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.
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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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