Americans are not Stupid..

Hey, I just watched this video.. I guess, not to be taken too seriously...



Enjoy ! And don't fret if you're american, I'll show you the british one soon too.

peace,
mango the vegan fruitarian

Facts of Life - 1 - Companion Animals

Some simple facts about the companion animal industry worth thinking about...


A Gorilla.. Thinking about it..

1. Roughly 50% of all fish caught goes toward feeding companion animals.
   
2. In 1986, around 70% of animal medicines were used in farm livestock. Now over half animal medicine sales, by value, are for companion animal use.
   
3. Pet food provides a convenient way for slaughterhouse offal, grains considered “unfit for human consumption,” and similar waste products to be turned into profit. This waste includes intestines, udders, heads, hooves, and possibly diseased and cancerous animal parts. - about 50% of every food animal does not get used in human foods. Whatever remains of the carcass — heads, feet, bones, blood, intestines, lungs, spleens, livers, ligaments, fat trimmings, unborn babies, and other parts not generally consumed by humans — is used in pet food.
   
4. Because irresponsible people accidentally or intentionally allow their animals to reproduce, about 10 million “excess” dogs and cats will be killed in shelters this year, while millions of homeless animals live short, hard, hungry lives on the streets, only to die miserably from disease, injury, or predation.
   
5. Most dogs sold in pet stores, through multiple breed newspaper ads, or over the Internet come from “puppy mills,” where dogs are bred solely for profit, are kept in abhorrent conditions, and are frequently denied adequate veterinary care.
   
6. In some localities, animals who end up in shelters may be sold into research through a practice known as pound seizure.
   
7. companion animals from clinics, pounds, and shelters can and are being rendered and used as sources of protein in pet food.

Disobedient Beaver

These are just a random selection of some of the multitude of facts, that many, even seasoned vegetarians, are not fully aware of, and reasons why it is worth considering not being part of this particular animal domination field..

- Or at the very least why serious efforts should be made to feed pets a more sane diet. In my opinion, preferably a raw vegan one, but better still to take a firm step forward from keeping animals as pets, and realise that doing so is degrading for both animals and ourselves.

peace,
mango the raw vegan fruitarian.

Useful Website - 23 - Free Human Translation Website

You know how most of us when we were still kids, (and possibly later in life too!) used to dream of having super powers, like super strength, or the ability to fly, or become invisible, or walk through walls, or have x-ray vision etc etc etc. you know the kind of stuff I mean..

Well, me as a kid, I always dreamed of having the gift of tongues.. I liked the idea of being able to understand anything said to me, and to have the ability to answer back in kind..

Yeah, I'm certainly not denying it, I'm a dreamer for sure.. and although mastering all languages is a bit of a far fetched fantasy, I can only get by in 5 or so languages, I'm never-the-less a great believer in not setting limitations...

So in my quest for language learning, I often see what new and snazzy websites are out there that may aid in the process of mastering and improving them, and one particular website that I've been playing with for some months now, is called:

http://www.jollo.com/

Jollo is a new website idea to help translate sentences between languages. With it, you have the ability to type in the text you want translating, and have it instantly translated to the language of your choice by several different online machine translation websites, with the different results displayed under each other..

But wait! That's not all.. - there's more to be had..

Not only can you get and compare machine translation from various translating websites, you can also request for a human translation.. And free of charge too..

Basically the free human language translation is done by one of the many active Jollo members, and yet other members may vote on the accuracy of the translation...

It's neat stuff, and a great tool to help get a better understanding of some sentences which we might find otherwise puzzling..

Hope you can make use of it too..

Peace,
Mango.

Greens on a fruitarian diet?

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

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

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

I'll extract parts of what he wrote below:

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

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

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

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

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

Then, he goes on to say:

==> Fruits are more important than greens!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why Doctors are not to be trusted

In general, I would say it is wise to not trust the advice of most Doctors..

Why's that?

Well... This News Article explains it quite well. And I quote:

Here's how a pharmaceutical sales representative recently summarized his work for me:

"I take the doctor out to dinner at a fancy restaurant, all expenses paid. As dinner winds down, I ask the doctor to recommend my company's brand for certain health conditions among his patients. Sometimes, the doctor will say that his office needs new equipment. I say how much? The doctor says $5,000. I say fine, but only if you write 100 scripts (prescriptions) for a specific drug made by our company each month. The doctor agrees, and we get him his new $5,000 machine."

Out of curiosity, I asked the pharmaceutical sales rep how he and his company can be sure that the doctor will follow through on his word to write out 100 prescriptions of their drug each month. Can't the doctor just take his $5,000 machine and not follow through on his promise?

"No, all pharmaceutical companies pay big money to a huge, global corporation called IMS that tracks this type of data," was the rep's instant reply.

Remember.. a Fruit diet daily, keeps the doctor away..

Fruitarian Interview - 32 - Darrick

32nd in my series of interviews with fruitarians.

---

Hi Darrick,

Sorry it's taken me so long, but thanks for letting me interview you!
OK, Could you please start with the usual stuff, just tell us a little about who you are, your age, where you are living/grew up? etc..etc..

I am currently 39years and living in SE Asia. I grew up in Oregon State in USA. I lived in San Diego, California 10 years before beginning my 'vagabonding' lifestyle in 2007. Currently I am in KoPhangan Thailand living in a 'raw house'. Harley, Freelea, Nick, Rich, and Choi and more are welcome to join!

Where do you hang out when you're online?

http://vagabondingvegan.blogspot.com/
www.30bananasaday.com
www.facebook.com

and of course your wonderful blog!

Darrick and Pawpaws

So, what prompted you to become a vagabonding vegan? What line of trade where you in previously, and when did you decide to quit that, and travel/live the life you're doing now instead?

I was buying and selling real estate in Oregon and San Diego for several years. I had purchased one house back in 1996 after saving up money for a down payment from working as a Youth Counselor. After that one purchase I began the pursuit of financial wealth through real estate, read several books, went to seminars, surrounded myself around millionaires and like minded friends.

After becoming Vegan in approx 2002, I began to become more and more aware of ethics and such through my new lifestyle and friends and readings and yoga. I was already a Surfer of 5 years by then and in love with the free, surf lifestyle as well.

So transitioning to my current 'vagabonding lifestyle' seemed to happen over a few years, until finally I went for it in January of 2007! I gave away many things and sold some. I now have income of approx $700US/month from a loan I made to a friend. I kept a large backpack and my surfboard and headed to Costa Rica for "Raw World" and to internship with Doug Graham's fasting retreat.

You got rid of pretty much everything you owned? How did it make you feel?

The 'real decision' to go for the vagabonding lifestyle seemed to happen a couple months before I did it.

It felt sooo liberating to give away so much stuff: tvs, radios, clothes, books, dvds, surfboards, hammock, two cars, etc...

I still feels so amazing that I have found this more minimalistic way of life and am grateful to live it.

Are you missing family at all? I see you on this photo from your blog, with you hugging your nephew goodbye at the airport, when was that taken? I guess you're emailing them regularly?

I do think of my family often. That photo was a while back. Mom and Dad came to visit me for one month in Bali, which was fabulous time. Brother and Sister and nephews are soon to come see me in Asia I am manifesting.

email weekly, phone monthly

Are you travelling alone there? - I know that you're living with others right now, but in general have you mostly just been doing your own thing?

I have been alone most of the time. Now I am fortunate to live with some Raw friends that eat like me, Raw Vegan fruit diet with occasional greens.

No partner?

I am open to a girlfriend now and plan to attract one soon!

Growing up in the US, was your diet pretty typical for it's day? - Give us a brief run down of what you used to get through, foodwise, on a typical day.

Growing up in Oregon. Family of 5. Breakfast in the AM with my bro and sis and pops (french toast, eggs/bacon, cereal, a bit of fruit).

Lunch time was a sack lunch from mom made with love and intention (tuna or egg salad or pb/j, crackers, cheese, yogurt, apple, raisins, cookie, etc..).

scheduled dinner time at 5:30pm nightly. (pasta, rice and veggies, small portion of dead animals, biscuits made with baking powder and honey, salad, burritos, burgers, pizza, etc..)... We were not allowed sugar cereal, Hostess twinkies and products, Sodapop (accept weekend nights), other high artificially and flavoured products. It seemed we were healthy family compared to all of my friends.

And do that whole fast forward thing to the present for you in Thailand, what does a typical days food intake look like for you now?

Now in Thailand:
EXAMPLE
meal #1 2 coconut waters with some jelly, OR approx 150calories
meal #2 2kilos of mangosteens, OR approx. 300calories
meal #3 1 kilo of bananas, OR approx 600
meal #4 durian! , OR approx 1500-2000calories

(I seem to have a good idea of calories due to my past of weight training and fitness experience which I gained to be 215lbs (approx 105kilos), big muscular dude....NOW I weigh about 140lbs or 67kilos).

Neat, So when did things start to change for you? Did you progress slowly to vegetarianism, veganism, raw food and fruitarianism, or was it more of a sudden change?? What sparked those changes?

I was vegetarian for about one year. One day, I bought some videos and books on vegan at a vegan restaurant. I remember watching a dvd called "Eating", aka 'the rave diet', this inspired me so much that at the end of it, I told my girlfriend at the time that I am not eating cheese, dairy, eggs, or fish anymore (she changed to vegan two weeks later).

As scary as it seemed, I remember how good it felt in my heart to make this choice. As a vegetarian, I was primarily thinking about my health before the dvd. The dvd made me feel compassion for animals and want to make a difference.

Has anyone else in your family made such changes??

Recently I came up with an idea while meditating about how I can inspire my family to eat a vegan diet.

I decided to offer them $50 cash for each dvd they watch. I sent them several that I found online at amazon and the vegan store, etc... - 'Earthlings', The rave diet, 'peaceful kingdom', etc.. They each watched 20dvds! I paid them each $1000 cash from money i saved up from selling my house.

Now my brother and his wife are strict vegans and chose the vegan path for ethics. My sister and her husband became vegetarian, and are getting closer to veganism now.

Hey! That's very inspirational.. Good thinking there Darrick.. That was certainly money well spent!!

Can you tell us a little about your health before and after the changes you've made? Your weight must have dropped from 215lbs!

Before Vegan I was around 180lbs, lean and muscular from surfing daily, some running, some weightlifting.

After vegan, I became leaner over 6months, about 160lbs. It appeared I lost muscle, but I know now that it was hidden fat inside my muscles and other places.

After 2 years on the RAW vegan path, I am staying around 135-150lbs (depending on how much durian I am eating.... after eating durian for a meal over 500 times, I am still learning how to eat enough durian without overeating it.)

I feel my best so far when I am very lean and light around 135-140lbs (I am 6feet 1inch tall).

After having converted some of your family to veganism, what do they make of your current raw fruit diet?

My mom and dad seem open to it. My dad has read many books about veganism and raw and has attended Doug Grahams health and fitness week with me. He knows its the best way to live to eat raw vegan mainly fruit diet, but he doesn't feel like committing to it at this time. He is mostly vegan lately. I am sensing my Mom may think our bodies need some dead animals to get our nutrient needs met. Mom is very open to eat vegan food and does most of the time now. Especially because my vegan brother is creating many dishes for
my parents when they are together, and they live in the same town.

Do you sometimes get cravings for certain foods that you don't fully consider ideal, could you tell us a little about possible such times, and how you've dealt with them?

Lately I have had very little cravings for cooked food. I have found that by eating enough juicy fruits and durian each day I don't have cravings. When I eat less calories for periods of time, I get heaps of cravings. I do ultimately want to learn to eat less and be successful on raw vegan fruit diet, but for now I will eat enough or even more than enough in order to be well carbed and avoid cravings and stay on raw fruitarian path. Every time I went back to Cooked food for a few days or a week was due to eating less fruit than normal over a period of a week or two, and my body wanting more, until finally I was without durian for one week then had limited fruit available one day and became Ravenous, so I ate Cooked Rice mixed with my remaining bananas, and that led to one week of cooked vegan food.

Lately I believe the human body may survive and thrive even better with less food. I am experimenting with both ways and am not sure what is best. I really enjoy learning the beliefs of Nora Lenz as well as the more opposite beliefs of Harley or Doug Graham, I am suspecting somewhere in the middle may be best for me, but I need more time and experience.

It seems there are a few different schools of thought out there: overeating, undereating, eating enough, eating according to calories, eating according to 'true hunger', not eating, not eating or drinking water, etc.....

I believe DURIAN is the Key to being raw... what an amazing food... the ideal food for human... it satiates and fuels and feeds our mind, body and soul... is it for real? Its like so amazing to me that I can eat Durian and be a raw vegan, what a discovery... I am soooo grateful and fortunate.

Maybe I will publish a raw diet book, "Durian Diet" and recommend all transitioners to eat 75% of calories of durian daily for two years.

After this period, they can eat other amounts of juicy fruit, or work on eating a lower fat diet? heheheh.. it sounds funny, but I Believe it would work the majority of the time.

So when you moved over to a raw diet, what kind of foods did you find most difficult to leave behind?

whenever I was without durian for a couple days and went back to cooked, it would be baked potatoes or boiled potatoes.

Do you feel any needs to supplement your diet at all?

no. I now gratefully believe the body is perfectly healthy and thriving with raw fruits and gets all the nourishment it needs.

I'm guessing you are more than happy with the choice and quality of fruit you are getting now in Thailand?

Yes! I have been in the tropics approx 16months now, finding lots of variety and fresh and organic.

Any particular durian variety you consider a favourite??

I have followed your blog at times and Kveta's too. I love how passionate you both are about the "king". I love 'ANG HAIR" the most followed by D24, D2, D11, D15, D18, Capri KING, and many more.

Can you recall the first time you tried a durian?

At a raw food potluck in Southern California. Someone brought frozen monthong. I had heard many stories about durian from Harley a few months prior to this and was excited to try it. I loved it and I ate the people's portion that didn't like it too.

Chempedak Stall (Malaysia)

Hope you're enjoying the chempadek too!?

The chempadek season was excellent! I found that it is very inconsistent in quality there, but when you find the perfect one it is amazing. I was never able to replace a durian meal with chempadek or any other fruit. I had durian every night for 6weeks or so in Penang. Actually I have had durian most every night for about 16months (one-two months away while in India and Nepal).

The Inside of a Chempadek

What about back home in the States, were you happy with the choice of fruit there?

YES.
I lived in Oregon for some of my fruit loving years, many markets everywhere. Portland Oregon has so much fruit available. San Diego has as much too.

Any idea when you'll be back there?

maybe 2010, not sure though....am loving ASIA. and now I have a nice group of fruit loving peers around me. we are sharing a house in Ko Phanggan, Thailand.... 8 raw vegans there now and several more coming.

I posted an invitation on my Blog to attract more!

And what do you think of the whole fruit scene in Asia compared to things over in central america where I believe you started your vagabonding travels? Did you make it in to south america too?

I feel more drawn to Central American culture and the fruit seems even better there, but I am a durian addict and I haven't found it there yet. I suspect I can find it there if I start asking around in the Raw community, if you know please share.

I have explored BRASIL several times, but that was back in my Animal eating days... I am excited to return as a fruitarian.

Any plans to visit down under?

YES. I would love to. I have a few friends there on this path. Nick, Freelea, Harley, and more i am meeting on 30bananasaday.com. I am so excited to spend time with you and Kveta as well as others like Fruitarian Anne, etc...

Do you normally tell people how you eat? If so, what do you think is the most common question people ask you about your diet?

Most of the time I share a little and only continue if I get questions of interest. If I feel compelled to share, I Must. I love to share most of the time. In Asia I tend to tell most people that speak a hint of english about veganism. I always feel that I would have loved more vegans to share with me earlier in my life. I may have began my journey earlier if I was ready. Sometimes I actually feel selfish to not share, so I must.

The Protein question is most common.

How do you answer their questions?

I get my protein from fruit, and lately I am more worried about getting too much protein. Most of the diseases and cancers are from eating too much protein. Are you eating Too much protein?

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

I see myself living 6 months/ year in a raw fruitarian community on an organic fruit farm in Hawaii, Australia, or Central American. For the remaining 6 months I may spend 2months in USA with family And 4 months exploring other tropical fruit filled destinations (being careful with my decisions of how to travel).
I plan to use my savings to buy a fruit farm that provides enough fruit for me and all my friends and family to thrive, and earns me some money to live a minimalistic style life.

Do you think you could improve on your diet at all??

YES. I am feeling like I can continually improve for the rest of my life. So much more to learn and grow and try and explore. I believe next in my vision is increasing my experience with mono eating. I can see myself enjoying mono meals of one fruit for each week of the year. For example: Mangos for one week, then bananas for one week, then papaya for one week, then Rolinea for one week. I thought it would be fun to go to the best area of USA for a certain fruit and stay on the best quality farm with the most abundance, and enjoy that area of the country and share the vegan message. For Example go to California and volunteer for The Date People farm and mono for one week on Dates. And/Or go to a Cherimoya farm for one week, then a Cherry farm etc....
(Before I do this I may need to practice mono eating for one day..but I am patient for now.)

Do you know any, or many, other fruitarians?

I know many on this path, some fruitarian and some mostly fruitarian.

At a very rough estimate, how many fruitarians do you reckon there could be on this planet?

5000

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 get pissed off and tell them they are a blood sucking predator. - NOT

really. I am practicing compassion more and more and remembering I used to think this way. This is helping me so much with my calm reactions.

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

Allow yourself many years to succeed and transition. be forgiving on yourself. Remember how many years of conditioning you may have to unlearn. Read lots of fruitarian books surround your self with supportive peer group. sign up to 30bananasaday.com and any other free fruitarian sites for support and education. visit organic fruit farms constantly. shop at outdoor fruit markets.

travel To SE Asia and get immersed in durian culture, and eat it every day for your last meal.

Come visit us NOW in Ko Phangan at our RAW House, see my blog or 30bananas for invitation and videos.

search youtube for 'vegantravelor' and 'durianrider' and see some durian videos and other travel related inspiration.

Minimize and practice more minimalistic lifestyle, its soooo liberating!!. sell or give away most of your stuff and use bicycle or feet for transportation.
http://vagabondingvegan.blogspot.com/

Movie Review - 3 - The Earthlings Movie

This video is quite distressing.. But still, I believe it could benefit the planet if the vast majority of the human race could open their hearts and minds and watch it honestly and openly..



I particularly would like people to understand some of the truth behind the whole pet industry.. (see here for: my view on companion animals).

Peace,
mango.

Useful Programs - 5 - shrink pictures before sending them

You know when you take digital photos they are like, soo big! Sometimes they can be up to 7 megabytes (possibly even more!) for one picture, and if we want to send such pictures via email, it can take forever.. Especially on slower internet connections..

One solution is to open the image with an image editor, like paint, or gimp, or paintshop pro and reduce the size of the image before sending it, but that's not exactly a simple solution.. especially when we might want to email several pictures at once..

Recently I discovered a 2nd solution which is a real time saver.. It's neat little program called "Shrink Pic" It runs in the background, and when you try to attach pictures, to send in an email, it automatically creates a temporary copy, resizes it and sends it instead. It gives you a notice message, so you'll know the photo you sent was resized. Of course, the original photo doesn't change, only the temporary copy.

Interested? you can read more here: shrink_pic.htm

Also. I've found another little tool that let's you resize images via the "right mouse click" context menu.. It's written by microsoft, and is available together with a whole bunch of other little windows addons. To find out more, go to:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

and look down the page until you find "Image Resizer". On the right side of the webpage you'll see the downloadable .exe file..

Both work fine under windows XP

Peace,
Mango.

Meat Free Mondays?

Hi everyone, meatless mondays seems to be the new rage..

Read more here: http://www.supportmfm.org/

Quite a few mentions of it on the internet recently.. - It's a simple way to help the environment - reduce ones flesh intake..

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, and although far from ideal, i guess each step is worth celebrating on the path to freedom.



recent news:

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2009/07/20/1247941868281.html

Peace,
Mango.

National Tree Day.

Today's National Tree Day here in Australia..

It's been celebrated for the past 14 years by the planting of trees around the country..

In all, roughly 13 and a half million trees have been planted to celebrate the day..

Great stuff.. Trees are a big part of healing the planet.. - Especially fruit trees, of course.

So get out there and plant as many as you can!

Read more here:

http://treeday.planetark.org/

Peace,
Mango

48 Today.

It's my 48th today..

A Beautiful Sydney Winter Day.

Kveta is back with me. Still not yet fully over her journey..

Lying in the bushes resting

So, we've just been having a couple of quiet relaxing days together...

Eating my vitamin Ds

Thus no new photos of the 2 of us yet. .

Resting..

these of me were taken a few days ago..

last years 47th