Frequently Asked Questions.

I will add to this list as and when I write new answers to relevantly asked questions..

1. Who are you?
   Very deep question. You can read more about me on these pages:
          My Brief Introduction
          My "About Me" page
          My Interview
          My Audio Interview
          Astrological Me
          My Oprah Winfrey fruitarian interview

---

2. So, what's a fruitarian??
   I've tried to explain that here:
          My Definition of Fruitarian
          Just fruits, no nuts, seeds, roots or greens

---

3. And when you say "fruit", how exactly do you define that?
   Pretty simple, just read these posts:
          What is a Fruit.
          The difference between fruits and nuts.
   Voir aussi: La difference entre les fruits et les noix

---

4. How many fruitarians do you know?
   Well, I'm slowly interviewing all the ones I know of:
          List of Interviews with Fruitarians

---

5. What are the benefits of eating just fruit?
   The benefits are manifold. See:
          Reasons to be Fruitarian

---

6. What about all the fruit sugars, wouldn't that rot your teeth?
   I address my own loss of teeth here:
          Fruitarianism and Teeth

---

7. How much and when do you eat?
   That all depends on what's in season and what's available. This link may give more of an insight.
          These are the blog posts detailing our monthly food

---

8. How do you deal with cravings?
   Yes, good question, here're my attempted answers:
          Some thoughts on cravings..

---

9. Are nuts part of your diet?
   In a word, "no".. See here to find out why:
          Nuts on a fruitarian diet
          The difference between fruits and nuts.
          Just fruits, no nuts, seeds, roots or greens
   Voir aussi: La difference entre les fruits et les noix

---

10. What about greens? Do you eat them?
    Personally, I believe fruit to be far superior to greens.
           Greens on a Fruitarian Diet
           Just fruits, no nuts, seeds, roots or greens
           Questioning Greens on a Fruitarian Diet 

---

11. Are mushrooms a fruitarian food?
    not exactly..
           Mushrooms on a Fruitarian Diet 

---

12. What about avocados?
    Sure, I eat them when they appeal, and don't restrict them in any way:
           Avocados on a Fruitarian diet

---

13. What does veganism mean?
    I think it's important to understand this:
           Veganism is not a diet

---

14. What's a fast?
           This is what I mean by fasting

---

15. What about protein on a fruitarian diet?
    I've written about this here:
           Protein on a Fruitarian Diet
           Why Nutritional Science Fails

---

16. What about the B12
    Ah, the old B12 question.. Read here:
           B12 and Fruitarianism
           B12 on a raw vegan diet (mostly fruitarian)
           Why Nutritional Science Fails

---

17. What's your view on Germs?
           The Germ Theory Myth

---

18. What do you think of the medical industry?
           Is the Medical Industry to be Trusted?
           The Health Industry
           Fruitarianism and Teeth
           Why Nutritional Science Fails

---

19. What's the big deal about fruit trees?
           Plant a fruit Tree

---

20. What is detox?
           The Golden Rules of Detox
           Some Thoughts on Detoxing
           The Symptoms of Detox

---

21. How long does detox take?
           How Long Does it Take to Totally Clean out one's System?

---

22. What do you use for soap?
           Is Soap really clean?
           And some thoughts on sun creams..

OK.. I'm sure there will be more questions and answers over the coming months. If you have questions you want answered, then post comments, and when I can, if I feel to, I will do my best to answer them..



Hugs,
Mango.

Series of interviews with fruitarians..

Hi all,
I am planning on interviewing any fruitarian I can find, and posting the interviews on my blog..

If you believe in the 100% fruit diet and are practising it, or heading that way, and are up to being interviewed, then please post a comment below, or otherwise contact me.

(the interview will be pretty simple, consisting of just a series of short questions you can answer at your leisure)..



thanks..
Mango.

Blogged with Flock

How much we spent on food in December 2007

Just to back up my recent post about economical eating, I thought I would start posting how much we spend on the fruit/food we eat..

From next month, I will post this information along with the posts of what we ate..

Anyhow, this is what we spent for both of us, foodwise during December 2007:

Apricots - $17.95
Avocadoes - $89
Cherries - $35.69
Cucumbers - $9.63
Durian - $180.06
Longans - $26.21
Lychees - $13.58
Mangoes - $30
Rock Melon - $5
Nectarines - $23.60
Pawpaws - $14.79
Pineapple - $3
Tomatoes - $14.50
Watermelon - $45.91
Sweet Peas - $10.45

Total= $520.27 divide that by 31 (days in December), you get $16.78 and divide that by 2 (me and Kveta), you get $8.39 each..

So our grocery expenses put us back $8.39 Australian dollars each, each day.



hug,
Mango.

Blogged with Flock

Topsy-Turvy World - 4 - Fast Food?

Another paradox.. for there is little about fast food, that can really be said to be fast..

In fact, fast foods undergo a far lengthier preparation than pretty much most other foods..

The real "fast foods" are undoubtedly the fruits.. Needing just to be picked, packed and delivered..

Such simplicity..!!

No milling, pounding, soaking, fermenting, kneading, baking, roasting, frying, tinning etc..

Instead, just possibly pealing and slicing..

Could anything really be faster or easier??

I guess there are some things that are "fast" about fast food.. The fact that countless people have helped prepare it for you.. Oh.. and the fact that it will most likely speed up your trip to the doctors, hospital and cemetery..



hugs,
Mango.
ps picture taken by kveta in thailand 2006..

Blogged with Flock

B12 on a raw vegan diet.. (mostly fruitarian)

Last year, our friend Harley was interviewed on TV (here in Australia), some show called, I think, "What's good for you"..

Now, Harley's this guy who is, to say the least.. ultra fit..

Kveta and I bumped into him purely by chance in Thailand,  in 2006.. He had biked up much of the distance from Singapore..

Harley's goal is to beat the world record for fastest time around Australia on his bike (that's a push bike/bicycle not a motor powered vehicle).. On pretty much mostly just fruit..

Anyhow, back to the TV thing.. for the show, he had some blood tested, and they found his B12 to be the lowest they had ever recorded..

Harley asked them what the healthy level of B12 for a raw vegan should be.. - the nutritionist had no answer, and was even surprised that he asked such a question.. Of course, none of this ever came to air on the show, as much of what was edited and shown was done so in order to favour the traditional omnivorous diet.. (sometimes he would be asked a question wearing one t-shirt, and answer it wearing another, showing just how heavily edited his interview was)..

He even offered the filming crew to follow him on a cycle tour across australia, and told them that he believed he could beat anybody who would dare to challenge him, any cyclist, with whatever level of B12 they might have.. (A challenge that I have no doubt he was up for!) - They never took him up on his offer..

OK, so clearly, I'm no scientist, nor narrow minded, brainwashed, symptom bashing doctor, far from it, but I can imagine, that a truly healthy person possibly does not need highly elevated levels of B12 in their blood..  I have heard that vitamin B12 is apparently used to break down proteins that make their way into the blood stream, which is common after eating flesh foods and dairy, and possibly the case with corrupted cooked foods too..

On a fruitarian or even mostly fruitarian diet, like Harley, protein is not eaten.. only amino acids, so B12 has nothing to break down in the blood, so is it possible that it may not even be needed at all?

Also according to wikipedia, B12 is used by the body during the process of rearranging hydrogen atoms in fats - Which is again in my view something to do with eating trans-fats - hydrogenated fats, raw vegans and fruitarians don't eat margarines or the like, so may not need B12 in their blood for the repair work..

Could it be, that the statistical values of the average population do nothing more than prove just show how sick the average population is?

I know I had my own blood analyzed a good 17 or 18 years ago.. My B12 was lower than the doctor had seen at the time, and she was concerned for me because of that.. Since then I have done nothing to attempt to correct that "anomaly", rather I have trusted more in my path, and that which I believed to be correct, appears indeed to be so..

Despite having no apparent B12 source, I have never suffered any of the classic B12 deficiency symptoms.. My mind and body function well still, with my ability to learn and climb trees ever present. I myself have clocked up over 7000 kms on my pushbike, living for one year on the road in Europe, (my bike is currently in Northern New South Wales, so I'm out of practise at the moment, but look forward to living somewhere where I can enjoy the pleasure of biking again..) .. Is it any wonder that I show so little faith in nutritional science and it's follies??

Well, if you'ld like to read more about Harley, then look him up with google: Harley Johnstone..



See also my post: B12 and Fruitarianism.

Hugs,
Mango.
PS See also: B12 and Fruitarianism

Blogged with Flock

Isn't it expensive living on just fruit??

Well.. no, actually it isn't..

When I look at our monthly accounting stats, it's clear just how little we spend on groceries in comparison to most people..

After all, living the way we do, I'd say that pretty much all of our grocery money is spent on fruit alone.. We don't buy other household products.. no soaps, conditioners, powders, creams or detergents.. no other vices like resteraunts, coffees, sugar, ice creams, lollies, sweets, beers, wines, cigarettes or take-aways..

And all in all, we spend on average, about $16 a day on fruit for the 2 of us.. (that's $8 a day each to feed us.. that's just 8 Australian dollars a day!!)..

OK, I'm aware that not everyone has as much choice and as cheap a fruit as we do, but when you consider what we save also on not cooking our food or having to clean greasy pots and pans and dishes with detergents.. saving on water,. gas and eletricity bills too,  i'd reckon that eating just fruit is about as economical as it can get..

If more people were fruitarian, and the world was running more harmoniously, then I picture clearly that fruit production would be the best economical choice for growers too.. Saving them vast amounts on fuel each year, and yielding them far more per square meter than any annual crop could ever hope to do..

Think about it..

Hugs,
mango.

Blogged with Flock

Want to learn another language?

I speak 5 or more to varying degrees of fluency (at least to conversation level), and I am just starting out on my 6th.. If you want to learn along with me, I am posting free lessons in a blog.. I just published the first lesson..

The blog's here: LearnCzech.blogsome.com

As you can see, the language is Czech.. Kveta will be my guide.. I hope to find out an easy way to share sounds in the lessons too.. so I can talk the words and phrases I'll be learning.. Does anyone know how to record simply sound files (using just a laptop?), and how/where to store them for free on the internet??

Eat fruit, be cute,
Mango.


- Picture is of kveta in her self designed and made rainbow dress, standing under an avocado tree she planted from seed in Evans Head..

Blogged with Flock

Veganism is not a diet..

You know how some people say that they are vegan for health reasons? or vegan for environmental reasons? or even vegan for social reasons??

..Well..they're all wrong!!..

Wrong, that is, unless they have redefined the term veganism from that which it was originally intended.. Which of course, is what has colloquially happened to many words becoming misused and abused as is the plight of the daily spoken english language.. So.. on 2nd thoughts.. that makes them right in a sense.. but not if one takes the literal meaning of the word as it was first coined back in the 40s..

I believe the original definition went something like this:

VEGANISM may be defined as a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practical, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.



That's pretty simple, yet pretty profound too.. Nowhere is it defined as a diet.. rather it is a lifestyle that attempts to minimise suffering toward animals..

Thus Veganism not being a diet as such, offers no real guidelines as to how the diet of a follower should or shouldn't be.. There is no concern if the diet is raw or cooked, condimented or plain, mixed or mono, toxic or palatable, rotten or ripe or unripe, deep fried, roasted, boiled, sautéed, smoked, alcohol fortified, preserved, MSG flavour enhanced, coloured, fermented, pasteurised, curried, sugared, spiced or just plain natural..- Provided of course, no animal was exploited during it's production..

Actually, as a philosophy, there is no clear definitive rule forbidding even the eating of animal flesh.. Yes, you read me orrectly..- Read the definition again, and you will see what I mean.. It just says "seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practical, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose" .. Which doesn't mean that if you were to find a naturally dead animal, that there would be any fundamental moral vegan prohibition, denying you from eating it..

Clearly, veganism per sé, has little regard or concern for the health of those that practise it..

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that vegans aren't concerned for their own health.. of course they are, who isn't?! Who doesn't want to live a long and happy healthy life?? All I am saying is that their concern stems not from the philosophy of veganism or any of it's original guidelines, but from their own will to live happily and healthily..

Adopting fruitarianism to an already existing vegan enhanced lifestyle, is a good sound choice and complimenting companion.. Together the 2 philosophies can say no to both animal and personal health exploitations.. instead saying yes(!) to healthy long lives for all concerned..

Similarly, also, don't misunderstand me that I am in any way opposed to veganism, I am all for its guidelines and enthusing others to follow them, thus I would heartily encourage, also, those that may have already embraced fruitarianism as a diet only, to adopt the vegan philosophy into their lives too.. Remember - harm to a part, is harm to the whole..



Actually, the English language is really missing a word to describe someone that purely eats a diet free of animal products.. The French for example, in addition to the word veganisme, have the word végétalisme, which describes the philosophy of just eating from the vegetable kingdom.. So they have végétarisme, végétalisme and véganisme.. Similarly, the Spaniards do the same, with the words vegetarismo, vegetalismo and veganismo.. I guess the english equivalent to vegetalismo would be dietary veganism..

hugs,
Mango
ps the 1st picture is of kveta holding a very unusual pineapple with a crown at both ends..
the 2nd picture is me with my trusty bike..i biked across much of europe with it, and was on the road for a year..later i flew to australia with it and used it along the east coast.. Finally ended up leaving it in Northern NSW with a friend, and she still had it in her shed even after 7 years..

Blogged with Flock

Varieites and Seasons of the Avocado..

The Avocado - Scientific/Binomial/Latin name: Persea americana or Persea gratissima

Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Laurales
Family: Lauraceae
Genus: Persea
Species: P. americana

One of my daily staples..

There are several varieties that I know of, and no doubt many more that I have never heard of:

Bacon, Fuerte, Gwen, Hass, Sharwell, Shepard, Wurtz..

These are the seasons:

Australia - NSW - They're available all year round in the shops, but seem to be cheapest and in most abundance between May to November.


Please, if you know when the avocado is in season where you live, or elsewhere, or about different varieties not mentioned, then post a comment and let me know.. I will update this page as I gather more information.. below will appear a list of each variety along with pictures, descriptions, and more..

Blogged with Flock

My definition of fasting..

Or.. more to the point I suppose.. - what is it that I personally mean when I talk about fasting?

You see.. the thing is, the colloquial meaning of the term fasting, is changing as the term is abused.. just like vegetarian has changed to become a diet including many things that are actually far from vegetarian, and as fruitarian has done, to now be a widespread choice of many potentially very different diets.. (see: my definition of fruitarianism).

Anyhow, I've heard people talking of doing juice fasts, or fasting on watermelon, or fasting on grapes, etc.. but the thing is, many of us may actually break-fast (the first meal of the day after a night of not eating) on a glass of orange juice, or a bunch of grapes.. so with that in mind, I hardly can consider a week on orange juice to be fasting.. You'ld be breaking fast with each glass you took!

Nope, in my opinion, fasting means taking no food, of any kind, including any juices or mono fruit diet.. It does include drinking water when thirst is present, but if one chooses to go without water too, then, to make the distinction totally clear, I tend to call this "dry fasting".

That's it.. simple really.. just how I like it!



So what about those times we just mono on one particular fruit, or just drink fruit juice?

Well, one definition of such a regime is "a cure", like, a mono fruit cure, a grape cure, an orange juie cure.. or just even a juice cure (with various fresh ly squozen juices)..

Some years back though, I coined the term "juice feasting" - instead of the abused oxymoron" juice fasting.. I liked it because it was just that little "e" (f(e)asting) that made the difference, and since then, I've been calling such experiences I've had "juice feasts".. I've also noticed that in more recent years the term appears to be really catching on, and I've since witnessed many people using it both off and on the internet, so the term is definitely gaining in popularity..

hugs,
mango

Blogged with Flock

What I ate in December 2007

This is a list of all the food I ate during the month of December 2007.

So, if you divided the list by the number of days that I actually ate anything, you would get a somewhat simplified and rough idea of what I might eat on a daily basis..

However, it is probably true that on most days I eat a maximum of 4 or 5 different types of fruit, so I would not be eating all these fruits every day..

Also, you need to bear in mind that I fasted on 7 of the days in december, and on 3 others, I just drank watermelon juice. (see: days of fasting and feasting).

Kveta had roughly the same as I did, exepting that I ate more avos than she, and she ate more cucumbers than me, plus one banana..

Anyhow, here's the list: (the quantities quoted in the list are all rough educated guesses based on our accounting statistics..).

Apricots - 3.5kgs
Avocadoes - 70
Cherries - 3kgs
Cucumbers - 1.5kgs
Durian - 10kgs (approximate weight of just the flesh).
Longans - 2kgs
Lychees - 1 kg
Rock Melon - 1
Nectarines - 30
Pawpaws - 6kgs
Tomatoes - 7kgs
Watermelon - 35kgs
Sweet Peas - 1 kg




and this is what I ate in November 2007

hugs,
Mango.
PS Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.

Blogged with Flock

Natural cockroach repelant.

For anyone out there looking for a natural cockroach repellent, I just got a tip from fruitbat Anne, of a method she is using and having success with..

In her own words..

---

... I have tried quite a few natural methods. This one is catnip. I use 'cosmic catnip' brand, which is available on e-bay. It is a very potent catnip. You just sprinkle it in drawers, cupboards and anywhere that roaches like to be.

Since I started to use it there have been no roaches anywhere I have sprinkled it. What's more the cockroaches seem to be discouraged from the whole of the house too.

---

I haven't tried it myself, but i'll certainly be keeping my eyes open for some catnip!

Anne's a fellow fruit eating enthusiast, and you can read more from her here and here..



hugs,
Mango.

Blogged with Flock

Environmental Fruitarianism

Hi all you budding fruitarians!

In previous posts I've touched upon the basic physiological reasons for adopting a fruitarian diet (here), I've mentioned some common sense reasons (here), and also recently written a little on ethical reasons for adopting a fruit only diet (here).. And I'm pretty sure that they aren't the last posts on any of those subjects..



But today I feel to write briefly about the environmental advantages of going fruitarian.

A fruit based diet has its roots firmly entrenched in the ground.

Unlike the traditional omnivorous or vegan diet that is based primarily on annual crops, predominantly cereals, a fruit based diet is predominantly based on perennial agriculture, primarily fruit tree growing..

Being reliant on annual crops means heavy reliance on fossil fuels for land cultivation.. it involves wide spread loss of wildlife habitat, and annual unintentional slaughter of innocent animals that get caught up in the heavy machinery used to turn the earth.. The earth suffers from this practice, which is, to say the least, highly unnatural..

Think about this.. no where in nature will you find a naturally grown field of one particular plant species.. Mono crops are devastating the planet.. To grow large mono crops to feed the masses, involves a constant struggle against diversity of plant life. The alternative of not relying heavily on pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals, is even more labour intensive, thus inevitably producing food of higher shop price..

Fruit tree growing does not involve the earth being disrupted each year, by heavy rotivating plows and the like..

I am not naively saying that no fossil fuels are used, or chemicals in fruit production, far from it. but I am saying that the amount and impact is vastly reduced.. And I mean vastly... Fruit trees are also grown in mono.. field after field of mango etc.. And ultimately I clearly believe that that can be improved on too, however the environmental consequences of this are far less than the desertifing tactics of annual monocrops..




Please give it some thought..
Hugs,
Mango.
ps remember - harm to a part, is harm to the whole..

Blogged with Flock

Happy new year to everyone!

Happy 2008 to you all!

As the saying goes, Time flies, fruit flies,

I hope it's a fruit filled one for everyone!




hugs,
Mango.
ps picture taken yesterday.

Blogged with Flock

Days of fasting and feasting.. end of year 2007

Kveta and I decided to eat even more frugally for the christmas period..
sort of to balance out the normal run of the mill seasonal gluttony, I guess.. - how does that saying go?

in order to get to the source, you have to swim against the current..

Anyhow, this is what we ate:

DATE	ME	KVETA
24/12/07	Dry Fast	Dry Fast
25/12/07	Dry Fast	Dry Fast
26/12/07	Juice from 1 small watermelon, 2 avocados, 4 tomatoes	Juice from 1 small watermelon
27/12/07	Juice from 1 small watermelon	Juice from 1 small watermelon
28/12/07	Dry Fast	Juice from 1 watermelon
29/12/07	Juice from 3/4s of a watermelon, 1 glass of orange juice, 1 and a bit avoadoes, 1 tomato.	Juice from 1 watermelon
30/12/07	Juice from 1/2 a watermelon	Juice from 1/2 a watermelon
31/12/07	Dry Fast	Juice from 1 watermelon
01/01/08	Juice from 2/5ths of a watermelon, 1 and a half grapefruits  (juiced), 1 avocado. 2 tomatoes.	Juice from 3/5ths of a watermelon. Juice from half a grapefruit.

it's the 2nd today.. we havent eaten yet, and have no food in the house excepting one lemon.. So we are going out on a big fruit hunting expedition. Hopefully bag ourselves a durian or 2..

hugs,
Mango

Blogged with Flock

Mystery fruit - 1

Hi all..

A little puzzle for you today..

This was some free food we picked straight from the trees while travelling north in NSW..

anybody care to guess what it is?

I'll post the answer here, later, sometime after you've all had a chance to think about it for a while..

hugs,
Mango

Blogged with Flock