It's not really "always" considered a cure, but a very enjoyable way to eat and has many other benefits for anyone I feel. Be it grape, orange or banana, etc.

Tanawana,
Interesting. It seems like people tend to choose fruit for their mono diet. The only exception I know of is my personal experience with the alfalfa sprout mono diet, I did it and didn't even know that is what it was called. Everything else just tasted nasty. I don't remember how long it lasted either.

I have heard of people living on very interesting things. Sometimes its not altogether wise. I remember meeting someone who ate only canned tomato soup for a number of years. He said his hair stopped growing. He didn't explain why he was doing that. I just listened, and really didn't have any judgement. I know how that is when there is only one thing that seems appealing. I wonder how he would have done if it was fresh raw tomato juice/soup. If he would have been better. But, actually his health could have improved on this, I don't know. It could be that was the best he had available, or what he allowed himself to have.

I have heard of nuns living on the host only for a number of years. Some woman who only ate potatoes with a little butter for years. I'm not sure either of those are really what would appeal to me.

I have decided to do another grape cure but this time with plenty of sunshine.

Second day getting a little irritable!

Wallace

A grape cure would make me totally irritable because it would make my blood sugar go crazy. Hope that's not what is going on with you.

AHahah I am a fruitarian, eat nothing but fruit for about 2 years, let me think, does fruit sugar make me irritable?

Actually..I gives me fuel for hours and brain fuel..I do not seem to crash, I never specifically feel any kind of crash.
some days I get sad and down because I am not working hard enough..but no, I do not get irritable because of fruit

If it wasnt for fruit, non sweet and sweet, we would all be dead. It's human food.

Maybe you balance your sweet and nonsweet fruit. Grapes are just sweet fruit.

But, like I said, that is just me because I have diabetes, unfortunately. I'm sure the grape cure is great for many. But when wallace said it was making him irritable, I could just relate. :-)

The grape cure is very easy and possible more helpful for chronic illness than Dougs 10/10/80 diet which I have been following for a few weeks?

Anyway I will alternate between the two to see which I find most useful.

Last time 2 weeks was my when I stopped grapes as I just got tired of them.

Less iritable today, thank goodness!!

Wallace

Keep us posted!!

Wallace,
I heard of someone who said she ate only grapes for three years! Do you think that would be too much for you? I know someone else who has eaten melon only for 6mos. She says her taste perception changes, after a time she could taste the individual differences between each and every melon, as afterall they do have their own individual histories. She did get some variety, going from cantalope, to watermelon, to crenshaw, honeydew, and some white fleshed melon. I think thats pretty interesting.

This past summer, my main staples were catalope and beans. I know that beans are cooked, but there has to be some transition for me, as like a lot of people, I ate a less than ideal diet for most of my life. Sometime I would like to do a mono diet, even if its for a few days. My likely choice would be pears or apples, mostly because thats whats in abundance here, and not too expensive. But, I seems like melon would be a better choice, because of the variety of pigments, and perhaps a bit broader spectrum of overall nutrients, compared to pears. Grapes seem like a good choice too, as you get green, black,white, red, bluish etc...For me the acidity might be difficult to adjust to, but maybe the body changes on a mono diet?

Coconutcream,
A lot of people work at jobs they dislike. I just left a job I didn't like. So, now I am just left wondering what is next, I am looking. Count it a very large blessing from 'heaven' that you aren't working hard. Maybe its not a question of working hard, but finding satisfaction from what you do in life.

Coconutcream,
I find you and your story so intensely interesting. I am curious, have you ever listed the names and numbers of all the different types of fruit, berries and related items you have ever eaten? I guess it really doesn't matter. I just imagine that you have probably tried more types than most people.

One of my favorites when I was a child was crowberries:
[en.wikipedia.org]
I especially liked them because they were sweet, and rich tasting, with a LOT of juice and deep color. Although a lot of people think they are tasteless. I am not sure how people got that, because I sure tasted a lot.

Another favorite
[geo.web.ru]

In your travels, you might have come accross these? Anyways, I am sure you have a lot to tell us about fruit.

Day 4 doing O.K

Yep the danger for doing it too long- I mean by that many months- is that you are unable to eat anything else.

Wallace

Day 5, the sugar is keeping me going in the grapes!

Brandt recommends permanently going on a raw food diet when off the grapes.

Have NH writers talked specifically about the grape cure? I know Bernard Jensen mentions it.

Wallace

Day 7

Some back pain, which I had on my last grape cure.

I have been drinking tea for the last 2 days as I need a duetic of some kind, Vasey in Mono detox diet mentions Birch but I dont have that so have resorted to black tea. Rather stimulating but havnt find anything herbal to replace it. Any ideas?

I have weak Kidneys.

Vasey mentions you may need to have many grape cures before you are cured!

Wallace

Doug graham should approve of the grape cure as it is very low in fat, lower than his 10 per cent I should say!

Wallace

Just curious, where is your back pain?

DAy 9

Just below my left shoulder.

Trying to avoid tea now and opting for herbal drinks including lavender.

Hardly eating anything at the moment except for grape juice.

Wallace

I am guessing that your back pain is a sign that something is healing. My upper left back (left shoulder blades area) hurts sometimes and it is usually when my diet is at its best. I was told my a rolfer that was the referral pain for my pancreas and since I have Type 1 diabetes I sometimes think my pancreas is trying to heal.

Is that homemade fresh grape juice or store bought pasteurized grape juice?

This discussion about mono diets is very interesting. Thank you.

I have been doing at least one mono meal a day - my fruit meal (usually lunch) and I'm wondering if that does any good or is it necessary to have mono days, and if so, how many? Will one a week be worthwhile?

Also, how mono is mono? Would strawberries and blueberries together be considered mono? How about two types of melon? Apples and pears?

Thanks in advance for any replies with answers.


uma Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Funny i went to go look up the Grape Cure on
> Amazon.com and this book, The Detox Mono Diet,
> also came up in the results. I want to read it
> too!
>
> Here is an interesting excerpt from the site:
>
> Love,
> Uma
>
> from Chapter 4: The Grape Mono Diet
>
> THE BASIC VIRTUES OF THE MONO DIET
>
> Because fasts and mono diets are so similar in
> practice, the same healing phenomena triggered by
> fasts are also triggered by mono diets. Autolysis
> (where the body draws nutrients from its own
> tissues), the updating of eliminations, and tissue
> regeneration all occur in mono diets. These
> healing reactions are somewhat less intense, as
> mono diets are less restrictive than fasts;
> nevertheless, the same bodily responses arise.
>
> Autolysis is triggered as soon as the body needs
> nutritive substances that are not present--or are
> only present in limited quantity--in the food that
> is chosen for the diet. To continue functioning
> normally, the body draws nutrients from within
> itself. Diseased tissues and toxins are broken
> down and the internal cellular environment is
> cleansed, just as in a fast.
>
> Elimination updating may also occur during a mono
> diet when the energy normally called on for
> digestion is sharply reduced. Purifying processes
> can then be activated to extract toxins from the
> tissues and carry them via the transport systems
> of blood and lymph to the excretory organs. In
> addition to this purification triggered by energy
> savings in digestion, specific purifying
> properties of the mono diet food are at work. For
> example, diuretic and laxative properties of the
> grape itself reinforce the purification properties
> of the diet.
>
> Tissue regeneration also takes place due to
> cleansing that improves circulation and promotes
> efficient exchange of autolyzed substances, as
> well as by the intake of important nutrients
> contained in the selected food.
>
> The fact that autolysis, elimination updating, and
> tissue regeneration take place at a modified pace
> is not necessarily a drawback. As we shall see,
> mono diets have a number of advantages over fasts
> alone.
>
> Advantages of the mono diet compared to fasting:
>
> • Reduces intensity of healing crises
>
> • Easier to do
>
> • Removes the fear generated by not eating
>
> • Stimulates and sustains body function with the
> help of a selected food
>
> Humans have become accustomed to the use of
> medicines and remedies, and they credit their
> cures to a single active substance in those
> remedies. In reviewing the results of the grape
> mono diet, there is a temptation to attribute its
> virtues to some substance in the composition of
> the grape.
>
> In fact, the effectiveness of mono diets does not
> depend on what is present (the grape, for
> example), but on what is not present (all other
> foods customarily eaten)--foods whose absence
> triggers autolysis.
>
> The proof: eating quantities of grapes while
> continuing a normal diet does not bring about the
> same results as a mono diet of grapes alone.

Pazluz,
Thats an interesting excerpt, that covered a number of points that I didn't know about the theory of mono dieting. I never thought that its what your not eating which is important, the nutrients you are lacking that cause many of the healing effects that one desires.

As I understand it, a mono diet would consist of a single food, such as grapes, melons, pears, apples, cucumbers etc... Ideally one would not mix grapes with apples, or strawberries with blueberries. Because that would close somewhat the nutritional gap your trying to create with a mono diet. Also, the digestive system would have to switch gears a little bit, when mixing foods.

I think it would really be picking hairs a bit in defining a mono diet if it includes just melons, but that seems like it would work. For example, cantalope could be your mono food, other types of melon would work if their nutritional profile was similiar. Potentially switching to watermelon might decrease the nutritional gap by providing large amounts of lycopene not present in cantalope. But eating melons only is WAY more mono than I have ever eaten! Just my opinion. I have never tried a mono diet, so I don't know. Maybe I will start one for a few days. I don't know how long it would take to get the benefits you might seek.

For those of you who haven't read "THE GRAPE CURE ", something significant has been left out off all this. JOHANNA BRANDT did quite a lot of water fasting - weeks at a time - so whether a simple grape diet would have cured her cancer without the extensive water fasting preceding it is questionable. I think we need to look at things in it's entirety.

Sure if you have Cancer you would need to do a water fast before hand. But thankfully most of us dont have that! So a mono diet cure is sufficient for our less urgent needs, as Vasey and I would argue Brandt makes clear.


I cant answer you Q about mono diets I suggest you get the Vasey book before embarking on a mono diet regime.

Good point about the back pain, thanks.

Day 12

pain is less now but still present but manageable. Eating only half a pound of grapes per day. The grape juice I get is not pasteurised(I am in Europe).

Compared to Grahams 10/10/80 your calourie consumption is a lot less as you just feel less hungry. So you are fasting to a degree.

Generally more sleepy, sleeping a couple of hours more. Losing a little weight which is good as I am slightely overweight.

Wallace

Pazyluz,
After more thought, I think your strawberry and blueberry combo would probably work. I think that eating all fruit would probably work. Its technically not a mono diet, but I am sure its cleansing!

Wallace,
I have decided to go on a pear/apple mono diet for a few days. I am going to try 3 days to see how that goes, and then a week if I find that I can stand going for just 3 days. I start tommarrow, so I will find out if I can go for one day! I had tried this before on cucumbers and I went for about 4 days, and that was just too difficult, I think its because there are just too few calories in cucumbers for someone relatively new to raw foods. I think this will be easier as I have been high raw for several weeks before even thinking about mono dieting.

Getting enough sugar is important which is why cucumbers are not a good choice. Let us know how it goes.

Day 14

an irritable day but back pain is better. sunshine is very good for this kind of diet i think.

wallace

Wallace,
Thank you for the support. I did remember! I had a bowl of apples, my partner sliced them and had them ready. I don't have the slightest how much I ate, just that it felt enough. Its nice to have support like this.

Actually I remembered from first waking. However, its interesting that I processed some memories of some personally troubling issues from the past. I thought that was especially interesting. I always thought that mono dieting was primarily a physical thing, but it appears to be emotional and spiritual as well, perhaps even more so that physical. What I recalled was not necessarily pleasant memories, but somehow I feel like its a good thing. Its like being able to read those once more and close the chapter, and set down the book. These things may not be totally finished for me in life, but I am vary confident with effort they won't be the problem they used to be.

Physically I feel light and rather fresh. I am relaxing at home and doing some self improvement things not directly related to raw foods, things I would have to do anyway, reguardless of mono dieting or not. Once again thank you for your interest and support!

Day 2,
I kind of broke my apple/pear monodiet, I had a few olives and a persimmon today. But I did manage to stay vegan and fruitarian. My partner is wanting me to stop already. He is expecting me to stop tommarow,because I said I would try it for three days and see how I feel, and then go for a week depending on how I feel. I don't even know what minimal amount of time is necessary to get benefits from a mono diet. I have the feeling that 3 days isn't really long enough. My taste senstivity has really improved, I could taste more subtle flavors in the persimmon that I never noticed before, and WOW when I had some olives, the flavor on those were just so explosive, and they felt so incredibly full and heavy by comparison.

Sleep has been much more peaceful and restful, its amazing. I think that in itself is enough to make this experience so worthwhile. My energy is good, for some reason I wasn't sure that I would have energy, but I feel fine. My skin color is looking better. And I have trimmed down a bit, I feel quite toned.

Mislu have you stopped?


Day
20

I had some bad dreams so that was useful to know it may because of the diet. I may continue this diet for quite a while. To tackle my chronic fatigue I am expecting this all to take some time before I feel the benefits of this diet. Back to the grapes!!

Wallace

Saw some french research showing that the grape cure increased iron levels which was interesting to know.

wallace

I have started the grape cure.
day 1= sucess.
feeeling really good, got a little tired today, but still have abundant energy! i love grapes, they are so tasty