Tuesday, December 04, 2007

What is a fruit?

After my last post, defining fruitarian, I thought I'd like to write just what a fruit is..

When I say fruitarianism involves eating or aspiring to eat a diet consisting of 100% fruit, I don't mean nuts, seeds, grains and legumes.. I do not believe these should be fair of the ultimate fruitarian diet.

By fruit, I mean the edible part of the plant that surrounds the seed of the plant..

Fruits include:

durian, mango, nectarine, apples, orange, strawberries, bananas, pineapples and other such obvious fruits that spring to mind..

but also the following are fruit:

Avocado, tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, and even eggplant and pumpkin..

These are all edible fruits that surround the seed of the plant..

OK, so some are less edible than others, like the eggplant and pumpkin, but they are nevertheless still fruit.

So what's not fruit?

Well.. Obviously not meat, fish, eggs, cheesy yoghurty slime sludgey stuff,
not roots nor leaves nor tubers nor nuts nor legumes or grains.. even if raw, and even though some do consider those to be regular parts of the fruitarian diet, I don't share that view.

Stick to fruit I say.. It's the only part of the plant which is truly given karmically free.

Hugs,
Mango the fruitarian.

me on the beach

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10 comments:

  1. AnonymousTuesday, September 30, 2008 at 9:14:00 AM GMT+10

    Hehe. You look a lot like my neighbour! Except, you have MUCH better skin than he does!

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  2. yogasunfireWednesday, October 21, 2009 at 11:10:00 PM GMT+11

    Hi Mango,
    why for you the nuts, raisins, pistachios,..are not fruits? I means karmically free fruits?
    In my path towards fruitarian dryed fruits helped my much to satisfy my hungry.

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  3. Fruitarian MangoThursday, October 22, 2009 at 6:41:00 AM GMT+11

    Hi Yogasunfire..

    Many confuse nuts,and classify them as fruit.. However, botanically, the fruit is the edible flesh that surrounds the seed..

    Unlike fruit, eating nuts you are clearly denying the seed of a chance at growing into a plant/tree.. Thus, karmically, I see a very clear distinction..

    Also, my goal is to teach that only fresh raw ripe fruit,the highest and most cleansing/nurturing of foods is truly meant as food for us.. Dried fruit has a very different effect on the body, and can be just as addictive as some cooked foods, and void of a natural "instinctive stop".. (thus easy to over eat - Nuts especially so, as commercially available fresh unprocessed nuts are unavailable..!)

    I understand that nuts have seemingly helped satisfy hunger, but in reality, you are satisfying cravings for cooked food, by eating processed (read "cooked"!) nuts..

    peace,
    mango

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  4.  YeffikSaturday, September 25, 2010 at 6:23:00 AM GMT+10

    Hallo Mango, is chilli peper OK for fruitarians?

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  5. Fruitarian MangoSunday, September 26, 2010 at 7:52:00 AM GMT+10

    Hi Yeffik,
    good question.. From an ethical point of view, it is a fruit just like any other.. Personally I tend to try not to get involved with the whole science of nutrition thing, and rather try to think about things differently.. If you can eat a fruit and enjoy it in it's raw fresh state, then I believe it is likely that it is something the body will ultimately benefit from eating..

    Personally, I am not able to really enjoy eating a raw chili by itself, so I guess logically I am thinking it is not an ideal fruit for me.. however, I don't want to mislead you to think that I have not eaten them.. In fact, up until recently, I have frequently eaten them mixed with tomato, cucumber and avocado in a salad.. I've enjoyed the buzz they give, and from an ethical point of view (around which my stance on fruitariainism revolves) have seen no reason not to indulge..

    However, I've stopped (at least temporarily), as I found my fingers were constantly burning from chopping them up, even if only one a day, and because I also see them as not a totally ideal food due to the fact that they are difficult to eat solo..

    improvements can always be made, no matter how ones diet is..

    peace,
    mango.

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  6. UnknownSaturday, October 9, 2010 at 6:18:00 PM GMT+11

    Hi Mango,

    I would like to know if you consider corn to be a fruit.

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  7. Fruitarian MangoSunday, October 10, 2010 at 7:20:00 AM GMT+11

    Hi Shahab,
    Nope.. not corn.. Eat corn and you are eating the seed of the plant.. Fruit is the flesh that surrounds seeds.. sometimes eating fruit means eating the seeds too is inevitable, but in such cases, the seed generally has the potential of profiting from the experience. Corn contains no surrounding edible fruit.

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  8. ywmTuesday, March 22, 2011 at 1:53:00 AM GMT+11

    Hi mango! & what do you hhink about berries?

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  9. ywmWednesday, March 23, 2011 at 7:53:00 PM GMT+11

    ..and tamarind?

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  10. Fruitarian MangoThursday, March 24, 2011 at 8:03:00 AM GMT+11

    ywm, yes.. berries and tamarind are both very much fruit.. with an edible pulp surrounding the seeds, what made you uncertain?

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