this is designed for the aspiring fruitarian. it is written from a "no-death" stance, rather than from a "raw food" view. in other words- written for those who wish to stop killing anything at all in order to live moreso than for those aspiring primarily for an all raw diet. (which of course if the way to go- and this path got me into eating all raw anyhow.....).
1. make the resolution to do it.
i cannot stress enough the importance of this. approaching it casually is likely to yield poor results. (this is true for most any situation/relationship, really- imagine getting married when your whole heart is not in it, we see the results of this frequently). commit to it. decide what you will and will not eat and stick to it. draw up a list if it will help you. (i'll make a general one at some point). remember that the most important thing here is your ultimate goal for your diet, not your present status- form that goal in your mind and keep that goal in sight, ever walking toward it and you WILL get there!
2. going gradually is the way to go!.
take your time.
some people make the resolution immediately and start on it right away. this is only good if taken as a sort of a "preview" of what you will experience as a fruitarian- try mayhaps a week or so on just fruit if you like. but do not keep doing it. i cannot emphasize the importance of taking your time here. how long you should take to do it is dependent on what your diet has been for the past several years. a health-conscious vegan, for examply, can make the transition much much more quickly than an "average eater." i explain:
you have how ever many years you have of improper diet. this has caused plenty of build-up of toxic substances. fruit eliminates these substances. too much fruit suddenly in the body will detoxify you so quickly that you will quite likely be unable to handle it! your kidneys and liver will be functioning overtime and it can easily end in disaster, or at the very least, long moments of extreme fatigue and fuzzybrain.
begin each day with fruit. make this your first meal every day and then work up to eating nothing but fruit each day until you absolutely feel you have to eat something else., then do so. just keep doing this. eventually you will get to just fruit. as far as i know, everyone strongly recommends this approach (unless your body is the sort that likes hard shocks and sudden drastic changes and dealing with tons of toxins all at once). you may want to take one day every week or two and do nothing but fruit on that day- find what works for you.
detoxification is the key
you could just jump right into a fruitarian diet, and love it. but it is almost guaranteed that your stay in this garden will be limited, and you will eventually be booted out or get really ill. why? because you are bringing poisons into the garden with you! this can only work for a limited time. you MUST rid yourself of them before you can have reasonable hopes of attaining a fruit diet. if your are starting with the basic american diet i recommend removing the animal products first- cut out flesh or dairy, and then the other. then plenty of brown rice and cooked vegetables, slowly moving toward more and more raw food. many folks have found the writings of arnorld ehret to be quite helpful in this regard. he has specific diets planned out for each meal each day. if this will help you check out his books. they are inexpensive too. i personally did not consciously follow his system, i had not heard of him until i had been fruitarian 3 years already, but coincidentally and uninentionally, the steps i took toward fruitarianism totally mirrored his teachings, so if you are looking for a step by step guide, go here.
3. dried fruits are most excellent and helpful when you begin.
your body has adapted the best it could over the years to deal with food that is far lower in water content than it ought be. dried fruits will make the return to the natural state far less sudden and shocking. they will ease your body into it and are therefore very helpful. they provide quite a punch of energy for the small amount eaten and thus are good for helping you stop grains. you will find you will slowly but surely eat less and less dried fruits., as your body reaclimates.. in the beginning i used to eat a goodly amount of raisins and prunes and the like. not really anymore so much. i still keep em around for travelling sometimes
4. don't be afraid to eat a lot of nuts and seeds.
nuts are also quite good- always so i cannot yet say (fruitarians as a whole seem to disagree on this), but definitely in the beginning. i ate nuts at least once every day when i first began. they give your stomach something to work on as it adapts to working less, and help you to feel that "full" you may be used to. they are rich in fat and protein. as regards to raw or roasted and unsalted or salted- do what feels right to you. naturally, raw is best- however, roasted may be an easier transit, and salted as well if you are used to eating a goodly amount of salt. you may find olives beneficial in this area as well. try out different varieties and see which you feel best with. and no, they will not make you fat, nor raise your cholesterol or anything of the sort. (in fact they will do the opposite) there very nature makes it quite difficult to eat more than you can use. remember to keep concentrated proteins like this separate from sweet fruits- eat them alone. a good general guideline is to wait at least 3 hours after eating these for any sort of fresh fruit. a good tester is to drink some water, which i wait at least one hour, usually 1 1/2 after, to do. if the water feels sloshy and sits on the top of your stomach, it is not empty. try again later- you will come to know when your stomach is empty.
5. beans are fruit (at least for now)
yes indeed. beans are a fruit! well, sort of anyhow. they grow on vines, in case you didn't know. fresh green beans or cooked lentils. when i started on the path i ate cooked beans every few days. i say they are at least for now because i have found that they are the best for easing the transition from a starch/grain-based diet to a fruit one as they are high in complex (starch) carbohydrates. (remember the 3 hour guideline here). you will, without even trying, lessen your intake of cooked beans with time.
6. squash (and beans again)
if you feel the need for something less sweet, more of a vegetable/greens sort of a thing, do not forget fresh green beans, and squash. plenty of squash is quite awesome raw too! and, taking a cue from the other natural frugivores of the world, eating leaves and bark is probably something we ought be doing. so if you feel like having some lettuce, go for it! test it, fell it- see how you feel with it. remember do what you wish! (i will likely ignore any finger-pointing letters from crazy folk telling me that lettuce is not a fruit by the way. we all know this)
7. do not be strict- (eat whatever you want).
this may appear to conflict with the above statement about making the resolution, but if you find that you really cannot handle it, make an exception. because you will notice that you do not feel as good when you eat something else, and this will serve as a reminder to keep that resolution! do keep in mind that a lot of unpleasant symptons of cleansing can, and most likely WILL arise, such as feeling lightheaded, fatigued, irritable, depressed. remember that these WILL pass, and you will feel better. if still, you are not happy, well, that why we invented divorce. if you find you are happier with another diet, well, go with it. i personally recommend the method of eating whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it. once you have yourself set on your goal of fruitarianism, you WILL arrive at it. i say eat whatever you want because it is important that this diet is what you want. i feel it is important that we always do what we want to do. there is enough of a system attempting to press down upon us and confine us that creating another one within ourself is not the best thing. do not feel guilty if you eat something else. this is a bad habit, and one we all ought rid ourselves of if we have not done so. eat whatever you want because you will eventually come to find that you do not feel as good when you eat other things. it is important to come to this knowledge on our own. do not take my word or anyone elses on the matter. do it yourself and learn. once you have the realisation that succumbing to that craving made you feel beter maybe for 15 minutes, but then worse, well, you see? then you will really really want to eat just fruit.
8. do not be afraid to supplement.
take vitamin and mineral supplements if you feel it helps you. they can be a great aid in the beginning, when your body might require extra vits for all the cleansing work it will be doing. i ate spirulina powder the first couple of months and then just stopped. it helped me with the detox, far as i can tell. i personally take a calcium supplement on occasion if i feel i need it. (or i just eat a whole lot of oranges) do not feel you are "cheating" or anything of the sort- such feelings and thoughts are poison in themselves. this is not a game- this is doing what you WANT to do! plenty of people of every dietary lifestyle take supplements. my point here is that you do not want to get tricked into thinking your diet is inadequate if you are eating supplements, either from your own self, or from the words of others. after all, if anyone else's diet is sound, why then do they take supplements?. trust your intuition. it is going to keep speaking clearer and clearer to you!
9. eat a variety of fruits, or not.
again, trust your feelings here. while a wide variety of fruits will ensure proper nutritional requirements, do not purposefully consume wide varieties if you do not feel like doing so. if you feel inclined to go primarily with apples, oranges, bananas and dates, do exactly that! i tend to eat primarily melons all summer long (also oranges and dates and bananas), until the grapes and gala apples arrive! during the stirring (early spring) i presently tend to eat mostly oranges. the navels come into season right then. yummmm!
10. move toward eating one variety of fruit at a time.
aside from the occasional fruit smoothie, i eat one kind of fruit at a time. as far as i can tell, everyone ends up doing so, thus this is really an uneeded point. doing this gives you the most benefit that a particular fruit can offer, you will absorb the nutrients the easiest, and its flavours, and energies.. i did this on my own, without any conscious effort. it simply happened. eventually try going for one kind of fruit an entire day. that is quite an experience! than a week....and so forth.... as for melons, only eat melons by themselves! follow this guideline or learn the hard way, either way you will end up doing so.
11. exercise!
if you get tired eating only fruit, it is likely you need to excercise. because you are most likely going through a detoxification process. at the very least go for a walk. or go biking or running, or lift weights. or go swimming. remember in the natural state we frugivores are quite active, moving around quite a bit. i have found that the more i move my body about, the less i eat. in fact, as soon as i am done here, i am going for a bike ride.
12. On Cravings
if you have some strong cravings for other food, overall i recommend not following through with them, unless either they last for several days, or you feel unwell. and then still i highly recommend alternative fruit foods- if you are craving bread, eat some beans. there are no nutrients in grain that are not in beans. it is important to find the source of your cravings. a grain craving is not the result of a nutritional deficiency. part of the reason it may be good to do this is to help you overcome that idea that may be locked somewhere in your head that you NEED grain to be healthy. eating a food which is nutritionally very similar can help. if you do succumb, again do not be hard on yourself. by giving in to the cravings, you will learn that you really do feel better just eating fruit. enough times doing this, and you will stop. no worries, take your time. there is no rush to get anywhere. see number 14. basically it is good at first to overcome the cravings- it helps on may levels, one of them is learning and realising that you do not NEED this other food, you will be okay without it. hearing others tell is not the same as experienceing it yourself. also some foods are very addictive and will keep calling to you until you get beat the craving, then it will stop. if after many months, the cravings return, go with them it will help you figure out what is going on with you in other areas..
13. do not preach.
once you have been walking the path for whatever amount of days, and you notice how much better you feel in every aspect- mentally clear, physically mighty, emotionally better balanced, spiritually pure- you will (as dictated by the very nature of the gifts that you are eating) want to share this with others. take care to not get preachy about it. some of us have that inclination (this author numbered amongst those). it is especially difficult when you see that fruitarianism alone would easily cure most of the world's problems, i know, and it can be frustrating. but we have to learn to teach by example alone- people will notice our clear eyes, our vibrant aura, our friendly smile, our calm demeanour; and this will serve to inspire most folks moreso than all the data we might throw at them. conversely, if someone asks you for that data- do not hesitate to present it to them! folks will tend to ask about it- oftentimes as a result of noticing the aformentioned.... please note that if you do get preachy, this is most likely a note to yourself- you are telling others what you yourself need to hear- take it as a not that you may be having difficulty with your diet.
14. only do this if you want to (most important)
this is a tricky path to walk if you are on it for the wrong reasons. when i say 'if you want to' i mean if this is what you feel like doing. i say this because food, as all things we perceive as physical, ties in quite strongly spiritually, psychically, emotionally/psychologically. after all, these things are separate only in the mind anyhow, in truth they are the same thing revealing themselves on different levels. this becomes more and more evident as you eat fruit. if you have problems in these areas, becoming fruitarian is NOT going to resolve them. it WILL HELP GREATLY, as you will become more aware, but you cannot remain fruitarian for any length of time if these problems remain. it is a strange thing, but it makes perfect sense. the garden of paradise is not one of just food- if you feel emotions (i speak of anger/jealousy/guilt and the like and i do not consider love an emotion), go on crazy mind trips and the like, you will crave the accompanying food. it is a two way street! the garden of paradise is not a place that exists anywhere outside of you. it is a state of being. this is a very long and difficult journey, and i do not believe it possible to do solely by changing ones diet. eating only fruit can and will lift you up in these other aspects, but it will be as a dream, and fade, until you catch up in those areas by working on them also. so do not try to push it. if you are craving things for any length of time, there is a reason, and it is not dietary. when you really feel like eating nothing but fruit, you will. it could take years. and you have all the time in the world...
15. a note on oranges
okay- so i learned the hard way- oranges are presently a little different than they used to be apparently. in any event, the acid has a strong and powerful detrimental effect on the teeth. i have bad teeth genetics (my whole family does) so some may be more prone to this than others but be very careful about oranges- there is an almost inevitable tendency for orange bits to get stuck in between your teeth, where they will slowly but surely eat them away from the sides. rinse your mouth with water after eating them- swish it about, and floss. nowadays i tend to just juice them. i got tired of orange bits stuck in my teeth. oranges are quite nutiritionally beneficial for your teeth provided they are not stuck in between them. check out the calcium and magnesium and phosphorus content. i have actually tasted the magnesium when eating nothin but oranges and pistachios, i got so much of it!