Sunday, August 16, 2009

Greens on a fruitarian diet?

I follow several fruitarian and borderline fruitarian blogs, mostly through aggregated RSS feeds channeled directly through my browser.. (basically live bookmarks that list the titles of the latest blog post topic titles..).

OK. well, everyone has there own way of following the blogs they read, but to the point.. One blog I read semi regularly is Fredrick Patenaudes.. I'd say the guy's mostly pretty switched on and in general makes a fair amount of sense - He certainly mostly comes across as a pretty rational fellow with a lot of sound advice to give..

Recently he sent out an email about green smoothies that I have to say, had me scratching my head some..

I'll extract parts of what he wrote below:

Green Smoothies are a big craze in the raw food movement. In my opinion, it IS a good craze, but Green Smoothies are not the only way to go. Let me explain...

By blending fruits and greens together to make a Green Smoothie, we have a quick meal that almost anybody can enjoy. There's no added fat, and it helps you eat your greens, which are often not appealing in other forms.


OK, the first thing that I'd like to comment on here, is that surely if something is not appealing in its raw natural state, then common sense should tell us that it is not ideal and should be avoided?

After all, a banana-spinach-berry smoothie does NOT really taste like spinach, so that's why green smoothies are such a great idea to eat more greens and fruits.

Again.. what it seems he is suggesting is that one should fool ones body into eating something which it really doesn't want to! 

Then, he goes on to say:

==> Fruits are more important than greens!

Which naturally I am in total agreement with.. ! Then:

As humans, we are best adapted to a fruit diet with *some* greens, and NOT the other way around. You could live in good health for many years on just fruit,

Now, I have to say, I'm quite uncertain just what Fred is saying here... - I mean, is he saying that he believes that one could live for many years on just fruit, but that eventually ones health is doomed to fail because of lack of whatever it is in greens that he supposes we need? And if not, then why suggest that we need to eat greens at all, when he clearly believes that fruit is superior?

What greens essentially bring are additional minerals (and some vitamins) that will *complement* a fruit-based diet.

So, I think it's fair to say his belief is that there are essential minerals contained in greens that are not in fruit..

While I am convinced that you could live on fruit alone, long-term health is improved when the diet includes some green vegetables

Well I wrote him an email in reply, asking him to explain further.. The thing is that recently he interviewed Anne in a positive light, who he knows as a long term fruit eating fruitarian, and yet here he apparently seems to be saying that long term fruitarians are putting themselves in danger by not including greenery.. I asked him when he believes we should begin to notice the effect of our dietary lacking of greens..

No answer. Which is OK.. I don't always get time to answer all the emails I get either, but recently I notice that when I've tried to add comments to his blog they have all been denied, so I'm guessing he doesn't like someone challenging him..

In our Green Cleanse we organize a few times a year, I recommend that people eat all the fruit they want, in addition to the green smoothies.

I'd love to know just what minerals they are that he believes we fruitarians are missing out on... Come on Fred!? Let us know what you think!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

From Doug Graham book , you have to include some greens in your Fruitarian diet? Why? Because in the long term, fruits don't provide enough nutrients. That's why Suvine switched into a Fruitarian-Rawfoodist diet. The ideal ratio should be 70% fruits and 30% greens.

Anonymous said...

.......................

I'm gonna get flamed for what I'm about to say, but whatever.

I seriously hate eating greens.

And this whole "nutrition" thing again sure annoys me.

I mean I would only consume greens as a "fruitarian newbie," kinda like a harmless quickfix, as a way of adjusting painlessly when the body cleanses itself.

Otherwise, there's no need for it.

"OH YOU'RE GONNA DIE!!!!" Heard this one already. Especially with the whole meat thing at home and around. I'm starting to hear it again, subliminally, even with greens now? Poo.. I would just tell'em to be quiet and "draw yer weapon and end this." *cackles*

Only reason why many people won't manage on all fruit, is because of their devotion, and not realizing that it has nothing to do with "nutrition" but rather being in a clean state.


Whatever, people are free to do as they will, but I'll never buy into the crap such as "OH, BUT BEING ON FRUIT ALONE IS DANGEROUS! PROTEIN PROTEIN WORSHIP!"

As I say again, I would personally use greens as a temporary quickfix to any "bodily adjustment" symptoms when planning to go all-fruit.

Anonymous said...

Mango, that guy that sent you that email is obviously not a fruitarian and I can see how it might make you angry that he made comments like that.

Surely he could have said "in my opinion the greens added to it are better" or something like that, not just stating it like a fact.

Fruitarian Mango said...

hi anonymice,

i wonder where doug graham gets his facts from, and whether he has even met someone that has lived long term on solely fruit?

I'm not the slightest bit angry that patenaude believes differently than i, we are all entitled to our opinion, and if someone states something as fact, when clearly it is just belief, i have no issues with either. I probably do the same myself, and wish it to be made clear that i understand that my beliefs are not necessarily facts..

I would just like for him to be honest and open and debate the inconsistencies apparently present in his logic..

peace,
mango.

Fruitarian Mango said...

I have tried once more to contact Fred through his website and ask his opinion on the greens thing, but I'm guessing he doesn't feel to reply.. In another article he wrote recently about eggs on a raw diet, I commented that one important issue he overlooked was the animal rights, vegan side of things, as it's my belief that that view point alone should be enough to make people realise that eggs are not a suitable fair..

My comment was not published, and the only words I've heard back are that my words are too vague and thus ignored..

oh well.. I've just canceled my subscription to his ezine.

peace,
mango.

Anonymous said...

Actually the body needs a quantity of minerals just during the detoxification process, while healing. Then, at the highest level of cleanliness (which is, cleanliness :D), it is ready to be fed with fruit, its best food.
That's what I learned.
We only need minerals to balance the acids we carry with ourselves caused by wrong food. Once they are eliminated, no problems!
Byez, keep up the good work Mango!

dorien said...

The importance of Greens is very well explained by Victoria Boutenko.

Normally fruits contain everything you need.

But in these days hybrid fruits are cross polinated to contain way much more fructose then their ancient form, which drains minerals from the body.

Fruitarian Mango said...

Hi Dorien,
I seriously doubt this is true,
many modern fruits are probably far less sweet than more traditional heirloom varieties.. most commercial fruits these days are bred for their appearance, uniformity in size and shelf life, not for their sweetness or flavour.

Carlo, there may be some truth in what you write.. ultimately, I think we are agreed, it is fruit that is our true food though..

peace,
mango.

cyberryan26 said...

The funny thing is, I doubted fruit for one second once because of the "hybridization" theory, but that was until another theory set me straight that almost EVERY living thing on the earth is a hybrid. Perhaps today's modern fruits are sweeter because that's the way they NATURALLY evolved, because humans and other fruit eating animals prefer sweet fruit. Evolution doesn't make mistakes.