Just fruit.. No nuts, seed, roots or greens..

That's the kind of fruitarianism I'm ultimately in to.. I've been able to pull it off pretty consistently since joining up with Kveta back in 2006, although there were definitely times that the all fruit diet was my diet for extended periods, prior to us getting together..

Meeting up with Harley, Freelea and others recently, it has really made me aware of occasional divergence in consistencies.. Inconsistencies I don't want hidden..

I've been calling myself fruitarian for many years already, even at times when I may have forsaken my beliefs and picked at the occasional steamed potato or piece of broccoli.. Other times, too, I would be on an all raw vegan diet, with a high fruit percentage, but include some carrot or lettuce, dried seaweed or similar .. I make no real excuses, other than struggling to live on a budgeted existence where I often considered fruit to be unaffordable..

Perhaps I was just using budget and a shoestring lifestyle as an excuse to hang on to old habits that morally and from a physiological health point of view, I didn't consider ideal, but for whatever other reasons, I still found appealing..

I became aware that fruit was the ideal food probably in the early 1990's, and dreamt of myself living purely on fruits, despite putting myself in geographical positions where pulling my dream off, would have surely at times required me to often go hungry.. Something I didn't feel quite prepared to do.. So compromise I did.. And it certainly seemed like compromise was a necessity at many times..

I guess I've long been the philosophiser.. Questioning things that most people take unquestioningly for granted.. And often wondering if there is perhaps a better way to do things.. At times I'm quite saddened by how much madness, sickness and suffering this world has, and see much of it as self inflicted through ignorance..

Through my recent encounter with a few 801010ers that passed through this place we're currently staying at, especially, I guess, Harley, who has a challenging personality.. and Freelea and Nick, who I felt were ultimately more curious than critical (I consider questioning anothers principles to be a healthy way to understand ones own better).. I became more conscious of small irregularities, and his challenging ways have encouraged and inspired me to make improvements.

I guess, we presented ourselves as fruitarians that eat solely fruit and nothing else, and by doing so, we opened ourselves up for critisism.. I was asked how long I'd been doing just fruit, and replied basically, consistently, since getting together with Kveta, and Harley, who had heard that ABC radio interview with me from a year and a half ago, queried yes, but that's not strictly true though is it? .. For a sec, I was a little confused, but then recalled that I had confessed to munching on the occasional pea or 2.. Clearly legumes are not fruits, - fruits being the edible flesh that surrounds the seed of the plant, and he's right.. The true fruitarian diet doesn't involve eating seeds unless they are intricately entwined together with the appealing edible flesh that surrounds it.. as is the case with the tomato, kiwi, passion fruit, etc..

So, do I have to reevaluate how long I have been fruitarian? Part of me wants to get the facts right, and part of me wants to cling to being the long term fruitarian I consider myself to be.. I mean, botanically speaking, I believe we are all frugivorous, whether we realise and practise it or not, but words are important to me, and clearly the term fruitarian isn't being used here to describe ones anatomical structure..

So what's the deal with the peas? Well.. I guess it's confession time.. it hasn't been just peas.. Since arriving in Australia, I have eaten several things that botanically speaking are not fruit, and thus, in my own thoughts are not 100% ideal.. But then I confess also that much of my very existence on this plane goes against what I feel is ethically correct, and environmentally responsible.. I could make excuses until the fat lady sings for the cows to return home to be eaten.. But to what end?

I know that life on this level, on this planet, is full of compromise to my ultimate aspiring beliefs.. But despite fighting what many might consider a relentless futile uphill struggle toward improvement and seemingly unobtainable perfection, I believe that the struggle is ultimately for the benefit of all earthly existence.. And will strive onward questioning the very nature of our beings..

So what else have I eaten? I'm probably about to burst my own bubble, I'm sure many would love to hear, and use it as evidence to support their possibly already preconceived impossibility of a fruit only diet..

In addition to peas, I have also eaten broad beans, many of both, by the way, grown by myself in the little garden we only recently said goodbye to.. but that's no excuse.. I ate them. Yes.. I also confess to occasionally picking at leaves of various sorts.. Like if I walked passed a big display of rocket, I might pull one leaf out, and chew slowly on it.. or snap off a tiny piece of broccoli from the broccoli stall, munching on it in passing.. Or, and this was probably more common, if I passed a small wild growing edible weed, I might often tell someone I was with at the time, that this plant is edible, and break of a leaf or 2 to share, probably mostly always chewing on a leaf or 2 myself..

And the last non fruit I ate? Standing in the garden, here, where we are now at, Nick asked me if I had tried sweet leaf. I told him I used to eat it profusely, but stopped doing so, and yet still, I stood next to him, broke a leaf off, and chewed and swallowed it.. I guess I felt it was to give me a small reminder of the taste. I found it vaguely palatable, but not particularly appealing.. That was barely 2 weeks ago.. But also, on the way up here, we stopped off to admire some sea view, I think it was pretty close to that "Big mango" place, which is in Bowen, I think, but I could be remembering incorrectly, anyhows, irrelevant that is, the point was that at this place, we bumped in to a Ute (which for those of us unfamiliar with Australian slang is basically a "utility truck", just a small open backed truck) full of Islanders, Fijians, I think, that had been denutting some local coconut palms, and had a Ute load of nuts.. They offered us some, and thirsty I was, so I drank of one they opened for us.. (the first sip on one since Thailand 2006)..

Now, coconuts are one thing that I sort of felt OK about eating, despite thems being nuts and all that, and not fruit.. But deep down, I was aware that they are not ideal.. I guess equally so for sugarcane juice, which at times in my life I've truly feasted upon.. When I used to live up this ways, some 10 and more years ago, freshly pressed sugar cane feasts were a semi regular occurrence..

But back to the coconut.. I carried it with us and cracked it open on arrival here, with keen anticipation and hopes that it might be jelly like.. Again, coconuts have been at times a staple part of my diet.. basically a free and abundant food I endulged regularly in.. This nut was hard though, and I left it on the table in the communal kitchen where it was soon devoured by someone..

So.. am I done confessing? I reckon so.. that's about the brunt of it.. So go ahead and tell me I've been fruitarian for 2 weeks.. I guess at the end of the day, perhaps I shouldn't even really bothered about being attached to the label..

But now I feel I want to defend myself and my beliefs despite clearly nonsupportive hypocritical actions..

I know that not all my choices have been correct, or based on what I believe to be morally or ethically correct.. no denials there..

So why am I writing all this? I desire to improve, and base my daily decisions more on where my commitments are at, and also I want people to know and trust that fruit alone is enough, so to minimise indecision and avoid nagging doubts of others as much as possible, I will henceforth seek consistency more.... And to my defense again, the small exceptions I have made over recent years have been small..I mean, small enough to be basically insignificant, and void of any real dietary importance, or of any nutritional value.. I think the only food that I ever made a meal of, were a very inoccasional small bowlfull of peas.. All else was of such miniscule amount, that I don't see them as part of my diet.. Despite that at a certain level they clearly were.. Those nonfruity exceptions have been so rare, that they may have only taken place on a handful of days a year, with the rest of the time, eating purely fruit and thriving on it..

I'm aware Harley and others have their own ideas of what diet is correct, and that their belief is that eating a fruitarian diet, may lead to malnourishment, dehydration, and lack of energy.. True, yes, I'm not exactly budding with enthusiastic desire to run around the orchard, or bike 70kms into Cairns.. And he's certainly someone with a very high energy, having trained at elite athletic levels.. I intend to write more about my thoughts on the 801010 diet at a later point, but as I'm slowly regaining inspiration to write, I'll no doubt be channeling many of my thoughts out to my book instead of my blog..

Anyhow.. I've already waffled on for longer than intended, and sort of want to thank Harley for bringing to my attention the inconsistency of saying no seeds or greens etc, and then breaking my own rule.. so hence forth, I will endevour to stick by my principles, and continue on my path toward dietary perfection.. - I'd like to be able to truthfully write, "never again", but I know that on a practical level, it's likely that there'll be times when I eat against my beliefs.. Perhaps out of curiousity, or in situations where I'm no longer faced with an abundance of the right foods.. And I'm well aware of the need to make even further changes, even within the fruit diet itself..

hugs,
mango.

PS I've written a little more on were we're at over on my journal (there's a link to it up there on the top left somewhere), as I'm trying to get my thoughts updated..