Mango the Raw Vegan Fruitarian

Vision of Eden

2011-10-09T14:07:00.003+11:00

It is my firm conviction, that the principle focus behind fruitarianism should be the understanding of the uniqueness of fruit as a food choice. Unlike all other foods, fruit is the one true food that karmically speaking is clearly "given" freely. Fruit is the only food which ultimately has the potential to be truly compatible with the immortal words of "the Beatles", love is all you need. All other foods require the death or partial destruction and injury toward a life form. Whether it be through the cold hard steel of a knife blade to a pig's throat, the imprisonment and suffering of animals kept for no other purpose than human gluttony, the untimely assassination of wild free roaming animals, the constant ploughing of fields for mono cereal crops destroying the lives and habitats of countless small wildlife. Even the consumption of seeds and nuts often prevents the seed from any chance of germination and a life of it's own, and the uprooting of carrots, lettuce and similar either completely terminate the life of a plant, or destroy a good part of it. All these actions incur karmic debt, which, whether we like it or not, are aware of it or not, will be paid off in kind.

It is unrealistic to think that fruitarianism proposes an immediate total eradication of such needless harm and death, but I do see it as a method to greatly minimize such, and over time as the consciousness of humankind expands toward its spiritual potential, I do not believe that such a goal is at all unrealistic.

My vision is to see the whole world embrace this concept. I believe that once humankind has inevitably done so, other species (YES!) will naturally follow suit.. So instead of looking up to other species as examples as to how we should eat and live (Sadly most often the case today), other species will be guided and influenced by us, and ultimately the chaotic bloody balance of nature as it currently exists, will evolve into a harmonious peaceful balance where all species will be able to live their lives without fear of this insane dog eat dog, kill or be killed competitive ruthless insanity.. survival of the fittest will be replaced by mutual respect and cooperation. I by no means propose to have all the answers, far from it, but I do trust that there are no problems without solutions and that as we continue to evolve, the path will become ever clearer. Ultimately fruitarianism proposes a "Live and let live" solution.

What I don't believe should be part of fruitarianism, is calorie counting, focusing on carbohydrates, electrolytes, minerals, vitamins etc etc.. I think these factors ultimately stem from "FEAR", and a clear lack of trust and faith in fruit. Most people are truly hoodwinked into following this pseudoscience side of eating, and although they themselves have no real idea what proteins or calories really are, they still wield the terms as if they were personally very familiar with them. Lying to themselves and others in doing so.

Fruitarianism is about letting go of such fears, trusting in the goodness of fruit, living as simply as one can, having faith, (there's always room for improvement!) eating when hungry, drinking when thirsty, resting and sleeping when tired. It is not about following fashion based on greed and consumerism, but about walking barefoot to regain contact with the earth, being naked, weather permitting, whenever one can do so without victimization, letting ones hair and beard, when applicable, grow naturally, not defacing ones body with tattoos, piercing, make up and chemical cleaners, certainly not undergoing pointless surgery. Rather it concerns the understanding that the medical industry is a multi billion dollar business that ultimately does NOT have our best interests at heart. Understanding that the body will heal itself from pretty much anything if we follow the rules of simplicity and fruit eating.

I believe it is also about getting closer to nature, about getting our hands covered in soil as we plant and care for new fruit trees. Not competitiveness, not Alpha-male centred and dominated society, but mutual support and understanding of one another, and using our energy toward the ultimate vision of Eden and personal spiritual growth.

Fruit has not only the ability to cleanse us both internally physically and mentally, but also applied externally is great for washing our bodies, as well as making us more spiritually aware.

As always, I feel I have barely scratched the surface, and the final peace and tranquillity that will reign will be beyond all our expectations.

peace,
mango.

Concerning the Fruitarian Interviews.

2011-09-22T17:06:00.000+10:00

I have a fair few things in my head I need to get done, including many in terms of writing and this blog etc.

One of them, is that I've long been meaning to sort through my "list of interviews with fruitarians", and figure out which are genuine and which are not.

Not far from where we live.

Truth is, each time I have made contact with someone in regard to a potential interview, the first thing I have tried to establish is that that person is already eating 100% fruit (with no nuts, including coconuts, seeds, vegetables including sugarcane juice, no roots, no tubors, no greens etc etc.. just purely fruit), OR that that person has a genuine intention of one day reaching such a diet, and that they should be sure that this is a genuine lifetime commitment, and not a passing experimental fad.

Sure, I am far from lacking understanding that people may reach a realization of fruit, but that circumstances may hinder such an immediate progression, or that addictions may first have to be confronted. I accept that probably this is the case for many, if not most. I am certainly not in denial there may be difficulties. I know I myself struggled from time to time, but during my failings, I never once lost faith that fruit is the only genuine food for humans, and always kept my goal in mind and sight.

Sure, also, I may not have made it totally clear to interviewees that I was not after people that were not 100% certain with their commitment.. But my intention has always been show purely people that have a genuine 100% committed intention of eating solely fruit.. (ie, once more, nothing but fruit, no greens, carrots, coconuts, sugar cane etc etc..) This is by no means meant as a judgement. Far from it. I understand and respect others freedom to make their own choices. (note: there have already been a few interviews that have been deleted on request because the interviewee had a change of heart).

So, what I would like to do, i s get people who I've interviewed in the past, to please please comment honestly and fairly, and tell me whether or not they can swear that 100% fruit is indeed their goal. If it is not, I respectfully desire to delete the interviews of those whose direction is elsewhere.

If however, you still consider yourself at heart to be a 100% committed fruitarian, but not quite there, please let me know what you feel about that, whether or not you have some timeline to reach your goal, or what the reasons are that you feel you are not there yet? (fear, uncertainty (then you shouldn't be interviewed yet), lack of choice, addiction, etc etc).

For me, fruitarianism is not, and never has been, about eating so many percent fruit, or so many percent of ones caloric intake from fruit. Readers will know that I scorn calories and carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins and sugars, 801010, and workouts. Sure, I understand that this is the focus of many, just it is not mine. The fruitarianism I talk of does not have it's roots in any of this modern complex pseudoscience, but rather in simplicity.

The roots stem from a potential Garden of Eden. Fictional or not, matters not to me. I see it as a genuine direction and focus for humankind, that has the potential to ultimately heal this planet, restore forests, stop land erosion, and restore our demented psychi. Taking us up a few vibrational levels to the species we may ultimately evolve in to.

The way I see it, fruitarianism as well as being about simplicity, is also most importantly an ethical issue. It's about doing no harm, or minimizing harm to as great an extent as feasible. Naturally, there are other sidelines to that.. health, environment, economics and more, and these are all of course important factors too, but not my predominant focus..

Of course, making things clear once more, when I talk of a 100% fruit, I am referring to raw ripe and ready fresh fruit. Not cooked fruit, not canned fruit, not dried fruit, not even sun dried fruit. Not grains or nuts that some people at times have erroneously classified as fruit. I am talking of the part of the plant which is, karmically speaking, given freely. I know I'm repeating myself, but much as I myself see it as simple, peoples' minds are often so rooted in complexity, they fail to see the simple. They seem to desire instead complex formulas and figures. That is not what fruitarianism is about. I've mentioned before that some friends of mine once met a girl who claimed she was fruitarian, and visiting her, found her eating peanut butter, jam and bread.. For her, the jam was made from fruit, and the peanuts were fruit to her too, as were the grains of wheat in her probably home made bread..

A good friend has asked me recently about this, saying there are many people claiming fruitarianism but eating things other than fruit. It's true, I know I don't have a monopoly on the word. It is used and abused quite loosely these days. But I ask, where is the simplicity of 80% fruit constituting fruitarian. There is none.. How can one even know really that 80% of ones diet is fruit.. It's a joke. Seriously, it's such a loose description open to people eating 50 and 60% and fooling themselves that they eat 80%.. even scientifically calculating the calorific content of ones food to figure out the 80% factor is a joke. It will vary daily.. and whose deciding what the other 20% can and can't be? Certainly unless the follower of such a pattern is 100% vegan, I wouldn't take them seriously dietwise anyway.

See.. this is also the thing.. back in the day, my own path took me through vegetarianism, veganism, raw veganism to fruitarianism.. There was a deep commitment to ethics in each step. When I began eating raw, I never could have imagined that people could choose to eat raw eating animal products too. The thought just never crossed my mind. But I like to think I'm a little wiser now, and I know that is far from the truth. Trouble is, many of the people reaching what they define as fruitarianism, have made their choices purely out of health reasons, they may talk of ethics, but have never even been a committed vegan.. If they can't be a committed vegan I can't see how they can ever be a committed fruitarian, regardless of what percentage they believe they are at...

So, enough of my waffling..

This is a request to all my interviewees.. please tell me where you are at, are you committed, are you eating 100%, do you think you ever will be, how long do you estimate before you reach that stage, what are the issues preventing you from doing so immediately??

Please be as honest as you possibly can. I will not think less of you for opting out, or for struggling. Please feel unjudged and at ease.

kind regards,
Mango.

A Tony Wright interview..

2011-09-17T08:19:00.000+10:00

Some years ago, I was invited to take part in some wacky sleep deprivation experimentation going on down in Devon, UK..

Not fully knowing what to really expect, myself, and friend of the time, Antony, agreed to meet up down there, and give it a shot.

I was living in France back then, up in the Pyrenees, but a stone throw from the Spanish border.. pretty well off the beaten track.

Ant on the other hand, was in the UK, and therefore able to get there quicker than I, so thus arrived a day or 2 before I did.

On arrival at Exeter bus terminal, Ant was there to greet me together with another guy named Tony Wright.

What followed were probably 10 of the most unusual days of my existence.. spent in a big old farm house out in the countryside.

There were a bunch of us there.. Me, Ant, Tony, Dave, Steve, Harmonie and Karen. Karen was the original editor and publisher of the FRESH network magazine, which some readers may recall from the 1990s, before it became a glossy commercialised affair.

The theory was that one half of the brain is basically a demented version of what it once may have been. Likely rendered so, due to generations of cooked food abuse. Supposedly, it is this half of the brain which is generally in control.

Meanwhile, the other half, supposedly relatively undamaged and properly functional, slumbers on in a sort of "hibernation" mode.

Tony Wright was the man with the theory, and according to him, simplifying the story somewhat, once the mind becomes weary, it sort of switches off the bulk of our senses before finally shutting itself down, allowing us to enter into the sleep state. It is during this time, that the fully functional not demented half, kicks in. But it seems it's a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, and once sleep is over, the evil half wakes rubs it's eyes and pushes aside the good half with a complete lack of disrespect for communication.

So the whole point of the sleep deprivation experimentation I was part of, was/is that if you can force yourself to stay awake for long enough, eventually the evil half will become too tired to function, and without the opportunity to turn off the senses as it normally would do, just shuts down, leaving for quite likely the first time ever, the good half active with a conscious mind.

OK.. I admit, I may be simplifying the whole scenario, but basically during the following 10 days, apart from what we christened the odd "micro"nap, (short lapses into sleep of no more than a minute), I remained awake.

Now this seems an unlikely tale.. especially when one considers that I enjoy my sleep and can easily sleep 10 or 11 hours every night, but somehow, I believe that the above paragraph is for all intents and purposes truthful.

The events that ensued are not what I wish to go into right now. They can wait for another when. But, the fact that we were all pretty much eating fruit only, I believe helped the experience unfold.

But the point of this article?

Well, in recent years, I've had very little contact with those folks from back then, but recently I stumbled upon a few interviews with Tony on Youtube, and thought I'd share them with yous all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrznMP-VH90&feature=related

And:

and anyone intersted in finding out more, or reading Tony's book, can visit his website:

http://leftinthedark.org.uk

hugs,
mango.

Fruitarian Interview - 13- Rudolf Sappel

2011-09-13T15:22:00.000+10:00

Gracias a Olga Olga Vizán y Carlos, por la traduccion Español. (see here for the english translation)

Hola Rudolf.
¡Gracias por tomarte el tiempo de responder a algunas preguntas!

Querido Mango, gracias por cuidar tanto a tus amigos frugívoros en Europa y en el resto del mundo. Tenemos sitio en nuestros corazones el uno con el otro.
Teniendo especialmente en cuenta a nuestros amigos frugívoros desperdigados por el globo.
Los mejores saludos a todos los frugivoros desperdigados por el mundo.

¿Podrías empezar hablándonos un poco sobre ti mismo, cuántos años tienes, dónde estás viviendo y dónde crecistes?

En el año 2008 he cumplido 46 años, nací en Munich en el año 1962.
Cuando era pequeño nos mudamos de Munich a baja Baviera, a una finca antigua en el campo donde me encantaba vivir y quería crecer, porque era un lugar muy bonito.

Cuando nuestro padre murió prematuramente, mi hermana y yo fuimos enviados para crecer en unas escuelas-monasterio-internado.
Crecer en la escuela fue duro, porque estaba prohibido llevar una de vida de frugívoro.

Entonces, ¿qué te trajo de Alemania a España? ¿Fue algo bueno para ti? ¿Cuánto tiempo has estado viviendo aquí?

Yo creo que fue el destino, de otra forma nunca nos hubiéramos conocido. Cuando me vine de Berlín a España en 1999 no sabía donde ir.

Hablemos entonces de como nos conocimos. Eso fue un súper buen ejemplo de algo más que una coincidencia. Yo escribí sobre esto aquí, ¿supongo que la historia fue también algo parecida por tu parte?

Cómo podría olvidar tus simpáticas interpretaciones de la vida.

Sé que a veces sueno un poco bruto y quiero disculparme.

Dicho esto, mi opinión sobre ti es muy positiva y familiar.

Un día, cuando yo estaba solo en mi casa empecé a rezar, para conocer a otros frugívoros que pensaran como yo, y no pasó mucho tiempo hasta que nos topamos el uno con el otro en el mercado de Campello. Eso fue realmente una coincidencia y estoy muy agradecido de que nos conociésemos.

Encontré a un hermano tan simpático en ti y para mí era incluso difícil de creer el hecho de que tú también fueras frugívoro.

Eso fue una profunda experiencia espiritual, es decir, como funcióna el sincronismo.

Cuando leo tu diario me resulta familiar, porque es simplemente un hecho el que debemos estar directamente relacionados de algún modo.

¿La Divina Providencia?

Om Namah Shivay

Ahora, respecto a la alimentación…. ¿Con qué tipo de alimentación creciste? ¿Nos podrías dar una idea de lo que solías comer en un día cualquiera?

Cuando era pequeño, decidí que quería ser frugívoro, pero cuando fui al colegio me impidieron serlo, hasta que me olvidé de ello por algunos años.

En el internado nos obligaban a comer comida podrida.

Estamos viviendo en la era de Kali Yuga [periodo que aparece en las escrituras hinduistas = "era de riña e hipocresía"], con humanos que han olvidado nuestro origen. Los humanos torturamos nuestra Tierra, incluyendo todas las plantas y formas de vida, como cerdos, vacas, ovejas, peces y animales salvajes. La mayoría de ellos acaban muertos y cocinados como comida basura.

En la escuela éramos alimentados de forma bastante no saludable, para abreviarlo.

El lavado de cerebro de la escuela y la comida industrial fueron sin duda perjudiciales.

Compara eso con ahora, ¿como sería tu comida en un día normal ahora?

Gracias a Dios el tiempo de la peor de la comida se ha terminado, y ahora estoy comiendo frutas maduras de temporada y de la región, como tú sabes. Actualmente incluso he encontrado fruta orgánica en la tienda BIO del pueblo [Villajoyosa/Alicante]

El mayor problema de la fruta son los fungizidas y los pesticidas, especialmente en España. A veces me salen llagas en la boca, se me inflama la garganta y me sale una alergia en la cara, me escuece la lengua, etc. tras comer frutas del mercado.

Está mejor ahora, pero no está completamente solucionado, porque algunos productores de fruta todavía están vendiendo “armas biológicas”, frutas modificadas genéticamente, híbridos, en lugar de fruta madura sana sin contaminar.

Entonces, ¿cuando volviste a cambiar hacia una dieta más natural? ¿Progresastes poco a poco de vegetarianismo, veganismo, comida cruda y frugivorismo, o fue más un cambio de golpe para ti? ¿Qué provocó esos cambios?

Tuve un buen periodo frugívoro de 1962 a 1967.

Algunos profesores de escuela, políticos y publicistas de la televisión, médicos, e incluso científicos, fueron víctimas de sus mentes pre-condicionadas. Como siempre, los misioneros fanáticos todavía hacen lo que mejor saben hacer.

La manipulación de la humanidad es tan antigua como la religión y nosotros podemos preguntarnos lo que nos hace olvidarnos de nuestras funciones naturales y de cómo dirigimos nuestra depredadora competición.

Nuestro origen frugívoro ha sido constantemente corrompido e invadido con un proceso de superación de política masiva durante la crisis mundial de estudiantes de 1968.

Fue una vergüenza, que eso pasara poco después de la segunda guerra mundial en los tiempos de la liberación hippie combinado con grandes cantidades del tan desperdiciado “flower-power”.

En 1984 tuve el impulso de cambiar mi vida a mejor, tratando de vivir saludable, lo que fuera que significara para mí en ese momento.

Tras leer “Fit for life” en 1987 [Traducido como la “Anti-Dieta” al español], me compré una nueva bateria para cocinar mas sano.

En 1989 decidí deshacerme del mal olor de boca por beber chocolate caliente y comer gran cantidad pasteles y dulces masticando cardamomo en lugar de mascar chicle.

Desde ese momento empecé a avanzar como vegetariano. En 1991, tras dejar mi trabajo en BMW era un hombre libre por primera vez en mi vida.

Y también a partir de ese momento, mi viaje frugívoro tuvo altibajos, cometiendo todavía algunos errores alimentarios y experiencias vegetarianas.

No llevó mucho tiempo el ir más allá de mis ideales como vegano porque era demasiado honesto para hacer compromisos con la mala comida, cuando estaba claro que lo que yo quería era convertirme en un frugívoro real.

Los veganos han sido una maravillosa inspiración para mí.

Entonces hoy, en este punto de tu vida, ¿has adoptado completamente el frugivorismo y tienes fe completa en una dieta de 100% fruta, verdad?

Ciertamente, porque ahora estoy muy convencido y nada puede detenerme de mi camino “satvico” frugívoro.[= según la tradición ayurvédica: dieta equilibrante, espiritual]

A parte de a mí, y de Pelagus, a quien yo sé que has conocido, ¿conoces algún otro frugívoro? En la web o en persona….

;Ahora mismo conozco algunos frugívoros más, y estoy contento de que tú conocieras también a mi buena amiga Pelagus.

Cuando abrí nuestra primera página frugívora para citas (http://www.frugilove.com ) quería hacer un gran regalo a nuestra familia frugívora, especialmente a Cristina Samson, en Maastricht.

Conocí a Springlight en la página de citas veggieromance, que está también adaptada para frugívoros.

El primer frugívoro que conocí fue Ralf von Muehldorfer, que más tarde cambio a vegano. Perdí el contacto con Genevieve, Fruitaa y algunos otros crudiveganos que se llamaban a sí mismo frugívoros. También conocí a Balta de España, que es sobretodo crudivegano, con una fuerte tendencia frugívora. Suvine está todavía bien.

Una muy comprometida personalidad frugívora y que haze máquinas para producir energía es Wolfgang Hann, que está viviendo y plantando una reserva frugívora en Paraguay.

Peggy parece ser una frugívora muy buena y la más guapa y poderosa FruitbatAnne con Cappi están haciendo lo mejor por nosotros.

Durante mi frugívora odisea encontré sobre unos 50 a 60 frugívoros registrados en mis páginas y algunos de ellos los conozco muy bien, a otros no los conoceré nunca.

Algunos de nuestros archivos frugívoros se están haciendo más grandes, mientras que otros se rompen, y si pongo todos los contactos frugívoros juntos puedo contar más de cien. Las razones de tener poca comunicación entre frugívoros son las grandes distancias y principalmente el no tener contacto directo en el día a día con un montón de trabajo que hacer.

¿Puedes hablarnos un poco sobre tu salud antes y después? Los cambios en tu dieta… Sobre tu peso, y cualquier otro gran cambio?

Antes de volverme frugívoro tenía granos en mi piel, problemas dentales, acidez de estómago, mala digestión con un mal aliento tendencia a acumular grasa en el abdomen como la mayoría de los humanos con los hábitos alimenticios habituales.

Mi peso está perfectamente equilibrado actualmente. Mi piel parece mucho más joven y las chicas más guapas y sobre todo los chicos algunas veces están celosos, lo que quiera decir eso. Para la mayoría de la gente es bastante impresionante conocer a un frugívoro, porque ellos son diferentes y especiales.

¿Qué piensa tu madre de que seas un frugívoro? ¿Qué hay del resto de tu familia, tienes hermanos o hermanas?

Mi madre me inició en el camino a la fruta cuando tenía 3 ó 4 años.
Todo empezó cuando le pregunté: ¿Qué comen las personas en el paraíso?

Ella contestó brevemente: “frutas”.

Ahora mismo mi madre, en esos días muy sabia, ha cambiado de opinion. Actualmente ella cree que mi forma de vida frugívora debe ser menos saludable que la suya, aún después de que ella ha tenido problemas de salud. (no quiero publicar mas detailes por lealidad)

Es una pena que ella enfermara con la comida inhumana y lo peor de todo es que yo no puedo ayudarla. ¿Qué más puedo hacer que no sea el tener paciencia?

Somos cinco hermanos y dos hermanas que ya están trabajando o estudiando. Todos son libres de hacer lo que ellos quieran… y eso es un gran regalo.

¿Tomas suplementos – cosas tipo pastillas de vitaminas, espirulina o algo similar? ¿Estás preocupado sobre el hecho de no obtener suficiente calcio, proteína, vitamina B12 o lo que sea?

Oh, dios mío… Cuando oigo hablar sobre espirulina casi me dan ganas de vomitar, porque la probé una vez y no pude soportarlo. Quizás es una medicina realmente, pero honestamente yo evito esos suplementos, ya que la fruta tiene todo en la mejor forma de absorción compatible con nuestro cuerpo.

Yo todavía no puedo participar en el histerismo colectivo con los suplementos de moda, porque eso está muy lejos de ser nuestro puro estilo de vida frugívoro.

Un año debemos beber leche y comer queso para obtener el calcio, y entonces el siguiente debermos tomar espirulina para equilibrarnos. Los pacientes con osteoporosis han sido asesinados con leche y queso, ¿por qué tengo yo que recoger tal mal karma?

Por supuesto que conozco los beneficios de la espirulina y su gran valor natural, pero yo no vivo en el océano como un pez. La espirulina no debe ser una comida frugívora típica, sino más una medicina de emergencia para curar.

Una vez probé suplementos durante un ataque de histerismo y pánico y los dejé dos veces, porque fue una de mis peores experiencias alimenticias. En vez de eso estoy aprendiendo sobre las propiedades de las frutas y he descubierto que tengo más que suficiente hierro y calcio desde que soy frugívoro que incluso antes.

Cada día aprendemos más y he estado recogiendo montones de listas de frutas en nuestra web. Fue una gran sorpresa ver cuanto hierro, calcio y vitaminas hay en nuestras frutas diarias. No sólo es suficiente… Es perfecto.

Por otro lado, todo el teatro sobre la B12 fue solamente algún intento de investigación y que nos hizo pensar sobre eso y lo que provocó algunas dudas. Todos los frugívoros saben como conseguir la B12:
- Lentinula edades: llamado Shiitake, es la fruta del bosque (setas). Tiene una alta dosis de vitamina B12 e incluso de D2. (algunos súper listos y enfermos nutricionistas, con ideas anticuadas de la Edad Media, todavía predican lo contrario)
- Las bayas del espino amarillo (Hippophae rhamnoides) tienen montones de vitamina B12. (mediante simbiosis del espino amarillo con el microorganismo Actinomices, se forma una B12 concentrada dentro la cáscara de la semilla del espino amarillo, la cual era anteriormente atribuida al aceite de hígado de bacalao)

Cuando todas nuestras páginas frugívoras se hayan cambiado a Suiza en Mayo de 2008 encontraremos un montón de informaciones frugívoras concentradas:
http://www.fruitarian.eu
http://www.FruchtessEr.de
http://www.fructarier.net
y otras

¿Tienes o has tenido antojos, o has comido en exceso? ¿Cómo llevaste esos momentos?

Yo le llamo a eso los efectos de la abstinencia, todos nosotros pasamos por cambios difíciles. Al principio de todo, me dí permiso para hacerlo, sin intentar sentirme mal sobre eso, pero después de la segunda o como máximo de la tercera vez era demasiado aburrido el mentirme a mí mismo.

Los efectos negativos de no ser consecuente son simplemente grave, mientras que los efectos positivos después de hacerlo hablan por sí mismos.

¿Sé que Campello tiene una buena selección de fruta, pero que pasa cuando vuelves a Berlín? ¿Tienes una buena variedad de fruta donde elegir allí también?

En Campello no es oro todo lo que reluce, y tampoco en Berlín.

Hoy en día es más una cuestión del grosor de tu billetera el que seas capaz de vivir sano o no. En Berlín puedes conseguir todo, si tienes suficiente dinero. La mayoría de frutas vienen del resto del mundo, también de Holanda o Turquía, pero en El Campello la fuente todavía es más cercana, por supuesto.....

De todas formas, tampoco estoy planeando quedarme en Berlín. Berlín era una gran ciudad antes de que todos esos ocupados políticos llegaran.Todavía está bien, pero si se compara con el Berlín de hoy, entonces lo más probable será que quieras salir corriendo, quizás de cabeza a la Selva Australiana....

¿Le dices normalmente a la gente como comer? Si es así, ¿cuál crees que es la(s) pregunta(s) más común que la gente te pregunta sobre tu dieta, y cómo la(s) contestas?

Ni hablar, eso sería demasiado atrevido y molesto. Gracias a Dios nosotros no somos misioneros.

No vale la pena el esfuerzo de hablar sobre mi vida privada con principalmente gente curiosa y superficial. En lugar de eso intento ser astuto- provocar pidiéndole a la gente que encuentre su propia responsabilidad.

A veces incluso tengo que ignorar a gente en contra frugívora, porque la mayoría de ellos no se quieren realmente escuchar ni a ellos mismos.

A veces les digo: "¿quieres saber sobre mi web?", o "lee en nuestros foros y encontrarás todo en la web". Mi peor respuesta es algo como: "lo siento, pero estoy ocupado". Estas respuestas a menudo son mi salvación de una discusión de bajo nivel, por ejemplo cuando veo que alguien está intentando hacerme perder el tiempo.

¿Tienes alguna fruta favorita?

Sinceramente, me encantan todas, cuando empiezo a estar aburrido de comer una misma fruta durante mucho tiempo, la temporada de las frutas cambia y la vida frugívora y la diversión continúan.

¿Puedes recordar la primera vez que probaste alguna fruta en particular?

Sí, cuando comí por primera vez fresas silvestres del bosque, frambuesas, manzanas tempraneras y cerezas....

¿Dónde y como te ves a ti mismo viviendo dentro de 10 años?

Quien sabe, quizás en el Paraíso....

Si todavía estoy vivo, supongo que comeré frutas como siempre, pero no puedo decir donde me va a llevar la vida, quizás a la India, o a Nueva Zelanda, o a Australia, no sé....

Incluso podría vivir en Baviera, o quedarme aquí en España, depende de como me afecte la situación política o de la compañía para vivir que encuentre.

Puedes estar seguro de una cosa, si empiezo una relación de nuevo, será con una chica frugívora.

¿Cómo te sientes si la gente te dice que debes estar loco, y que no es posible sobrevivir alimentándote del modo que tú lo haces?

Sobre todo evito esas situaciones, pero si no soy capaz de escapar a tiempo, me siento aburrido y triste sobre esas preguntas tan tontas...
A veces les reto a correr descalzos conmigo, quizás a subir la colina, para ser capaz de dar una opinión realista sobre los frugívoros.

Mis respuestas habituales:
¿Quieres decir que ya estoy muerto?
¿Cómo es que tú estás hablando con una persona que no puede sobrevivir?
Gracias por venir a mi funeral.

Últimamente me concentro más en mis proyectos de arte frugívoros, restaurando y pintando mi casa.

Para terminar, ¿hay algo que te gustaría añadir como palabras de aliento para aquellos que aspiran al frugivorismo?

Gracias por la gran oportunidad de abrir mi corazón.

Lo bueno sobre el frugivorismo es que la gente más guapa del planeta es frugívora. Si tú ya eres un frugívoro comparte tus relaciones con otros frugívoros y manteneros juntos. Nunca hagas el amor con gente cruel, y no dejes que te rodeen personas agresivas.

Gracias Rudolf

Gracias Mango, por esta profunda entrevista y vamos a buscar un momento para corregir mis ridículos errores con el inglés. Gracias.

Vale, no te preocupes con el inglés, corregí lo peor...

Abrazo, Mango

Amor y Paz, abrazos y los mejores deseos para ti,

ons@

Useful Website - 24 - Learn a language (memrise)

2011-07-31T11:21:00.001+10:00

Much as one perhaps might think so, my life doesn't really revolve around fruit alone. I know this blog may sometimes give that impression, but there are other interests too.

At the moment, I am going through a phase where I'm finding it really difficult to write anything, anywhere. Some kind of writers block perhaps, or maybe because I've just been focusing my attention elsewhere, and finding little enthusiasm to prioritise here.

Currently, most of my online time, revolves around trying to get a grip on the Czech language. I'm determined that someday I'll be able to visit Kveta's family with her, in the Czech Republic, and be able to communicate with them in their native tongue. Well, there's not much other choice as that's about all they speak.

Other languages I've learned in the past, I've always been sort of immersed into. Hearing the spoken language on a daily basis, plenty of access to all manner of reading material, and plenty of opportunity to try out new words I learned. Living in Australia and learning Czech, however, is much more of a challenge. Kvĕta and I mostly speak English with one another, occasionally we'll use a bit of Czech, especially once I've learned a new phrase or so, I tend to try and put it into practice.. But considering we've been together now since 2006, I really feel quite ashamed that I am not able to say and understand more than I am currently able. To be honest, I've not really been making any effort, or headway, up until recently, which is odd, considering how I so much enjoy the challenge of a language.

So what's changed? Well.. I have often searched around on the internet, for language learning websites that might at some point prove useful for when I finally began sinking my teeth into Czech.. and, well, a couple of months back, I stumbled upon a relatively new site that had only been opened to the public for a matter of a few short weeks at the time.

It looked interesting, so I thought I'd sign up and give it a try. Initially more out of curiousity than anything else. They have a main section on learning Chinese, and as I'd studied Japanese way back 25 odd years ago, with emphasis on the writing system, I felt drawn to take a look at the similarities. I started one of the Chinese lessons they had, and immediately saw what a great potential the website had. They basically make language learning fun, turning it into a game more than anything, and it took me not more than a few clicks, before I realised that I could really use something like this to help teach me Czech.

I had no real intention of pushing further with the Chinese, so I dropped that and looked around the site some more..

Now, at the time, there were a good couple of dozen languages listed there to learn, and the ability for users to add new languages to the list too. Czech was already there, but completely empty, so I slowly began creating content within it. That's just one of the beauties of the website, - the ability to add new content, and learn words as you do so.

The Czech section has grown to about one and a half thousand words so far, pretty much all added by myself so far, but there are now about 30 people using that section to learn Czech, and those numbers are growing steadily.

What makes this site so unique and special? well, apart from allowing any user to add content, and share it with others, it also presents words or phrases to be learned in a way that is both fun and slightly addictive. Normally, I'm not a fan of addiction, but this sort of addiction is clearly beneficial to any language learner, at any level, for any language (someone's even created a section to learn Klingon!).

For each new word added, anyone can think up a mnemonic to help them remember it. You can also add example usage or notes on the etymology (roots) of a word, as well as alternatives and much more in the pipeline.

If you're not sure what is meant by mnemonic, it's basically a method of helping the memory to better organise and recall. So basically, if I were to tell you that the word for peach in Czech is "broskev", chances are that in five minutes or less, you'll have forgotten the word already. However, if I concoct the story that the greengrocers down the road from where I lived growing up was run by 2 brothers, both called Kevin, and that their shop was called "BROS. KEV", and that they had the most juicy, sweetest, flavourful PEACHEs you could ever imagine, you may remember what peach is in Czech in a week from now.. Especially if you specifically have a desire to know it in the first place.

And the website is still in BETA, which means that it's early days still, and you can expect lots of changes to it in the coming months, improvements and added tools, not to mention the ever growing user base full of people who are themselves improving the website by adding content and mnemonics. Honestly, I think for most people struggling with language learning, this website could prove invaluable. You've really got to experience it to appreciate it's qualities. It's 100% free. I see this website with enormous potential and could possibly be a new facebook, social website place for language enthusiasts.

Want to czech it out? (pun intended). here it is:

http://www.memrise.com

International Fruit Day!

2011-07-01T10:37:00.002+10:00

It's here again! Today marks the celebration of the 5th International Fruit day, held each year on July 1st.

Get real! Eat fruit!

This year the day of fruits stands in the sign of the mango which is the chosen fruit for 2011.

Mango, Mango, Olé!

To celebrate, all you have to do is just eat fruit for the day, share a fruit meal with friends, surprise family members with a big fruit salad, buy a fruit you've never eaten before, give a fruit you've eaten before and didn't enjoy, another chance.. the options are endless, but all focus around bringing more awareness of the goodness and life giving qualities of a fruit entered lifestyle.

For us, it'll be just like every other day. Filled with fruit meals and fruit thoughts. Plus of course other activities.

Mango Fruit of 2011

We lead a very simple lifestyle really, most days we start the day with a freshly squeezed fruit juice, maybe do a spot of gardening, burying compost (all our fruit sraps get buried in the garden, and produce the most nutritious soil when biodegraded, - the proof being the little fruit we are able to grow being of above average sweetness.), weeding, pruning off dead leaves, etc.

Maybe a swim in the local river, or a visit to friends out at fruitopia..

I'm also currently spending a fair bit of my time studying the Czech language. I'm using a website called MEMRISE.COM, to aid learning, it's a great website that enables one to learn pretty much any language through the use of mnemonics.. SO far though, it's really only me working on the Czech language side, and I've added about 600 or so words there.. The websites free, and still in Beta, and I'm told to expect big changes. Language learning is fun, this'll be my 6th or so I've learned, but I guess one never stops learning a foreign language..

Meanwhile, through it all, way wait, practicing impatience, yearning for the Divine to provide us with a house on a plot of land, with privacy, seclusion, good soil, and water, to live out the rest of our days on.. So far, the issue is really about lack of money for such an investment, and lack of available places that are up for long term leases.. Never-the-less, we are confident that such a place will eventually be manifested for us, and in this area too, which has a near abouts perfect all year round climate.

Anyhow, happy international fruit day to you all,
mango.

Fruitarian Interview - 40 - Pom Vincent

2011-06-15T12:44:00.002+10:00

Hi Pom,

I like to always start these interviews off with a brief introduction of the interviewee.. Maybe tell us your age, where you grew up, where you are currently living, anything else you consider to be particularly relevant?

I'm 27, and grew up in Canada in the french province of Quebec, in the suburbs of Montreal city. And now I'm living in the north Tharaka region, by the Meru national park, in Kenya.

For 6 years I have been traveling in North America, Canada, from forest to forest. I have lived outside during all 4 seasons, winter included, and would move every season, build my camp, harvest the resources around me, make some money on nearby farms, play music, sell what I'd harvested from nature, etc... I also lived with some aboriginal tribes for some years, the Haidas, the Carriers, Cris, But mostly the Algonquins. They have been teaching me a lot, but now I realize how unimportant this was, for human beings are not meant to live in such conditions. I also lived in communities that I considered my family, I was in one, that's now deep in the forests of Quebec, Canada, with 14 other rainbow brothers and sisters, among the local aboriginals the Algonquins for 2 years.

Pom, Living outdoors in North America

I have also lived the intoxicated life of every white / civilized people on earth; high hormone, high protein, high fat, high everything diet (except goodness!). So I am also very in need of healing. Like every other "civilized"/white kid, I also grew up alone, watching television and always surrounded by strangers, including my parents, brother and sister that I never got to know, so we were just fighting like every other "normal" dysfunctional family.

In his one time abode.

Great.. Now before we get into the rest of it.. Please tell us your website details!

fruitariancommunity.tk, with a blog at fruitariancommunity.blogspot.com

And you're living in Kenya now - I understand you arrived there with a couple of other fruitarians (Tanya & Sunshine) right? You all met at the French fruitarian festival last year I believe, had you known each other before that gathering? What were your impressions of the gathering?

Unfortunately, most of the characters had left a day or two before I got there... But most importantly I met Phillipe, Tanya and her ex-boyfriend Salvo. Sunshine had left the festival about a day or two before I arrived. I didn't know any of them prior to the gathering. Tanya already realized that being on a fruitarian diet only was not all there was to being fruitarian, but that it was about what is best suited for us. - Cooked food and much of the the rest this crazy world of division most call "civilisation" does not suit us.

So what were your overall impressions of the gathering?

It was perfect for what I needed, the missing information that gave me the solution to how to end suffering on earth and heal its' inhabitants. Like I said, most of the fruitarians and breatharians had left just before I got there. The fruit there was not of very good quality, and very expensive, but it was a place for people to debate and learn about many things one would never hear about, very "underground" information... Probably the most important gathering that has ever existed since the disconnection from nature. The "wisest" meeting I would say.

Do you know if there are any plans for further such events?

I heard there's supposed to be one happening in Spain (fruktifest.org, don't know for certain if it's true. I know Phillipe was trying to pull it off, but no one helped, I haven't heard any news from him for a while. There are raw vegan events that are happening in Australia and northern Europe, but they all teach people to listen to books instead of their bodies to learn about anything, to listen to nutritional "experts". So I don't recommend those. For Kenya I wouldn't recommend it either, I simply don't encourage anyone to fly, unless it's for the last time or for a high purpose, like healing.

So what happened after the gathering?

It started when Tanya and I looked into each others eyes. A long silence. And we both agreed on what we had to do - get back to nature. So we spread the word, and many others decided to join the adventure. So 8 of us sailed with 2 cars to southern Spain to find land where we could start a community of fruitarians. It was amazing, we found a micro-climate, we ate from the trees for every meal, we were naked the entire time, and debating and talking about all the greatness of the fruitarian life and how we would make this community come to life. For 3 weeks we lived that way.

Then I had to move back to Canada. I sold and got rid of everything, including my precious dog, and my djembe!! (djembe had been my life for many years..). It took me 1 month to get everything organised, which was as fast as I could manage it. I got just enough money to pay for my plane ticket. I left with no luggage, no bags, nothing, I think I had about $40 in my pocket. Some would say it was courageous, I call it desperate, for once one realizes what I'd realized, the world becomes quite a different place, and one's task very clear.

For more information about how this adventure with Sunshine and Tanya unfolded, you can visit the NEWS section on our website.

So, arriving in Kenya, there were just 3 of you right?

Yes, you're right, I came to Kenya with Sunshine and Tanya.

Before we go into more details about the Kenyan project, let's just backtrack a little first.. How long have you yourself been eating purely fruit?

Since last year, around March 2010, I became raw, a matter of healing my half dead body and to help my friend Melanie become a good mother for her new baby Soliane, who I really loved. Around June, 3 months later, I met an almost fruitarian called Francesco, from Italy, at a rainbow gathering in Quebec, Canada. It took him a couple of speeches to convert me into becoming an.... applearian!!! no joke!! unfortunately, they where not very ripe, so it was not the most pleasant thing ever... I've learned quite a bit by meeting Tanya and Sunshine.

I always ask people this too, because many people really don't fully get that I am really only after interviewing people that have a genuine belief in a fruitarianism that embraces an all fresh raw fruit diet, so just to be sure, you eat absolutely no nuts, seeds, greens, sugar cane juice, leaves, coconuts, roots, dried fruits or supplements right?

I've been 100% fruitarian for almost a year. no coconut, no greens, nuts, seeds, or anything else. Let's say that I don't really like to kill... lol

I have to be honest Pom, from following your occasional blog posts, you do give me the impression of being one of the few people I've interviewed that seems genuinely genuine about your intentions with fruitarianism.. I think I've interviewed a fair few people, and many of whom I don't fully believe have true intentions of ever just eating purely fruit, - and this despite them all confirming that this is there goal... So it is refreshing, to see someone come along who apparently understands that fruitarianism is so much more than a diet, and in many ways a pioneer in spreading that message.. I have to ask though, I know you are a member of the 30 bananas a day forum too (I'm surprised you haven't been banned from there yet, with your radical all fruit ideas!), were they perhaps also influential in helping you understand fruitarianism, or did the idea arise prior to you registering there?

Thanks a lot! I have never counted my calories, and I joined that website to find people that might be interested in joining or helping our project here. I also found fruitarians.net, much "wiser", many like-minded people found me there, or I found them. The 30bad site did help me in in some ways, but it seems that I was teaching and having to push people more than anything. Before discovering their forum, I was already on a straight path to purity, to my higher-self, and no books or professional "experts" are able to better guide me than my own body, since it is the only link I have to a higher conscience, where all the great and pure information is hidden. Here is a nice passage from "The Essene Gospel of Peace" that describes it nicely (I read it recently for the first time, it says what I was already teaching!)...

And Jesus answered: "Seek not the law in your scriptures, for the law is life, whereas the scripture is dead. I tell you truly, Moses received not his laws from God in writing, but through the living word. The law is living word of living God to living prophets for living men. In everything that is life is the law written. You find it in the grass, in the tree, in the river, in the mountain, in the birds of heaven, in the fishes of the sea; but seek it chiefly in yourselves. For I tell you truly, all living things are nearer to God than the scripture which is without life. God so made life and all living things that they might by the everlasting word teach the laws of the true God to man. God wrote not the laws in the pages of books, but in your heart and in your spirit. They are in your breath, your blood, your bone; in your flesh, your bowels, your eyes, your ears, and in every little part of your body. They are present in the air, in the water, in the earth, in the plants, in the sunbeams, in the depths and in the heights. They all speak to you that you may understand the tongue and the will of the living God. But you shut your eyes that you may not see, and you shut your ears that you may not hear. I tell you truly, that the scripture is the work of man, but life and all its hosts are the work of our God. Wherefore do you not listen to the words of God which are written in His works? And wherefore do you study the dead scriptures which are the work of the hands of men?"

So ethics has been a steering factor that's helped you see toward the goal of Eden?

I have been living as an outcast, wandering for about 6 years, and I've seen many things in this world that people just don't see. So when I found out about fruitarianism, and how we are meant to be one with nature, it didn't take me too much to make the next step. I was already living with no electricity and almost no technology, in a deep forest of Quebec, a national forest reserve with the aboriginals... So ethics were already part of my life, I've always been considered a "radical". I'd been searching for a way to fully reconnect with the peace of nature for 7 years..

North America

What changes have you observed since you started making positive improvements to your diet? - weightwise/healthwise, spiritually, physically, emotionally etc?

Very many!! for weight, well, I must first say 2 things, 1stly, that the only way to gain weight healthily, is by muscle.. And secondly, the body I have now is the body I've been stuck with since puberty. I mean that it is before puberty that we create muscle, brain, strong bones etc... and the early puberty made me under-developed, since many of you know that the beginning of puberty is launched when one has too many hormones in ones body... All my life I'd been eating animal products for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And not just any animal products, but industrial animal products, American style. - Which are loaded with hormones, antibiotics, other chemicals and more.... without mentioning the kind of foods those poor animals themselves had been force fed, all those GMs... I'm quite skinny since I only have 5% fat that I am supposed to have, but the people who I live close to understand, and it helps me teach people about not feeding meat to their kids especially.

I also see that I am way less emotional, less "edgy", or bi-polar as some people call it. For I understand that it is due to the poisoning. But the diet is one thing, and detoxing is another. Fasting is the fastest and most effective way to clean ourselves to reach peace, higher conscience, unity with the world and love. You can eat fruit for many years, but the poison will stay with you for a long time, making you emotionally imbalanced, dysfunctional...

How are you getting money? and how do you deal with it?

First I must say that I understand that money brings division, and that all we really need, is free. But we have to suffer the ignorance of our disconnection from nature for a while longer still. So I use money with the tip of my fingers, doing my best to stop using it as quick as possible, and do my best not to give it to people that will use it for drugs, so I hire other fruitarians that are not into buying technology. Like the the Caponokia people (see the F.A.Q. section of our website about THE LOCALS)

We get money from donations, which are very low, almost none existent. To be honest, there is one person that has given us some. But the project is just starting, so slowly, I'm getting peoples attention. Right now we have a big need for donations, it's the most important time right now, the time to plant! Things are very cheap here, a worker for instance costs about 3-5 euros per day, of hard work! fruits for most of us cost 50 cents per day. So with let's say 2000 euro, I would hire 3 guys full time for a few months, I would get the seeds I need to plant our 50 acres, I would build more natural shelters for a fasting retreat, I would get better fruits for the locals and guaranty the functioning of the shop making sure everyone can afford a fruit diet (50 cents is the maximum they can afford for food per day), I would build elevated water tanks to water the land which is too far away for the water pump, accessing the water from the river to reach, and I would even buy the seeds for the fruitarians that have land to plant, that could be up to 200 acre per year... (lots of seeds)

When do you think you'll be seeing Sunshine and Tanya again?

Honestly I have no real idea, I hope they will join me as soon as possible, as I'm more in tune with my higher self when they are around. Good influences. Now with Brian, and Niya coming, Brian and I believe we will have a breatharian community very shortly!! I believe it!

Let's get back to your Kenyan project now.. I've read that you have influenced quite a few of the locals into becoming fruitarian right? How many have taken that step now?

There are now 18 locals that are fruitarian, or should I say bananarian! It's the cheapest food here, the only one really affordable for them. So slowly they understand the need to plant their full shamba [ki-swahili for food garden] with fruit trees, but the problem is the lack of seeds, I've found where to get them, but we have no more money!! donations are almost non-existent.

Why do you think it's been so easy for them to grasp the concept of fruitarianism?

Well first there're the locals that are part of that religion called caponokia. They are against everything that is industrialised, such as the schools, medicine, money, technology, even having more than one set of clothing!! They are even against churches, they gather under a tree on top a a beautiful hill!! So when I arrived, it didn't take long before these guys had embraced the concept, and shortly after, the practices. One of them, my good friend Biti, the father of the 6 kids, all fruitarian with his wife also, told me that the people of his religion will all become fruitarian as soon as they hear about it... - That's about 1000 in this small region, and he keeps repeating, we need seeds!!!

Then there're the other locals, they just simply like the idea!! So why not? People here are very different then the rest of the world, much closer to nature, with no money and no civilisation around them, they have been pretty brainwashed by the schools but are very easily de-brainwashed. More than anywhere else I've taught about fruitarianism and natural living. They are extremely receptive! I strongly believe that if we have just a few more seed donations we will see 100 fruitarians within a couple of months, I beleive it, and I will show it!! The guy working at the fruitarian shop I made keeps saying there're up to 5-10 people talking about joining, and one to three join every week! It's just about getting the donations to run the shop.

Tell me about that shop, how does it run?

That shop is the core of this project. The people are influencing each other, soooo much! Here's how it goes... The shop is at the market called Saouri, not many people sell fruits there. All the fruits are 16 km away, at a market called Kunati. The market days are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. So each of those days, I send 3 guys (soon 4, then 5...) with their bicycles, and two big crates each to the market, 16km away (it cost 250ksh each (2.5 euros)). Its uphill, so the way back is not so hard. They each come back with about 80kg of fruits, no joke! I personally did it for 3 weeks, and I came to like it very much! So I get them to get the fruit from Kunati, for a good cheap price, and contrary to the other guys who go there and do the same thing, but re-sell the fruit at twice the price, I re-sell it at the same price, or almost. So only then the locals can afford to live on a fruit only diet.

You really think even more will be joining you then?

The people of the caponokia religion are already talking about buying land in the isolated place that I choose to be the site of the big project, before I even mentioned it to them. They understand that everyone living in this dysfunctional world is dangerous, and that we must go to a quiet, safe, and peaceful place. All we need is about 40,000 euros to buy 200 acres, next to the Meru national park!!! check out the F.A.Q. section on our website about it.

What are their views on nudity there? Are the locals OK with naturism? Do they all walk barefoot?

Nudity is not possible for the moment, which is unfortunate, but I think it will change, at least for whoever truly desires to be naked. The guys don't mind when I'm naked, but the girls stay way... The locals I think will take a very long time before they do so... or maybe not!!

People here walk barefoot quite a lot, kids or adults, but it's usually a matter of whether or not they have money for footwear though - A fair bit of money poverty here.

Tell us of your gardening projects there?

It's not doing so well, I haven't been on the land for some time, and I just heard that the monkeys have destroyed most of it... But I will plant quickly another 5 thousand papaya seeds this week. The rock melons, water melons, and some soursop are growing though. Bananas, Mangoes and Jackfruits are coming on. I have to repeat, we really need donations!!

Tell us readers what we can do to help? How can someone go about donating seeds to you? Are there any legal restrictions in sending seeds to Kenya? How should the seeds be sent? Where to?

There are heavy legal restrictions preventing me from getting seeds from abroad. It is possible to do it though So if anyone wants to send a large amount of seeds, I will arrange everything, legally. But for now the best is to send money for us to buy seeds here, I keep finding new fruits that are great, with new contacts helping me to find them.

How can people send you money donations? do you have a paypal or is it safe to send cash?

The website doesn’t have paypal yet, there is no one with a credit card in our village, And I insist that no one should get one, it will ruin them! So I really try to find someone that has one already. The best for anything above 80euro is to send it through western union. Under that the fees are 20%.

From what you've said here and elsewhere, I get the impression that the fruit choice there at the moment is pretty slim until you can manage to get more things growing, how are you coping with that?

Here the locals are just asking for bananas, so that's pretty much all we get. But if I get a craving, I ask one of the guys that does the delivery to get me some papaya, watermelon or soursop, which are the only fruits I really recommend, but others can get oranges, pineapples or low quality guavas. Custard Apples will be in season soon, with more water melons and honey dew melons. I must say that everything here is organic and very local.

Do you have a partner?

Nope, I'm a loner in this crazy world.

What do other members of your family back home in Canada make of your views on fruitarianism?

They have no idea of the reasons why I'm do what I'm doing, which saddens me a lot. It takes a lot of time to understand what I've done and am doing, I don't blame them. I can't say that they support me, or that they are interested in learning about it. I know that what they want is to see me with a regular job, living close to them, visiting them once in a while, and growing old with a simple routine similar to the ones they have. I love them dearly but only wish them the healing they need, and it pains me to see them running along the path of destruction, becoming more and more insane. Maybe one day they will understand, and seek healing.

Any cravings for cooked foods at all? or other foods you definitely know are not good choices?

One poisoning leads to another, so if I'm close to anything unnatural I consider myself in danger. Cravings are just addictions to stimulation. In a healthy environment, like the base camp I live at, everything is fine, and the people I'm dealing with are all fruitarians. This is one of the main reason why I do what I'm doing, to have a place where people can live with no negative stimulation around them, no fighting with cravings, no hustling, just peace. A place where kids can grow without even thinking about cooked food, surrounded by other fruitarian kids.

Any plans to write a book on fruitarianism?

Books aren't just books, first you need to cut down trees, with weapons created from destroying the creation, then you make paper, with other tools created from destruction, using oil, killing the earth faster and faster... then you need to print, there's yet more destructive technology, and then deliver.... using some of the most destructive technology on earth... When all the information we need is around us, waiting for us to open our eyes and ears to see and hear the messages. You can re-read the passage of the Essene gospel of peace above. What I need to do is to show the example, that will change the world, its actually working pretty well here!! these people haven't read a book about it!! and they will never see disease! they are on a straight path to inherit the heavens!!!

Any other places on the globe you are particularly fond of?

It took me a long time to find the place I live now, and I believe it's the only place I should be at. But if others are interested in going back to nature, by recreating our natural habitat, I would suggest the Congo, Tanzania, Gabon or Cameroon. I haven't been to any of those places but they were on my list of only choices where it would be a good place to re-create our natural habitat. You can read the F.A.Q. section of our website to know more about that.

Can you name some fruits that you've not tried yet but are looking forward to trying?

We need seeds that give trees, no bush or vines, trees!! any fruit that doesn't need grafting or any particular care. Fruits that don't require tools to eat, that are juicy, and sweet!! Human food!! I'm from Canada, so I don't know anything about tropical fruits, except for the couple I've tried so far. I found a list of fruits that seem to fit that description (I don't know any of them lol!)...

lychee, mangosteen, rambutan, guava, maprang, longkong or langsat, dragonfruit, mafai, star apple, sugar apple, breadfruit, sapodilla, santol, asian palmyra palm.

I don't see durian on that list.. they're a must have I'd say!

Durian? You mean the highly addictive fruit, high in fat, that you need a tool to eat? Lol..

How many other 100% fruitarians do you know now?

Knowing someone means knowing what? lol I've met Salvo, he was applearian for about 7 month, and very healthy looking, eating only 2kg per day, Tanya did a similar experience, she even went down to 1-3 apple per day for a few weeks, never lost weight nor energy, they were both working in a very busy kitchen in Italy, Salvo cooking pizza and Tanya doing the service... very funny no? Salvo had been on 100% fruit for about a year when I met him, that was 6-8 months ago, and last news I got from him was that he was almost breatharian, and loosing neither weight nor energy! Tanya has been 100% fruits for about 2-3 years, she looks very healthy and does exercise everyday. Sunshine also, but he is still recovering from a near death experience from before he became raw, he is slowly catching up, fasting regularly. I've seen a few people fast in my life, including my own experiences, but when that guy fasts, it's a lot of detox!! I met Phillipe also at the fruktifest, but the man was eating avocados like anything, and maybe some nuts. I witnessed him not eating for almost 3 weeks though, and after 2 weeks he and I climbed a mountain, and he was ahead of me the entire time! He is almost breatharian. Now there's Brian, a Kenyan that found me through the internet, he is leaving everything to live with me, he is liquidarian on the way to be breatharian, does lots of exercise, very healthy looking. You can check him out on the ABOUT US section on the website. Of course I must include the 18 other local fruitarians here!! One of them has only eaten bananas for 3 months, and he is doing very fine! the others, most of them, for about 6-7 weeks ago, since I opened the shop, all of them doing better then ever, loving the simple life and extra energy. If my count is right, that's 4 women, 9 kids, and 10 guys I know that eat only fruit.

Can you suggest anyone else that might be up for being interviewed???

I would suggest all the locals here!! But especially Brian, very very much.

Could you hazard a guess as to how many 100% fruitarians there might be in the world? Do you think the idea is spreading?

100% fruitarian? hmmm, maybe 50? there's about 30-or 40 on fruitarians.net, and the others here... The idea is definitely spreading here! anywhere else in the world must be difficult, since Africa is the last place the industries have put their footprint, the people are still quite healthy, some get their puberty at 18!! so the healthier they are, the closer to reality they are too. They all have their own land, ready to plant, they already live on the equator, etc... I strongly believe that with enough donations for seeds, there will be at least a thousand fruitarians here within a very short time, believe it or not!! There are about 1000 Caponokias here, and they've said that its just a matter of them knowing you can live on fruits and they will do it, it will free them from the evil industries! their dream!! And then there's a steady trickle of the local (non Caponokias) that are joining weekly!

Do any of the locals feel that your diet is extreme or crazy, or try to persuade you that you need to eat animal flesh?

The idea that Africans eat a lot of meat is only propaganda from the meat industries, everyone knows that Africans have strong bodies with strong muscles. The reality is that they don't eat meat, or barely! Meat is simply too expensive! they all do goat and cow herding, but they sell them, they don't eat them! They never say that you need meat to be healthy!! ha!! lots of them are almost vegan, those get puberty at up to 18 years old!! You should see these people!! beautiful! So intelligent! It helps me to imagine how they would be if they only ate fruit... Their attachment to food is none-existent, they don't care about food, they eat because they believe they need it... NONE OF THE LOCAL FRUITARIANS HAVE CRAVINGS, NONE AT ALL!!!

Do you think that now they are embracing the simplicity of an all fruit diet, they will also stop keeping and selling goat and cattle to be slaughtered? I mean even if they don't eat them themselves, it's still not exactly an ethical choice they're making there.. I'm wondering also if they are milking their animals, and whether or not cheese and dairy products have at all been a part of their diets, if if only minimally, and if so, how they might feel about leaving that behind?

There was a time when I was teaching like a maniac, but I've remembered one of the things Sunshine kept telling me, you can only teach what people are ready to be taught. So I almost completely stopped, and guess what, everyday I get people coming to me and explaining what epiphany they've had that day… They have asked me what they should do with the cows they have, we really thought about this one!! They will sell them eventually, and not get any more. The milk is very expensive, they only drink it with their tea. And as for leaving any food behind, I've said it before, they have no attachment to food, at all!! Some say they have forgotten about it completely! No cooked-food dreams even!!

Is there somewhere close by that you can swim regularly? Do you have to watch out for wild animals?

I swim everyday, the base camp is next to a beautiful river, permanent, when it's the rain season we can't really drink from it, but the locals do though... There's even a waterfall, and a long stretch to make laps.

No dam on the land though, the river belongs to the Kenya wildlife services, it's protected.

There are small crocodile like caiman, they pose no real danger, there's also some kind of Komodo dragon, very nice. Hippos are there sometimes, under the water, so one must be careful.

Where and how do you see yourself living and eating in 10 years from now?

Right here!! In my natural habitat, one with the creation that made me.

Carnivores at Meru National Park.

Finally, is there anything you'd like to add as words of encouragement to those that are aspiring toward fruitarianism?

Fruit is the food of perfection, no killing, no harming, just peace, unity, light and perfection. Fruit is our food. Look at the animals in the wild! the more they eat fruits, the more they look like us! and the ones that look, act and interact the most like us are the bonobos, and they eat 80-90% fruits! imagine a species that only ate fruits, that's us! the wisest, most peaceful, most lovely, most beautiful, the only species all other animals look up too! Don't fear, listen to your body, fast for 30 days, and start your new life, one with yourself, and soon with your higher self. We must claim back the earth, leave your intoxicated world, nature is waiting for you, screaming for you! come back to her!! It's easier then getting a degree! Or heck, just come and join us! you don't need anything! get a bicycle, and/or a shovel for digging, Or just come with nothing, and you'll be fine! plenty or work right now, but you only need about 1 euro or less per day! Get rid of everything!! It's easier that way..

Unity for purity.

Pom

Fruitarian Community..

2011-05-21T07:24:00.003+10:00

I've been following an idea for a while, and keep thinking I need to write a blog post about it, so here I am, finally finding time to get around to it..

Some time ago, a friend of ours from here in Australia, a young guy named Sunshine, decided to give fruitarianism a shot. I'm talking of course, of true fruitarianism, a lifestyle that consists of a purely fruit diet.. no nuts, seeds, greens or roots, and we wished him success with his experiment. - His lifestyle choices were fundamentally steered by ethics, and he felt that the time was right, as was the place and decision he'd chosen to follow, so off he trundled out into the world.

He attended the Fruktifest fruitarian gathering that was held in France in 2010. From reports I've heard, it wasn't entirely what I'd expected it to be, but several like-minded people attended, and together a few of them formed the idea of a fruitarian community. Enthused through their meeting and eager to get something started, I think 7 of them journeyed off together to southern Spain where they lived and shared their lives and fruits together for a while.. I believe they were checking out the possibility of purchasing land there, and although I'm not altogether sure of their circumstances and location there, I like to picture them living naked under some fruit trees, swimming in natural water, and enjoying life.

I'm also guessing, (as the truth is I am filling in the gaps with my guesswork), that they were unable to find anything affordable and suitable enough, some likely became restless or, saw this not entirely as they had planned, and decided to move off doing their own things).. What I believe is correct, is that 3 of the small tribe, up and left Europe altogether, together, in the altogether (OK.. OK.. I just made that last bit up about them being in the altogether!).. And ended up in Africa.. - Kenya to be more precise.

Sunshine, Tanya and Pom. (Pom & Tanya both originate from Italy)

Their discoveries, after having already lived there for several months, is that land is abundant, with rich soil, and most assuredly affordable. Land consisting of acres being available for as little as a couple of hundred euros per acre! (compare that to here, where a simple 1 acre prime block of land, with no structure on it, will cost no less than $100,000 (Australian!))..

Anyhow, it seems that the 3 of them, although remaining in close contact, are no longer travelling as a clan, but Sunshine and Tanya are somewhere close to the coast, where there is more of an abundance of available fruit to be had, while Pom has moved inland.. Initially in search of land, but now I gather preparing and planting out on a spot that he is living on, with melons, and other quick growing fruits, in preparation for the others to join him.

Now for the amazing news.. Being in close contact with the native inhabitants, (they built a mud hut dwelling for him to live in!) Pom's lifestyle has rubbed off on them. They have seen him eating just fruit, and questioned his choices. Pom has explained enthusiastically, and the local Kenyans have simply embraced the idea.. He now has I think 17 friends that are proud to call themselves fruitarian, and keen to get more fruit trees planted. They seem to simply love the idea that they can live on just fruit, as it fits in perfectly with their already established religion and belief system.. One local, recently converted guy, Biti is so excited about the idea, he claims that all of his community may turn fruitarian once they hear of it, and that would be about a 1000 people! (apparently they are against schools, establishments, industries, money and consider such things as unavoidable evils.. They don't believe in medicines, like to sing and pray when they plant, and instead of attending any church or such, gather under a tree in nature to praise the Divine. I've heard they also tend to dryfast every couple of weeks for 2 to 4 days!).

One of Poms recently converted Kenyan friends
eating a banana
This is really quite incredible news, as I doubt I myself would have thought of Kenya as being an ideal place to establish a fruitarian community. My misgivings would likely center more around the potential political instability of that part of the world. I have spent a little time in the country though, and do see it's land and people have potential. - back in the beginning of the 80's, my brother was teaching at a school in a little village called Yala in Kenya, and myself, Helena, my sister, and mum & dad all went out to visit him for a few weeks. The experience had quite an impression on me, especially the week long safari seeing all the animals so close.

Apparently due to underlying corruption throughout the officialdom, it is very easy to get ones visa renewed without actually having to leave the country.. (all it takes is a little under the desk bribery, and papers get stamped, no questions asked).

I'm following the project keenly through the website some kind soul has knocked together for Pom: fruitariancommunity.tk. And if anyone wishes to help him out in any fashion, through donation of tropical fruit seed or with desire to join them in Kenya and help advance their efforts, all help would be appreciated, and you can contact him via: wearefruitarian at gmail dot com.

On the confusing side for me though, despite Pom's apparent eagerness to make things happen there, I spoke briefly with Sunshine on the phone several weeks ago. He seemed very uncertain of whether he truly desired to stay in Kenya, and was asking many questions about land availability and affordability back in this corner of the world, and talking also of the possibility of south America. He gave me the impression of being most undecided.

I have no real idea either, of what Tanya's thoughts are on the whole issue.

Several months ago I sent Sunshine an interview and he's still working on that but as he's avoiding computers, progress is slow.. I intend to interview Pom and Tanya too but so far haven't gotten around to organise those [Update: Pom's interview is now online here].. I get the impression with Pom, that he is one of the few people that really seems to get what fruitarianism is about, and there's a part of me that almost wishes I was younger again, and could get out there and join him on his (ad)venture.. But, no I'm feeling settled where we are, and no genuine desires to be anywhere other than here.. sure, would love for the universe to hurry up and miraculously manifest the place we are waiting impatiently for, but I don't see that place as being too far from here..

Anyhow.. Anyone interested in finding out more, I suggest you visit the website and blog (that can be linked to from the website).. I for one am curious to see how this project unfolds and evolves.

Peace,
mango.

On Grains and green vegetables..

2011-05-17T12:47:00.001+10:00

It's been a while since I last post something. I have just not really felt the urge to do so, although at times I have thoughts that filter toward the front of my mind and urge me to put them to paper, I have been neglecting to do so. I don't know, maybe it is some kind of writers block that prevents me from even beginning. Whatever it is, I am not totally happy with it myself, as I enjoy writing, and feel I still have lots that needs to be said.

So where to start now? Well.. I've recently received a fair few emails that have thus far gone unanswered. I'm afraid if you do email me via my website, I may not always find the time to reply, and don't particularly feel that I should be obliged to do so. I prefer if people ask me questions here on my blog, as that way the answers get to be shared with everyone. That's why I try to keep my FAQs page updated, so that people can refer to that first. Like someone recently asked me once more why I don't eat greens.. For sure, I'm likely to go into more detail on that again in a later post, but for the meantime, I suggest you check out the FAQ page, and look at the answer I give there.. anything more specific, you might ask directly on a post that talks specifically about greens..

OK.. Another email question I've received lately I'm going to attempt to answer here:

I am an 18 year old male from London who has had Anorexia Nervosa for 4 years but I'm recovering by myself, and am still struggling to find the right path.

I am a vegan (not raw) transitioning to Fruitarianism as I believe it's the only way to be fully at peace and I'm tired of being dependent on man and not the Earth.

You have really inspired me and I am fascinated by you... Even you're view that it's only 'you who can decide what and when to eat' makes so much sense as opposed to these other RV sites which promote gluttony even on a healthy/natural die. - The 30BaD website helped me, but deep down I knew that forcing myself to eat such large quantities was unnecessary, I really need a balance and not one of over indulging without any true reason that makes sense, if you know what I mean.

Surely this is not at all spiritually different from a Omnivorous diet as it is still calculating etc and is artificial.. You on the other hand go with natural cues, which is why you're so amazing...

I am living off grains and green vegetables currently and seem very calm and comfortable. However, is this ok? I really want to find peace, and you seem to have done that....

I'm not a bad person for consuming grains am I? And I was glad to see your comment that 'noone knows better than yourself' as this really woke me up from my daydream of relying on other peoples routine!

OK.. Firstly I wish to make it abundantly clear that I don't give dietary advice. I basically blatantly state my opinion, which human as we ALL are, I'm aware could ultimately be wrong. This world has too many people in it that are unwilling to take responsibility for their own actions and choices, and I know that cosmically speaking, I am ultimately only really responsible for my own thoughts, choices and actions. And I know the same goes for everyone else, much as when things go wrong they are only too eager to point the finger elsewhere.

But having said that, I shall now state my opinion. Yes, I believe that force feeding oneself, more than the body desires, makes little sense to me, and therefore I cannot accept that a decision to do so is based on any real wisdom. (sure, people will think the same about my choice to eat purely fruit, but well, let them, I say!). I cannot claim to have any in depth experience and knowledge of anorexia specifically, but I do believe that it is just one of a multitude of disorders that prevail throughout the world. The vast majority of people out there have never been truly educated to what constitutes real food, eating all manner of highly addictive foodstuffs which can lead to countless nutritional problems. So I try to maintain a simplistic approach to it all, and view all problems as fundamentally the same, with the same principle underlying causes, and basically the same solution. Sure, you could come up with rare examples that apparently don't fit this pattern, but go back far enough and be observant enough, and I believe that even those cases can be seen to have the basic same origins. IE, not everything can be fixed through the duration of one single lifetime. But certainly improved though!

You question of whether the overindulging of even comparatively good foods can be spiritually any different to that of the standard omnivorous diet. I personally wonder why such a question arises.. I see the 2 as very different, for the basic Low Fat Raw Vegan diet to which you refer, has already made great spiritual progress through avoiding the consumption of animal products and cooked foods, sure they may be still stuck in their rut of classifying foods as carbohydrates, fats and omegas, and bent on counting calories, but for them, they feel a need to be comforted by such, it is not a bad thing, although I do believe fear-based - like they may feel that if they don't do so, they can get their balances wrong, and end up suffering from it. They just do not trust their own bodies yet, and have been mesmerized by the hypnotic numbers quoted by nutritional pseudo-scientists. Hence the overeating too, they feel they need to do that. Depriving them of that will help noone.. Some of them will eventually evolve beyond such a need, but that'll be an individual thing. I hold no attachment to any of it, and wish them all well.

You ask if you are a bad person for consuming grains.. Well, no, that wouldn't be nice of me! I mean, who would I be to judge anyone as bad. That's not for any of us to do. Now I can judge actions as bad, and/or misguided, and I do believe that eating grains is misguided. And my judgements may or may not be correct. That's the way the world is, we have to all make up our own minds about what we truly think is right or not. If you want to perhaps get more of an insight into why I believe grain eating is folly, then imagine yourself growing and harvesting your own grain. Seriously, you don't have to actually go out and do that, just use your imagination. No machinery.. Just picture the work and effort that would be required.. How will you stop weeds growing between the grain? you can't weed without trampling all over it.. How much land do you think you will need to produce grain enough for one loaf of bread? How will you harvest it? Now picture yourself with an apple tree.. sure you may have to wait 8 years for one to grow and give fruit, but meanwhile there are an abundance of other ones around. There is tremendous work effort put into growing rice and every other grain, a good deal of which originates from hardworking underpaid manual workers in underdeveloped countries that have trouble feeding themselves. Their land is very often highly suitable for fruit tree growing which is far more profitable.. Grain is for the birds, out in nature, you could never gather enough to have a serious feed.

Green vegetables are a different story, and can be easily grown in ones own backyard, but the longer you are on a raw vegan diet, I believe you will naturally veer toward increasingly higher percentages of fruit. Especially when available. - Remember demand increases supply!

So, is it OK to be living on greens and grains? well.. it's all relative really.. You could be doing far far worse.. But there's always room for improvement too. That's the beauty of life, perfection may be an unattainable goal but that shouldn't stop you enjoying trying to reach it.

I wish you success on your path, and wisdom in your decision making.

Peace to you all!

Low Fat Raw Vegan vs Paleo.. The debate

2011-04-18T06:35:00.000+10:00

Well folks, the debate took place on Friday the 15th April, our time, (down under), and I believe Kveta and I were one of the 1000 plus that listened in to the event live.

It was sort of entertaining, but I must admit it left me a little frustrated.

In his closing statement, Richard (the cooked flesh eater), claimed that Harley (the calorie counting vegan) was more debating against general omnivores than Paleo specific, but to be honest, Richard was doing exactly the same, debating more against veganism than Harleys more specific version of low fat, and raw.

Neither party really went overboard loosing their cool at any time, which admittedly surprised me with Richard, as when I briefly attempted a discussion with him over at his blog, his responses (and those of the bulk of the rest of his disciples) were generally quite primitive in nature, and consisted of a fair bit of name calling.

Richard gave a bit of an odd response to the question about whether he at all felt any moral qualms about his chosen diet, stating something about the rights for humans not coming from the fact that we can feel pain and suffer like animals, but rather that we can think. As if animals are themselves incapable of such, or as if every human is capable of such. Clearly neither is true.

He also very much showed his ignorance by stating his view that a vegan based lifestyle would destroy the earth and kill off animals by destroying their habitat. He clearly has neither an idea how much land is lost due to livestock farming, nor how much more environmentally sound an agriculture based predominantly around fruit tree growing has the potential to be. Perhaps he is comparing more a nomadic based lifestyle, of hunters and gatherers living in small tribes, something likely far afield from his own lifestyle choice.

The point was also made about Harley being too skinny in the eyes of a Paleo, but when Harley countered that his body weight and size was comparable to most other endurance athletes, Richard fully dismissed this, saying that his athletic prowess had nothing to do with the debate at hand.

Then there was that whole comparison he made of liver versus a bowl of fruit.. I mean yuck, who cares how much nutrient is in either (!).. one is dead and unappealingly disgusting, the other is vibrant, colourful and sweet..

Harley handled himself pretty well, but I do know that he has a tendency to exaggerate the truth at times. Not about his athletic fetes, I don't doubt those for a second, but he does state that he shares a flat with a paleo flat mate, and if it's the guy I believe it to be, then I don't think it's quite factual to be labeling him as paleo.

He also brought up the old adage about sticking a rabbit and a piece of fruit in with a baby and see which one it eats.. I used to like that one, but honestly, if you think about it, most omnivore parents would not give their babies living animals to kill themselves. They would kill and rip it open first. I would guess that an innocent baby would want to stick both items (the apple and the flesh) in their mouths, as that's how babies find out about the world.

Sure though, I will merit that the vast majority of humans don't have the heart to take a knife to a cows throat and kill it for lunch.

A little too much talk of triglycerines and the B12 critters (whatever they are) and their ilk for my liking, but I guess for many that's what they want to hear.

When Richard claimed that "the china study" had been debunked, Harley countered that, yes, by a 21 year old girl who he doubted the existence of. Personally I thought this a pretty weak response.. I mean, it's not that I myself have read the China study, nor have any great desire or intention to do so, nor have I seen the debunking response, but dismissing a debunk purely on the supposed age and gender of the debunker is a little unfair. (it may well be the debunk is weak by it's own merits, but if the author is genuinely a mystery, it may also be there was far more research put into it than Harley is aware).

And, this has little to do with his side of the debate, and is more about me wanting to be that small voice for fruitarianism, he also made that statement about not knowing anyone that eats just fruit (he knows Kveta and myself at least). But I guess he is entitled to believe that those of us that claim we do, are all liars, though I can't help but think still that Harley somehow feels threatened by the idea.. Also, I am quite curious to know where he get's his data from when he states so matter of factly that Ross Horne was not vegan.

Anyhow, Kudos to both parties for stepping up to the microphone and airing their view points. If you want to listen to it, here it is:

Listen to Harley vs Richard -

DurianRider vs the Animal Debate

Or if you want your own copy of the debate, then you can order one here:

http://realhealthdebate.com/sales/

hugs,
Mango

Crazy World News - 13 - Eggs soaked in piss.

2011-04-15T07:15:00.001+10:00

The truth, we're told, is often stranger than fiction, and this is surely one of those cases. Apparently, A certain chinese province is going wild about the latest delicatessen, - schoolboy urine soaked eggs!

Dongyang people boil eggs in boy’s urine and sell them for 1.50 yuan (just over 20 US cents each). They're said to be selling like hot cakes!

Now for me, eating birds eggs is pretty bizarre enough itself, boiling them adds to the chaos, and doing so with urine, and being allowed to simmer all day(!).. well, that's just the icing on the sugar of madness.

In 2008, these tong zi dan (Boy eggs), were listed by the city of Dongyong as a local intangible cultural heritage.

See: Boys Urine Soaked Eggs Listed as Local Specialty

Crikey.. Actually, on a similar note, I recall watching "An Idiot Abroad" (an excellent TV documentary series well worth watching), a guy named Karl Pilkington who travels to see the 7 wonders of the world, one of them being the great wall of china. Anyhow, he gives his view on the chinese way of eating, which to be sure is not much more bizarre than his own, just different.. See this video about 2 minutes in, where they show yet another way eggs are eaten in that part of the world..

And if you found that bizarrely fascinating, have a look at this one:

Guy builds his own island out of plastic bottles.

2011-04-12T09:03:00.001+10:00

I recently stumbled onto this bit of interesting news, not exactly fruitarian in nature, but certainly innovative and inspiring.. It's about a British guy, ex-pat, named Rishi Sowa, living in Mexico, off the coast of an island called "Las Mujeres". He's built himself a small tropical paradise from recycled materials, predominantly discarded plastic drinking bottles.

According to this youtube video, the claims are, that he is totally self sufficient on an island no bigger than the size of a tennis court.. Growing his own small vegetable garden with pawpaw, tomatoes, spinach, cocounuts, cucumbers etc..

It's not mentioned in the video, but my guess is it's highly likely he is fishing too.. .

His island is a work in progress, and grows steadily each day as he is forever in search of additional discarded bottles too expand his home. It uses alternative energy sources to power the small electrical devices he uses, and he's even designed his own washing machine that works solely on the constant wave motion around the island.

This is how his island currently looks:

It's difficult to imagine the work he must have put in getting it just to the stage it is at.. fetching sand from the beaches to create a more island looking base to his home, and growing mangroves along the edge to stop sand errosion.. Actually, that's one of the aspects that puzzles me most about this project, - how does he stop the sea constantly stealing back the sand from his beaches?..

His plan is to one day, when he feels the island is ready, to raise the anchors and push out into the ocean becoming his own independent country. Though it seems difficult for me to imagine that the island will ever be sturdy enough to withstand heavy seas, (apparently this is his 2nd attempt as the original island was destroyed by a hurricane!), from what he's managed to accomplish so far, provided the Mexicans don't commandeer his little makeshift paradise, my guess is it seems likely he will achieve his goal.

To find out more, visit his website:

Spiralislanders.info

Harley Vs Richard.

2011-04-09T08:52:00.000+10:00

Well folks, I've mentioned this briefly earlier, but without making too big a fuss of it, as at the time, no date had been fixed in stone..

But that's just changed! A time-slot has been allocated, and both parties seem keen to come head to head..

THE DEBATE

In the green corner we have Durianrider Harley, who is taking the low fat raw vegan glycogen calorie obsessed 80/10/10 stance. And in the dripping blood red corner, Neanderthal Richard Nikoley, the high fat cooked zombie flesh eating paleo stance. Both parties are no doubt already firmly entrenched in their ways, and I seriously doubt either would be at all open to change their stance, so the debate will not be about convincing themselves or each other, but hopefully should be of some benefit to others who have yet to fully decide their paths.

The debate can be viewed live (just visit realhealthdebate.com, watch the intro video, and sign up to receive a link to the event). It'll be structured, with limited times allocated to each party, with both stating their cases, and both having time following to ask and answer each other questions.

It'll take place at 6pm PST on the 14th April (which works out to midday on the 15th here on the east coast of Australia).

I was reading up on Richards Blog, and he seems pretty confident, as do most of the comments from his followers who admittedly, are not the sharpest tools in the box. No doubt similar confidence is being expressed over at 30 bananas a day..

If nothing else, I'm sure the debate will prove itself entertaining. Enjoy

13th International Vegan Festival..

2011-04-08T09:29:00.002+10:00

Admittedly, I'm a tad late getting this news out there, but for whatever reason, the grape vine infoline must have been moving trickle slow, as I've only just heard word of the event.

It seems that Spain this year will once more be hosting an international vegan festival.. The 13th of it's kind, and 2nd to be organised by Francisco Martin, who just so happened to have also organised the 7th festival which took place in Tossa del Mar (North East coast of Spain in September 1993).

The International Vegan Festivals are by no means yearly events, but get organised purely when someone is brave enough to do so. Their focus is on promoting veganism, and bringing more vegan awareness to the world... Generally there are several guest speakers that turn up for the event, with talks ranging from creation of simple vegan cuisine, to renowned doctors talking of the nutritional benefits of a vegan diet (as oposed to an ominvorous one), a lecture or 2 on raw foods, if you're lucky maybe even one on fruitarianism!.. Some informative videos might get shown too, and there's always the odd walk arranged, outing, or early morning yoga meditation sessions. Each event is different.

The events normally attract a wide range of visitors from all corners of the globe, so I reckon it'd be a good guess that there'll be at least double figure countries represented..

This years festival will take place in just 2 months from now, in Malaga, southern Spain, at the beginning of June.. (June 4th to June 12th, 2011).

I've been fortunate enough to have attended 3 of the festivals myself in the past, the 6th held in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, England in the summer of 1992. The 7th in Tossa del Mar, and the 9th which was hosted by my good friend Zalan, at his guesthouse/retreat in Hepburn Springs, central Victoria, Australia, during the Christmas week of 1998..

Francisco Martin, the organiser of this years festival, is himself a raw food vegan of very long standing, probably some 30 odd years or so, give or take, and it was actually he, and a lecture he gave during the 6th festival, that helped me finally wake up and see the sense of becoming a raw vegan back in 1992.

I'm sure this years event will prove to be equally mind opening for many, and am sorry that I never got the news out earlier..

Should anyone out there wish to attend despite the ever so short notice, or just find out more, then go here: 13th IVF, Malaga, Spain.

Knowledge vs Belief.

2011-04-01T15:00:00.001+11:00

Still pondering over the recent attempt at debating with paleos, I've decided to hone in on another of their flawed arguments. One guy countered something I said by writing "the trouble with vegans, is they don't think, they believe".. Now putting aside that the guy who wrote this must surely have been thinking none too straight himself, (to the best of my knowledge, thought is a clear necessity for belief), what he really meant to say was that rather than rely on knowledge, we tend more toward belief, trust and faith.

Now.. there's no way that I will be denying this is very much true for myself, I do go very much on belief. Ethics and morality are about belief and opinion.. I acknowledge any views I may have on nutritional science, are purely based on belief and personal experience.

But what I further wish to underline, is that the vast majority of the paleos out there that talk of knowledge, and of concrete fact, are very much themselves in denial of their own beliefs. Knowledge requires first hand experience of something. Thus, if I believe I know something, and tell you it, you will not then also know it.. No matter how much you trust me, there will always be the chance that I myself am either misinformed, not reporting the truth in it's entirety, exaggerating or for whatever reason, outright lieing.

Many Paleos claim to know how paleo man ate. As if they themselves have traveled backward in a time machine, and witnessed first hand. As if they themselves have been studying fossils, been on archeological digs, seen remnants of foods from a time period that they themselves have personally carbon dated to be in the period they believe it to be.

Indeed, I recall some years ago, how a discovery of some cave drawings in South Africa, were tested by a group of scientists.. carbon dating proved the drawings to be older than any other hithertil discovered cave paintings.. In fact so old, that it meant rethinking the whole history of the dawn of humankind. There was much furrour within the scientific community, but as the drawings gained more publicity, a little old lady of some 80 years old odd, stepped forth from the masses, and claimed she herself had drawn the cave paintings as a young girl.. Further investigation proved that this was infact fact.

Despite being widly accepted as fact, evolution theory is itself very much that.. THEORY. There are so many missing links and unanswered questions. I'm not trying to say I'm a creationist, far from it. I sit on the fence as it were, and blatantly claim no knowledge. Sure, I have been known to voice my opinion that the garden of Eden may once have existed, and that fruit was (and still is) our one true fair. But I don't know this is true. For all I know, we may all have been genetically engineered by aliens. Or one person once hypothesized that for all we know, the whole universe could have been created at 2pm in the afternoon on April the 1st 1911.. Stars, planets, life, plants, animals, people with fully formed memories of lives they never had and experiences never experienced.. The whole darned kaboodle. (happy 100 years today!).. Some might even think the universe was sneezed out of the mouth of a giant green dragon, (and wait fearfully for the coming of the great white hanky!).

Some great logical reasoning here.. enjoy!
Sure I'm curious to know the truth of the origins of existance.. but beyond curiousity there is little else. I believe with veganism, it matters not.

But back to the Belief vs Knowledge. Many people claim they know things they really only believe. People quote nutritional science as though it were completely undisputed fact. But the problem with nutritional science, is that it is as yet far from being complete. There are clearly conflicting theories out there, and we're liable to claim the one that suits us best as fact. Which is why I try and steer clear of nutritional science. It being still in it's infancy, it's highly unreliable. And yet the paleos are mostly fully blind to this, to them, it is as if they themselves know.

Sure, they're not the only ones that have a tendency to claim knowledge when it is only belief that is present. Richard, the owner of the blog I gave my tuppence worth on, has agreed to hold a video'ed debate with DurianRider Harley, the Low Fat Raw Vegan. Both are likely equally certain of themselves that they have knowledge and that the other is misguided. Of course, I'm much more inclined toward Harleys general thinking than Richards, but I'll not be kidding anyone in claiming knowledge either way. It'll surely be an interesting debate, though I seriously doubt that either party will be swayed. - The last rumour I heard was that it would take place on the 7th of April, in just 6 days time. I'm sure when and if a date is finally fixed, news will spread rapidly.

To me, the whole vegan issue cannot be debated through incomplete science, or dodgy history, as both sides will purely be expressing their opposing opinions based solely on beliefs. It is purely an ethical issue. It matters not one iota to me if cavemen ate meat, or even if meat eating helped to develop the brain. The issue now, currently, is that we have an awareness of the suffering of others, and should do our best to help minimise or avoid it.

History will always be disputable, so I tend to look to the future and envision a harmonious world, at peace with itself, with a live and let live balance reigning supreme.

Are coconuts part of the fruitarian diet?

2011-03-27T11:14:00.002+11:00

I recently blogged about mushrooms on a fruitarian diet: here, to which, in a follow-up comment, Orange pondered my views on coconut water..

Well, I see no need to make this a lengthy post at all. I stand by what I wrote in the mushroom post, about my redefinition of the food pyramid. With the aspiration to eat as high within the triangle as possible. (before possibly transcending food altogether and entering into the realms of breatharianism! .. aah.. but I dream, and don't intend to go into that right now).. So where are the coconuts placed within the pyramid I propose?.. Well, for sure they are far from being the coarse food of butchered flesh. And being generally uncooked, surely better than most other foods.. But, they are most clearly notfruit, and therefore, although high in the pyramid, in my mind, do clearly not occupy the same ranking as fruit, and thus I don't see them as ideal as I do fruit.

Where are the coconuts?
Just a couple of little facts about coconuts that likely most of you may be aware of already.. Coconuts are eaten at pretty much any stage.. Initially the outer husk is green or light brown, and internally they bear very little flesh, and are mostly of liquid content.. As they mature, flesh begins to form, and the liquid lessens.. These are often called Jelly nuts, or Green coconuts. Maturing yet further, the juice slowly gets converted into flesh which hardens yet further.. It is at this stage that people in the western world are likely to see them dehusked and on supermarket shelves.. This was about the only stage I'd ever seen a coconut until first visiting the tropics, and I recall being amazed at just how tough that outer husk is! - I recall also, watching "Jungle Book as a kid", and realise that the artists rendition of what a coconut tree looked like, with dehusked coconuts forming on the palms, gave an altogether false view of coconut palms..

As the coconut moves yet further through it's lifecycle (provided the husk has not been removed!), the flesh softens some once more, and swells to fill up much of the interior of the coconut. At this stage, the coconut interior swell is called "the angel" or "the fairy", and the texture of it is, well, fluffy and quite different. What's happening is that the coconut is preparing to sprout, and if left unopened, will likely begin doing so shortly..

In the tropics the jelly nuts are often sold by street vendours who will dehusk, and/or machete open them for you on demand. In this way, I consider them to be much more physiologically compatible with our needs, than pretty much any other commercially available nut, that have all been subjected to heat and consequential dehydration, but knowing the nut grows, the fairy forms, and the seed sprouts, I personally choose to let be. Given the availability of an abundance of more suitable food (fruit), I don't believe coconuts should truly ultimately be part of a fruitarian diet.

Different dictionaries.

2011-03-16T13:37:00.009+11:00

After that recent debate I began with some paleo bods (see my last post), I've had time to think some about their stand point.

It became clear to me that they are basically in denial of their inner ability to extend love beyond themselves and their immediate family. Perhaps as a consequence of not being able to do so, they have also redefined words to have different interpretations, and even appear to have their own version of what they consider logical. When faced with the outright question of why they make the distinctions they do, they have more or less similar arguments to that a sexist would have justifying sexism, a white supremeist justifying supposed white superiority and a racist justifying racism.. They're women goddamn you! They're only men, what else do you expect?! They're not white you fool! They are not one of us, imbecile! They're animals pea brain!. Generally with the expletive added to belittle the questioner. Thus the question is altogether avoided. In other words, there is no rational answer.

One word they repeatedly branded in a form which based on any current dictionary really makes little sense, was "respect".

Now according to dictionary.com, respect as a verb has the following definitions:

–verb (used with object)
1. to hold in esteem or honor.
2. show regard or consideration for: to respect someone's rights.
3. to refrain from intruding upon or interfering with: to respect a person's privacy.
4. to relate or have reference to.

They are using the word in relationship to animals that they enjoy hunting/killing, claiming that when doing so, they respect the animal. I countered them on numerous occasion, stating that there is no way one can reasonably say or suppose that one can be showing respect for an animal, if their intention is to kill, eat and wear it. But many insisted that I was wrong. (I noted that instead of being directed to some written definition to support their claims, I was told to F'off, or similar).

The only thing I can imagine they actually really meant, though none of them said as such, was that they (following definition no. 1) hold in esteem or honor, not the animal itself, but the slaughtered carcass of the animal.. That would make more sense..

Spock used to be my role model in logic..
Now look what the meat eaters have done to him!
Another word they seemed to be using in a manner I'm unaccustomed to, was "peacefulness", claiming bizarrely enough that hunting was a peaceful occupation.. I tried to get them to reverse the tables, and just try to imagine the peace the animal would be experiencing, but as far as I can ascertain, that is either not something they are capable of, or they just don't want to do so.

At least one comment there gave the impression that laws and morals are basically the same thing. and that laws are fundamentally imposed morals. I hasten to disagree with that one, for certainly it is not necessary that anything which is legally correct may be considered moral and also that anything which is not forbidden by law should be necessarily moral. Morals and ethics are to the best of my knowledge synonymous (please correct if wrong), and are basically individual characteristics we have. They are the criterion for what you believe is right or wrong. Naturally, as we are broadly shaped by our environments and upbringing, it's often the case that morals are widely shared and accepted, with minor variations from individual to individual.

It appears that for some unknown reason, the set of morals shared by vegans is often grossly expanded from that of the zombie flesh eater, the flesh eaters recognizing this fact often use it to claim falsely that we believe we are in some way superior. This is by no means meant as a compliment. In fact, as an intended insult, it shows that rather than just face the reality of our differences, for some reason they feel threatened and become defensive.

I almost feel like the omnivores fear the vegans, like we are a threat to their status quo. It was a common response from the paleo to throw profanity at me, I sort of lost count of how many times I was told to F on out of there, or told I was talking shit (though never any particular specific reference to what it was that was actually shit). One guy would have me fed to the lions! :)

In my opinion insults and profanity are poor excuses for debate, and often employed when the debater is struggling or unable to continue to debate rationally.

It's odd that vegans are often accused of being such an angry lot, of course, I can't speak for anyone but myself, but anger at meat eaters is the last thing I feel. I have many friends and family that enjoy flesh. We all get on fine. I feel more a frustration that they are so caught up in the dark ages, that their only really defense they have, given the abundance of alternative on supermarket shelves, is that well, Eskimos eat meat, and wouldn't survive without it. So would I be wrong in thinking the writer of that might themselves be an Eskimo? Likely, yes...

I don't really see what relevance it has, what Eskimos choose to eat. Nor the Masai, nor the rainforest nomads. Their environments are radically different to ours. Sure, I would question they're choices too.. and wonder why the Masai haven't planted mango trees everywhere, and I would happily debate that with them, but using them as an excuse for ones own habits bears no relationship with reality.

Primal food (meat etc) vs. Predominantly fruit.

2011-03-13T13:45:00.003+11:00

I've heard that durianrider Harley, will soon be having a face off with a guy named Richard Nikoley who runs the blog Free the Animal.

Richard is this guy who blogs about eating meat with the occasional attempt at justifying his actions through moral. I say occasional, as I have read recently that he plans shortly to do so. So maybe I exaggerate some. Anyhow, the latest I have heard is that the debate is to be hosted/moderated by Steven Prussack of "Raw Vegan Radio" (anyone have a web address or can confirm that?), probably within a couple of weeks from now.

I for one am curious to follow the debate, and see the final outcome.

After having myself recently also begun my own little debate with Richard and his crew, directly on his blog, I can safely say that the majority of his readers, and Richard himself appear to be unable to hold a rational debate without resorting to insult and profanity. Those commenting on his blog appear quite full of aggression and anger, which I guess is not surprising considering their diets.

Actually, I was a little disappointed that Richard would not man up to simple questions I asked him, preferring instead to skirt around issues rather like a politician does to avoid answering something directly that they are perhaps otherwise unable to tackle truthfully. Actually, my focus of questioning was mostly revolving around the ethics of animal eating, and because I'm a persistent bugger, I eventually got Richard to state his opinion that he is predominantly a selfish person who really doesn't care what happens to animals so long as they end up on his plate. For him it's all about taste.

Surprisingly, despite a few people throwing around the phrase that meat is superior nutrition, and many apparently believing that this was an unquestionable fact, not one person offered any real evidence to support that claim.

I found also that Richard and his crew appear to be using a different dictionary to most, they define words in very different ways to what I am used to. For them, peace is one sided, and if they are inflicting harm on another, they believe they can do so peacefully. Respect is another word which they have a very different understanding of, for them they brandish the word respect in combination of taking the life of another, for me this action is never respectful of that others life, but for them, they like to believe that it is. Actually, there is some contention there, as when pushed Richard seemed to air a degree of uncertainty in his view on that.

When I finally felt that I had had enough insults thrown at me, misquoted and false conclusions drawn about me, I withdrew. The whole debate took place over 3 days I think, and can be read here:

See the comments under his post

Interestingly, on leaving, quite a few people have added further comments that I sort of wanted to jump in and tackle, but I don't really see what the point would be, as I know that likely is that once more I would end up having my words twisted. To Richard, though, who responded to my statement that to the best of my knowledge morals cannot really be imposed on anyone, or any other other species or being. He came back and said:

It's a prima facie fact that morals are imposed upon people in abundance. Ever read a law book? What, you think, statutes are based in thin air, out of ass ideas? How about murder? Rape? Kidnapping and robbery?

I'd like to say that if you ever stumble upon this Richard, then please see that once more we have different dictionaries, because for me, morals and laws are 2 very different things. The law may say don't kill another human, but if it is truly in someones natures and desire to do so, they will find a way to do so and attempt to not get caught.

You ask me also directly, Richard, whether or not I am about persuasion, or if I would resort to legislation. I say forget the legislation. I would like for humans to have a global shift in conscience, and for laws to be unnecessary. I do not like governments or laws, and tolerate them merely because I must. If the road says 80 is the limit, and it's clear and safe to do 100, and I am guaranteed there are no cops, then I will do 100.

And to Sonagi, who threw in his final snide comments, I would add that once more you fail to report the truth and that I never derided anyone for disagreeing with me. I criticized people like yourself for not being able to hold a rational/logical debate and for twisting words and misquoting. I am quite at ease with outright disagreement. And my reference to Jorge was not about his English per se, at the time of writing I was not thinking at all about him not being a native english speaker, speaking several languages myself, I understand the difficulties of debating a language other than my own, and admire him for doing so. I was referring purely to his insistence that animal killers respect the animals they kill..

Anyhow.. I sort of felt that I wanted to get this out of my system. Too time consuming and a waste of energy really. I hope Harley enjoys himself, but I don't expect either party to change their view.

(I recall some years ago, when I used to run a forum, that I started a similar debate that focused on Fox hunting.. it went on for far too long, and got no where really. you can read it here: The Fox Hunting Debate).

The Woodstock Fruit Festival - August 2011

2011-03-11T11:20:00.003+11:00

It appears that this year too, an international fruitarian (of sorts) get together will be held:

The Woodstock Fruit Festival.

I believe last years fruitarian gathering held in Brittany, France, ran along the very roughly interpreted guidelines of a rainbow gathering, an open invitation to anyone interested to come along free of charge, and with little or no prior thought put into it.

Beyond the focus on fruit, this years gathering bears likely little to no resemblance to last years event.. It appears to be far more structured, with a prearranged schedule of events already outlined for each day (available to peruse on their website), guest speakers, yoga, workouts etc etc.

Sadly though, unlike last years event, judging by some of the guest speakers on hand, it is highly unlikely that their flavour of fruitarianism will fully envelope the true meaning of the word, but will more likely revolve around the unnecessary complexity of calories, exercise, sugars, fats and the far from complete and thus highly flaky science of nutrition. I guess for some that's something to look forward to, and I have no doubts that many people need to approach things from this angle in order to have confidence in their success.

To be fair, it's probably unjust for me to be making comparisons to the gathering of last summer, clearly the 2 gatherings are of very different natures, as are the organisers. I gather this one is being organised by Michael Arnstein who I'm told (though unconfirmed!) has previously openly admitted to eating fish on occasion, and thus I'm supposing will no doubt also lack the ethical component that I believe fruitarianism requires for completion.. Though, giving him the benefit of the doubt, it is possible he has since made further refinements to his habits and lifestyle.. shucks, I've eaten fish in the past, and other equal atrocities, I just wasn't calling myself fruitarian at that time.

Prices to attend range from a more basic camping arrangement at $795 for the week, to queen rooms with own bathroom for $1,395. Although the event is supposedly nonprofit and I personally believe these prices to be a tad steep, the organisers have promised to let you eat as much durian as you like, so no doubt they'll be some attending that'll be getting more than their moneys worth. I know I would try! .. But no.. So, although there's a part of me that would certainly relish the idea of participating, I've no plans to head anywhere this year. Certainly not overseas anywhere.. Oh.. I should mention also that those on a low budget can ask to work as a volunteer there for the week, thus working in exchange for attending. Likely a good option for those on a shoe string budget.

The Woodstock Fruit Festival will be held in New York state, between August 18th and August 25th this year (2011), with details of precise location and directions available on the website, together with more details about the guest speakers, a FAQ page and even a forum.

Overall, it is very positive to see such fruit centered events happening increasingly more frequently, and I have little doubt that this one will most assuredly inspire and influence many, and spark a bountiful supply of new friendships. I sincerely wish for many new free thinking fruit fruitarians to hatch and spring forth from it.

Crazy World News - 12 - Breast Milk Ice Cream anyone?

2011-03-08T15:00:00.001+11:00

Now here's another bizarre bit of news Kvĕta recently made me aware of...

Get this.. Back on my home shores of Britain, some London shop recently began selling ice cream made from human breast milk...

Apparently the women expressing this milk all responded to a newspaper advert, and are, or were, at least, being paid to supply the shop with whatever amount they feel they were able to comfortably contribute.. Now, I recall some years ago how my sister was obliged to express her milk to provide food for her baby while she finished off her last term at a school she was teaching at, and I can tell you it was slow progress, and clearly uncomfortable, bordering on painful, and the amount one can reasonably express is very little.. And what then of the poor baby who in the ice-cream scenario must surely be going amiss..

Breast Milk at £15 a bowl
London shop sells breast milk ice-cream - Baby Gaga

I don't know, I'm sort of in 2 minds about this one.. Part of me thinks that at least in such cases, there is a certain degree of free will within the process (I guess also that many women choose to force ween their babies at early ages, or forgo breast feeding entirely in favour of supposedly nutritionally superior powdered milk formula), clearly not one found within the dairy industry who inhumanely systematically rob the poor calves of their naturally given foods, if not of their lives entirely, and cruelly deprive their mothers of the pleasure of their child's touch and comforting proximity.

I know there's that poster going around with the cow camouflaged painted woman, ready to offer her udders to the milking machines.. I think it's one of those "Got Milk" PeTA (People for the ethical Treatment of Animals) posters, meant to shock, you may know the one I'm referring too. It's designed to make one see more clearly what milk actually is, and I have no doubt, bears with it a certain degree of effectiveness.

Surprisingly, Kveta also stumbled upon one of those opinion polls on a Czech newspaper website, asking whether or not readers would consider trying the ice-cream, and an unbelievable 50% plus voted that yes, they clearly would..

Also, and this is going back 2 years or so, PeTA actually contacted some large American ice-cream producer, and suggested they begin substituting their Cows Milk for human Breast Milk to produce their ice-cream, and from the looks of this video, there wasn't much enthusiasm..

Anyhow, I see from the video that there is some Swiss company that had already tried the idea of using mothers milk in their recipes, but I'm guessing through popular demand, were forced to cease with their activities. It looks like the same fate awaited the London Cafe, as within a week or so of announcing their wares to the public, and surprisingly selling out much faster than expected, they were also forced into ending their short-lived business venture, as stocks were seized by overzealous council officials on the pretext of the milk being potentially health hazardous.

Breast Milk Ice-cream banned

Yeah, now why can't they step up and do the same thing with "normal" conventional ice-cream, who's milk may contain any number of pathogens, residue hormones and drugs, pus and of course it's enhanced mucus forming qualities, and that's not to mention the sugar enhancements, fats and whatever else they deem will make the product more relishable, addictive and moreish.

What are the best fruits to eat?

2011-03-04T10:29:00.000+11:00

Another recent question I've received, this time from a reader, Anna, in California, who asks:

I'm a vegetarian turned fruitarian (thanks to your website). Can you please help me out with a starter grocery list? I live in California, so tropical fruit's aren't abundant here. I love almost all fruits, but are there any in particular you would recommend/are against? Any other advice would also be appreciated.

Good question, and one that I've sort of tackled before in bits and pieces, so I'll try and group those thoughts together here.

OK.. I ultimately sincerely believe that the whole idea of someone else advising another of the best foods to eat, what to eat, when to eat, amounts to eat etc, is folly. It is an erroneous path to expect another to know better than ourselves what appeals most at any given point in time.

Unfortunately it seems it is the path that many seek. The need for guidance is understandable, but guidance beyond the simple basic understanding of what constitutes true food, is generally false. Sure there are many people that try to sell such flawed knowledge, pretending that only they know what is best for you. What I teach is different. The lesson I try to give (away) is that beyond the understanding that fruit is the highest of all food, the only food with the potential of being given completely karmically free, and the purist most life giving and nourishing solid food sustenance found on the face of the Earth, beyond this simple knowledge, that which the body will most benefit from eating at any given time, not allowing invalid food choices to enter the arena (ie no condiments, cooking, dehydrating or over processing of ones fruits etc.), is purely unknown to anyone but the person asking. What folly it would be for me, or anyone, to try tell someone they should eat nectarines in abundance when they are in season.

You should eat what appeals to you at every given meal. So don't think, oh, someone is eating 20 bananas daily, and fairing very well on them, that you should do the same. Every meal is different. Every meal your body will tell you what appeals most. Use your nose and senses to judge what fruit will best suit your needs at any given point in time. Learn to trust your instincts again. Don't follow a recipe book. Don't fall into the trap of believing you need some complex mathematical formula to obtain the correct ratio of carbohydrates to fat and protein. Don't fall into the trap of over complicating your food through complex recipes. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that someone else knows better than you do, what to eat right now. Nobody does. I go through months without eating any bananas. This is because when I try to eat them, I might have a few mouthfuls, and then the taste changes, and they are no longer appealing. But for me to advice you not to eat them would be ludicrous. They are a good food, when they appeal. At the moment, I am going through a phase where I get through maybe 5 or 6 a day, which is more than I've ever eaten of them in my life. Avocados which generally appeal to me, I am not finding so attractive. But desires continuously fluctuate depending on momentary physiological needs.

Don't fall into the trap of classifying certain fruits as sugars, and others as fats. Don't believe you need to count calories. All these are traps, and part of a ploy to scare you into believing you need to pay for mentoring. Don't believe any of that superfood nonsense of expensive pills, potions and powders. There are no such things outside of pure ripe fresh ready to eat fruit.

The truth is simple. Don't fall into the trap of believing you need to drink X amounts of litres of water daily. Force feeding yourself, or force drinking to fit into some preconceived pattern is folly.

At least, these are what I believe to be traps and conclusions reached through false logic. I'm aware that my voice is in the minority, and that there are large movements that promote ways of thinking grossly in opposition to mine.

So I say, eat when hungry, look at your fruit, which type appeals most right now? Eat that. Stop when no longer hungry. If hunger resurfaces once more in 20 minutes, then choose again. Don't restrict yourself to meals. 3 meals a day is probably a good pattern for omnivorous humans, but for fruit eaters, eat when hungry, not when the clock tells you too. Likewise for drinking. If you sincerely eat just fruit, the need for water will diminish and likely vanish altogether unless much physically strenuous work is required.

At the end of the day, it is up to us all individually to decide what is and what is not correct, and although I state my points with conviction and sincerity, you should always be aware that I'm just a bod with an opinion. What's yours?

PS If nectarines are in season (or not), and they appeal, go for it!

Crazy World News - 11 - China has illegalized reincarnation.

2011-03-01T07:50:00.000+11:00

OK, this is not exactly new news, as the article I stumbled upon is dated August 1994, but for sure, it's the first I'm hearing of it.. Apparently, China's communist regime has made it illegal to reincarnate without first seeking government approval. Once more proving just how world Governments can, and do, exercise their corrupt powers to bully, and squander resources on (sometimes) futile efforts of control.

China demands permission be sought before reincarnating

Clearly their reasoning is once more to make things difficult for the Tibetan lamas whose belief system reincarnation is a fundamental core of.. What I don't get is that the law makers themselves are likely nonbelievers, thus clearly the law is a farce and has nothing whatsoever to do with preventing or controlling who or what reincarnates when or where..

It's all about giving the Government legislative power over Tibet's Buddhist practices in an attempt to bring an end to a system that dates back hundreds of years.

I recall, back in the 1980s, I read someplace, possibly it was even a Nostradamus prediction, or one of the many interpretations of his often vague musings, that both the Monarch of England present on the throne at the turn of the 21st century, and the Dalai Lama incarnated at same time period, would be the last of their successions.. The end of an Era for British Monarchists and Tibetan Monks. I can well imagine that this may turn out to be a factual prediction.

This world is changing sooo fast, recent decades have seen rapid advancements made in so many fields, unfortunately though, I do get the impression that humankind is really just not ready for certain things yet. Well meaning creative people release ideas to powers that are not at all well-meaning, and instead of new discoveries and inventions being used for the good of one and all, the initial focus on them revolves around suppression, control and aiding the militia, through new weaponry or new methods of surveillance..

With their population numbering well over 1.3 billion, which I believe is pushing a 5th of the population of the world, and a Government that clearly has no real morals or scruples based on anything humane (mind you, do any?), China is a giant force to be reckoned with.

Probably Curtains For this Guy

Anyhow, sure, not wishing to focus too much on potential doom and gloom, on the brighter side, recent decades have also seen a steady awakening of a certain global subset of people that are able to see through the bullshit and past global government corruption, immoral banking activity, and even those that no longer want to be part of the animal exploitation industry. Numbers are surely growing. And I'm an optimist at heart, that likes to believe that good will overpower evil, and corruption be vanquished by honesty and goodwill, but I am also a realist and understand that things appear very much to be coming to a head.. Rainforest destruction, top soil erosion, ever expanding deserts, widening cities, increased crime, the inevitable decline of oil bringing with it increased prices as commodities reliant on oil become scare and unavoidable food and water shortages.

Now is the time to move out of the cities, ensure you have some land, and grow what you can to weather the worst. I see a light at the end of the tunnel, but suspect things may meanwhile get pretty hairy. Remember we're all here to learn, and one life time is but a brief gnats fart in the turmoilic history of the universe, so do what you can to survive, but don't loose your sanity over it.

Mushrooms on a Fruitarian Diet.

2011-02-25T08:06:00.003+11:00

Another question I received in my inbox a short while ago, from a guy named Bernard in Stavanger (Norway), pertained to the eating of mushrooms on a fruitarian diet:

Is eating mushroom ok for fruitarians?

He then clarified that he wasn't referring to blue meanies, gold tops or other psychedelic mind altering trippy mushrooms..

Well, firstly, I think I'm going to apologize in advance for once more being repetitive, because I know that much of what I'm going to write I've already said before, albeit no doubt slightly different word orders.. But anyhow, here goes..

Firstly, I wish to reiterate that I am fully aware that the term fruitarian pertaining to fruitarianism, is habitually loosely interpreted by many, and much as I'd love to see it mean eater of solely fruit, colloquially this is clearly very much not the case. And even when my definition is agreed upon, there exists much confusion as to what exactly a fruit is. So I would like to refer you to my previous blog posts, My definition of Fruitarianism, and What is a fruit?.

So bearing in mind that I'm defining fruitarianism as a lifestyle that revolves around eating purely fruit, then the simple yes/no answer to the question of whether or not mushrooms are part of a fruitarian diet, is no, they are clearly not fruits..

However, all things said and done, I tend to have my own little vision of what qualifies as food.. sort of my own internal "food pyramid", similar to the traditional food pyramid, knocked together by the meat and dairy industry as part of their ingenious flesh marketing strategy, mine is also a simple pyramid with layers..

My pyramid supposes that all this food be eaten in a 100% raw natural state. Once the cooking process is added as an ingredient, the pyramid I propose would become much more complicated, and require additional layering with a great deal more potential for overlap.

Fruitarian Food Pyramid concept:

The bottom layer contains the edible(?) flesh portions of animals, every mammal, fowl and fish you can name etc. Slightly above it, with some overlap, I'd stick the bi-products of the animal flesh trade, and other items that originate from deliberate animal abuse, dairy products, milk, cheese, yogurts etc, eggs, lards and oils of animal sources etc, the overlap is diffuse, and not altogether clear. The next layer up, are the root vegetables, the carrots, parsnips and turnips etc.. things that necessitate the direct and unavoidable intentional killing of plants. Above that, I would have another layer, again with a slight overlap perhaps, depending on production methods, with tubers, like potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, and Jerusalem artichokes, things which on a small scale can potentially be harvested gently from the ground with minimal harm to the plant, and if care taken the food can be eaten, and eyes cut out from the potato or similar to regrow new plants. Moving up the triangle one more notch, once more with a potential for overlap, I would place nuts, seeds and grains.. Grains and seeds being potentially far more destructive, so perhaps I might place them further down the pyramid. Truth be known, my pyramid is far from finalized.. Anyhow, above the nuts and stuff, I'd place greens, again, there is definitely room for overlap, as method of growing and harvesting surely plays a role, as with small scale home gardening, many greens can be harvested in a far less destructive manner than traditional farming methods allow. Above the greens, again overlapping, I would place mushrooms, especially self picked forest & field ones. and then right at the top, is the fruit.

Clearly I've missed out some of what gets eaten, like crustaceans, snails, frogs, insects, grubs and the like, which I'd probably place in that vague area between layers 1 and 2 and 3, then there's seaweed, algae I don't know, probably more that I've forgotten, legumes, and the seeds I would differentiate as to whether sprouted or not, but I think you get the rough gist of things..

Unlike the traditional food pyramid, the aim is not to eat balanced from all food groups, but to aspire instead to the pinnacle of foods, and just eat fruit. Obviously, if there is no fruit around, and one must eat other things, then move down the pyramid as far as you feel comfortable. In the grand scheme of things, mushrooms are most definitely not the worst choice. Of course, the ultimate goal is to settle in an environment where the food you are comfortable with is readily and affordably available.

Knowing what our goals are is a matter of individual choice, attempting to keep sight of them, is crucial to attaining them.

Crazy World News - 10 - Malawi set to illegalize flatulence

2011-02-13T09:23:00.001+11:00

This story blew me away when I first stumbled upon it, I believed it to be a wind up, but on closer verification, it turned out to be for real.

Apparently, Malawi, a small African country that I barely new existed, is set to make farting illegal. The guy pushing for the law to be passed, a Dr Bingu wa Mutharika (see pic to right), looks himself like he would have trouble sticking with his law so I dread to think how the rest of the country will fair..

Actually this sort of law, beside being a seeming complete waste of bureaucratic time (mind you, having just written that, isn't that what bureaucracy is all about anyhow??), really smacks of middle aged Europe when such laws as "Only the king is allowed to grow a beard", or "All English males over the age 14 must have 2 or more hours of clergy supervised longbow practice weekly".. And wasn't there one, at one time, about everyone having to wear a green tie, or something somewhat similarly ridiculous..

Honestly, apart from offering new ways for police embarrassment, what can such a law seriously hope to achieve?

Malawi to ban farting

How a subject like farting can even get discussed in such detail by a government, surely beats me, will the law cover animals, or just humans? What if a dog breaks wind near you and you get pinned for the crime? All social gatherings, banquets and balls, buses, trains, malls etc, will have to be heavily guarded/patrolled, or some bright spark will have to invent something similar to that urban mythical liquid that was said to be in swimming pools if one pee’d in them, surrounding ones rear with some embarrassing pink cloudy glow.

This kind of behaviour will no
longer be tolerated in Malawi.
Naturally locals fear that pinning responsibility on the crime will be difficult - and may lead to miscarriages of justice as 'criminals' attempt to blame others for their offense. Recalling my school days, perhaps they'll apply "he who smelt it, dealt it" logic. Or take things a step further with "he who said the rhyme, did the crime".

I have no doubt that Malawi has many other far more serious issues that need addressing than punishing people for perfectly natural bodily reactions to bad foods, and the fact that time is spent on such is just more evidence of the likely corruption within their political system.

Should We really Eat Meat??

2011-02-06T12:50:00.001+11:00

Well.. I guess you all know my opinion by now, if you feel you need to turn your body into an animal graveyard, then yes, I guess you should.. But most importantly you should examine why it is that you feel there is a necessity to be a walking grave.. And I mean, seriously question.. Not just quote replies that you have learned by heart, but examine them thoroughly with an open mind, and I believe anyone with a logical thinking process and natural inquisitiveness will sooner or later realise just how bizarre the practice of flesh eating truly is.

Anyhow.. I was surprised to stumble upon this online survey where you get to answer a simple "yes" or "no" to is meat eating necessary, and even more surprised to see that almost 30% of the participants agree that it is unnecessary.. I am sure that this must be way higher than the general population.. I'm guessing that it's mostly people of a somewhat alternative mindset that actually stumble onto the survey in the first place.. Anyhow, here's the link to it:

Should we eat meat?

While on the subject of meat, I also read recently that Southern Carolina scientists are working on somehow growing their own bio-engineered meat in a laboratory.. Yeah, now there's self sufficiency! Now if only they realised just what a nonfood it was, be it 'ficial or artificial.. Still, at least if they were to succeed in doing so, it might theoretically be a way to minimise animal cruelty suffering that's part and parcel of the flesh trade. Read more here.

Over in the UK, they've begun selling dog meat on farmers markets. That should have a few people up in arms.. For some reason, many meat eaters seem to take offense at dog meat, proving in a way just how consistently illogical they have a tendency to be.

Whale. - Breakfast or fellow earth citizen?
Well.. Honestly I think this whole "omnivore" phase has just gone on far too long.. If you'll pardon my French, people eat literally any old shit. Virtually anything that moves, and most of what doesn't too.. It's amazing what a bit of salt and fat can do to turn nonfoods into apparently appealing dishes. I'm reminded of that Charlie Chaplin movie where in the midst of winter, with nothing around to eat, he eats the sole of his shoe..

Actually I recently also heard of this medical condition called "Pica", that mostly seems to afflict young children and women.. not that it's at all common mind.. But for some reasons those afflicted with Pica experience cravings for most definite "nonfoods", like this one woman below, who is addicted to eating couch cushions.. (Maybe the majority of the world suffers from the same affliction.. A world full of Picarians, addicted to eating the stuffing out of other beings!):

<br>

Topsy-Turvy World - 17 - Striving for ones best.

2011-01-15T03:13:00.001+11:00

Some people make bizarre resolutions with completely nonsensical goals in mind.

This woman had a vision she could be the worlds fattest mum, and set about fulfilling that vision..

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20026674-10391704.html

At one point she proposed that ideally she could weigh in at half a tonne, and just recently, she was witnessed to have eaten 30,000 calories in one sitting. [Top that Harley!!],

WHAT SHE ATE

2 portions of 25lb oven roasted turkeys
2 portions of 15lb maple glazed hams
10lbs of roast potatoes
5lbs of mashed potatoes
5lbs of chopped carrots
5lbs of sweetcorn
5lbs of roasted butternut squash
5 parcels of house-baked bread
4 pints of cranberry relish
4 pints of home-made gravy
5lbs of herbed stuffing
1 tray of mixed green salad including salad dressing.

CALORIE TOTAL: 30,000

She's already in the Guinness World Records book as the world's fattest mother, when she gave birth in 2007 weighing more than 240kgs.. (Apparently more than 30 medics were needed to deliver her daughter Jacqueline during a high-risk Caesarean birth), and she reckons she can push it at least another 160kgs..

What a weird goal!? I mean, I can sort of understand people seeking fame, but doing so at a clear risk of ones sacred bodily temple is beyond me. In her own words she states:

I love eating, and people love watching me eat.. It makes people happy, and I'm not harming anyone.. [Yeah Right!]

I'm sort of at a loss for words.. This woman has a beautiful young daughter who most likely, at the rate she is going, will soon be motherless. I just don't get people. What possesses them to fully kid themselves that such directions are at all commendable..

Sure beats me.. Nothing beats this guy though:

And then there was the guy Paul Stone, that has filed a lawsuit against Britain's National Health Service, claiming they owe him big-time because, back when he weighed only 420 lbs., he asked for help, and idiotic doctors had the audacity to advise him to eat sensibly and exercise. He became so distraught at their insensitivity that he quickly inflated to 980..

Read more in: The Sun

Actually, I have sympathy for this guy, he clearly was crying for help, and instead of being given it, was told to go and help himself, which is all well and good if one can, but getting off of such intensely destructive habits eating such as these guys have, generally requires help, a retreat, a temptationless environment, guidance, counseling, education, support and more.. It'd be like telling a heroine addict seeking help "Go home and stop taking the stuff".. Fat lot of good that'd do them..

Crazy World News - 9 - Mysterious global deaths of Birds and Fish

2011-01-11T15:02:00.004+11:00

Gleaned from the popular press, I've been reading about the bizarre cases of common species of birds and fish dying mysteriously.. Dropping dead from the skies, or, in the case of the fish, being washed up on shore, dead on arrival, with no yet apparent satisfactory cause of death known..

I think the first of the most recent reported cases was the small town of Beebe, Arkansas, where New Year's revelers spent the holiday weekend cleaning up several thousand blackbirds that littered their town landscape.. making dents in roofs and cars as they plummeted dead earthward.

Tests were done, but no official cause of death could be ascertained, though seemingly the birds died from shock caused from some unknown clearly traumatic experience.. Some initially hypothesized that an annual firework display was a likely cause, but given that blackbirds are not prone to flying at that time of night, this explanation seems rather unlikely.

Barely days later, more than 500 red-winged blackbirds and starlings were found dead strewing a stretch of highway in Point Coupee Parish, near the city of Labarre, in Louisiana, just under 600kms south of the Arkansas incident.

A disgruntled shark seeks revenge on a sonic boom tester.

Also recently in roughly the same neck of woods, about 83,000 dead and dying drum fish washed up along a 32km stretch of the Arkansas River, about 160km west of Beebe. .

Both birds and fish were sent away for detailed biological analysis, but so far nothing conclusive has been made public, with the only official verdict being that "They died from massive trauma". Which leads me to suspect that the government or military have once more been conducting their experiments with no consideration taken for possible environmental consequences.. Rather like that bout of washed up whales and dolphins that occurred on several occasions a while back, with conspiracy rumours abounding on how at the time the military were conducting something called "sonic boom" testing, which with the whales reliance on sonar for navigation, completely disorientated and unduly over stressed them to the point of many dieing traumatically.. again with no official reason ever given for the apparent bizarre happenings that I am aware of. Who knows what effect that particular supposed testing may or may not have had on other sea life.

Across the oceans, up in the icicle land of Sweden, a similar incident was reported in the town of Falköping, where up to 100 jackdaws suddenly fell from the sky for no obvious reason, and over in Italy it was reported recently that over 700 dead birds fell from the skies, in their case, countless turtle doves were scattered about the town of Faenza, many with strange blue marks in their beaks that some officials suggested may have been signs of hypoxia.

Dead fish washed up en masse onto the shores of New zealand, and according to the Huffington Post, an estimated 2 million fish are dead and floating in the Chesapeake Bay (Maryland,US). Hundreds of tons of fish have washed ashore in Brazil since last Thursday. Fish found washed ashore in New Zealand had many that were missing their eyes, (returning boats reported witnessing a carpet of dead fish floating belly up in the sea!). And in the UK, An estimated 40,000 dead crabs were also reported to have washed ashore on Englands' beaches. While each countries supposed scientists have theories as to why this is happening, the fact that it's happening all over the world at the same time has not been explained, and leads this particular blogger to assume there is likely an explanation that will never be made public.

Sure, it could be that each incident is unrelated, but the more you search around for it in the news, the more cases seem to be surfacing, and with an intensity that seems beyond coincidence..

What's going on??

Crazy World News - 8 - Inter species marriage.

2010-12-27T09:08:00.003+11:00

First there was the Russian Siberian guy, Boris Gabov, who sought permission by asking the president if he might be permitted to marry his beloved cow claiming that all the girls in the village had left already, moving to the city..

I'm unaware if the president ever replied, but likely this mans ridicule was not nearly as bad as a young Balinese guys, who caught with his pants down with a cow, was consequently forced to marry it by other locals. Apparently he passed out from the humiliation of the ceremony, and his new wife, the innocent victim, was immediately drowned (I thought the Balinese were Hindu and that thus the cow was considered a sacred animal!). I always found the Indonesians to be a majoritively bizarre lot.. (see: The Jakarta Globe).

In a somewhat similar incident, a Sudanese man was also forced into marrying an animal, in his case, it was a goat. Unlike In Bali, it's still possible the couple have remained together. (See: BBC News)

Those last 2 aren't exactly cases of people willingly entering into wedlock with different species, but bizarrely enough, that happens sometimes too.. Just relatively recently a millionairess British woman, and self proclaimed nonpervert, Sharon Tendler, of her own free will, married a dolphin in Israel. (See: Sydney Morning Herald) - How did she know that the dolphin wasn't already married? I thought they were supposed to be monogamous creatures..

Then, over in Taiwan, there's the story of the Taiwanese office worker who unable to find a suitable partner, and tired of waiting, decided instead to marry herself. (See: Taiwanese Woman Marries Self).. She's even honeymooning by herself in Australia.

Then if you think that's weird, there's a Japanese guy, who so engrossed in his virtual make believe fantasy world of some alternate reality game he plays on his Nintendo, has now married his virtual girlfriend.. (See: Japanese guy Marries Virtual Girl).

Enough already? One last one first though:

The most recent example I've seen of clearly one sided obsession that leads some humans to act strangely with mostly full disregard for their objects of desire, is a British guy who is in love with and wishes to marry his christmas tree.. (See: Man In love with Christmas Tree)

Actually, wikipedia even has a page dedicated to human-animal marriages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-animal_marriage

It would certainly seem to me that in such cases, humans, as per usual, generally have little respect for other species, doing with them as they wish with no real thought or concern given to the welfare or desires of the animal in question..

Questioning greens on a fruitarian diet.

2010-12-18T15:40:00.002+11:00

OK.. on the subject of greens, a friend has just emailed the following question: "What i would like to learn is that greens are not only unnecessary, but harmful to human bodies. This would be great information. Do you have an article on this, please paste me a link.". and, also relatively recently, another friend asked me "I'm just wondering if you had a list of reasons as to why greens are not an optimal food for humans? One of my clients keeps saying she is *craving* greens and I highly doubt it..".

OK, the first thing I'd like to establish is that much as I am heavily left brain centric, I consider myself to be more a man of faith than a man of science, and if all you're after is a simple yes/no answer, then I'll cut straight to the chase and tell you I don't know of any scientifically sound writeup as to why greens might be consistently harmful, or either for that matter, why someone might legitimately be craving them.

You've likely heard me quote this before, that Doug Graham once stated that if you eat only fruit, and no nuts, greens etc, you will die, and as far as I know, he also gave no valid explanation as to why he believes that. Personally, I want to make it clear, that being more someone of faith, than science, I don't like to state anything as stone cold fact. I'm just a bod with opinions who blogs them, is all, and I'll be the first to admit that they (my opinions) may not always be correct - even if I stand firm to them, and remain convicted that they are, this doesn't actually make it categorically the case.

Actually, even the so called "scientists" among us, are at heart really people of faith, for at the end of the day, it is in science they place their faith, and we all know how fickle a beast science can be. Some theories may have been reached that are difficult to dispute as fact, but concerning nutritional science, I believe we are barely scratching the surface. If you want to prove that meat is necessary for human consumption, there is internet information that will fully support that theory, blinding you with science to essential amino acids and B12s, and more. If you want to find support for the opposite, that too is out there.. they all try to blind each other with their own brands of science, each one trying to outsmart the other.

My approach is very different. Much as I once absorbed the protein books after turning vegan pushing 25 years ago, being able to recite the 9 essential amino acids names, and state their individual functions and effects their presence (or lack of it) might have upon human physiology, I soon saw that it was effectively all nonsense, and realised the truth is not complex. The truth is simple. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to get nutrition right. That, to me at least, is the truth.

But it's my truth.. my belief, if you will, and I am not robbing anyone else of their free will to find their own, even if it should vastly contradict mine. That is the individuals prerogative.

Back in the 60's there was that big hippy movement, seeing in the advent of supposed free thinking, live and let live, love, peace and flower power.. Unfortunately it came accompanied with its fair share of mind altering drugs and psychedelics, baring with them apathy and a gradual loss of ability to fully think straight, but I believe they were fully on the right track with the love and peace thing.. They saw the innecessity and folly of wars, some realised that we are all brothers and sisters, and one giant family. Others even took another step and embraced compassion for fellow animal species, turning vegetarian, and an even smaller minority likely saw yet beyond that, and adopted vegan diets and lifestyles, avoiding as much as they could all animal suffering. These were awakening people. At least, some of them were.

What they were experiencing was a widening of their circles of compassion. Where we go from initially being predominantly egocentric, to extending an enveloping sphere of love and compassionate protection around immediate family, to experiencing sympathy and empathy for friends and acquaintances, and yet further for members of other races, countries, ethnicities, beliefs, cultures, and supporters of other football teams etc.. Seeing them all as human and worthy of respect and dignity.. Widening the circle yet further, we learn to embrace other species too.. Seeing there is no real logical reason why they, purely based upon their difference of appearance and or intellectual capacities, should be any less respectfully treated and honoured.

The good thing about the circle of compassion, is that it sees no boundaries. One can forever keep extending the outer limits. Looking beyond the mistreatment and abuse of animals inherent throughout most of society as we know it, we can see the destructive effect our presence has on the environment and the rest of nature, and do our darnedest to try and minimise it. In defense of keeping the circle tight, people will often argue that you can't possibly ever encompass everything, and thus it's pointless even trying, but this argument is so irrelevant. Even if there are compromises and things still "get hurt", that is not reason for us to not make efforts and grow through doing so. It does not make us hypocrites if we acknowledge that there are times where our presence is unavoidably linked with the hurt of others. As we grow, we can learn to avoid such situations, not judging each other, but judging actions. Again, I'm not saying that anyone has to live their lives any given way, only stating how I chose to live mine, and how I chose to see mine progressing, and yes, how I believe the world would be better off, if others followed suit.. None of us are perfect, least of all me, (and i speak from experience!) but that should not prevent us from trying to improve ourselves.

Floating like an otter, and hopefully
breaking the monotony of my monologue.

But I've wandered off course from the greens topic. My point is, it is my belief that the old much quoted Beatles refrain "love is all you need" is true. It is love that makes the world go around. Not vitamins, colostrum, glycogens, omega 3s or fat soluble acids.. Even the most hardened cold blooded killers in the animal kingdom, crocodiles and the like, if it were not for love, they too would not survive. See how protectively the mother looks after her hatched young. guarding them with love until they are big enough to fend for themselves. Some might argue that this was some form of instinct, not love, but maybe in such cases, instinct and love are one and the same.. Of course, crocodiles are hardly brimming, bubbling and overflowing with love.. far from it, their circles of compassion barely extend beyond their known family within immediate territorial range, but this still doesn't stop love being the predominant driving force that keeps the species continuing.

Now armed with my "love is all you need" belief, and again, I emphasise the word belief, (because much as I myself stand firmly convinced I'm fully on the right track, I don't really know anything!), I think that taken to it's logical conclusion the universe must work and be at it's most harmonious and gentle, balanced when this principle is fully embraced, accepted and worked upon.

To this end, it would seem natural that we try to minimise the destruction of plant life, as well as animals.. And it would seem that nature has indeed provided us with a way to accomplish such an end, by providing us with the sensory appealing fruit pulp that generally bears within it the seeds of the plant. This appears to me to be the pinnacle of foods, and the only food, as such, that is truly "given". Of course, let's suppose hypothetically one could sustain oneself on minerals, rocks and sand and gritty soil, then that too could be considered as valid ethical fair, but to be sure, nowhere near as appealing!!

I believe the essence of Eden, where all life forms interact and live harmoniously symbiotically side by side in a perfectly natural balance void of medi-evil food chains, hunter/predator, live and let die, survival of the fittest, pecking orders and alpha pack leaders. I cannot fully grasp every final detail, but this does not concern me, I have every faith that the kinks will iron themselves out, and that Eden can and inevitably (the optimist within me!) will become a reality.. at least for those that see fit to let it into their hearts.

I like to think that I am extremely fortunate reaching fruitarianism through predominantly ethical reasons. Having first gone through the revelation call of suddenly waking up to the reality of how animals are used and abused.. Unfortunately probably a good many of raw fooders don't have that same foundation. Many having never fully grasped veganism, and seeking purely benefits to their own health. I won't name any names, but there's a good many outspoken raw fooders, some that many consider leaders in the movement, that still push animal products on the masses, and there's no way their belief system could extend to seeing "just fruit" as a valid choice. Of course they may push their dried fruit potions on us, as super foods and the like, and love fruit too.. but let's face it, they don't even really get raw food. (dried and preprocessed is not raw!).

So what holds us back? because I know that I am not alone in feeling these feelings. I think there's an awful lot of fear involved. people doubt themselves.. they doubt their beliefs and their budding convictions.. they say "what if..?" And they are of course perfectly within their rights to do so.. Having doubts is part of what makes us human. Becoming fruitarian is about taking a leap of faith, because we're ahead of our time, and science is not ready to support us yet. Clearly science is predominantly backed by marketing interests.. Research is rarely done unless there can be some financial gain for someone somewhere, and until that changes, it's unlikely that someone will seriously bother to look into pure fruitarianism, and the way things are at the moment, if someone does, it is more likely that they would do so to discredit and disprove it.. The current powers that be resist change!

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF PLANTS' RIGHTS

2010-12-09T10:49:00.001+11:00

Was taken aback and pleasantly surprised to stumble upon this youtube video this morning (thanks Rudolf!):

It seems finally that the silent plight of plants is beginning to be heard. Reflected also, I believe by the increasing awareness among some of the truth of a fruit diet.

With the advent of humans on the scene, with likely especial emphasis on the most recent centuries of our existence, indiscriminate killing of plants, probably more fittingly labeled as "plant genocide", has become a global phenomenon. Even in the mid 80s when I turned Vegan, I remember reading a PeTA pamphlet that declared that rain-forest the area of Denmark (a country I was coincidentally living in at the time) was being felled each year, and although I no longer follow closely such saddening statistics, I have little doubt that the trend continued, and dread to think of the devastation and environmental plant destruction caused within the past 2 and a half decades alone.

Also, apparently, recently, the Swiss Government's Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology concluded that plants are worthy of some rights, and that they should be treated appropriately. A majority of the panel concluded that "living organisms should be considered morally for their own sake because they are alive."

So I immediately began wondering if this Ethics committee, and the authors of this declaration of plant rights could themselves be fruitarian, as to me, it seems that such a lifestyle would be the most compatible with someone who truly sympathises with the injustices plants are generally subjected to.

But after a little further research, including reading this less than favourable review of the Swiss Ethics group's conclusion written up and published a while back in the Weekly standard: Here. I noticed the immediate honing in on the discrepancy of the example given about the farmer who is harvesting monocrops as a supposedly ethically acceptable action, whereas were he to destroy wayside flowers, this would be considered morally wrong. Of course, clearly this team of philosophers haven't fully grasped the subject at hand, and still wish to justify their bread and cakes.

No, I'm not trying to say that through adopting a fruitarian lifestyle, harm to plants would cease. At least, surely not initially, but certainly I have no doubts it could be greatly lessened. Much of a fruitarians fair obtained commercially is grown through very destructive farming methods, perhaps especially the annual monocrops of tomatoes and cucumbers. And to be sure, some degree of "weeding" will likely be necessary for a good while longer. I'm not in denial of any of that, but in the long run, even such annual foods could be grown sustainably, especially if people begin taking responsibility for their own food cultivation to as little or great extent as possible.

Fruitarianism would mean a shift toward fruit tree based agriculture, and ultimately shift the consciousness of humans to make them understand and apply better more biodiverse farming methods that are in harmony with healing the planet from the devastation we've cruelly and ignorantly inflicted upon it. Humans, animals and plants would all ultimately benefit.

Topsy-Turvy World - 16 - Truly Weird Diets

2010-12-03T09:59:00.002+11:00

Now if you happen to consider fruitarianism as extreme and radical, perhaps you need to look around you more..

I mean, to me, the real reason why fruitarianism may be viewed as way out there, and unbalanced, is because generally speaking, the average diet of the average citizen has moved so far off the track of sanity, that the garden of Eden diet has suddenly become some whacko weird abnormality.. Whereas the general run of the mill omnivorous diet has through time adopted a glow of normality that makes it difficult to see beyond it.

Recently a bunch of school kids in the US were taken on a field trip to see how "beef" was produced. Faced with the plain cold bloody goriness of the reality behind their burgers, the trip had to be cut short, with many children left traumatised from the experience.

Traumatized kids after a field trip to a slaughterhouse

From the loading bays, to the pneumatic bolt to the brain stunning process to the blood on the floor and anguished cries from the cows and stress loaded air, to the chained back legs and brutal "bleeding to death" end..

Now that's extreme! Extremely unnecessary! Read more of the pleasant days outing here:

http://newsweak.com/exclusive/school-field-trip-tour-of-slaughterhouse-traumatizes-children

Compare instead a trip to an apple orchard where apples are being harvested.. The kids would potentially have great fun and get home happy without the need for counseling.

OK.. I've just this second been informed via facebook, that newsweak actually provide 100% fictional stories, but fiction or not, the results of such a supposed day trip would likely result in a similar outcome..

But wait! Things can get even more bizarre, people all over the globe eat things that are just so weird it'd make any sane alien wonder just what's wrong with this planet..

I've even heard several reports of human fetuses being a valid culinary fair in certain parts of East Asia.. Apparently they're considered a delicatessen and, obtained through abortion clinics, fetch a high restaurant price. Some of the pictures supplied as evidence for this practise are pretty disturbing so if you search around for it, be warned.. Here's write up I recently stumbled upon..

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2007/04/02/cannibalism-in-china-acceptable-if-for-health/

From an online Swedish newspaper, I also read recently that people are even eating shit medicinally, - And not even their own!

http://www.aftonbladet.se/kropphalsa/mage/article8091641.ab

In my opinion not anywhere nearly as bizarre, in Italy one prized (and illegal!) dish eaten is called Casu Marzu, and is a decomposing sheeps milk cheese, infested with maggots! - Make sure you chew the maggots fully, as apparently they can survive the stomach acid and take up internal residency, - even making use of diabolical mouth-hooks that can lacerate your stomach linings or intestinal walls as they attempt to drill through your internal organs! Yummy!

Over in China, if you're a russian roulette fan, one can feast on blood clams, they're found on the Shanghai black market at exorbitant prices, and are famed for harbouring hepatitis, typhoid, and dysentery, but only a small percentage (less than 10%), and supposedly delicious, so worth the risk (I think NOT!)..

Maybe in light of such meals, a bowl of strawberries doesn't seem so unappealing?!

Well.. some might point out that pointing from one extreme to another doesn't stop extremes being extreme, and I'm not denying that. I believe humans have somehow fallen from grace, and from living one-time purely natural healthy existences in a garden of eden setting where compassion and love ruled supremely, they have fallen into a deep dark pit of despair anguish and suffering fully reflected by demented food choices.. I do not believe the middle of these 2 extremes is a healthy balance.

What's the best fruit to eat to cure ..... ?

2010-11-19T09:31:00.001+11:00

One of the most common questions I get asked from people is "what is the best fruit to eat to help recover from such and such a disease?", or "to receive this or that result?" - Like someone might read of my eye colour change on a fruitarian diet, and then ask me "what's the best fruit to eat to change my eye color?".. or they might have some weird form of ailment, specific type of cancer, or wish to know how best to recover from chemotherapy etc, and they want my advice on what particular fruit would be best for them to eat.

Hanging out on a rock.

Well, firstly I want to state that I'm clearly not a "doctor". Which is really ultimately who you should see if you want something to be prescribed to you.

Secondly, I can really see that anyone asking such questions does not fully get fruitarianism yet.

The thing wrong with the whole specific question "What should I eat?", is that it supposes that somebody somewhere has a better idea of what one should eat than you yourself do. And you are truly mistaken if you think that to be so.

The simplicity of true fruitarianism is that a fruit diet is by it's very nature cleansing and healing, thus whatever it is that might be unsettling you, dis-ease-ing, bothering or generally plaguing you, provided things haven't been pushed beyond a theoretical point of no return, then adopting a fruit only diet will eventually render things right once more. Or as right as the body is capable of becoming..

Thus, if your eyes are brown because of any previously health degrading diet, then eating fruit will eventually clean things up to the point where if you live long enough you're eyes will once more return to the colour they should be..

"How long will that take?" Is the question I then get asked.. But how can I or anyone else possibly know the answer to that? Especially when we all have such specifically differing histories, different ages, states of health, varying genetic backgrounds, different living environments, etc etc. The truth is, changing ones diet to all fruit may still not be solely enough to attain the results one would like to see. For instance, one's eye colour may naturally be brown, and no amount of cleansing will alter that, or ones living and working environment may be so polluted that results may be much slower in occurring, or ultimately hindered or prevented until one makes changes or moves out from whatever circumstances one is in..

About to take a shower.

Live in a clean environment, and adopt a steady fruit diet, and I believe within weeks one will see results already, within months most semi-serious afflictions should be history, and within a year or more, you should be content with your path and singing the praises of the fruit only diet..

But the truth is, there are all manner of obstacles that stand in our way toward that one year goal. - Addiction and cravings being likely foremost, and it is unlikely that few will be capable of adopting and sticking to a purely fruit diet. Then socially we will be under a lot of pressure to stop being stupid and eat more sensibly, and if you don't have strength of character and conviction that what you are doing is right, then of course failure at fruitarianism is a likely result.

Don't take my word for it. I am not really telling you that fruit is right, and will definitely help you out. Quite frankly I don't want that responsibility. This is not to say that I personally don't believe what I'm writing. I have 100% faith in what I talk about, but that still doesn't make me right. Perhaps I have grossly erred. That is for you and you alone to decide..

So back to the specifics.. Why can't I help on which specific fruits are best for any given occasion? Well, the truth is that much as I believe human physiology is basically the same for every individual human on the planet (thus I personally have no doubt that a 100% fruit fruitarian diet is ultimately the correct diet for all humans), the specifics at any given point in time can vary greatly. Thus if I'm hungry right now, and the thing that appeals most is orange juice, then orange juice is what I should eat/drink.. But it would be complete folly for me to think that that is what you need right now too.. You need to go for what your own inner body intelligence and wisdom tells you is right. Don't listen to anyone else.. Not even me. Especially not me, I'm just some has been IBM system programmer..

Taking a shower.

Of course, you might think that macdonalds is what you truly desire, but I am obviously talking within the boundaries of fruitarianism. So when I say eat what appeals most, I mean eat whichever fruit appeals most, and you can be sure (or at least, I can! - it may take a while for you to personally gain such certainty, or you may never do so, the choice is yours!), that that fruit is the one that you need to be eating right now, and that that fruit is the one which is ultimately speeding you on the way to your goals.

Topsy-Turvy World - 15 - Wasted Money.

2010-11-13T18:56:00.000+11:00

Probably most readers are aware of how money is regularly squandered by world governments.. Money that could easily be channeled into solving global famine problems, sickness issues, homelessness, drug issues, orphaned children, crime and more. The world has the resources to tackle such issues efficiently today, but lacking the insight and altruism to do so, chooses instead to channel money toward things that actually maintain the status quo, that help ensure that the bulk of the riches stays within the greedy hands of the minority.

Kveta sunbathing out in the bush.

Millions of dollars are spent on trying to find bogus cures for man made (inflicted through ignorance) illnesses, cancer and the like. Local councils with lack of hindsight and too much money on their hands exhaust funds watering public grass lawns only to spend more time, money and earthly resources mowing them again days later, or using heavy machinery to pick up stray bits of randomly flying litter. And then of course there's the military, I've read previously that globally over 30% of all taxes go toward military funding, and the creation of weapons of mass destruction and training for those brainless pawns that are to dutifully operate them when commanded.. Kveta has just told me that while growing up, a school teacher once stated that the money spent on and by the military is more than enough to buy everyone's food everywhere, such that efficiently redirecting their funds alone could provide us all with free food! Just imagine that the global consciousness shifted, and people realised just how destructive current food choices really are, and instead of focusing on the megamonocrops of cereals, wheat, corn and rice, (depending on climate) etc, the bulk of which probably get forwarded to feeding poor imprisoned and suffering fellow animal brethren, and instead began planting fruit trees, intermingling species and adopting sustainable nonanimal centered permaculture techniques.. How quickly the world could be turned around from its path of suicidal destruction it's currently on.

Eventually of course, I optimistically foresee a time when humans do see the light, and no doubt money too will one day follow the path of the dodo and become extinct.. but meanwhile, while it's still used as a method of procuring ones needs or desires, things clearly desperately need to change.

Some examples of complete money squandering folly I've come across recently, are that the US pentagon spent $19 billion dollars (yes, that's a 19 with sparkling dollar sign before it and 9 zeros after it!) on research to discover that the best bomb detectors are dogs. What insanity and such a sad waste of resources! (read more about this here or here, or just google search the subject).

Me taking a bath.

In Britain, nowhere near the American figure just quoted, but still a substantial amount that could far more wisely be spent, £94,000 has been granted to conduct a study on what makes people attractive.. I mean, honestly! Is this even serious?.. To what end?! (read more here).. If only the government would grant us the same amount for getting some river frontage land to plant exotic tropical fruit trees on, enough to demonstrate sustainable fruit growing through vegan permaculture techniques in practice.. We could make far better use of the money.. We'd invite people over on donation only basis and run month long fruit cures helping people transit in natural settings free of otherwise other temptations. But some are wise, and others are otherwise. And people like ourselves that could desperately be aided by government funding would just be laughed out of their paper pushing bureaucratic offices..

Politicians are constantly squandering money staying in unnecessarily expensive hotels, traveling 1st class, conducting research that leads nowhere, and forever requesting more money to further such studies. Recently I read also of some student who came up with an inner city transport problem solution on a grant of less than $1000, and with money to spare, the local government had previously spent millions, (yes, millions!) trying unsuccessfully to come up with a solution, that some high-school kid solved satisfactorily himself on a limited budget.. I've just been trying to google this but although the news was relatively recent (within the last 2 months), I've not had much luck finding it, but trust me it's there. It happened.

local swimming hole

A little closer to home, here on the East coast of Australia, the Australian government forked out $2 billion to construct and install a desalination plant just south of Sydney. They already knew the inefficiency of desalination from the Victoria one that cost over $3 billion, but the icing on the sugar was that they stuck it less than 3 kilometers from a major Sydney residents sewage outlet.. Jeeze! WHy is even sewage still being pumped into the ocean!? They would have surely been better off spending the money on recycling that waste, rather than extracting clean water from the sea that must be creating 1000s of tonnes of waste mineral products, and what are they going to do with all that, one asks.. This is nothing short of complete and utter madness..

Politicians, Government, Military, I tell you the world would be a lot better off without any of them.. At least not in the form they now are.. I mean, the military could still exist but transform itself to be protectors of the environment instead of zealously jealously paranoiacally protecting artificially forcefully imposed borders, they the army could protect the land from destruction, the navy, stop pollution in the seas, and the airforce become a responsible body preventing and cleaning up air pollution. Government could coexist with the masses much more harmoniously and less wastefully, shifting focus to the true well being of the planet and all it's inhabitants existing without the potential for wrongdoing that they have, and itself being governed fairly.

Hurry up folks.. we need that global change of consciousness that will lead us out of the tunnel of the dark damp ages, and into the compassionate loving light of a reestablished Earthly Eden.

YES!

Rene Beresford (23/12/1928 - 24/10/2010)

2010-11-08T09:16:00.000+11:00

Rene Beresford has moved on. He quit his earthly shackles barely 2 weeks ago, and no doubt finds himself in a space and time of peace and wonder.

For those of you that don't know Rene, he was the founder of the Australian based Fruitarian Network, and toward the end of the 80s and throughout much of the 1990s edited and produced a small informal quarterly newsletter, which was surely an inspiration and encouragement for many world wide, with many wise written words and testimonies on the benefits of the fruit only diet.

Rene was 2 months short of becoming 82, and and surely wasn't having an easy time toward the end, with failing eyesight and mobility problems, I've been told he died with a body riddled with cancer..

A fruitarian dieing of cancer? Yes, that would puzzle me too if it were strictly true. I mean, it's not that I categorically rule out the possibility of a fruitarian with cancer, as there can be other contributing factors besides food intake leading to such physiological situations, but sadly I believe Rene, being originally of dutch decent and background, growing up through Europe in the 2nd world war, suffering many hardships and no doubt other tough life experiences, did not adopt his fruitarian ideas until quite late in life, and despite his seeming conviction to fruitarianism, Rene himself had difficulty putting his own beliefs and philosophies consistently into practise. So, much as he was undoubtedly dedicated to spreading the truth about food, he himself never truly sought out the correct nurturing environment and surroundings to allow integration of such ideas fully into his own life.

I last met the guy toward the end of the 1990s, but had a decent chat with him on the phone barely 7 or 8 months ago.. He expressed at the time some frustration that he had not come to fruitarianism earlier in his life, and wished to indicate that his ails were not at all stemming from a fruit diet, - something I'm sure he'd wish to be made known to any puzzled followers.

In honour of the fellow, there will be a small memorial held this coming sunday (14th November) at 16:00, on the northern end of Trinity beach (Cairns, Australia), anyone who knew him, or of him, is welcome to attend, just bring along an item of fruit or 2 to share, and enjoy the picnic.

Rene's newsletter was most definitely a comfort for me as I myself struggled sticking with fruit and even raw, and it helped to read of and share experiences with others through the informal newsletter, and know that I was far from alone with those struggles (in those pre-internet days, such fruitarian magazines were about the only way we had of connecting with other like minds!). So I'd like to personally thank Rene for being there and being an often voice of reason.

Wherever you're at, enjoy the fruits of your labour Rene!

Strange Abilities - 1 - Echo Location.

2010-11-04T09:31:00.001+11:00

For a long time now I have been someone that adamantly doesn't believe in human limitations. Perhaps this is because ultimately I believe that we are all beings of a fundamentally spiritual nature, and even though this is something we often tend to forget on a day to day basis, occasionally the world offers me gentle clues and reminders that this is so. Thus, if you were to ask me if I believe that it's possible to ultimately live without food altogether, I would be inclined to answer "yes". Admittedly, I've yet to physically meet anyone that's put this fully, consistently into practice, and I don't doubt that for the most of us, were we to try, we would no doubt meet untimely ends.. However, I do here occasional news of supposed globally spread breatharians whose stories seem to me (perhaps naively) to be genuine. See for example the case of Prahlad Jani. I believe such incredible feats require to be entered into with a full awareness of ones essential spirituality, and without, are likely (though no 100% guarantee!) doomed to fail.

But even still within the realms of the blatantly physical, the human body is capable of so much more than we are generally aware, incredibly, seemingly miraculous feats of strength, or endurance, or abilities to hold ones breath for extended periods of time, or withstand other extremes.

Recently I've been reading up on something called Echo Location. An ability normally reserved for the likes of sonar clicking Dolphins, Bats and possibly other blind nocturnal animals, but it seems that such qualifications are not restricted to these species alone. Indeed, there's a guy out there called Daniel Kisch who teaches people to echo locate, showing that it's a capability well within the reach of humans. Daniel himself is blind since barely a year old, and probably one of the first people to truly exploit this potential we all have.

This is Dan mountain walking with
a group of fellow echo locators

This is by far from being a one off phenomenon, with many other humans (especially sightless) recently also adopting the skill. I think you'll find the following video quite fascinating:

And if you think that's amazing, there are even dogs out there that use echo location as a means of getting around.. see this story of a German Spitz:

http://swns.com/blind-german-spitz-dog-uses-echoes-to-find-his-way-round-291142.html

And similar:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1324628/Jack-sheepdog-good-knew-blind.html

Weird and wonderful stuff. (More info on Echo Location at Wikipedia)

hugs,
mango.

Me, a few days ago, taking a bath in a wild creek

I'm allergic to Calories.

2010-10-25T12:16:00.003+11:00

I'm allergic to calories. They make me sweat and fart and froth and burp. Carbohydrates are killing me slowly, when I look at photos from 30 years ago, I can see how much they've aged me. Vitamins have played their role too, with some hair loss, and not to mention the minerals that have destroyed my teeth. And then there's those dreaded glycogens, proteins and fats which who knows what havoc they've inflicted upon my body over the years.

Oh how I wish I had grown up in a world full of fruit and with guardians with sense enough to understand it's life giving properties. I could have avoided all those ghastly amino acids and sugars that have (rav)aged my body.

My simple understanding of a calorie, is that it is a unit equal to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree at one atmosphere pressure, and as such I fail to see what business they have playing vital parts of our diets. It's rather like eating empty hot air don't you think?

In my opinion, all that pseudo science, of microscopically dissecting the molecules of our food before eating them distances us from the pure simplicity of eating the fresh juicy ambrosial heavenly scrumptiousness of fruit. It degrades the sweet and saporous nectarine to a mound of health threatening sugars and other pathogens. The durian gets transformed from a delectable lump of tantalizingly custard creamy peerless irreproachable bliss into a bunch of dead and decaying vitamins, nefarious fats (god forbid!), and gremlinous amino acids.

The truth of fruitarianism, lies in simplicity, but we live in a world that revolves around fear and scaremongering that simplicity renders simple, and that the true pillars of reality are too complex for the likes of the simple masses..

Thus we have the meat and dairy industry that cleverly marketed us the protein myth, the raw fooders that sell us their goji berries and all it's miraculously magical built in ingredients, and now the new set of fruitarians that want us to think that still wish to insist that we need to understand food content before we can do it properly.. Suddenly, we can't do it ourselves, but need expert opinion and guidance to get there.

I've written this before, but I think it's worth repeating. Take a simple apple and cut it in half. After barely 10 minutes what do you observe? The 2 halves exposed to the air are likely already beginning to discolour.. Slowly becoming increasingly more brown. Put very simply (because, let's face it, I aint no scientist), what's happening is the life force of the food is slowly dissipating. The longer you leave it, the less value it will have as a food.

Now, try grating a different apple, if your observant, you'll notice that the smaller the pieces, the quicker they'll discolour (oxidize). IE, the quicker the true value of the food is lost.. (If you start doing stuff like subjecting the morsels to heat or similar, then the process is yet more rapid and devastating!).

In order to observe those pesky elusive little vitamins and their ilk, food has to be dissected so small that by the time it's sandwiched between the glass under the microscope, you can be sure that any vital, once present, life force is long gone..

Same goes for the amino acids, glycogens, carbos and who really understands what a calorie is? I mean, yeah sure, you might text book quote me any of it, but really you're just blahing stuff that you have no idea about.. How many of us would even recognise a plate full of pure b12 if we saw it, and yet so many tend to talk about it, feigning a familiarity that is entirely within their imaginations.

I don't care for any of it. I also don't believe that anyone can rightly say what anyone else should specifically eat at any given meal.. If you think that you need someone to guide or tell you, then you surely haven't understood the simplicity of fruitarianism. I don't care if someone tells me I ate 40 calories yesterday, or 4000, to me it means nothing, so I'm not into calorie restriction, or the opposite of forcing myself or guilting anyone else into believing they need to get a certain amount each day. I don't give a damn how many (douglas) grams of food I ate in my last meal, and i'm not into ritually forcing drink down my gullet to stay hydrated in the future.

The simple truth of true fruitarianism, 100% fruit, is eat what you want, when you want, drink and eat when hungry, don't eat or drink for tomorrow. we're not camels living in a desert. To avoid issues of not getting enough, avoid situations where there isn't an abundance around you. It's no good planning to do a bike ride or long walk, and eating and drinking everything you think you need before you start out.

If you stick to just fruit, ie fresh raw fruit.. (no leaves, seeds, roots, flesh, etc and none of this dried fruit and nuts that many raw fooders subscribe to), then you will also observe that the desire for water will diminish and provided you are not manically exercising for the sake of it, then probably disappear altogether.

If you stick with fruit, only you can know what and how much appeals at any given point in time, don't ignorantly expect someone else to tell you what to eat. It is folly to believe that anyone knows better than you do.

HaHa!

Don't be mistaken in thinking that avocados are fat. avocados are a fruit. the 801010 people have made a grave mistake in lumping avocados in with the nuts in their pseudo science. All commercially available nuts are cooked. There are no exceptions, even if someone tries to convince you they are not.. the truth is they've all been heat treated, thus their overall effect on the human physiology is bound to be, comparable to cooked food, ultimately detrimental. Avocados are not nuts, and not cooked, or heat treated so their effect is very different and not comparable to that of nuts. Don't be afraid of them, be afraid of the pseudo-scientists that would rather blind you with their half-arsed science and bring you to a sense of fear that they alone have the complex knowledge you need to stay healthy. The truth is free, it's lies that must be paid for.

The next time someone comes up to you and tries to get you to eat protein or calories, be strong, say "no thank you", and turn and walk the other way.. resist the temptation, eat fruit and prosper.

PS don't take this article too seriously. I'm aware that it's unlikely that fruitarianism would stop the aging process completely, I'm just writing tongue in cheek, is all..

Topsy-Turvy world - 14 - Reconstituted Flesh.

2010-10-09T08:35:00.000+11:00

Any reader out there a fast food addict? If so, you need to see these pictures..

This is what is known as mechanically separated chicken, which is pretty much how all fast food chicken nuggets and burgers originate prior to being burgered or nuggeted.. It is also where most processed frozen store bought chicken comes from..

This video with it's sickening elevator music shows the latest 21st century technology to manufacture mechanically separated meat (AKA MSM)..

Basically, bones with some flesh, tendons, fat and muscle still intact are forced under high pressure through a type of sieve.. The idea is to separate the supposedly edible parts of the carcass from the inedible bones (thus squeezing every last cent from Gods innocent slaughtered creatures).. However, machinery is a crude mechanism for such a delicate process, and inevitably some of the bone gets crushed through to fine powder, and I have read too that it's often the case that occasionally even pulverised fur, feathers, beaks, eyes, intestines and more make it through to the finished blob of seemingly regurgitated flesh product..

Due to the abundance of thriving bacteria inevitable around such a process, additional ammonium hydroxide is regularly included with the meat mix as an antibacterial agent, meat packing plants typically also use anhydrous ammonia for refrigeration purposes, which occasionally results in ammonia leakages that have been known to infiltrate the processed reconstituted meat destined for sausages and the like..

In order to satisfy consumer preferences for colour taste and texture, additives (those often carcinogenic little E numbers!) are frequently used to artificially enhance the finished product.. Making it appeal to the eye (beauty is surely in the eye of the beholder! because I see nothing appealing about it), and taste so yummy yum yum.. NOT.

This final video I find particularly disturbing.. It shows how mechanical even the people are working in that industry, and how totally unfeeling, cold and lacking in love their environment is..

Fruitarian Interview - 39 - Stacey Barrington

2010-10-06T08:03:00.003+11:00

This is the 39th Interview with various fruitarians scattered around the globe, it is with Stacey Barrington, a Canadian actress.. You can read more about her here: Stacey Barrington, and on her frequently updated blog: Go Fruit Yourself.
For further such interviews, please see the list of interviews with fruitarians.

Hi Stacey,

For the record, can I first ask what year you were born in, and where you grew up?

Sure, I was born in 1969 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I lived in Vancouver until I was 9 then moved to Coquitlam and grew up there until I finished high school.

Is that where you're currently living too?

After high school, I finished my BFA in Theatre and English at Simon Fraser University, then moved to Los Angeles, CA, for almost 6 years. I've been back in Canada now for almost 8 years and have bounced back and forth between Vancouver and Coquitlam a couple times. Funny timing... I'm currently living in Coquitlam but will be moving back to Vancouver at the end of October.

Stacey Barrington
(Celebrating Graduation from SFU - 1995)
How is that corner of Canada as a place to be on a fruitarian diet? Do you find you get enough variety of fruit readily available and affordable there?

We get great fruit here! Whole Foods popped up here just as I was returning from LA and they get in some of the most amazing fruit. Affordable? I really only have LA as a comparison, so some things seem a little more expensive, some a little less... But it all seems to work out to about the same at the cashier.

You've been an actress since an early age right?

You've done your research! Yes, I started acting in Film & Television when I was 9 years old. Mostly commercials and some local print work. I trained in Theatre full time at SFU and it was an incredible experience... However, after I graduated, I found myself gravitating more toward film and television again. I've since worked on a variety of projects from TV series to independent films.

I guess that means you probably travel a far bit too, or is most of your work done within your State?

December 2009

Most of my work is in Vancouver and the surrounding suburbs. A few years back, I had put it out there to the Universe that I'd like to travel more with acting and modeling... The next job I booked was in Whistler. I laughed and thought, okay, a little further than Whistler. The next job? Pemberton! Literally 30 minutes past Whistler. The Universe has such a funny sense of humour.

Do you find whichever studio you are with filming caters well for your fruit needs?

Fruit seriously has to be the easiest food to get on set. That being said, it usually gets gobbled up in the first 6 hours of the day and pickings get a little slimmer after that. I usually bring a bunch of bananas with me in case I get hungry at the end of a long day when the craft table is looking a little light in the fruit department.

I'm sure you've not always been fruitarian though, what was your diet like growing up, and what brought on the changes toward a fruit diet??

I would have never imagined myself being a Fruitarian when I was in university. I lived on Honey Nut Cheerios, Licorice, Pizza, Vodka, Bailey's, Coffee and of course, diet soda of all kinds. Not exactly the poster child of perfect nutrition. Growing up we always had lots of sugary processed snacks in the house and fish or meat at every dinner. Food really became a big issue for me in my teenage years. I found it very difficult to maintain a body weight I felt comfortable with. I tried every diet out there. I'd list them all, but I'd literally have to list them ALL! If you can think of it, I've probably tried it.

Stacey - Pre Raw - September 2005
Then, a little over 4 years ago I had a series of "irregular" pap smears. My doctor was very concerned with the results and had told me that if my next pap smear (scheduled for September) came back irregular again, we'd have to do a cone biopsy of my cervix. She explained this could possibly limit my chances of carrying a child if I ever decided to get pregnant.

Inspired by the desire to possibly have kids one day, I spent the next week researching my options on the internet. I came across raw food. I'd never heard of the concept before but what I read fascinated me. I went 100% raw overnight, but not vegan. I included everything and anything raw: fruit, veggies, nuts, seared rare steak, sashimi, raw milk cheese, vegetable juices, fruit juices and water. It was a pretty drastic change but I was determined to help my body heal itself.

How did that change effect your health and state of mind?

Three months later in September, still 100% raw, I had my first normal pap smear in almost 2 years. I was elated! ... And pretty darn proud of myself. During that time I had lost a little weight but nothing really drastic. At least I wasn't gaining weight anymore. I should also note that in the last 4 years of being raw, all of my pap smears have been normal.

Since my first transition to raw, over the past 4 years, I've slowly taken out the raw meats, fish, cheese ... Mostly for ethical reasons. I had tinkered with Vegetarianism eating cooked food but it never sat well with my body. I always felt bloated and gained weight. After I'd taken out the animal products, I significantly began to reduce the amount of raw dehydrated foods in my diet. Then I stopped juicing vegetables. Juicing veggies just never felt natural and I always felt a little queasy after drinking green juice. Eating Raw Vegan food is by far the best choice I've ever made for my body.

September 2006 - 3 Months Raw
I feel happier eating a Fruitarian diet. I never have to think about my weight anymore, I have almost no body odour, and I've gotten really good at picking the best ripe fruit in the market.

So are you currently eating 100% fruit, or are there some exceptions in your diet? Is everything raw, do you sometimes eat dried fruit? what about supplements?

I'm currently eating about 95% Fruit. I order romaine with guacamole for dressing at restaurants if they don't have any fruit (maybe once a month) and I do make raw dehydrated macaroons at Christmas for family and friends. That's pretty much it. I have been struggling the last couple months with those sugar free energy drinks but have finally put those to rest again and am back to drinking water only.

As far as vitamins go, I had been taking a multi daily over the past couple years. I'm beginning to find them a little hard on my tummy when I eat just fruit so I'm considering switching to a B12 supplement. I'm still a work in progress in that area.

Do you have a partner/family? If so, what is their opinion of your fruitarian diet?

My family is so used to my crazy diets over the decades they just ask me what I'm eating this week then buy it for me, lol. The've been very supportive of my transition to raw food having seen the health benefits I've experienced... And I've finally stopped talking about my weight!

Do other actors you might socialise and work with know of your fruit diet?

I'm actually very vocal about my food choices. If someone asks why I'm not lining up at the catering truck, I tell them I do this crazy fruit diet that I love. Being an actress, people tend to think I'm a tad eccentric anyway. What's funny is lately, when I tell people I only eat fruit, they are quick to respond that they eat a lot of fruit too! That's an interesting shift I've noticed in the last 6 months... Universal consciousness at work? Hmmmm....

What's the strangest question you've ever been asked about your diet?

I don't know about the strangest, but everyone asks me where I get my protein from. I've tried a few different answers over the years. Now I just say I don't really know.... And that there are well documented cases of people living on fruit for over 20 years and they seem fine so I thought I'd give it a try.

Do you know of any other fruitarians living in your area?

No I don't. In sharing my experience with others over the years, several of my close friends are now high raw vegetarians. I'm really happy for them and all the changes they've made.

May 2008 - She ate the fruit on the cake!
If you were to hazard a guess, how many fruitarians would you say there are in Canada.. in The world?

I honestly have no idea. I wish there were a whole lot more! It is such a kind, ethical, environmentally friendly way of living one's life. I really don't understand why everyone doesn't get it. It seems kinda obvious that a Fruitarian lifestyle is the best choice for our bodies and our planet.

As a fruitarian, do you sometimes find yourself facing or making compromises and taking on jobs that you don't necessarily agree with. I mean, how would you feel if some fast food joint wanted you for an ad?

My point of view is that they're going to hire someone for the job. Whether it's me or someone else will not make the difference as to how many people eat meat or frequent fast food restaurants. They can advertise their product all they want but when people, like myself, stop buying it, they'll have to change their product or go out of business. I'm more than happy to cash the cheque and buy fantastic fruit.

Have you ever suggested to someone within the field that they make a documentary on fruitarianism?

Funny you should ask... That's been on my mind lately. I don't personally know a lot of people who make documentaries but I truly believe the general public is almost ready for it. I say almost because I think the majority of people out there are just beginning to grasp the concept of eating raw food. Eating only fruit? I'd love to say everyone could do it tomorrow, but I don't think most people would be comfortable with that idea yet.

There is a great documentary out there called "Earthlings". (See below this paragraph). It's interesting when I mention it to people. So many people don't want to watch it because they don't want to know where their food comes from or how the animals are treated or how their food choices impact their health and the environment.

People do seem to show a little more interest in raw food and fruitarianism when it pertains to losing weight. That seems to be a sad statement to me on where people's priorities lie in the big picture.

Are you able to find enough work acting, or do you sometimes take on other lines of work too?

I've worked as an actress and an acting coach for a very long time. A few years back I got into buying, renovating and flipping residential properties. I really enjoyed it and recently got my licence as Realtor. It's my first "civilian" job (other than waitressing) since I graduated from SFU in my 20's. It's been fun to meet a whole new group of people and my brain is enjoying working in a different way. Acting will always be my number one passion, but Real Estate is becoming a very close second.

Could you give us a rough overview of what (and when - time of day) you might eat on a typical day?

I'm big into mono fruit meals at the moment. Some days I might eat 8-12 bananas and that's it!

Other days I may have a mini watermelon for breakfast, 8-10 Medjool Dates for lunch, then indulge in a Durian for dinner.

I like to eat early in the morning. I'm usually up at 6am every day and find a big fruit breakfast gets my system "moving". I like to nibble on something small for lunch around noon then dinner is usually between 4-7pm. When I'm alone, I eat dinner early. When I'm socializing with friends and family, dinner is usually later.

Do you perhaps have a garden where you grow some of your own food? fruit trees? How much do you think you spend a week on your fruit/food?

Nope, no garden. I'm terrible with plants! I've killed cactus with kindness... I over water them. I buy organic when it's available and otherwise look for the freshest ripest conventional fruit I can find. I probably spend about $100 a week on Fruit and Water. That would include eating out as well.

Have you done much travelling, and if so, any particular places you'ld recommend for fellow fruitarians?

Travelling as a Fruitarian is so easy. I found great little fruit shops in Paris and in North America, you can get fresh bananas at Starbucks and even gas stations! I'd love to travel to Thailand and have fresh Durian right off the tree. I usually buy it frozen and really enjoy it, but it would be awesome to get it at the source.

Any regular pass-times/hobbies?

Raw food nutrition is my biggest hobby. It is slowly morphing into some type of career and I'm excited to watch it take shape. I'm really enjoying developing my website www.gofruityourself.com.

Otherwise I really like hiking, snowshoeing, downhill skiing and ice skating. Gotta do something to make it thru the cold winter months! I also really enjoy taking long hot baths and drinking hot water to warm up during the colder winter months.

Can you name some fruits that you've not tried yet but are looking forward to trying?

Chocolate sapote!! I read Anne Osborne's book "Fruitarianism The Path to Paradise" and she made it sound amazing.

The infamous Chocolate Pudding Fruit
(AKA Black Sapote/Black Persimmon).
Tastes like chocolate mousse
Where and how do you see yourself living and eating in 10 years from now?

That's a good questions. I miss the warmth of LA, but love the beauty of Whistler, and then there's the lure of Europe... I really don't know where I'll be living in 10 years, but I do know that wherever it is, I'll be a happy Fruitarian eating fruit and drinking water.

Finally, is there anything you'ld like to add as words of encouragement to those that are aspiring toward fruitarianism?

Everyone has their own path to follow. I never imagined my raw food curiosity would lead me down a path to Fruitarianism... But I'm really glad it did! Allow yourself to experiment and find what works best for you at your pace. It's not a race and remember to enjoy the process. We all get to the end of our journey eventually.... Why not make it a fruitful one!

February 2009
Thanks Stacey!
Mango.

Fruitarian Interview - 38 - Rejean Durette

2010-09-30T07:46:00.002+10:00

Hi Rejean,

I've just gotten through reading the book "The Fruit Hunters", by Adam Leith Gollner, in it he writes a chapter on Fruitarians, and makes mention of yourself, describing you as Americas "foremost authority on fruitarianism", is that a title you feel worthy of?

His book title sounds slightly Neanderthal. I'd rather be considered a lover than a hunter. How about "the fruit lovers". Haha.. I'll have to track that book down somewhere. It sounds very good from what you've said.

I believe that I have a lot of experience with the fruit diet, and that I have done a lot of research as well to back up my convictions. As such, I believe that many people do consider me to be the authority on fruitarian diet. I think that I also provided a no-nonsense approach on how to make it work. It's not just a spiritual philosophy, where you do lots of meditation or some other spiritual practice that enables you to live on fruit. There is very factual science behind the nutrition of a fruitarian diet. Once people realize this, and basically get a calorie sufficient diet of varied fruits, including fats, the diet is usually fairly easy to do. Of course, that's a very short oversimplification, but that's the basic idea.

Well, I wouldn't sing the praises of his book too much, there were some interesting parts, but his description of what he defines as a fruit was pretty confusing, and there's a fair bit of repetition in the book too, - did you ever get to meet the guy?

Can't say that I did.

I know he contacted you because he read your book "Fruit: The Ultimate Diet", to be honest, I've still not come across a copy of it yet, how many copies of it do you think you've sold so far, and is it still popular?

The book sold a few thousand copies, which I believe is a fair bit considering I did absolutely no promotion for it. A large portion of those were printed on my computer when I started, something I would never do again. It sold over a hundred copies at a local health food store down in Phoenix within a short time, perhaps because people could relate to all the local produce I spoke about, and obviously some of those people who read the book may have known about me.

Rejean is an interesting name, it sounds vaguely french, care to enlighten us as to how you pronounce it?

My heritage is 100% french canadian. The name is very difficult to pronounce if you are without french blood. I'm not even sure that my family pronounces it correctly.

I noticed that in your emails, your name appears as "David Owens", is that an alias of yours?

I worked as a radio dj/announcer for a decade or so, and David Owens is my radio name, because my real name was too difficult for people to deal with. Many people know me by that name, for sake of ease, or because they get to know my radio personality that way.

For the record, can I ask what year you were born in?

I was born in 65, in Canada

Rejean Durette AKA DJ David Owens
But you're living in Arizona right? Is that where you grew up too?

Been in Arizona since 88.

Do you have a blog or website where people can read more about you and your thoughts??

I don't have a blog right now, but there is a website at www.fruitarianvibes.com. I haven't updated it much, but there is some great info there.

When and how did you come to the realisation that fruit was, as you put it, "the ultimate diet"?

Probably as far back as 1989. I "flirted" with the idea a little in those days, and was just getting used to being vegan. I was doing mostly raw in August 1992, when I got involved in a relationship with a girl who was vegan, and then I ended up going back to more of a regular vegan diet for a while, but by early 1993, I apparently made an impact on her, and we both went full steam ahead with the idea of being fruitarian together. I believe it was May of 1993.

prior to that were you on a more conventional diet?

Conventional until September of 1989, but went vegan within a month in October of 1989. but was doing a lot of raw food off and on through the next 3 years or so until becoming 100% raw.

What brought on those changes? was it a book you read, influence from someone, anyone, anything in particular?

Prior to 1989, I lived in Canada, and ate a more conventional diet. I had NEVER heard about vegetarianism, but I was never heavy on meat. I can honestly say that I have never purchased a steak in my life and was never big on junk food, such as sodas and candy bars.

When I first came to the southwestern United States desert, I was on somewhat of a spiritual retreat, where I did a lot of meditation and yoga. I spent a lot of time in nature, hiking, biking and swimming. I think that because I have left my family, my career, and basically my entire life behind, it was easy for me to change my life in so many ways.

I ended up volunteering at a local vegetarian restaurant, around the same time that I became vegan in 1989, and I met an individual named Fred, who was fairly excited about the concept of fruitarian diet. He also introduced me to colon cleansing. While I didn't make those changes at that time to a total fruitarian diet, I did embrace the general idea at that time, and started to eat more and more fruit.

I remember one particular day, where I had come back from a long and very wonderful hike in Sedona, Arizona (USA), which is so amazingly beautiful. It had made such an impact on me, and I had started the day with a lot of yoga and meditation. I was definitely in an altered state. I came back to my campsite, in a secluded and peaceful area, and I looked into my refrigerator, and I saw some fish and eggs that there, and it seemed so wrong to eat something so unnatural, and so removed from nature, when I was in such a peaceful and natural place. I held the egg in my hand, and I felt the pain and suffering of the chickens and I understood why eggs were unhealthy, because they are not a food that can be raised in a compassionate way. Eggs have a certain purpose in this world, and it's certainly not to provide food for humans. I had a few oranges in my refrigerator, and I looked at it for a long time, the beautiful radiant almost sun-like quality of it's skin, the fragrance that draws us into it, etc.

What I became aware of for the first time in my life is that everything in this world is energy. The most important way to be aware of our own energy and "monitor" out energy is to eat the highest vibrational food available. It became very clear to me that the highest vibrational foods are ALWAYS fruit. Of course, organic, fresh, local fruits are always better.

I also thought a lot about how we automatically take on the eating customs of our society, our family, without questions; how our taste buds get perverted over time, so the point that we believe that the smell of a roasting dead corpse (meat) smells good to us.

None of this happened in a vacuum. It was partially became I had left my entire life behind, and I had begun to question why I was doing ALL the things I had done my whole life. It was almost like a near death experience where people get to review their entire life.

I changed so many things in my life during that time, not just diet, and looking back, I think it was a fairly magical stage of my existence.

what changes have you observed since those realisations? - weightwise/healthwise, spiritually, physically, emotionally etc?

That's the subject of an entire book, which I have started writing, by the way. Weight has pretty much stayed the same my entire life. Health has always been good. I just did a 13 mile mountain bike ride yesterday and I am planning a 50 mile one for Friday. So, I think I'm doing pretty good.

After just a few weeks on a juice fast, I couldn't stand my glasses anymore that I had worn for almost a decade, and was able to pass my driver's test without them. That's a real physical, measurable thing, and I was very excited about that.

Spiritually, I think is where the diet made the most changes for me. Fruit is the highest vibration of all foods, and I feel that whatever we put into our bodies, we became, at least to some degree. I've heard some so called spiritual types that claimed they could "transmute" the energy of what they put in their bodies, but you can't "transmute" animal suffering, or all the chemicals that are put on the food crops that we eat. They're in the environment working their way into the soils, into the water, etc.

Especially when I'm somewhere in nature, a pristine place, it seems almost sacrilegious when I see people with Doritos and beer, for example. I think that the more people live unnatural lives in cities, they more they tend to anesthetize themselves with wrong foods.

I feel that my mind is free to think and work properly and that my spirit is much more open to so many possibilities, and that I am a much happier person because of the dietary changes I've made.

Being vegan for me, was a lifestyle, not just a diet, and I feel the same about being fruitarian. I don't talk about it much these days, because it's just a part of who I am, I don't strive or try to do it, it just happens on a daily basis, without effort.

OK, I know that you believe in a 100% fruit fruitarianism, but you've also mentioned that you're not quite there yet, what kind of foods are you still eating that aren't fruit?

Dried foods, occasionally, but fairly rarely. I have on occasion eaten at the raw cafe we have here locally, or went to raw potlucks for fun, and eaten some non fruit foods, but I don't think that disqualifies me from being fruitarian. It might in some people's minds I suppose. The longest I have ever went being 100% raw fruitarian is 9 months. Then I might have eaten something that contained some greens or onions or something else raw, but I never really thought much about that. It's not like I broke down and had a cheese burger or anything.

Do you see yourself weening off of those items anytime soon?

I don't know if I would make any changes really. Like I said, it's only an occasional thing, and not something that I do often. Sometimes when I have been at potlucks, I have stuck with all fruit, but I feel that being social, and partaking of something that's 100% raw that a friend has made, is fine.

You managed to snag a 62 acre parcel near phoenix right? What kind of trees have you got growing on their now? how old are they? are they fruiting yet? is there water running through the place?

62 acre parcel is located between Phoenix and Yuma. I have done a fair bit of work there, including bringing the power in, a mobile home, a septic, and a large steel building, but so far, no well, and as such, no trees. Everything takes time (and money).

I have planted about 60 trees, at my other property just north of Phoenix. Those were planted in the spring of this year, (2010), and are mostly all doing quite well. The peaches already fruited, as they were large trees. I have stripped all the furit off the citrus trees to divert their energy into new growth.

I should start seeing some good crops by 2012. That might sound like a long ways into the future, but it's pretty exciting. In 1999, I managed to be 50% food sufficient with 100 fruit trees

What kind of fruits is the climate there not suitable for? anything particular you would like to be growing but can't?

I can't grow tropical fruits like bananas and avocados for example, and I've love to grow them. I have tried though.

Really, no avocados? They are more of a warm temperate fruit than tropical, I'm surprised they wouldn't grow there?!

I have tried to grow them. I have a few trees right now, but they rarely do very well. They need an awful lot of attention. The Arizona desert is too cold AND too hot for a lot of fruits. Avocados need more humidity, and don't like it when it gets over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. While I love avocados, and would be thrilled if I could successfully grow them, it's best if I focus on the things that works well in the Arizona desert, and the list is so long:

I have all kinds of citrus, figs, dates, peaches, plums, apples, apricots, nectarines, almonds, melons, berries, pomegranates, persimmons, guavas, etc.

I am pretty lucky to be able to grow all that variety.

What line of work were you in to manage to scrape the money together for the land?

Some of the money came from the sale of a previous home, and then some came from my current business, growing sprouts !

Is it easy enough to get hold of good quality fruit choices in your area?

Tropical fruits, mostly.

You have a girl friend right? Is she into the fruit thing too?

Yes, oddly enough she is also a fruitarian. What are the odds of that ?

What do other members of your family make of your views on fruitarianism? I'm guessing you've shared your book with them?

Yes, my family is all aware of my dietary choices at this point. I am not sure what they say when I am not around, but I think they're ok with it.

Any kids at all?

I have a son who's 14

So, absolutely no cravings for any cooked foods? or other foods you definitely know are not good choices?

I was never really into most "junk foods", thankfully. People are amazed when I tell them I've never had a Twinkie or a M & M for example. My son was raised the same way, he's still never had a soda or a cookie, for example.

Could you give us a rough overview of what you might eat on a typical day?

Often I start out with a large smoothie, say 8 ounces coconut water, 3 bananas, 1/2 a pound of strawberries, maybe some mango, blueberries, raspberries, a kiwi, whatever I"m in the mood for....

This time of year, I eat a lot of watermelons, today I ate watermelon and then at around 1 or so, I had 3 avocados with a couple tomatoes, a some red peppers. After that I had a few figs and I will probably eat a few more bananas and maybe a few oranges, and that's about it.

How much of your food do you grow yourself? How much do you think you spend a week on your fruit/food?

Not much right now, except for watermelons, tomatoes and peppers.

I spend probably $150 a week on food, ouch.

Well, $100 to $150, depending on.....how rich I feel at the moment.

You say you have another book in the works, care to tell us more of what it'll be about?

Yes, a couple of books in the works, one about the spiritual aspects of the diet, and the other on a completely, ok, on a somewhat different topic, about dreams and out of body experiences!

Have you done much fruit travelling? any particular places on the globe you are particularly fond of?

Fruit travel, yes, my entire life is a fruit travel. I grew up in northern Canada, where it was too cold to even grow apples! Berries do grow abundantly there, and the last few years, I planned a visit there during wild blueberry season. During that time, there is also all the following berries in the wild: Saskatoons, cranberries, high bush cranberries, pincherries, chokecherries, and raspberries. My partner and I ate 5 gallons of blueberries combined in a six day period, and that's not counting all the other berries we ate.

I have also spent time in California, Florida, Mexico, South America and my favorite Hawaii, where I was fortunate enough to spend time on a few farms. How I love those Hawaiian papayas.

Can you name some fruits that you've not tried yet but are looking forward to trying?

Oh, nothing really that I am that excited about trying at this point.

Do you know any (or many!) other 100% fruitarians, or people headed that way?

Can't say that I know any personally, except for my partner, Holly.

Could you hazard a guess of how many 100% fruitarians there might be, in the US? in the world? Do you think the idea is spreading?

There must be at least 7 worldwide, maybe 8 or 9 by now, so I guess it must be spreading. Haha. I have no idea, but there are more than ever.

Do you're friends and neighbours know you're on a pretty much mostly fruit diet, and if so, what do they make of it?

Most of my neighbours have no idea, but most of my friends figure it out over time, and they seem to be alright with it.

My sister in law was worried as to how she was going to feed me once, and my brother said, don't worry about him, he'll take care of himself. That makes it super easy. Sometimes my family will try, but they tend to sometimes forget that I don't like to eat non organic foods.

Where and how do you see yourself living and eating in 10 years from now?

I enjoy where I live now, because I am right by a creek, and I can run down there on my bike and swim, which I would do every day if time permitted, but some days I can't squeeze it in.

I do like Hawaii a lot, but I do detest mosquitoes. I don't live where my house is, at least not yet, but I do foresee a time when half of my food could come from that place. The southern desert part of Arizona is great for year round food production. When I lived there before, I averaged 15 pounds of fruit per day, YEAR ROUND out of my back yard, which was only 1/2 an acre total, and that was after only 3 years. In 7 years time, I probably would have averaged 30 pounds of fruit per day.

Finally, is there anything you'ld like to add as words of encouragement to those that are aspiring toward fruitarianism?

I get a lot emails and questions from people, and I always tell them that they need to take baby steps. So many people think they can go from a meat and junk food based diet to full fledged fruitarianism, and they always fail miserably.

Go it slow, and do it step by step. Also, you don't have to be 100%. I tell people that if they can just increase their fruit intake by a little, that's a huge help. The average person only eats about 5% of their diet as raw food. Increasing that to say, 20% for most people would be massive. Not only from the great health benefits of the fruit, but also from the items in their diet they have replaced.

Also, I like to point out that there is no one thing in this world that can change you and make you 100% healthy. You can't forget exercise, getting enough sleep, what you do to support yourself, creating great relationships with people, etc. Like most people, I struggle with some of these things, and I am in no way perfect, but I like to think that I see health as a much larger thing than just diet.

The other thing is that people get far too focused on science, vitamins, minerals, etc. I tell people that no matter what fruits they like, they're all good. If you like peaches a lot, eat plenty of those, but don't force yourself to eat oranges if you have trouble getting them down, for instance. Eat fresh, local and organic as much as possible.

Well, that's a few ideas, I suppose, there's always lots to share about this way of life. Oh, by the way, I got involved with the sprout business when I first became vegan, and it has supported me for a long time, but I have also added some fruit offerings to what I deliver to the stores, such as some locally grown dates, and coconuts, and occasionally some other items, but I stick with fruits.

Thanks for the opportunity to share a bit of this info with you

Thanks Rejean!

Life in the Tropics..

2010-09-24T09:35:00.001+10:00

Well, it's been over 9 months since Kveta and I upped and left Sydney. Saying our final goodbyes to the warm temperate zone, and relocating to the hot tropics of Far North Queensland..

As most of you know already, we were accompanied by Emile and David, 2 young American filmmakers who hired a car for the occasion and followed us up and along the coastline of Eastern Australia. They took well over 40 hours of footage of the 2 of us and others we met en route (including some of the participants of a December 801010 gathering held in this neck of the woods)..

Apparently, the 25 minute documentary they knocked together was initially aired to an audience of about 200 in the US, and met with favourable views promoting some of the audience to give fruitful thought to the idea of fruitarianism.. Unfortunately, Kveta and I have still not seen the full video, (the introduction to it is still available for viewing on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LzleNRtyRg, but we have little doubt we will get to see it soon, (we believe that Emile, the director/editor), is knocking together a longer 1 hour plus version, and when he has finished that task, will likely forward us a copy of both versions)..

Initially when we arrived in the tropics, we had no real idea of where we would end up living.. Our first goal was to get to Mareeba, where we optimistically hoped to find ourselves a piece of paradise to live on..

We were thankful to be offered a place to be for a while at a tropical fruit farm called fruitopia (http://www.fruitopiafarm.com/ - this was where the December 2009 801010 gathering was held)..

The Granite Creek Swimming hole at Fruitopia.
This is still one of my favourite places to go swimming..

Our goal was, and still is to find ourselves an affordable river frontage property, secluded enough to practise naturism, with good clean soil for planting as many fruit trees as we can take care of between the 2 of us, and good surrounding nature for exploring some..

Although we appreciated Fruitopia for the roof it offered us, there were reasons why neither of us really would have considered being there for the long term, - having our own space for privacy being perhaps one of the major reasons.. But also, Clinton, the owner, had made prior arrangements for another family to move into the place we were at come February, so after some pretty frantic searching for a while, we somehow managed to find our current rental property, in Mareeba..

We're in a reasonably quiet area, 2 roads back from the Barron River, where Kveta and I generally go swimming several times a week. We have found a nice spot where so far, we haven't really seen other people swimming yet..

Kveta in the distance, swimming in the Barron river, Mareeba

Kveta Swimming in the Barron River
The place we're renting is on the corner of a crossroads, it is a 2 bedroomed on-stilts Queenslander house with a back and front lawn.. In the back garden, we have a large mango tree and an equally large tamarind tree.. the tamarinds are currently fruiting, and the tree is loaded.. YUM! The mango tree is both flowering and with early fruits.. We expect to be eating them in abundance by December..

It's difficult to get any good picture of our garden due to the angles and stuff..

Our front garden is mostly lawn, but since we've moved in, we are gardening along the fence-line.. we have planted probably around 90 pineapple tops that are all looking very healthy.. around 20 pawpaw trees from seed, the tallest of which is already nearly chest high!, and one of them is flowering already!! - Shows you how quickly things grow in this corner of the world..

If you count all the little seedling pawpaws we have too, then we have hundreds of them..

tomatoes and cucumbers we have had an abundance of, and we're currently experimenting with growing our own tomatoes upside down.. (several plants have been given makeshift pots from netting and newspaper, and are hanging from our car port growing slowly)..

Several passion-fruit vine have been planted along the fence-line too, and although none are flowering yet, I feel one will probably start in the next few months..

Between the 2 of us, we generate quite a lot of fruit compost, all of which gets buried in our garden, in fact generally we bury it, cover it with soil, and then plant a garden on top of it.. consequently we have an abundance of fruit tree seedlings sprouting up in the garden.. including durian, akee, chempadek, jackfruit, avocado and many more.. (otherwise, apart from cardboard boxes - which get reused until falling to bits, and the odd free newspaper, we generally don't produce any rubbish)

Our next door neighbour, at the back of us, is very kind and often brings us fruit to eat, especially pawpaws growing wild on some land they have someplace, and frequently give us passion fruit and avocados too..

We have also become friends with a couple of local no spray organic farmers, and frequently buy boxes of cucumbers and tomatoes at really give away prices.. Plus pawpaws, pineapples and other fruit..

Both Kveta and I are in writing mode at the moment, and writing our separate books on the fruitarian philosophy, daily.. hence I am much less present on the internet than before, and consequently neglecting my blog some too..

We are both doing otherwise well, and still hoping to someday find ourselves the river frontage property we so dream of living on.. At the moment, as neither of us have savings of any real value, affordable rental is our only apparent option, but one never knows.. the universe works in mysterious ways, and we both believe strongly that we will find what we are looking for..

Peace and hugs to you all,
Mango.

NO MORE ANONYMOUS COMMENTS..

2010-09-22T15:58:00.000+10:00

Sorry folks.. I think it only fair that you give your names, especially if you wish to openly express feelings of negativity or disagreement toward me or anyone else..

So henceforth I've turned off anonymous commenting, and you'll have to have an Open ID or google account to post a comment.. easy enough to get either..

peace to you all..

several more fruitarian interviews in the pipeline, and more thoughts I need to get blogged, but just not finding much time lately..

hugs,
mango.

100% Fruitarian. Fruit Only..

2010-09-06T10:40:00.011+10:00

I have just heard on the grape vine that Harley is once more keenly telling the world that I am not 100% fruitarian, and that nobody is.. In fact, I tracked his recent statement down on the 30bananas forum..

Mango is a mate and he aint 100% fruitarian. Nobody is. Nobody has to be either.

Do I know mango would do better on more sweet fruits, drinking water and less fat? Heck yeah. Have I told the mangoster? Heck yeah.

Do the experiment Fred. Do one month mono banana and one month mono avocado and then one month 50/50 and PROVE it to yourself what you want in your diet more or less. :)

Food in our kitchen

Although I'm not a member or frequent visitor myself, there's surely a lot of good stuff being taught on that forum, and I have little doubt of that, and a lot of people are benefiting from it.. I would answer him directly on the forum, but if I were to join, (if they were to let me join!), I would probably be quickly banned, as I am not a follower of 801010, or of any of the pseudoscience behind eating raw, and would not be shy in stating my opinion..

Of course, I understand why he and other moderators regularly censor and ban opposing views there, especially bearing in mind that among other things, their's is a business with a clear intention of making a profit on the lack of knowledge of others.. No point in making anyone question their proposed knowledge.

Actually, I consider the banning somewhat humorous, especially as Harley himself goes and states his opinion on other forums that have the same "stick to our beliefs" policy.. What was that forum that banned you that I helped you re-register with Harley?

What I don't quite fully get though, is why Harley insists on stating that nobody does 100% fruit.. (I've written my own views on this previously here:

just fruit, no nuts, seed, roots or greens..

I guess one could equally say that Harley is not 100% raw as he takes B12 shots..

Me and a bag full of passion fruit - freshly harvested.

Whatever, but I'd like to address his points individually:

Mango is a mate and he aint 100% fruitarian.

Actually Harley since I broke off that last leaf of sweet-leaf I shared with Nick in December, I have not eaten anything but fruit.. Prior to that, since joining up with Kveta in 2006, meals with anything but fruit were virtually nonexistent.. Yes, I ate some home grown peas and beans in 2008, yes, I drank some of the juice of one coconut on my way between Sydney and our new home, yes I may have broken off a leaf or 2 and chewed on it.. But these were never really meals as such.. More like the old piece of straw the farmers chew on.. Exceptions were few and far between..

Prior to 2006 though, exceptions were more frequent.. I am busy writing my book where all will be revealed..

Nobody is. Nobody has to be either.

You cannot possibly know, that nobody is, but you are surely right that nobody has to be.. I'd never disagree with that one.. Nobody has to be vegetarian, nobody has to be vegan, nobody has to be raw, nobody has to be eating in any particular fixed way. My belief has for a long time been that fruit is a superior food, and as such, I have striven toward the goal of 100% fruit fruitarianism..

Are you trying to say that 100% fruit is ultimately not doable or not ideal, or could it perhaps be that you are a little envious that percentagely someone might eat more fruit than you do?? :) If you think it doable, then why try and discredit those that claim to do it? If you think it doable, and ultimately superior, then why aren't you eating 100% fruit yourself? I guess I don't fully understand your stance on this matter.. (actually, a recent question FreeLee posed concerning 100% fruit left me similarly confused)

Do I know mango would do better on more sweet fruits, drinking water and less fat? Heck yeah. Have I told the mangoster? Heck yeah.

Not knowledge Harley.. belief.. there is a difference.. I am claiming no real knowledge myself.. just belief.. whether or not others share my, or your, or someone elses beliefs is a personal individual choice.. I personally see it as folly to force drink when one is not thirsty, and equally so to eat when no real hunger is present.. I don't eat fat. I eat avocados.. you can stick with your pervert fats and sugar, I prefer to eat my fruit pure and unadulterated by science :) - If you eat 100% fruit, and live the kind of at ease lifestyle I do, then thirst is rarely if ever present, and when it is, an orange or 2 easily quench that thirst, so why would I even want to drink water? That's not to say that if you put in the exercise you do, that water might not serve it's purpose, just that our lives are currently quite different, and should I ever really feel desire for water, I would surely naturally drink it too..

Locally grown organic produce

Do one month mono banana and one month mono avocado and then one month 50/50 and PROVE it to yourself what you want in your diet more or less. :)

This is rather a ridiculous experiment.. I could personally not go a day eating just bananas or avocados.. both would sicken me.. Now perhaps a day, or month on just a particular juicy sweet fruit, or durian, I could handle.. but this all proves nothing.. just because I might desire to eat one fruit less than others, doesn't mean it is inferior, or should be restricted if and when the desire is there for it.. Compare this to me telling you you should try to eat just greens for a month, then just fruit, then 50/50.. this would not tell you anything you don't already know..

peace,
Mango.

Omnivorous Diet

2010-08-22T11:18:00.004+10:00

OK.. This Blog post will likely be none too interesting for the most of you.. I am actually putting it here for one soul reason..

I'm in the midst of writing my book, and very enthused about it I am.. it's changing heaps.. continuously morphing into something different as I keep coming up with new ideas at night time, or while pottering around doing something else..

Anyhow, my initial thoughts had been to include some info on what I ate while growing up, but the lengthier it got, the more I felt it just didn't flow with the rest of the story, and was even, all things considering, a little boring, in a story which I'm otherwise hoping will enthrall and entertain, so I've been frantically chopping things up and rearranging them, and have finally decided to cut and paste this extract.. (below)..

As I've said, it's not something which I particularly wished to blog about, but the idea is that in the book, for those that are vaguely interested, I'll include a link to this particular blog post..

During my most earliest years, due to some complications breast-feeding, I basically survived on formula milk powders.

From that, I believe I moved on to baby foods, probably much of which originated from jars, and then slowly just began eating what the rest of the family was already hooked on..

So I guess you could say, I grew up on the conventional English meat and 2 or 3 veggies diet.

Memories of my younger years have mostly faded into vague mists of obscurity, but throughout my school years, and the time I spent still living at home, a typical days eating for me could quite possibly have often been something like the following:

07:00 Breakfast cereal smothered in sugar and cream of cows milk, followed by drinking the rest of the bottle of milk, and sometimes one more bottle, (just to give me that little extra boost!!)
10:00 A small chocolate bar or some other kind of sweetened snack bar thing..
12:00 Lunch was generally 2 or 3 sandwiches, filled with some kind of spread or another (mostly fish or meat based paste), followed by a piece of fruit (an apple or orange), and followed by another small chocolate bar. And all that accompanied by some sticky sweet cordial carried in flasks that I seem to recall I was always breaking.. - All lovingly prepared by mum. Bless her.
16:00 Getting home from school, I would generally drink a pint of milk, and eat a small snack, maybe biscuits or slice of bread and something.
18:00 was dinner, which was generally some kind of meat - fried, grilled or boiled - together with the 2 or 3 veggies - boiled potatoes, carrots and possibly a brassica of some kind.. All generously covered in a gravy sauce.. - If we were (what I, at the time, considered) lucky, it'd be followed by desert, of a heated fruit pie, and ice-cream, or some custardy delight thing.
20:30 I'd most often eat another snack bar, or a packet of crisps.. - Just to help me sleep see..

During the summer months, we did eat our fair share of salads, which I recall having a particular fondness toward.. – They Consisted mostly of lettuce leaves, tomatoes, spring onions, cucumbers, gherkins, ham, cheese, crisps and bread & marge.. – Each on their own platter on the table for us to serve ourselves from.

And then, I mustn’t forget, that there was the forever present bowl with some fruit in it for us to eat.. Mostly apples or oranges, but being hooked on all things artificially sugary, I admit openly that like many others, I much preferred to snack on biscuits and cakely snacky things..

Actually, while still briefly on the topic of fruit, I recall that from a very young age I had a very strong aversion toward bananas. Even the smell of them would make me want to throw up. One time, while on a school trip to Belgium, aged but 9, I somehow convinced myself that I was morally obliged to eat a banana a friendly hotel staff member gave us once at lunch time..

After pretty much forcing it down me, I became as sick as the proverbial dog.. For the rest of the week, I was in bed, throwing up and feeling about as rotten as one can feel when one’s 9, in an exciting foreign location, and supposed to be having a good time.

Drinks were taken at any time, and were mostly milk based or lemonade, or orange juice from a glass bottle, or cordial of some kind. I seem to recall too, that I went through phases when I was often snacking on yogurts, especially, I think, in my teen years, I was hooked on the dairy thing.. I even remember there was the odd day or 2 when I managed, somehow, to get through as many as 8 pints of milk in a single day! (although a more consistent average was often more like 3 to 4 pints a day)..

At other times I was completely hooked on lemonade and forever visiting the fridge to pour myself a glass, and during my late teens, I did the same with bottled and cartoned orange juice.

In my mid to late teens, I started drinking coffee regularly, and aged 16 or 17, while working for Weatherbys in Wellingborough (home of my parents), I believe I had my first of what was to be many many beers at bars, and soon fell into the pattern of getting pretty darned drunk on a semi regular weekly basis..

In an effort to be more mature about my drinking habits, I recall as a late teen, I got myself into the habit of drinking vodka, particularly a polish brand named Wyborowa, straight. And despite the fact that at some point I really was drunk on pretty much every Friday or Saturday night, or both sometimes, it took me some years before I was to experience my first hangover.

After having left home, and being out in the big wide world fending for myself, I was completely hoodwinked and brainwashed into believing that cooked food and animal products were essential fundamentals of a healthy staple diet.

So, when I initially began being responsible for my own meals, I followed to the T, the pattern I had already grown accustomed to.

However it did not take too long, before having my own money and free choice, that I basically became lazy with the rules I'd adopted, and instead began digressing, and focused more on a diet of pizzas, burgers and other so called “fast“ foods..

After moving to Germany, in '82 I have difficulty remembering preparing any food for myself.. It's quite possible, nothing other than sandwiches.. Very rarely anything fresh, and probably no fruit at all except an odd stewed apple pie.. Most of my food was consumed in pizza restaurants, or fast food joints.. followed frequently by icecreams and coffee, and washed down with coke during weeknights, and the German yeast beer (my new image!) at weekends.

Oh yes, there were also lots of those little tubs of yoghurty creamy chocolaty sugary things that were and maybe still are so popular in Germany.

Leaving Germany and migrating to Norway a few years later, was a most excellent move for me though.. It saw me slowly shifting my focus from the unhealthy lifestyle of junk food, regular alcohol binges and continuous subjection to smoke filled bars..

I not only began making a conscious choice to move away from all passive smoking environments, but also to make significant changes to my eating habits, and I once more began preparing my own food from fresh ingredients..

It was while living in Norway, that I turned vegetarian.

koala bear encounter

2010-08-15T08:24:00.003+10:00

Hi Amelia! This is a special blog post just for you!

Last summer, for a short period, it got so hot in certain parts of Australia that Koalas started coming down from the trees in search of water..

there were several cases of them even approaching humans and more or less begging for it..

Koalas, as I'm sure you probably know already, mostly stay up in their eucalyptus trees, eating and sleeping all day, and rarely feel the need to supplement their diet with water..

As you can see from these pictures, this one even went into someones house to escape the heat..

These pictures were taken when the house owner offered the koala a bowl of water to drink..

now that's one cute looking animal!!

Since spending time in Australia in the 1990s, and arriving again 2006, I have only ever observed one koala in the wild.. they are very shy creatures, difficult to spot as they tend to blend into the tree they are hugging.. You have to have really keen eyes and be very patient and observant to spot them..

Kangaroos on the other hand.. once you get out in the country they're everywhere..

And the Wolf shall lie next to the lamb

2010-08-14T11:04:00.003+10:00

Some interesting photos a friend just sent me via email..

Generally these sort of pictures frequently get broadcast around the internet, but i'm not much into bulk forwarding stuff, and I found them interesting, so thought I'd post them here..

These images were taken by a guy named Norbert Rosing.

Apparently they are of a wild polar bear coming upon tethered sled dogs in the wilds of Canada's Hudson Bay.

The claims are that Norbert was convinced he was going to see the end of his dogs when the Polar bear wandered in.

But it seems, all he needed was a playful hug, and to make new friends

He reckons that the Polar Bear returned every night that week to play with the dogs.

Amazing.. I am convinced that there will one day come a time when the Isaiah prophecies of the wolf lying next to the lamb will come to pass..

This reminds of a story I once heard, (and this is me, mango speaking, not part of the chain letter), while living in Norway, about a woman who kept a bear as a pet.. She lived in some sparsely populated area, somewhere in the non-enviously cold north.. one day, she chained her bear up in the garden, and left into the town to do some shopping..

Half way to the markets, she heard something behind her, and saw the bear running toward her..

Believing the bear to have escaped it's chains, she stood her ground, and waited for him to get close, then walked to it, slapped it's face, and scolded it telling it that it shouldn't be following her, and to head on back home..

Reluctantly, the bear about faced and headed sullenly back along the path..

After the markets were done, she returned home.. only to find her bear still chained up in the garden!

Avocados on a Fruitarian Diet..

2010-08-09T14:46:00.002+10:00

In reply to the anonymous someone that recently asked me once more about avocados on a fruitarian diet..

Hi Mango!
I frequent your website often. I would like to ask you something. You know, I like to eat avocados, but the 80-10-10 people say it's too much if you eat more than half of one a day! And, I can eat three a day. I have a feeling that I only want the avocados because they make me feel restrained and then I "binge" on them, which is usually three to 4. I don't eat any greens. they taste like dirt. I live off OJ, mangoes, cherries, watermelon, and avocado for now. But, what is your take on the avocado and its fat?
Thanks

Me scrumping organic avocados from local orchard

Well, I have no real doubt that there's a fair amount of sense in much of what the 80/10/10 diet and philosophy propose, however, I feel that trying to methodically stick to the 801010 pattern is not the right way to go.. Each day, the body's needs may vary greatly, and if you feel drawn to eating more avocados one day, or over a period of time, then there is little doubt in my mind that it makes good sense in eating them..

I'm not a calorie counter, nor into the nutritional science side of things, but they may be right in that 80/10/10 is an overall, seen over longer time period, reasonable average.. I wouldn't really know for sure though...

I tend to do things differently, for the record, I can regularly eat 4 or 5 avos throughout the course of a day, and sometimes more.. sometimes less too.. I never feel I binge on them. They're a fruit! Binging is something you do on foods that you shouldn't be eating at all in the first place..

Climbing down from the avocado tree

Unlike others, I don't "diss" the avocado, or the tomato for that matter. I don't classify it as "fatty", - in my opinion a very derogatory term that doesn't give it credit for it's unique fruitiness.

Avocados are fruits like any other, and (provided you are not overly mixing them with other fruits - which is something you can say of all fruits!), I think it's unlikely your body would let you overdo them.. once you've had enough, your body will tell you, just as it does with every other fruit..

If you feel at times you overdo them, then maybe it is because you've eaten them too fast, or because they were overripe (too soft), or had some other deformity (like invisible mold!).. If you're energy appears to drop after eating them, don't stress unduly or give yourself a hard time, just try and flow with it.. go and lie down and have a siesta.. nothing wrong with that.. rest's good too..

Over time, it may be true, that one's desire for avos drops, and maybe even there will be times when they don't appeal at all, and that's good too.. just accept that no 2 bodies have the same nutritional needs at any given point in time.. and that at any given point in time, individual needs can vary greatly too..

After scrumping - pockets loaded with avocados and a cheeky grin on me face..

Avos are in my opinion, a great fruit, and I hope to have at least 3 trees on the eventual land that we end up living on..

peace,
mango.

Mystery Fruit - 5

2010-08-02T11:01:00.004+10:00

OK.. let's see how many of you recognise this one:

It's a pretty rare fruit not seen much, if at all, outside of the tropics..

An exceptionally strong smell, and a delightfully moreish taste..

These are the seeds:

Any guesses?

Interview with a Fruitarian - 37 - Yann Fanch

2010-07-29T07:56:00.001+10:00

Well.. before I begin with the questions, maybe you could just introduce yourself, tell us who you are..

I like to be called "Yann Fanch", that's a breton name. I was born in Brittany and I love this part of the Earth.

Your age,

My official age became 43 in may 2010. But people usually think that I am 23 years old and ask me "are you a student ?".

Yann Fanch

where you are living/grew up? etc..etc.. - anything you consider relevant to get better insight into who you are..

I grew up in Brittany and live in Rennes. I used to go the beach everyday in summertimes when I was a kid. I used to catch sea shells and lobsters with my father when the tide was out, I realized they were struggling to save their live.

We had small chicken also as pets, and to make me eat my pet contributed several years after this sad event to make me a vegan.

We had lots of fruit trees also, I loved to climb and stay in trees.

OK, we met for the first time in Denmark I believe, at a small vegan gathering back in 1990/1991 right?

Yes.

And then once more, a year later at one of the international vegan festivals? - Was that in the UK or in Spain, or both, I'm no longer certain..

in the uk biggleswade

that was a fun festival! I recall at the time, like myself, you were interested in moving to a raw vegan diet.. Did that happen quickly for you?

no, quickly no, I tried many times to be strictly raw but too hard. I hadn't the tips how to succeed to stay a raw vegan. The main tip is to eat fruitarian : fresh uncooked undried quality fruit always available.

I'm presuming you grew up on a standard french diet,

Until 17 years old yes.

how long had you been vegan before we met, and what made you switch to a vegan diet?

About 1 or 2 years : I became vegan in 1989.

Were you influenced to go raw after hearing Francisco Martin give one of his talks?

Yes, but also raw vegan books showed me it existed and was healthier.

and when did you first hear of the fruitarian diet?

In vegetrian books a long time ago, perhaps in 1990 ?

Was that something you "understood" from the beginning, or something you had to think about a little first?

It was obvious to me, but very difficult to put into practice.

So how long have you been eating purely fruit now?

Since 2002.

No nuts, greens, roots etc?

No greens except a few salad leaves once or twice a year in a restaurant for social reasons, because restaurant raw salads that are nearly fruitarian often contain some lettuce or batavia leaves. I do not like the taste of leaves, I like the fruits on top of them.

My ideal is no nuts but in the winter I eat generally 250 grams of nuts every month.

I find carrots difficult to chew because of too much fibers, and a bit bitter, and fried patatoes give me stomach ache as it is too heavy to digest compared to fruit.

Are you currently living alone, or share living with family or a loved one?

At the weekend I share living with a vegan nearly fruitarian girlfriend and an omnivore child.

Do you have a website/blog or some way people can get in touch with you or follow your progress? Any places you like to hang out online?

www.fructivore.org

I like to watch Youtube videos and SMTV.

I like to listen to www.radioverda.com

I know you are organising a raw fruitarian festival happening very soon.. Can you tell us a little about that?

I searched in all forests of the world and brought the fruitarians I have found to this festival : www.fruktifest.org

Coming from France, I am sure that you must be familiar with the Instictive Eating movement started by Guy Burger? (they eat flesh and live maggots and >stuff) What's your personal opinion of their method of eating?

Speciesist, dangerous excess of protein, also fanatically against fruitarianism. But it does contains interesting ideas, such as the
avoidance of cereals, I should get the book. I know some instinctos.

So what does a normal days food look like for you?

fruit in season : peaches, melon, tomatoes in summertimes, oranges, peas and apples in wintertimes.

Does anyone else in your family understand your choices, or eat similarly?

Yes. My girlfriend only.

Can you tell us a little about your health before and after the changes you've made? What about your weight, - any major changes?

I feel healthier on raw fruitarian food. I master better my sexuality also.

Do you sometimes crave foods other than fruit? If so, how you deal with that?

No.

What kind of foods did you found most difficult to leave behind?

None

Do you feel any need to supplement your diet at all?

with fruitarian sea buckthorn B12 vitamin.

Are you happy with the choice and quality of fruit you are getting in france?

Yes

Ever tried a durian?

Yes

Any plans to travel or relocate to a warmer climate, or are you happy living where you are now?

I'd like to travel to discover other fruits. But I am happy here.

Do you normally tell people how you eat?

Yes

If so, what do you think is the most common question people ask you about your diet?

"Have you not liquid shits ?"

How do you answer their questions?

Calmly

Where and how do you see yourself living and eating in 10 years from now?

A breatharian here.

Do you think you could improve on your diet at all??

No

Do you know any, or many, other fruitarians? Any that would care to be interviewed?

Yes

How many fruitarians do you think there are in France?

50

How do you feel if people tell you that you must be crazy, and that you can't possibly survive eating the way you do??

I calmly convince them.

Finally, is there anything you'ld like to add as words of encouragement to those that are aspiring toward fruitarianism?

Be patient.

Oprah Magazine Fruitarian Interview..

2010-07-19T09:28:00.003+10:00

Some months ago, we were contacted by the Oprah Winfrey people.. they asked if we could be featured in their online Oprah magazine as example fruitarians.

Not knowing fully what they had in mind, both Kveta and I agreed to being interviewed, and over the following week or 2, after initial contact, we were both interviewed online, via email..

They finally got around to publishing their article, in the online oprah magazine, (I believe you need to be a paid member to get access to it) a couple of weeks ago. It turned out to be more of a brief introduction to "extreme eaters", and despite giving our time freely to them, they ended up only publishing one brief sentence taken from Kvetas interview..

So, just for the record, I've decided to publish the interviews in full here.. I'll start with mine, and publish Kvetas in a few days..

Oprah Magazine Fruitarian Interview

1. Why did you decide to eat only fruit? Health? Ethical? Political?

It was certainly by no means an overnight decision for me.. In fact, I would say that my choice to eat solely fruit is an ongoing result of many years of debating with myself and others about the whole right and wrongs of food issues on many levels.

Predominantly I'd say it all started for me back when I was 25 (I'll be 49 this year). I'd been living on a pretty much standard diet up until then, and had never really given change to that fair any real thought, but after watching one particular movie, that really had little to nothing to do with food, I suddenly found myself questioning the whole ethics and ecological issues of eating animals. It's difficult to say why that movie had such a profound effect on me, I suppose that despite my unawareness of such, I must have been ready for a change..

I've always been a bit of a philosopher, and once I started paying attention to, and questioning diet more, I soon realised how important the changes I was making were to me.

The thought of taking the life of another being, or paying someone else to do so (which we all unwittingly do whilst still consuming flesh) repulsed me, and I genuinely wondered why it had taken me so long to feel that repulsion.. It dawned on me that by consuming all that flesh, I was effectively turning my body into a grave yard!!

So faced with the series of revelations I was having, it did not take me long to completely forsake (to the best of my ability) all animal products and become vegan too..

Although the catalyzer had predominantly been ethics, and a sense of moral repugnance toward the devouring of flesh of other beings, my awareness of other issues embracing economics, health and environmental concerns had also grown, and reinforced the sense of direction I had taken.

Some few years later, after my thoughts had become more settled and a new dietary pattern had established itself, I think it was 1990ish, I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture on the advantages of not cooking ones food, and although once more, I had not particularly been thinking any change was needed or forthcoming, this lecture had a profound effect on my life, and once more sparked my philosophical thoughts into action..

I became a keen disciple of the whole vegan "raw food" philosophy thing, understanding that just like with every other animal species out there, nature provides us with our food in an already perfect state, and that any thought that we may, somehow, be able to "improve" on nature by subjecting our food to extreme temperatures, was yet another "folly" I had unwittingly been brainwashed into accepting as truth.

In fact, the whole addictiveness of cooked food became sparklingly clear to me, as well as the detrimental side effects that a long term addiction to such foods has on our physiological bodies, resulting in all manner of degenerative diseases starting from the relatively innocent common cold, through to rheumatism, parkinsons and cancer..

It is my belief that pretty much all that ails modern man has it's roots in addiction to detrimental substances, - predominantly food. A fact that society in general tends to chose to stay blissfully unaware of.

Well, several years into eating purely raw vegan food, and it became clear to me that the most appealing of all foods, when eaten in it's raw natural ripe and ready state, was fruit. And consequently my consumption of fruit increased together with this realisation.

I had also been asked on numerous occasions, "well, you may not eat animals, but what about all the screaming carrots?", and although I was well aware that the questioner was more likely trying to provoke than start any truly deep and meaningful conversation, I still thought that there was some validity to the question.. How far should one extend one's moral duties toward others? Is it possible to truly live, without taking the life of another, whether the other be animal or vegetable??

These were all questions I felt I needed to ponder over.. Being perhaps a bit of a hopeless romantic at some levels, I felt somewhat attached to the immortalised beatle words of "all you need is love".. There appears to be a profound truth in those 5 small words, but how to make sense of them in a world that appears so glaringly contradictory to the idea..?

It was at this point that I realised that as far as food goes.. fruit is the exception.. fruit is the one and only food, that one can clearly see is actually given up by the plant that at some level, if you'll forgive the anthropomorphising, actually desires for us to eat it's fruit.. think about it.. anything else comes with some kind of karmic debt, and the fact that plants have no central nervous systems does not disprove that at some level they are in some way sentient (something probably ultimately unprovable and thus I tend toward giving the benefit of the doubt..).. It is to the plants benefit that the fruit appeals to us.. the more attractive and tasty it is, the more chance we will nurture and care for its seed, and disperse the species..

So fruit seemed to fit the bill well for me, with it's compatibility with the philosophy of "do no harm", and it's appealling look and tantalizing variety of tastes.. Also environmentally, the growing of fruit trees involves far less destruction and desertification of soil, producing far more yield per acre than any other crop..

2. What does your daily diet look like? What do you eat lots of? How much of certain fruits? Do you ever juice the fruits?

that would depend entirely on what's in season. Most of the food we eat is locally grown, within a few hundred kilometers of where we're at.. Somethings are year round staples though, like oranges, cucumbers, tomatoes, avocados, pawpaws, bananas and pineapples we tend to always have at home, but then there are other fruits that come and go throughout the year.. nectarines, peaches, lychees, chocolate pudding fruit, rambutan, durian and heaps more..

Yes, we regularly juice fruits.. we have both a juicer and a blender and tend to start most days with a juice of some kind.. often freshly squeezed orange juice (juiced by hand).. we mostly drink a half litre of juice at a time..

At the moment, a typical day for us, might be breakfast of half a litre of orange juice each (probably juice from 4 or 5 oranges each).. half an hour later, we might feast on akee (they are a fruit originally from jamaica, and currently one of our favourite fruits!! beautifully creamy cheesy sweet .. sadly the season here has more or less ended, and I think we'll be eating the last of them today).. (maybe 10 akee fruit shared between 2 of us).. later we may eat a bowl of grapes each, and later still a cucumber juice (through the blender), most likely half a litre each.. maybe a pineapple juice later still (also through the juicer), and around 5 or 6, we might eat a bowl of sliced cucumbers, tomatoes and avocado, as our sort of only real main meal of the day.. later still we may eat another 10 akee between us, or some durian..

like i said, though, the juices can vary greatly from day to day, depending on what we have, but the general quantities remain more or less constant.. Neither of us drink water.

3. Some people ask about things like protein—how do you get adequate amounts?

Basically I have a different answer for different people depending on where I think they are at, and what kind of answer would suit them best.. I can get quite technical if needed, (at one point i used to know the name of every essential amino acid, where it could be found, and what it was good for!), but to be honest though, and I always like to add this to whatever answer I give, I really don't "do" the whole protein, mineral, carbohydrate, vitamin thing anymore.. I gave that all up a long time ago, as I believe that the solution is not difficult or intricate..

- many people will try and scare us into believing that we need to "know" all that stuff in order to eat healthily, but I believe the only knowledge we need to have is the ability to recognise what constitutes a real "food" and what doesn't.. If we can recognise that cooked food is denatured and detrimental to our healths, then forget the rest.. People don't get sick because they lack this or that vitamin (unless of course they are extremely malnourished and on a more or less starvation diet!), they get sick because they eat the wrong kind of foods, live in the wrong kind of environments, and breath the wrong kind of air.. predominantly though, it is the food that is the main reason for our woes.. not the lack of invisible elements in it..

4. What do you feel like, after making the switch?

Great. well.. there was no simple "switch".. as i said it was a gradual process following a gradual series of revelations.. But overall, I see my dietary choices as some of the most life changing, life enhancing, longevity compatible changes i've ever made.. not to mention the physiological cleansing, lack of yearly colds bouts, and peace of mind for no longer being a walking tombstone..

5. Do you know/live with other fruitarians? Do you socialize with others? Has it ever been an issue in social situations?

Well, my partner, Kveta, is also a long term fruitarian, so we share our lives on a daily basis, and eat most meals together.. As for other friends, we've only recently moved to the area we are currently living, so still in many ways getting to know the area, but we certainly have some friends here already.. One of my friends is actually a full on raw zombie flesh eater, and has very different ideas to us about what constitutes a healthy diet.. OK.. don't take the zombie thing to literally, that's just me being graphical.. I guess I feel quite accepting that the world is made up of many people with many conflicting ideas concerning what they feel is right, or not, and although I feel it sad that not everyone can see the sense in reducing the harm we do, I also feel resigned to the fact that it is really not up to me to change the world if it doesn't desire to be changed..

Socially I find the more accepting we are of others ideas, then the more accepting they will be of ours, regardless of how seemingly bizarre or different they may appear..

Through the internet I have met several others on a fruitarian path, some of whom I've also met in person, and occasionally I interview fruitarians I encounter, on my blog. (http://mangodurian.blogspot.com/2008/02/list-of-interviews-with-fruitarians.html)

6. Why did you decide to adopt the name Mango?

I think I was just ready for the change.. something more fitting for a new outlook on life, and I'd grown tired of the name I was given at birth.. Mango seemed more fun, and more lively, and my friends soon grew accustomed to my new name too..

Mango's had been my favourite fruit at one point.. but I must admit that durian and akee and other fruits have far exceeded mangos place in my top 5 fruit chart.. (I've no immediate intention of changing my name again though!!)

7. How has being a fruitarian impacted your identity, and how you think of yourself? How has it changed “Who you are?”

Well.. very much so I believe.. Had I not started down this path all those years ago, I am quite sure that my life would have turned out altogether differently. More likely I would still be working 9 to 5 and affluent enough to afford whatever luxury I desired.. I mean, I would have had that life that I sometimes wonder about, but I guess I'll never know..

Not having saved more wisely at the time (many moons ago, I used to be an IBM systems programmer), is something I occasionally have nagging regrets about.. especially now when we we are so focused on manifesting ourselves a piece of paradise in the tropics..

But ultimately, I shake those thoughts aside, and count my blessings, for I have no real doubts that my life is far richer now than any other path could have made me, and I am thankful and privileged to have had the insights I have had in this life, and be the person I have become.. even if there is still plenty of room for improvement!!

thankyou
Mango the Raw Vegan Fruitarian..

la différence entre les fruits et les noix

2010-07-16T08:55:00.003+10:00

French translation of The Difference between fruit and nuts

Traduction française par: Milly, Marie-Cécile, MarkL, Bianca Lucina.. - Voir aussi la discussion ici:

http://frugivore.ning.com/forum/topics/faire-la-difference

Salut tout le monde !

J’ai déjà blogué à ce sujet auparavant, ici: (Désolé, seulement en anglais) Qu’est ce qu’un fruit? mais comme je vois qu’il y a encore de la confusion à ce sujet, j’ai pensé que j’allais essayer de clarifier les choses une nouvelle fois. Je vais sans doute répéter ce que j’ai déjà écrit et dit plusieurs fois, mais, bon, allons-y…

Quelle est la différence entre un fruit et une noix?

Je vois encore des gens qui écrivent que, botaniquement parlant, les fruits et les noix sont la même chose. Mais à mon avis, même s’il est clair qu’ils sont proches physiquement, ils ne sont pas plus similaires qu’une racine et une feuille ! (voir aussi le post en relation : (Désolé, seulement en anglais) Noix dans une alimentation fruitarienne )

Pensez à une nectarine... ce que l’on mange c’est la chair précieuse et sucrée qui entoure le noyau de la plante. Le noyau/graine est clairement séparé de la chair. La chair est la chose qui est pour ainsi dire, offerte sans effet karmique.

Nectarine
Pensez à un melon, ce que l’on mange c’est la délicieuse chair du melon… pas les pépins/graines qui sont généralement laissés de côté lors de la digestion (Oui, je suis au courant que dans certaines cultures, on les fait griller… mais encore fraîches, dans le fruit, elles ne sont pas attirantes à mes yeux).

Pensez à la papaye, nous mangeons la chair sucrée, colorée et juteuse qui donne de la force. les petites graines noires vont au compost…

Fruit papaye en morceaux - Graines de papaye
Observez combien le fruit est plus éclatant, en couleur et en texture, que les graines...
Pensez à une pomme... la chair est savourée, le trognon… jeté..

Je pourrais continuer à l’infini..

Alors qu'est-ce qu'une noix?

Mis à part votre serviteur, on va dire ! (NDT : en anglais familier, « nut » signifie noix mais aussi doux-dingue, cinglé, zinzin, toqué…).

Mango the FruitNut
Mango dingo des fruits
Il est clair que toutes les graines ne sont pas entourées de cette substance précieuse appelée «fruit». Certaines graines / noix / céréales etc... sont dépourvues de l’enveloppe pulpeuse du fruit…

Le monde est ainsi fait… les plantes ne portent pas toutes des fruits… les plantes n’ont pas toutes des graines non plus, d’ailleurs.

La nature est pleine de variété.

Alors quel est le problème avec les noix ?

Eh bien… c’est une question piège… Je n’essaie pas de dire qu’il y a un problème avec les noix. Je ne dis pas non plus qu'il y a un problème avec les graines, pousses, feuilles, racines, tubercules, insectes ou animaux… Même s'il peut y en avoir ( :) )

Simplement, je ne crois pas que ce qui précède soit une nourriture idéale pour les êtres humains.

A propos des noix en particulier... je pense, que contrairement aux fruits, elles ne peuvent pas être commercialisées crues.

Des personnes m’ont écrit en me disant : « mais David Wolf vend des amandes ou des noix de cajou crues etc…»

Ne soyez pas dupe ! Ce n’est tout simplement pas vrai ! Ou nous ne partageons pas la même définition du cru...

Quand je dis cru, je parle d’aliment brut sans aucun traitement… de cru mûr et frais… Quand les autres disent qu’ils vendent des noix crues, alors ce qu’ils vendent en réalité ce sont des noix séchées (au soleil), à peu près aussi crues que leurs baies de goji séchées…

La nourriture séchée n'a pas de stop instinctif. Les aliments séchés ne fournissent pas au corps de signal d’arrêt instinctif (risque de gavage)... Au mieux c’est physiologiquement un aliment de 2eme catégorie…

Quand je parle de manger des fruits, je parle de manger le fruit cru mûr et frais, la partie comestible qui entoure généralement la graine de la plante...

Ainsi, en tant que fruitarien “frais”, je mange des raisins, pas de raisins sec, des prunes, pas des pruneaux, des mangues fraîches, et non des mangues séchées, flétries, déshydratées… et je ne mange pas des noix car:

1. Sur le plan éthique, je voudrais leur donner la chance d’accomplir leur destin potentiel d’arbre
2. Elles sont indisponible crues dans le commerce.
3. je ne les considère pas comme une nourriture physiologiquement idéale (trop lourdes).

Comme expérimentation, j’aimerais que vous alliez dans la nature trouver des noix vraiment fraîches (pas même séchées au soleil!), et que vous vous asseyiez pour les manger. Je pense que vous en aurez vite assez, bien plus tôt que vous ne le seriez avec celles aisément cueillies, séchées/emballées et achetées en Magasin…

Les noix réellement fraîches, sont légèrement humides et tendres/molle… et non séchées et croustillante/croquante...!!

Qu'en est-il des noix de coco?

Eh bien, oui, d'accord, contrairement aux autres fruits à coque, elles sont vraiment plus accessibles. Elles sont disponibles en grande quantités, elles arrivent souvent mûres et fraiches sur les étales des vendeurs… Et d’un point de vue physiologique, cela a de l’importance à mes yeux, cette noix est meilleure pour vous que toutes autres noix disponibles sur le marché.

Cependant ..

Ce ne sont pas encore des fruits …

J'aime voir les noix de coco tomber lorsqu’elles sont prêtes et pousser dans le sable… J’aime regarder les cocotiers grandirent et s’épanouir … Et j'ai personnellement fait le choix d'éviter une fin de vie prématurée à ces arbres que j’aime tant.

Bien sûr, c'est mon choix, et j’offre mon respect le plus profond à ceux qui n’éprouvent pas le même ressenti… Nous avons tous nos propres conclusions sur ces questions existentielles ...

Je comprends quand les gens me disent qu'il ya une abondance de fruits, et que, en mangeant, nous avons également aider à propager leur semence… Oui, si c'est ce que vous pensez d'eux alors profiter en bien! Ma conviction, qui peut-être est fausse, c’est qu’un fruit offre des avantages nutritionnels bien supérieurs aux noix, et donc je suis juste de choisir, de m'en tenir aux fruits.

Je pense qu'une autre chose que nous pourrions observer avec des noix, est de savoir comment elles sont inaccessibles pour nous les humains. Je pense que chaque fruit, quand il est prêt, vous permettra un accès facile à la chair... Essayez de pénétrer dans une noix de coco avec les mains nues, ou de mordre une noix de macadamia avec les dents, et c'est une toute autre histoire …

Qu'en est-il légumineuses, pois, fèves, etc??

Je vois ... Eh bien ... vous pouvez certainement les manger frais et mûrs, c'est pour vous … J'ai fait germer quelques pois et haricots dans notre dernier jardin (à Sydney), et j’en ai mangé quelque fois (voir aussi - juste des fruits ni noix-graines-racines-ou-verts) …

Mais je ne les considère pas comme des fruits… botaniques ou autre. Ce sont des semences, et pour être honnête, même si j'ai fait quelques exceptions dans le passé, je préfère les laisser à la postérité.

Je ne dis pas que vous-même ou quelqu'un d'autre devrait s’en abstenir… Franchement, c’est à vous de vous faire votre propre opinion, c’est à vous de considérez ce qui est bon ou non à manger.

Moi, je choisis d'être fruitarien, parce que je crois que c'est l’alimentation du jardin d'Eden, et parce que je suis un incorrigible romantique qui croit que c'est l'amour qui permet au monde de tourner rond, que «l'amour est tout ce qu'il faut» et ce fruit est le seul aliment qui est entièrement compatible avec cette notion, étant non seulement le plus élevé de tous les aliments (physiquement et spirituellement) … mais aussi le seul aliment qui soit véritablement «donné» par tout être vivant ...

La paix,
Mango.

Interview with a fruitarian - 36 - Jeff Atwell

2010-07-13T09:06:00.001+10:00

OK, First, please just briefly introduce yourself.. your name, what year you were born, and where you're living now.. Also tell us about any online profiles, blogs or webpages you might currently have?

My name is Jeff Atwell. I was born in 1978. I’ve been a 100% low-fat raw vegan since mid-2007, and a 100% fruitarian since Dec. 2009. My wife, daughter, and I just moved the first week of July into our first house in Valencia, California. We’ve spent the previous 8 years living in apartments in Pasadena. Valencia & Pasadena are both suburbs of Los Angeles. I think the city of Valencia is named after the orange variety (because there are a lot of oranges grown nearby)… it should be a good place for a fruitarian to settle!

I don’t have my own website or blog. However, I am pretty active on several of the fruit / raw forums. Here are some places where you can get more information about me: iheartfruit.com, fruitariannirvana.ning.com, 30bananasaday.com, and rawnaturalhygiene.ning.com.

Jeff and his daughter, Rose
Thanks Jeff, so you're in Southern California now, is that where you grew up too?

No, I was actually born & raised in Ohio, and my parents and most of the rest of my family are still there now. I moved out to California in 2002 at the age of 24 to go to graduate school.

OK. I read on your profile at the fruitarian ning, that you're a stay at home dad looking after your 1 year old fruit loving daughter, how's that working out for you!?

In short, it has worked pretty well so far. Before the birth of my daughter, I was a graduate student. Officially, now I am still a graduate student, just one who is "on leave".

Is your daughter still being breast fed too? If so, how's that working out with mum being at work?

Yes, still breastfeeding. Mom pumps her milk at work. I’m into natural child raising. So, I really think it would be best for my daughter Rose if my wife stayed at home with her. This way, she could have fresh breast milk on demand. I believe that Rose getting fresh milk directly from the breast would be the best for her physically & emotionally. But, sometimes the practicalities of the real world take precedent.

My wife enjoys her job, and earns more at it than I could working right now. In truth, my wife would prefer to work than stay with Rose all day. And, I do enjoy watching Rose and think me giving Rose refrigerated breastmilk while she’s at work must be the next best thing to fresh. We don’t have any other family close by, and we certainly did not want a stranger to watch Rose while we both worked, and so one of us clearly needed to stay home.

Is your wife into the whole raw vegan fruit thing too?

My wife enjoys fruit, but she grew up in China, and still enjoys typical Chinese food (lots of stir-fry vegetables with a little meat added as a condiment). This has been a source of conflict between my wife & I, since I believe that her diet isn’t optimal for her or our daughter (via the breastmilk). My wife already knows what I think about cooked food, and to keep the peace I’ve found it helpful not to remind her every time she sits down to eat. I try to lead by setting a good example.

Rose is 17 months now, and has had only breastmilk and fruit thus far in her life. I am very glad my wife has let me do this with her.

Jeff and family outside house
So, you've been doing the 100% fruit thing now since the beginning of December 2009, more than half a year now, what's your verdict so far?

Yes, 100% fruit since December 1st, 2009. I am really enjoying it. In the couple years prior to this, my diet consisted of fruit & greens, but getting the greens down was always a struggle for me. After reading about you, Kveta, Anne Osborne, & Fruity Jules, I decided that I had to try it. My primary motive is that fruit is what tastes best to me. However, I also appreciate the ethical aspects of fruitarianism.

Absolutely 100% fruit? All raw fresh, IE, not dried or such?

Right, all raw, all fresh, and about 99% organic. No canned fruit, no frozen fruit, no dried fruit. As an example - mangoes are one of my favorite fruits. But, most of them in the US have been imported, and have been subject to hot water treatment. I no longer eat these. I only eat domestic mangoes in the summer when I can get them, which haven’t been heat treated.

Also, I eat the entire edible portion of the fruit, and don’t juice. I think some valuable nutrients are lost when one juices.

I'm guessing you're supplement free too?

Yes, I don’t take any supplements. I’m not going to worry about the B12 issue unless I start to notice a decline in my health, in which case I might consider taking a B12 test, at least. Many 80/10/10 types call themselves fruitarian, so I guess since Dec. 1 you could call me a “strict fruitarian”: no nuts (including coconuts), no seeds (except unavoidable ones, as in kiwi or strawberry), no greens, no salt, no spices, no peas, no seaweed, etc.

Great, I'm aware that the term fruitarian gets used very loosely these days, and it's refreshing for me to meet someone else who's using the term to describe 100% fruit..

Let's backtrack some, I'm presuming you grew up on a pretty standard diet? When was it you started making changes to it, and what drove you to make those changes?

Yeah, I did grow up on a pretty standard diet. I actually wasn’t too big of a meat eater growing up, but I did drink a lot of milk. I think I’ve always had an interest in nutrition. I recall eating bowls of milk & cereal for breakfast before middle school, and reading the nutrition facts on the label while I was eating. But I was in my 20s before I started to do things out of the ordinary in my diet. In my early 20s, I was really into improving my physical performance, getting stronger, faster, etc., and I started looking for ways to improve by adding supplements and changing my diet. By trial and error, I found that taking supplements didn’t have any beneficial effect, and was quite expensive. With the diet changes, I didn’t notice much effect on my physical strength no matter what I ate. However, I found that I could run much better if I ate less animal products, and less salt. At this point, I started to read a lot of books on the topic (veganism, raw, etc.), and I started to appreciate some of the other benefits to this lifestyle (ethical, environmental), whereas before I never really thought about it. Since then, I’ve gradually cleaned up my diet more & more, first as a cooking vegan, then as a low-fat cooking vegan, then as a low-fat raw vegan, and now finally as a fruitarian.

Any significant weight or health changes over the course of that time?

I am prone to overeating and weight gain. Before I was a low-fat raw vegan, I needed to calorie restrict to keep my weight down. Now, as a fruitarian, I eat as much fruit as I desire, and still don’t need to worry about unwanted weight gain. My health has always been very good, regardless of what I have eaten. Unlike many others, I didn’t come to this lifestyle because of an illness.

I’ve done the Mohican 100-mile Trail Run twice, in 2007 & 2008 (it’s in Ohio, near where my parents live). In the months leading up to the 2007 race, I had mainly a sort of junk food vegetarian diet, and I finished that race in a little over 27 hours, for 53rd place. In the months leading up to the 2008 race, I had a 100% low-fat raw vegan diet (I would say 95% fruitarian…I had a few greens), and I finished the race in 18 hours, 40 minutes, good enough for 2nd overall. I’m not going to pretend that all of this improvement is related to the diet, because it isn’t. In the second year doing the event, I was more familiar with the course, had trained harder, etc. But, I still think that my diet did play a part in this.

I am curious to know what I could do now in a race, but I haven’t done so since my daughter was born at the beginning of 2009. As a stay-at-home dad, training for a race of this distance is extremely difficult. I would like to race again, but I plan to wait until she gets older. Family first. :)

About your graduate student status, you were working on a PhD in theoretical physics right? I'm presuming that that would require a pretty logical mind set, do you think having that type of mind has helped you reach the conclusions you have? And if so, why do you think it is that others with apparent similar mindsets fail to reach those conclusions?

Yes to me, trying out a fruitarian diet seems to be such a logical thing to do. It is good for the environment, good for plants, good for animals, and likely good for us too. Furthermore, it seems all the other large primates live primarily on fruits, and I think this should be a clue as to what is likely good for us.

I have often referred to my 100% fruit diet over the past 7 months as an “experiment”, and that is how I am approaching it. I actually wouldn’t say that I have reached any conclusions yet. Thus far, I am feeling great on 100% fruit, and I am optimistic that I will continue to feel this way, but I cannot be certain.

I suppose that other scientists don’t consider trying an experiment on fruitarianism because they just haven’t thought about it, or they think it would be too hard, or too dangerous, or whatever.

Having come from a pretty conventional background, with both parents in the medical industry, how did they react when you started making those changes? What's their opinion of your current fruitarian diet?

I would say that my parents consider me to be just a little bit… well… different. I’ve got two siblings, and I was the one who was always doing things in an unconventional way. I think they would call my current 100% fruit experiment “extreme”. They fully appreciate that fruit is nutritious, but don’t see any reason to eat it to the exclusion of everything else.

I'm guessing their concerns would revolve around not getting enough protein or minerals or such? Were they the kind of things you perhaps found yourself also questioning in the years leading up to you becoming a
fruitarian?

Yes, my parents and others have asked those questions, and I know how to answer them pretty well. And yes, I used to worry about these things too.

So, are your parents accommodating [I mean, happy for you to sit and eat fruit with them, or does that create a tense situation] if you go and visit them?

Sure, we are on good terms. If I’m coming to visit, and I ask my mom to pick up a case of bananas in advance, she’ll do it. More than anything else, we like to laugh together about my diet.

Ha! That seems like a pretty healthy approach to me! What about your 2 siblings or other members of the family - what's their take on where you're at?

I have a younger brother and a younger sister. I’ve tried, at least a little bit, to convert pretty much everyone in my extended family, and I would say that I’ve had the most success with my siblings. I think both are eating primarily vegetarian diets right now. I don’t see any reason to continue in my attempts to convert family members. They already know what I think. I think it is best to simply set a good example.

Do you ever get cravings for foods other than fruit?

Not recently, no. The hardest food for me to give up was cheese. I think this is because I grew up eating a lot of dairy products. When I first went vegan in 2007, I used to dream about cheesy pizza. At first, I had to use my logical mindset to not give into my cheese cravings. I had to remind myself of all the reasons why cheese is a harmful, addictive substance, and tell myself that this is why I couldn’t trust my intuition at that time on cheese.

Fortunately, over the past few years, there has been a substantial shift in my intuition, so that now I only seem to crave fruits.

You stopped nuts a couple of years back, what was the principle reason for doing that, and how were you feeling after eating them?

I found nuts to be too easy to overeat. After I started, I couldn’t stop eating them, and then afterwards I would feel sick. I used to crave nuts, but similar to the cheese, I got over nuts too, and no longer desire them.

I understand that not every fruit appeals to everyone at any given point in time, I often go months not touching bananas and even finding the smell of them very unappealing, so I Guess I understand why you're not eating avocados at the moment.. What about your little daughter, Rose, has she ever tried one? does she like them? Are there any fruits she doesn't like? Has she tried durian?

Rose actually loves avocados. It is one of her favorite fruits. I let her eat as much avocado as she wants. We have let her try a wide variety of fruits, and she seems to like just about all of them, to varying degrees. No, she hasn’t had durian. I would love to give her some. However, all the durian around here is frozen and not organic. Rose’s diet is 100% organic.

Jeff, Daughter, Fruit
Could you give us a brief rundown of what (and when - time of day) you might eat on a typical day?

I usually only eat once or twice each day. If the meal consists of really juicy fruits, I’ll probably want to eat twice. But if the meal contains a lot of the more filling fruits (dates, persimmon, sapote, sapodilla, bananas, etc.), then I can be satisfied for the whole day on just one meal, particularly if I’m not exercising very much. I prefer to eat infrequent large meals for a couple reasons. I think it is easier on the teeth, and I think it makes it easier to go out and get work done.

I always have a morning meal, and I’ll have an afternoon meal if hungry. I really listen to my body regarding when & how much to eat. Right now, in July, I am eating mostly melons and stone fruit.

How much do you think you spend a week on your fruit?

My wife, daughter, & I usually have a weekly fruit bill in the range of $100-$150. And keep in mind that this is 100% organic, and includes a wide variety. We buy most of our fruit in cases from an organic wholesaler in Los Angeles. Buying it all from the local grocery would be a lot more expensive.

Is it easy to get hold of good quality fruit in California? A wide variety? What kind of things can't you find that you'ld like to be able to?

Yes, the fruit here is pretty good, both in quality and variety. For fruitarians in the US, California & Florida are probably the two best places to be. There are a lot of fruits I haven’t tried yet, and would like to, such as: charentais melon (after reading Anne’s book), ice cream bean, peanut butter fruit, chempedak, & cacao fruit.

Does the new place you've just moved into have a garden? If so, do you think you'll be growing any of your own food there?

We have a nice yard, with plenty of space to plant some fruit trees, raspberry bushes, melons, you name it. I’m looking forward to using my fruit scraps for compost now. I always felt guilty dumping them in a trash can.

I imagine looking after a 1 year and a half old all day must keep you pretty fit and active, do you spend a lot of time outdoors together? What else are you doing to keep fit and healthy now that your not training regularly for marathons?

Yeah, we go outside a lot. I’m a big fan of sunlight and getting vitamin D the natural way. I try to do some strength training and some running each day. I usually do that in the early morning, before my wife & daughter are up.

Do you know any (or many!) other 100% fruitarians, or people headed that way?

Only my daughter, plus people I know on the internet.

Could you hazard a guess of how many 100% fruitarians there might be in the world? Do you think the idea is spreading?

If we’re talking about long-term 100% fruitarians with absolutely no slip-ups for years, then, from what I gather via the web, the number appears quite small, like less than 10. However, I have to believe that there are some tropical jungle peoples without a web presence that live on fruit, and so I’m inclined to say the real number is probably in the thousands.

Yes, I think the idea is spreading. I think your website, and forums like iheartfruit.com and fruitariannirvana.ning.com have helped a lot to spread the word.

Have you done much travelling at all? Any places you can recommend for fellow fruit fanatics?

My wife & I have taken many small trips to national parks in the western US. That's one of our favorite things to do. I don't have much time overseas, but I spent the summer of 2002 doing physics at CERN (the particle accelerator), near Geneva, Switzerland. That was an interesting experience. Also my wife and I went to Hawaii in 2005, visited her family in China in 2006, and took a cruise to Alaska in 2007. Since then, with saving up for the house downpayment and then with my wife being pregnant and then having a baby, we haven't traveled much.

I look forward to taking some fruity vacations in the future. I would love to visit Central & South America and Southeast Asia. I'm sure that I could try many new tropical fruits in these places. I also want to get back to Hawaii, and visit the organic fruit farms there. During our 2005 visit, we stayed on Oahu and did mainly the standard tourist stuff.

Do you have many other interests?

I enjoy being outdoors, and being with family. So activities like hiking & camping really appeal to me. Researching nutrition is also a hobby of mine.

Do you're friends and neighbours know you're on a fruit diet, and if so, what do they make of it?

Well, we just moved to a new area, and I don’t really know anyone here yet. If we get invited to any neighborhood barbecues, I’ll be sure to set a good example with fruit.

Do you think that your diet could be improved further, or is your feeling that it's about as good as it gets?

I feel that my digestion and absorption of nutrients has improved since I removed greens from my diet. I am optimistic that this will continue to improve gradually. But besides that, I think fruitarianism is as far as one can go. I don’t think long-term mono-fruit diets are healthy. Variety is important.

Where and how do you see yourself living and eating in 10 years from now?

We just bought a house, and in 10 years I expect we will still be here. By that time, we should have many mature fruit trees in our yard, and so hopefully a lot of my food can be coming from those.

Finally, is there anything you'ld like to add as words of encouragement to those that are aspiring toward fruitarianism?

I encourage others to listen to their bodies, and proceed at their own pace. If you are craving greens, then this may indicate that they are providing useful nutrients to you at this time. I don’t think greens contain any essential nutrients which fruits do not, however it is certainly true that greens contain more of certain things than fruits do. If your ability to absorb these nutrients is compromised, then your body may need the greens right now. However, over time, your body’s ability to assimilate these nutrients may improve, and then you may find that your desire for greens will lessen.

Jeff & Rose

The difference between fruit and nuts..

2010-07-03T05:46:00.001+10:00

Voir aussi une traduction francais: La difference entre les fruits et les noix

Hi all,

I've blogged about this before, here: What is a fruit?, but as I keep noticing people's confusion on the subject, I thought I'd try and clarify things once more.. No doubt I'll be repeating much of what I've already written and said several times previously, but, well, here goes nothing..

What's the difference between a fruit and a nut?

I keep seeing people writing that botanically speaking, fruit and nuts are the same thing.. but in my opinion, although they are clearly in physical proximity, they are no more similar than a root and a leaf! (please see also, related blog post: Nuts on a fruitarian diet).

Think of a nectarine,, what we eat is the precious sweet nectar flesh that surrounds the stone/seed of the plant.. The seed is clearly separate from the flesh. The flesh is the thing that is, so to say, given karmically free.

Think of a melon, what we eat is the deliciously tasting flesh of the melon.. not the seeds in the centre which generally get left out of the digestive experience.. (yes, I'm aware that some cultures roast them, but fresh out of the fruit they are none too appealing in my eyes)

Think of a pawpaw, we eat the life giving juicy vibrantly colourful sweet flesh of the pawpaw.. the small black seeds get composted..

Chopped Papaya fruit

Papaya Seeds

Notice how fruit is much more vibrant,
in colour and texture, than seeds are

Think of an apple.. the flesh is savoured, the core... discarded..

I could continue ad infinitum..

So what's a nut?

Apart from yours truly, that is!

Mango the Fruit Nut
Clearly not every seed is surrounded by this so clearly precious substance called fruit.. some seeds/nuts/grains etc are void of the encapsulating fruit flesh..

that's just the way the world is.. not every plant consists of a fruit.. not every plant consists of a seed either, for that matter..

Nature is abundant with variations..

So what's wrong with nuts?

Well... that's a loaded question.. I'm not trying to say anything is wrong with nuts, but then again, I'm not saying anything is wrong with seeds, grains, shoots, leaves, roots, tubers, insects or animals.. Although there might be ( :) )

However, I just don't believe any of the above are ideal foods for humans..

But about nuts specifically.. I think it's well worth acknowledging, that unlike fruit, commercially available raw nuts are just not available!! I've had people write to me and say, but David Wolf is selling raw almonds or cashews etc! don't be fooled.. it's simply not true.. and if it is, then it's because he means something else by the word raw, than i do right now..

when I say raw, I'm talking unprocessed raw.. about raw ripe and fresh.. When others say they are selling raw nuts, then what they are really selling are processed (sun)dried nuts, about as raw as their dried goji berries..

Dried food has no instinctive stop.. At best, it's physiologically a 2nd class food..

When I talk about eating fruit, I'm talking about eating the raw ripe fresh fruit, the edible pulp that generally surrounds the seed of the plant..

So as a fresh fruitarian, I eat grapes, not raisins, plums, not prunes, fresh mango, not dried shriveled dehydrated mango.. And I don't eat nuts because:

1. Ethically, I'd like to give them the chance to fulfill their potential treeful destiny.
2. they are commercially not available raw.
3. I don't consider them to be physiologically ideal foods.. too heavy.

As an experiment, I'd like you to go out in nature, and find some truly fresh (ie, not even sun dried!) nuts, and sit and eat them. I think you will have had enough of them far sooner than you ever would with those readily picked and packed store bought ones..

Truly fresh nuts, are slightly wet and soft.. not dried and crispy/crunchy..!!

What about coconuts?

Well, yes, granted, unlike other nuts, they are definitely readily available, raw ripe and fresh and in abundance for some.. And physiologically, I'd reckon for that reason, that they'd have to be better for you than most any other nut available..

However..

They are still not fruit..

I love to see coconuts fall off when they are ready, and sprout in the sand.. Coconut palms are a beautiful sight.. And I have personally made the choice to try and avoid ending the life of another prematurely..

Of course, that's my choice, and I respect that others may not feel the same way.. We all have to reach our own conclusions about such deep matters..

I understand when people tell me that there are an abundance of nuts, and that by eating them, we also help propagate them.. yes.. if that's how you feel about them then great, enjoy them! My belief, which may be wrong, is that fruit offers superior nutritional benefits, and thus I'm just choosing, to stick to fruit.

I think one other thing we might observe with nuts, is how difficult they are to get in to.. think about it, every fruit, when it's ready, will let you have easy access to the flesh.. Try and get into a coconut with your bare hands, or a macadamia nut with you teeth, and that's a whole different story..

What about Legumes, peas, beans etc??

I see.. Well.. you can certainly get them fresh and ripe to eat, that's for sure.. I grew a few peas and beans in our last garden (in Sydney), and did eat them too (see also - just-fruit-no-nuts-seed-roots-or-greens)..

But I don't consider them fruit.. botanically or otherwise.. They are seed, and to be honest, although I've made occasional exceptions in the past, I'd rather let the seed be.

I'm not saying you yourself or anyone else should or shouldn't indulge.. Frankly you have to make up your own mind what you consider the right things to eat..

Me, I'm choosing to be fruitarian, because I believe it is the garden of Eden diet, and because I'm a hopeless romantic that believes it's love that ultimately makes the world go round, that "love is all you need" and that fruit is the only food that's fully compatible with that notion, being not only the highest of all foods (physically and spiritually).. but also the only food that is truly "given" by any living thing...

Peace,
Mango.

What's in our kitchen?

2010-06-29T17:54:00.001+10:00

OK.. here's a quick rundown of what's in the kitchen at the moment..

Bare in mind, Kveta's out of town at the moment, so all this yummy stuff is just for me, for the week..

Here's a pic of the fruit currently in stock:

Fruit in our kitchen
As you can see, there're 2 rock melons, a box of oranges and grapefruit, about 6 pineapples, the cucumbers are home grown from our little garden (I generally eat about one a day of that size, normally somewhere between 16:00 and 18:00) ..

OK.. what else've we got.. local grown organic avos, local custard apples, tomatoes from ravenshoe (probably less than 50kms as the crow flies).. Passion fruit from the garden (actually, from next door's garden, but they can't eat them all, so they kindly share them with us)...

1 organic watermelon I picked up from the market on saturday, a few 'nanas, some beautiful red fleshed pawpaw from our pawpaw man.. and a handful of persimmon fruit.. End of the season for them, so they're the last ones left..

There're also about 6 medjool dates left, sitting in a bowl on our "oven". (Yes! we have an oven.. or stove, or whatever those things are called.. It was in here when we got here, and has to still be here when we leave, so we just use it as a table top, and have bowls and a blender piled up on top of it (and the 6 medjool dates too!)..

There's also a box with about 15 to 20 mandarins, and with a finally quick look around I spot 3 lemons too.. but they won't get eaten, the lemons we use to wash our hair with..

In our garden, we have fruiting tomato and cucumber plants, and they get eaten daily.. the tomatoes are tommy toes, the little cherry sized ones, they seem to be the easiest to grow, although one of the plants has grown from the seed of a conventionally grown tomato, and is doing pretty well..

freshly picked cucumber from our garden
We also have now quite a few pawpaw trees that are about thigh high.. grown from seed when we moved in here in february, so you can see how quick things're growing here (you can see one pawpaw tree in the picture above, growing up between the tomato plants)..

Τhen there're a great many fruit trees of all sorts coming out of the ground (we bury our compost in small holes and then cover it with soil and mulch and continue our garden on top of it, thus wherever there's garden, there's fruit tree seedlings sprouting out too..

Still dreaming of being far more rural, and planting out garden everywhere. (unfortunately we have a lawn here now, and we're not really allowed to do much with that except cut it..)..

peace,
mango.

Crazy World News - 7 - Smoking 2 year old..

2010-06-25T09:21:00.003+10:00

Recently I ran across a story about an Indonesian toddler, hooked on cigarettes..

Not only hooked on cigarettes, but hooked on a massive 40(!) a day.. And not only 40 cigarettes a day, but a diet that has him, at just 2 years old, weighing in at 4 stone (.. I think that's about 25 kilos!)!

My initial reaction was "how sad", followed closely after by feelings of "this is child abuse, why don't the authorities step in and do something about this!"..

2 year old smoker
But then, I thought some more, and started questioning whether or not I really thought it was right that a child in this situation should be forcibly removed from their family.. after all, that's what it would probably have to boil down to if his parents were unable or unwilling to make changes..

His father is even quoted as saying he doesn't know what the problem is as he believes his son looks healthy!!

Smoking Ardi Rizal with friends and family
Clearly there must be many people out there, (maybe even the majority?), that would agree to him being removed from his current environment, and taken into care by those that are wiser.. But I'm just not so sure..

Naturally I find the whole situation repugnant, but the truth of the matter is, if I had a child, and it became public common knowledge that I was only feeding it fruit, which would be the case, make no bones, there would most definitely be a good proportion of people out there, that would want the authorities to step in and stop me/us abusing the poor malnourished baby..

And in the, God-forbid, scenario where such a child were removed, I would be, frankly, devastated.

smoking and playing with guns
I look around and see children being abused everywhere. toddlers eating salty chips and crispy golden cheesy fat saturated chicken nuggets.. lollies, bread, ice cream, pasteurized milk saturated denatured sugar enhanced cereals and greasy chocolate soda pops, and nobody thinks to remove them to a cleaner healthier environment.. In fact, child food abuse is mainstream and pretty much everywhere you turn..

I think despite the ignorance with which this particular child is being raised, it's still quite possible that the parents and family are loving and supportive, with mutual attachment from all sides..

Which is why, I guess, when all's said and done, I would not intervene, other than through education and leading by example...

Sad smoking 2 year old
What do you think?

You can read more of this story here.

Peace,
Mango.

Breatharian - 1 - Prahlad Jani

2010-06-19T17:19:00.002+10:00

I recently stumbled on to this news article about an 83 year old Indian fellow, called Prahlad Jani..

Apparently he has gone the past 7 decades without food or water...

Now, I'm fully aware that the skeptics will be up in arms screaming hoax!, and frankly I don't blame them .. After all, the evidence does tend to point toward an inevitable outcome of starvation should we prematurely cease nutritional nourishment..

Prahlad Jani
However, I've read about enough of these cases to believe (perhaps falsely) that this need not always be the way things work..

Certainly, I believe that as far as nutrition goes, and our apparent physiological dependence on it, I really don't think science has done much more than scratch the surface, and should even just one case such as this of Prahlad Jani, be truthful, then clearly what little understanding we might think we already have, would most obviously be flawed..

Prhlad Jani was observed by a team of military doctors who confirmed that he neither ate nor drank, nor, naturally, needed the bathroom. He was under constant surveillance from a team of 30 medics, and also monitored by cameras and closed circuit television.

I especially liked one of the medics closing statements:

"As medical practitioners we cannot shut our eyes to possibilities, to a source of energy other than calories."

You can read more about this here.

Peace,
Mango.

Interview with a fruitarian - 35 - Robert Lockhart

2010-05-25T07:31:00.001+10:00

35th interview with a fruitarian.. this time with Robert Lokhart who's a chiropractor up here in far north queensland..

this time it's a video interview..

Interview With a Fruitarian - Robert Lockhart

Enjoy..

mango.

Intro to the fruitarian documentary

2010-05-19T20:22:00.002+10:00

Hi all..

i just got an email from emile, who has today, just a few hours ago, uploaded the first intro to the fruitarian documentary he is working on..

the doco features myself and kveta and our escape from sydney..

enjoy..

peace,
mango.

Back online....

2010-03-23T14:01:00.002+11:00

Hi folks..

after basically several months of next to no cyber activity, kveta and i have finally gotten ourselves hooked up onto the wide eyed web once more..

we've been online for a little less than a week so far, and are slowly easing back into the comfort and pain of being once more able to check our emails on a regular basis, look up useless facts on wikipedia, check out what's happening in cyberspace.. etc etc..

but seriously.. i missed not having my regular internet fix, and even if we did connect up briefly and inoccasionally through internet cafes and the like, we did naught much more than check our most important emails and sign off again..

so now that we're back, what next?

to be honest, i'm a little uncertain of the direction of this blog, over the past couple of years, i think i've said pretty much most of what i've felt to on the subject of fruit, diet and ethics.. Sure, there's always more to be said, and no doubt, i'll be saying it.. as and when the inspiration takes me.. but as a regularly updated blog, i really don't know any more whether i need to..

I still want to keep posting new interviews, as and when they happen, (speaking of which, I have one video interview I need to get youtubed and uploaded still), and I'll still keep updating my journal on a semi regular basis too.. and i guess i don't really know fully what i'm saying here myself, because I don't think I've fully settled the destiny of my blog..

I guess, I just want to say, don't expect too much to be forthcoming... but then again, don't expect too little.. either.. What was it Kwai Chang Caine learned - expect the unexpected I think it was.. but don't expect anything too profound (that's me talking again)..

Anyhow, nice to be back and talk more later..
peace,
mango.

Mystery Fruit - 4

2010-01-17T11:22:00.003+11:00

I have to say, I first tasted this fruit about 12 years ago, and was instantly hooked on it..

Unfortunately they are a rare breed, and I only got to sample them a couple of times back then.. however, fortunately, I am now in a situation with a relative abundance of them, and they are most surely one of my current favourite fruits.. probably among my top 5, along with durian, chempadek, white sapote and abiu.. but i'm sure if i think about it, i've probably got way more than 5 fruits in my top 5..

the mind boggles..

Anyhows, any guesses what it's called?

Fruitopia

2010-01-08T07:30:00.000+11:00

We are currently staying on some land owned by a guy named Clinton, who primarily lives in Adelaide, but travels up here every few weeks to check up on the place.

The property has been christened Fruitopia, and is located just on the outskirts of a town called Mareeba, up on the "Tablelands" of Tropical Far North Queensland.. (North Eastern Australia)..

Swimming hole at fruitopia (click to enlarge)

Clinton had a vision of himself walking along rows of fruit trees, and eating/living off their multivarieted fruit offerings, and fruitopia is the child of that vision.

I'm unsure how many acres, this land covers.. possibly 100(?), and one side of it is bordered by an all year around flowing creek, which is, I believe, called Granite Creek, but again, that's not a statement originating from certainty..

Probably over half of the land, is already taken over by fruit trees (and the relentless weeds that grow around and between them!).. they are laid out in a pretty conventional line after line style, with a certain degree of intermingling of species, but mostly similar tree types all in a row.. All up, I am told there are over 2000 fruit trees out in the orchard, many of which I do not recognise.. Perhaps I would, if they were fruiting, but without the fruit on them, I lack the experience to do so..

I am uncertain how many different types of fruit are out there.. but for sure, a good deal more than most other farms would have, with fruiting Akee, peanut butter fruit, white sapote, ice-cream beans, ceylone olive (not an olive at all - tastes more like stewed apple with a hint of liquorice!), pawpaws, mangoes, passion fruit, jackfruit, guavas of various sorts, bananas and more.. and that's just whats currently on.. there're also black sapote, mame sapote, various types of exotic cherries, avocados, pineapples, i'm told there's a durian out there somewhere although the climate isn't quite ideal for them here, ankola (a sort of pink fleshed avocado), canistel, carambola, wax jambu, heaps of lychee trees, and I guess that's just the tip of the ice-berg..

"Tropical Fruit World" down in NSW, close to the Queensland border, claim to have the largest selection of tropical fruit in the world.. A bold statement, that may well be the truth.. Clinton boldly claims that he will eventually have even more than the they do, but unless he can attract more people here, I personally doubt that that will be the case.. Still, I've got to give the guy credit, he has managed to do most of what's been done here in the space of the last 6 years, when he first bought the property together with a guy named Eddie, who's an old friend of mine, pretty much the only fruit trees on the land were a few rows of lychees, and 3 giant mango trees near the main old house.. and everything else has been planted since that time.. So I'd love for him to prove me wrong..

I gather the previous owners were tobacco growers, or at least that's what the history of this land is.. Basically year in and year out of the same monocrops, which over the decades would have surely depleted the soil, making it really not suitable to grow anything, so they've chosen to bring in tonnes of fertilizers of various sorts..

The farm is certified organic.. organic it may be, but the stuff they spread everywhere under the trees is animal based waste products.. Quite recently a couple of tonnes of some kind of chicken shit blood and bone pellet mix was smeared everywhere (stuff stank pretty badly), followed by the spraying of some equally offensive smelling fine mist made from some kind of rotten fish paste..

Palm trees at Frutopia

But I guess this is the current nature of the world we live in, and whether or not things are organic, spray free, or chemically enhanced, or not, I'm sure one could always spot reasons why something wasn't ideal.. In fact, it's difficult to not question the environmental ethics of every item of food out there, whether it be the frozen chunk of factory animal flesh, or the ripe and ready organic mango.. Sadly, both will likely be tainted..(although obviously one far more than the other!)

That's why I'm personally into the whole vegan organic permaculture type food growing thing, better and more briefly known as "vegeculture".. I see the ideal situation for the world, is that we each have our own small parcel of land that we care take, and grow our food on, in such a way that biodiversity is encouraged.. no line after line of monocrops.. especially not annuals.. and ultimately not really even any need for irrigation.. I'm convinced that such small manageable chunks of land, could easily be maintained with minimal effort.. managing weed growth ultimately through thick layers of nutritionally life giving mulch for the trees, with the added bonus functionality of preventing the soil from drying out, and weeds growing back, thus reducing the need to water profusely as is often the sad case..

But that's for the future me I guess.. I give myself permission to dream on while waiting, sometimes impatiently, for our envisioned home to manifest itself.. Meanwhile, I am stuck with this earthly body that unfortunately still requires food and faced with the choices I have, there is always compromises..

Of the fruit available around this area, I'm sure Fruiotopia is likely to have the history I would feel most comfortable in supporting.. (perhaps it is a sort of blessing that I don't know too much of the history of more conventionally reared and commercially available crops)..

Anyhow.. Fruitopia.. yes.. it's where we landed on arrival, and we are still here.. Although desperately desiring our own private and affordable place to live..

For others that like the sound of this place, - home of the recent 801010 raw gathering, then I reckon it'd be a great place for many to visit and ultimately possible live.. The back of the farm is basically still wild grass and ultimately available to live on.. I believe Clinton may have long term plans to subsection the rear wilderness, and get some people to live out there.. (it borders the creek there!)..

peace,
mango