Fruitarian : The Diet, the Lifestyle and the Benefits

March 4th 2017 will mark my 6th month anniversary since I decided to become a fruitarian. That means that since September 4th 2016 I have been doing my best to transition to a fully fruitarian diet, eating only fruit and nothing else. My experience has been wild, to say the least, and the journey has lead me all the way to a raw vegan community called the Kanekiki Farm in Hawaii.

I wanted to write this blog to share what my experience has been so far.

What is a Fruitarian Diet? There is more than One Definition

First I want to tell you what my definition of a fruitarian diet looks like. To be honest, I have more than one. The reason for this is that I acknowledge and accept that, over the years, many people have come with their own definition of the fruitarian diet, and I feel that they are all equally valid.

One definition of a fruitarian diet is by T. C. Fry, author of “Your Natural Diet: Alive Raw Foods“. He states that a fruitarian diet is any diet consisting of 50% fruits. On Wikipedia, it the definition of a fruitarian diet is “a diet that consists entirely or primarily of fruits in the botanical sense, and possibly nuts and seeds, without animal products”. Tom Billings, from the site Living and Raw Foods suggest that, as a standard, using 75+% fruit in a diet is the market for using the term fruitarian. Then we have people like Michael Arnstein, also known as The Fruitarian, who called him self a fruitarian eating 95% to 99% fruit over the span of 5 years or so. Finally, there is Mango Wodzak, author of Destination Eden, and The Eden Fruitarian Guidebook, who believes that the only TRULY FRUITARIAN DIET is a diet that consists of ONLY FRUIT and nothing else.

What About the Actual Dictionary Definition of Fruitarian?

In my humble opinion, Mango’s definition is the best and most accurate. After all, it is exactly the same as that from the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries : “Fruitarian: A person who eats only fruit”. This makes much more sense when we add the fact that, a person who eats 50% vegan products, and 50% animal products in their diet would never be considered a vegan. I am sure if someone only included 5% of animal products in their diet, they would still not be considered a vegan but most of the vegan community.  That being said, I respect that no one owns any language and that every person has the right to define any word as they please, understanding of course, that others will disagree.

As a side not, I would like to add that when I started the website Fruitarian Bodybuilder, I had defined a fruitarian bodybuilder as any bodybuilder with a diet of at least 51% fruit. After almost 6 months of exploring this lifestyle I am now certain that, from my perspective, a truly fruitarian bodybuilder would only consume fruit and nothing else. Whether this is possible or not is yet to be proven, and this is one of the main reasons why I am giving it a try. =D

The Fruitarian Lifestyle

Over the past few months I have been exploring this lifestyle with a fair share of ups and downs. I haven’t been able to only eat fruit for more than a couple of weeks. In addition, I haven’t been able to eat only raw for more than a couple of months. Following a raw vegan diet isn’t easy, especially without living in the tropics or sub-tropical regions of the earth. The main reason being that, to be a full fruitarian year round, we need daily access to fresh, raw, ripe fruit. If on top of that we want to eat organic and local fruit, we most necessarily need to move to the right areas of the earth.

This is why I chose to move to the Kanekiki Farm in Hawaii. I knew that here there was a raw vegan community where most people ate raw foods every day, mostly fruit. Here at Kanekiki I have found excellent support for staying raw and this is where I achieved the goal of eating fruit alone for more than two weeks. I would have liked to do a full month, but I ran out of papayas one day and the temptation to eat other raw foods was too much.

What is the Most Challenging Part of Being a Fruitarian?

That brings me to the point that, so far, it is my understanding that the hardest part of being a fruitarian (or a raw vegan, or a vegan or even a vegetarian for that matter), is being around other people who are eating things that we are not. I will say this with 100% honesty, when I am eating papayas and nothing else, I RARELY get any cravings to eat anything else, RARELY. The only times when I actually have a desire to eat other food, is when I see people eating it. I am just so damn curious of what it tastes like and I don’t want to miss out. I am working through this now and I have faith I will get to a point where I can see others eat without thinking that I want to eat the same.

Other than that, the fruitarian diet is easy. Surely enough, it took me a while to understand it and believe in it. It has also taken me to trust the fruitarian detox process and trust that my body knows what is best and how to adjust. Other than readying fruitarian books, I recommend listening to some fruitarian YouTube channels that can serve you with information and support.

What are the Challenges of Becoming a Fruitarian Bodybuilder?

When it comes to becoming a fruitarian bodybuilder, the process has been more challenging. First I had to get over some (potentially false) ideas regarding how much muscle I need to build, how much protein I need to take and how many carbs I need to supply my body for different amounts of exercise. All the information I have heard and read regarding this is possibly false, and I have gotten stuck on trying to figure out how to practice fruitarian bodybuilding with a similar approach to nutrition and training that other people have.

This simply didn’t work. I would get discouraged, think about including greens for protein and ended up overeating fruit just to meet my “caloric needs”. Now I am starting to let go of all those ideas and sticking to eating fruit and working out whenever I want, which is not the best strategy either, because, to be honest, when it comes to working out, I can be pretty lazy. =D … That has not discouraged me nor forced me to quit. I still consider myself a fruitarian bodybuilder, on the days that I exercise and eat only fruit. The rest of the time, I can happily say I am an “aspiring” fruitarian bodybuilder, and that works just as well for me. =D

The last part about this lifestyle I want to touch on is how much it has brought me into communion with nature. I have found it imensly pleasurable to move to the tropics and live at the Kanekiki Farm, where I can walk barefoot whenever I want, live wearing boxers most of the time and be constantly surrounded by fruit trees and the jungle. This of course, is not a requirement for everyone, people can still be fruitarians while living in the main cities of Hawaii, or in any other cities around the world. The difference is that, fruitarians living in Iceland, for example, will not enjoy as much fresh, raw, ripe, organic, local fruit as I do in the Big Island of Hawaii. =D

Fruitarian Diet Benefits

Talking about the fruitarian diet benefits is a tricky subject because many of these benefits are hard to attribute to my increased intake of fruit. That is where science would come in handy, but unfortunately, research tends to be biased, and in the best cases, incomplete. As far as I could find, there are no peer reviewed studies on this fairly new, and ancient diet. On top of that, some people could say that I have been brain washed, or easily pursued into believing many benefits to the diet that are simply false. Perhaps, in my excitement, I forgot to double check sources, or keep and even more open mind.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what I say, or what anyone says. People will believe whatever they want, or whatever they can. This is why in 2017, there are still plenty of people believing that the earth is round, that God has a long white beard and is sitting on a cloud, and that all the stars and planets revolve around the sun… Please know, I am not making fun of anyone here, as far as I know, maybe they are right. That beings said, my own personal intellect leads me to believe in other truths, such as the earth being round (or an “oblate spheroid”to be more exact). In the same way, my intellect continues to pull me to believe that the fruitarian diet is the right diet for human kind, and that returning to this diet has a ton of benefits including…

The Top 8 Benefits of the Fruitarian Diet

The following are not necessarily in order of importance:

1) Weight Loss: It is extremely likely that you will lose weight on a fruitarian diet. Reasons for this includes the fact that you will be consuming less processed fats, animal products and cooked foods.

2) Better Health: If you don’t believe me, take the word of some doctors by reading The 80/10/10 Diet by Dr. Graham, and The Detox Miracle Sourcebook by Dr. Morse.

3) Save Money: Spend less on food, medical bills, gas, water and electricity, cleaning products, hygiene products… the list goes on and on.

4) No Time Wasted Cooking: When you eat a fruitarian diet, you just peal, cut, chew and swallow. Sometimes you don’t even need to peal or cut. =D

5) Less Time Cleaning: Cleaning time will also be reduce and become practically zero. All you may need to do is wash your knife, cutting board and perhaps a bowl or plate. Other than that, everything you eat will most likely be going straight from the kitchen counter to your mouth (unless you make juices or smoothies). Cleaning will be faster, easier and more effective.

6) More Space in the Kitchen and Counters: When you transition to a fruitarian diet, your need for kitchenware is reduced dramatically. By eating only fruits you will no longer need any ovens, toasters, furnaces, microwaves, dishwashers or huge sinks. You will also have less of a need for forks, knives and spoons and all the other utensils that are used for other diets. These are just a few examples.

7) Improve your Relationship with Animals and Plants: Our moral obligations towards animals is surely a no-brainier. Ethics towards plants may be harder to understand. Plants do not make any noise when they are stabbed, however, just because you can’t see or hear their pain and suffering it does not mean that it does not exist. Plants have thoughts and feelings, perhaps different than humans, but real nonetheless.

8) Be More Environmentally Friendly: Fruit-based diets are better for the whole environment. They help save, filter and renew water, air and soil. All other diets are much more toxic to our bodies and to the earth. Animal products are the most toxic, but cooked foods are quite toxic as well.

Where Can You Learn More about the Fruitarian Diet?

To learn more about the fruitarian diet, I strongly recommend you read Destination Eden, The Eden Fruitarian Guidebook and Your Natural Diet. You can also click on the following links to learn about the fruitarian bodybuilder project, what fruitarian bodybuilding means, and get a thorough Review of the Kanekiki Farm in Hawaii.

Raw, Organic, Nutrition

Click here to save 25% with our code “GETUPLIFTED”.