www.rawhealing.com