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..

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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

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Defining my version of fruitarianism.. on video.

Hi all,
please bare in mind that I am new to this video making thing, and also have always shyed from the camera.

I am really just describing my own particular habits that define my own version of fruitarianism, and not trying to tell others whether they are or aren't fruitarian..

Anyhow, here it is:



Hugs,
Mango.

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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.

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Definition of Fruitarian.

There are probably as many definitions of fruitarian, as there are of vegetarian..

- We get vegetarians that eat everything but red meat, and others that eat chicken and fish, and of course the vast majority that take dairy products and eggs.. And yet the word itself sounds like it would depict someone that just ate from the vegetable kingdom.. far from it.. Language is rarely logical..

Similarly, we get fruitarians that eat roots, leaves, tubours, seeds, grains. indeed, even whole plants.. We get fruitarians that mix it all together in massive gastronomical onslaughts, others that try to simplify by eating mono, and we even get fruitarians that believe it is dangerous to eat just fruit!, and ones that cook or otherwise abuse their foods before ingesting..

(As a little anecdote, I recall some years ago a couple of friends of mine went to meet a fruitarian in Ireland.. They found her at home eating bread and jam.. In her mind, both were made from fruit and seeds/grains which she supposed to be a regular part of a fruitarian diet)

So who am I to decide what does and what doesn't classify one as a fruitarian?!

I suppose it is the nature of things that if there is a teaching of sorts, that once out there, it gets perverted and distorted and warped and diversified.. I feel quite sure (admittedly, perhaps naively so) that original vegetarians just partook of vegetable matter, and never dreamed of supplementing their diets with milk from other species or birds eggs.. And certainly they would never have considered themselves vegetarian if they ate fishes or chickens..

But language adapts itself, and people that weren't vegetarian, became vegetarian, not by changing their diet, but just by the constant redefining of the word vegetarian until they became socially and linguistically accepted as being vegetarians, even though they once wouldn't have been..

Thus new words sprang into existence to help define where one was really dietistically and ethically standing.. The word Vegan popped into existence in the 1940's, to describe someone that was really vegetarian.. and later still the terms lacto-vegetarian, ovo-vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian, lactov-ovo vegetarian, even semi-vegetarian and socio-vegetarian became common descriptive tags ..

I fear that much the same will and is happening to the term fruitarian.. Simply to begin with.. with definitions such as 80% fruitarian, or the like.. But more complex terms are almost bound to pop into existence.. Like lacto-fruitarian which a couple of Swedish contacts I have made believe to be a sound version of fruitarianism (involves capturing, imprisoning and stealing the milk of other species).. And "drop-fruitarian" which I've heard a few times already, used to describe a fruitarian that only eats fruit that falls naturally from the tree.. Personally I doubt seriously the existence of any such fruitarian, but I sure would like to be given the opportunity and abundance to try it out!

Looking at the word fruitarian, you would think that it meant someone that just ate fruit.. Agreed, that seems logical enough, but the truth is that the very vast majority of people out there that call themselves fruitarian, do make exceptions to the "just fruit" rule, once in a while, some more frequently than others.. myself included..

Personally, I put my belief and faith in fruit.. I have no real doubts in my mind that a broad range of fruit can cover all our nutritional needs, and that ultimately it is all we really need to eat... Even more so, that it is all we should be eating.. I aspire to forever simplify and move closer to nature and naturism, and in doing so, eat only fruit and encourage the seeds of each fruit to grow around me.. These are my aspirations, and that is the sort of fruitarian I wish ultimately to be.

So did that answer the question? Probably not.. Ultimately, it doesn't really effect me who calls themself fruitarian, and what their goals may be.. My focus is on finding my own home, and living my own dream.. of fruit tree growing, and sunshine and clean water, and naturism, and fresh raw fruits, and a lifestyle that will prove I am capable of living in Eden without trashing it. (How else can we expect to get back in?).



Hugs to you all,
Mango the fruitarian

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