Fruitarian Diet Pros and Precautions
While many people have heard the term “vegetarian” for years, and most are familiar with “vegan” lifestyles, there are many who had never heard about the “fruitarian” lifestyle, until they heard a reference to it in “Notting Hill,” a romantic comedy movie. While not well known, and even made slight fun of in the movie, there actually is a group of people who are adherents to the fruitarian diet.
The main premise, when following this form of a raw vegan diet, has to do with a person limiting him or herself to only eating fruits, some varieties of seeds, and a limited selection of vegetables. Of course, much of the food selection that a fruitarian chooses for this living raw lifestyle depends on how strictly they choose to follow this diet.
While there are a number of advocates of the living raw lifestyle who claim that a fruitarian diet is healthy and safe, there are also many doctors and nutritionists who strongly disagree. Most medical doctors are unified in saying that a diet which consists only of fruit is unsafe and will not deliver sufficient nutrition to the body.
Because of this, the medical profession cautions that following this type of diet for a prolonged period of time is not advisable and will not sustain healthy and vital living. As a result of these warnings and concerns, most fruitarians incorporate additional sources of nourishment and other food components into their diets, even though they still rely on raw fruits as the main part of their daily food supply.
The idea of a fruit diet goes back a long way in human history to a time when humans were in their primitive state, and only had a diet that consisted of living foods, such as fruits and vegetables. Fruitarians are also quick to point out that many health and digestive problems are created by the cooking of foods, as is commonly practiced in today’s modern world. They claim that many common diseases and illnesses can be prevented or reversed by focusing on raw food in a daily eating plan.
Even though eating raw food is central to the fruit diet, the fact is that there are a number of fresh fruits and vegetables that are simply indigestible unless they are cooked. Those who warn against a strict fruitarian lifestyle use this point to suggest that cooking processes have actually expanded the nutritional choices available to the human race, rather than destroying nutrients as extreme fruitarians claim.
In actuality, the truth is somewhere in between. While there is no doubt that fruit adds many beneficial nutritional elements into the diet, reason would dictate that following this path very strictly would eliminate some nutrients that the human body needs to flourish. At the same time, there is abundant and clear evidence that cooking fresh and living foods will indeed destroy vitamins, minerals, enzymes and other nutrients.
Most who support the fruitarian diet also acknowledge that completely relying on a very narrow selection of food is not the best or healthiest approach for the long term. Most fruitarians actually try to include other healthy food choices into their diets in order to get complete nutrition. But, it should be noted that most people who eat the “standard American diet” would benefit greatly if they were to eat raw food in greater quantities, though going all the way to a fruitarian lifestyle is too extreme for most.