Fruitarianism
Posted by spoonbender, 526 days ago
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Reading discussion "Fruitarianism" - Join this discussion / 12 comment(s)
It's odd--whenever I ask this question at regular vegetarian/vegan boards, I'm usually met with a lot of defensiveness and resistance. I figure I'll have better luck here where people are more concerned with the environment and less about their own personal image. [/end mini rant]
Anyway, has anyone studied/considered/practiced fruitarianism? Environmentally it seems to be the least invasive diet, where we don't kill any living thing but rather eat its product.
Of course, modern harvesting (where the entire plant is killed) renders this argument moot, but I'm speaking theoretically; isn't the fruitarian diet the ideal diet for anyone who is concerned with the preservation of the ecology?
Healthwise it can be debated ad nauseum. But I know of at least 3 fruitarians who are athletic, body builders, and they have nothing but good things to say. Gandhi was a fruitarian until late in life, and aside from a case of "fatal lead poisoning", he was one of the healthiest individuals I can imagine. Reply to this
It's odd--whenever I ask this question at regular vegetarian/vegan boards, I'm usually met with a lot of defensiveness and resistance. I figure I'll have better luck here where people are more concerned with the environment and less about their own personal image. [/end mini rant]
Anyway, has anyone studied/considered/practiced fruitarianism? Environmentally it seems to be the least invasive diet, where we don't kill any living thing but rather eat its product.
Of course, modern harvesting (where the entire plant is killed) renders this argument moot, but I'm speaking theoretically; isn't the fruitarian diet the ideal diet for anyone who is concerned with the preservation of the ecology?
Healthwise it can be debated ad nauseum. But I know of at least 3 fruitarians who are athletic, body builders, and they have nothing but good things to say. Gandhi was a fruitarian until late in life, and aside from a case of "fatal lead poisoning", he was one of the healthiest individuals I can imagine. Reply to this
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I have to say that I would need to know more about fruitarianism before I could comment. My first reaction is that it must be challenging to adhere to - as a household with one person allergic to dairy and another who is a strict vegetarian, it's challenging enough, especially to get light meals when we are out an about (a lot of bananas get consumed, I have to admit). Another concern would be where to get protein, iron and calcium from. Would nuts be acceptable in this diet?
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I'd also like to know about about this. Is there a principle involved that is against the concept of vegetarianism or is it a similar concept? I know alot about vegetarianism and the vegan diets but this is new to me.
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I think it's just a subset of veganism. The only culture (that I know of) that practices it widely is the Jain culture in India. They are a small subset of Hindus who value plant life as highly as animals, so they don't eat leaves, roots or stalks (q.v. lettuce, potatoes or cane). There aren't many Jains, but they have been doing it for thousands of years apparently.
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I have never heard of this either. It sounds like all you're eating is fruit? I wonder how that is possible!
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Very interesting! I have never heard of this myself.
Would tomatoes be part of this diet?
My main concern would be how to get a balanced diet. Many vegetables provide calcium and iron.
I do know that for example, red rasp leaves are high in iron. So would there be a lot of supplements involved?
My other concern would be the high sugar content of eating a lot of fruit. It is ok for some, may be too much sugars for others.
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Exactly...I'd think somewhere along the line I'd really be craving something with salt, which is why I know I couldn't do it.
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Tomatoes & salty stuff is totally cool (I think)! See my reply to ecosrights below. Tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, nuts, avocado, olives, wheat, barley (beer!) are all "fruits" by the botanical definition. They fall off the plant naturally, so why not eat em?
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I adhered to a vegan diet for about 3 or 4 years. During that period of my life, I experimented from time to time with fruitarianism, but I simply could not find a way to satisfy my hunger consistently. Personally, I found it very unsatisfying.
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That makes sense to me. Are you able to eat nuts or any carbohydrate? Bananas and avocados are the most substantial fruits I can think of but even they wouldn't sort out my hunger for long.
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It requires a lot of creativity, that's for sure! To answer your question, I believe nuts, grains, tomatoes, eggplant and other "vegetables" are ok to eat. The diet generally adheres to the botanical definition of fruit (any reproductive offshoot of a plant) rather than the common definition.
A pretty good overview of fruitarianism is published on wikipedia.org but aside from that, I agree with what everyone is saying, there's not a whole lot of information on it.
I've been practicing fruitarianism for a few years, but perhaps my definition is a bit liberal. I know of some fruitarians who eat only raw, sweet fruits and abstain from nuts & grains. Those people are hardcore.
But me, I enjoy things like bread & rice & pasta because I consider grains to be ok. In other words, a yummy pasta mariniara (wheat, tomato sauce, olive oil) is a fruitarian meal. So is a peanut butter sandwich. With this definition, you can see that it's not too different from being a vegan.
But I know I'm probably upsetting the hardcore fruitarians, so I shouldn't say too much. I do have the utmost respect for the pure raw sweet fruit people. I'm slowly working my way toward that.
It's great to see all the interest in the subject! Even if you don't decide to try it 100%, maybe you can experiment by increasing your fruit intake and decreasing your meat/onion/potato consumption? That ought to give you an idea of what it's like. Cheers.
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Now that makes it sound a lot easier - if the item falls from the plant then it can be eaten - basically something that you can harvest without killing anything. Thinking of it that way, onions, carrots (lots of) and potatoes (very few of) are the main things other than dairy that I eat that wouldn't be acceptable. It's certainly an interesting idea, but I'm not sure about the reasoning behind it. I think I'll stick to being veggie - again, there are different levels and I'm probably one of the stricter ones, but my general view is - if there is a feasible alternative, go for it (which means I still wear leather shoes, but would never have a leather jacket or handbag - there are perfectly decent options out there, but shoes I find another case altogether)
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Now that makes more sense.
A diet like this would take more discipline and research, but if you can handle it and think you really need to do it, then you can do okay!
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