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Are We Fruit Eaters? 

JIM SLOMAN / Living Nutrition v.17, 15oct2005

 

Jim Sloman
www.mayyoubehappy.com 

In T.C. Fry's booklet, How to Determine Your Natural Dietetic Character, he reported a very interesting experiment that was done in South Africa by Prof. B. Meyer of the University of Pretoria. The results were published in the South Africa Medical Journal of February 20, 1971. Prof. Meyer set out to prove that humans could not live on a diet of fruit alone. The experiment lasted six months. The control group would continue on a "normal" diet. The experimental group, under controlled conditions, ate only fresh raw fruit and nuts (which are also botanically classified as fruit). What happened?

Are We Fruit Eaters? JIM SLOMAN / Living Nutrition v.17, 15oct2005

At the end of six months, the various diseases of those in the control group had gotten worse. Meanwhile, those in the experimental group, who (it was assumed) would be wasting away, had instead become virtually disease-free! 

Dr. Meyer conducted various tests of their health, and could find no deficiencies of protein or vitamin B12 or anything else. In fact, everyone was in superb health.

But the professor was in for another surprise. The participants in the experimental group refused to give up the diet! He had supposed that they'd be anxious to return to "normal" foods, but they insisted that nothing would tear them away from this diet, and that they actually felt better and more vital and alive than they had in their youth.

A typical response is the following: "On the fruit diet one develops a totally different approach to life. One can throw away saucepans and the stove. I am done with them now. Fresh, ripe fruit is far too delicious." Another: "You can count on it that I would not exchange my new eating habits for anything in the world." What would prompt people to say such things?

How can we really know that? Dr. Fry told us to imagine ourselves in a state of nature in which we lived in for some 60 or 70 million years or so while developing as primates. Imagine: We have no tools, no containers, no medicines, no books, no watches, no medical instruments, no pots and pans, no fire — thus, no cooking. Just us, as we are.

Would we want to take a rabbit into our hands and crush it to death, then bite into the fur to reach the raw meat, smear blood on our face and so on? Would we enjoy that? Does that sound like you?

If we watch a film of true carnivores, such as lions or tigers or wolves, etc., we see that they love to eat their natural food. With their sharp teeth, they're biting into their prey, fur and blood and all, and loving it. Nature designed them for this. Perhaps that's why their hydrochloric acid is ten times stronger than ours.

Would we try to get under cows or sheep or horses and try to suckle from their teats? Very doubtful. No animal in nature suckles past the time of weaning, because milk is no longer its natural food.

Are we root grubbers? Root grubbers have snouts and claws for digging in the earth. Does that describe us? Without tools, we have a very hard time digging in the earth. And raw roots don't really appeal to us — not their color, texture, or smell.

What about herbage? Are we herbivores? Is our natural food stalks and weeds and leaves and so forth? Consider that true herbivores have four stomachs, so that they can break down and derive energy from cellulose. In our case, we don't have this equipment, so the digestion of herbage is an energy drain.. Thus, herbage cannot be our natural food.

What about fruits? Are we frugivores? Consider in a state of nature how fruits would call out to our senses, with their bright colors and wonderful scents. Their sweetness would satisfy the natural "sweet tooth" given us by Nature. There's a reason for all this: fruits were expressly designed by certain plants to appeal to the senses. Then, the seed or seeds of the fruit would be discarded somewhere away from the mother plant. The plants want us to eat the fruit; Nature designed it for just that purpose. This cannot be said of any other food.

Our bodies, over some 60 or 70 million years, perfectly adapted to this diet. In fact Alan Walker of John Hopkins University, as reported in the New York Times of May 15, 1979, proved (using an electron microscope) that proto-humans were exclusively fruitarians until the advent of the Ice Ages some million or so years ago. Thus fruit and nuts seem to be our natural food in nature. But what about today?

The most common arguments against the fruitarian diet are that: 1. it doesn't provide enough protein; 2. you'll waste away; 3. some people don't tolerate fruit very well, including those who have digestive problems or candidiasis; and 4. that hypoglycemics can't afford to eat much fruit because their blood sugar will take a roller-coaster ride. Let's consider these objections:

By calories, fruit provides an average of about 5% protein. This happens to be the same as mother's milk. And mother's milk is our (intended) sustenance at a time when we're growing most rapidly and need protein the most. Moreover, the protein in fruit is predigested, since it comes in the form of free amino acids which don't need to be broken down in the body. Further, the protein in fresh fruit is uncooked, which means that it's more bioavailable and usable by the body, so that we need less of it in this form.

Essie Honaball, of South Africa, writes in her book I Live On Fruit that she had a rare wasting disease. After seeing every medical practitioner possible, she happened to run into a man named Cornelius de Villiers-Dreyer, who was 76 years old at the time. Cornelius was one of the great fruitarians and life-educators. He had been living on fruits and nuts for most of his life, and Essie was astonished by his mental and physical vitality. Even though she was in a very wasted condition, he counseled her to begin a fruitarian diet. Out of sheer desperation, she agreed. What happened? She wasted away even more! She said that at a certain point she looked like the inmate of a concentration camp. But then, on the very same diet, she noticed suddenly that she was gaining weight. After she was through with detoxing, her body naturally returned to a normal weight, where she remained from then on.

Dr. Fry, incidentally, had the same experience of first losing weight as his body detoxed, and then, on the exact same diet of fruit and nuts, gaining weight until he reached his normal 155 pounds and stayed there. When the body becomes healthy, it seeks out its normal weight.

What about people who can't "tolerate" fruits, or who don't digest them well, or who have candidiasis? People who are experienced in fruitarian diets recommend a fast or series of fasts in these cases. They say that once the body is cleansed, fruit is not only tolerated well but actually proves to be the most satisfying and easily-digestible food.

Indeed, many of the people in the experiment in South Africa felt at first that they would not be able to live on fruit, yet they refused to go off the diet once they'd been on it for a few months – understandably so, since they were enjoying a vibrant health and vitality that they hadn't thought possible.

What about hypoglycemia and low blood sugar? I can say something about this since I had hypoglycemia for much of my life. Indeed, it was so severe that at school I would often have fainting spells and wake up in the nurse's office. Now, on a fruitarian diet, my energy is absolutely rock-steady. It's a constant, steady supply – exactly the opposite of what I had expected. And it's not steady low, but steady high – quite surprising!

The results of Prof. B. Meyer's experiment were also very surprising to him. But perhaps we can learn something from that, and from Cornelius Villiers-Dreyer, Dr. Fry, Essie Honaball and the other great pioneers of the fruitarian diet. Maybe, just maybe, fruit really is our natural diet, after all.

HOW TO EAT FRUIT
by Living Nutrition

The Fruitarian Diet

Food Combining Guidelines For Optimal Digestion

Eat fruit alone or with green vegetables and cucumbers. Exceptions: Avoid eating acidic fruits with other sweet fruits.

 

Livingnutrition is the world's only health magazine which dares to tell the whole truth.

The world's most progressive health periodical is dedicated to teaching health enthusiasts how to eat our natural diet of alive raw foods, self-heal using our God-given powers within, and build everlasting vibrant health the natural way, in accordance with the natural laws of life.

With no commercial controlling interests, Livingnutrition delivers Pure health empowerment sm, liberating health truth seekers worldwide from disease and confusion. Joyfully uplifting to subscribers in over 36 countries, Livingnutrition is a voice of Healthful Living International, the world's premier Natural Hygiene organization.

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