Fruitarian
Fruitarianism is a quest for optimal ethical ways to live and healthy diets based on fruits and seeds.
The line above is the essence of my worldview as a fruitarian. I am a long-term ethical vegan-fruitarian (frugan) since my teenage years, about 1993.
I advocate for a greater proportion of fruits in human diet for ethical and environmental reasons, which also seems to be rather healthy for most of us.
Since 2007, I ran small and bigger online fruitarian communities. In this section I will gather published there useful articles on fruitarianism related to my own experience, including materials from the International Fruitarian Network (2009-2019).
Some fruitarians maintain that fruitarian diet should include only fruit flesh, which usually surrounds seeds of the common fruits. They insist on nver including seeds, because eating them would mean the same as destroying plants (or their "babies").
I must disagree.
- First, seeds are not developed organisms. The main premise of fruitarianism is that complex organisms as plants deserve our ethical consideration, and most seeds are just dormant plant matter: it would be highly impractical and even immoral to treat them as individuals.
- Second, they are produced by plants in excess, not all require to go through our digestive system, and only few can develop into organisms due to shortage of resources on this planet.
- Third, fruitarianism is about fruits is botanical sense, not culinary or common.
- Details
- Author: Lena Nechet
- ▲ Life
- ▼ Fruitarian
This is amazing how many times I was asked: where do you get your protein? Many people seem to think that there is no protein in fruit. Let's look into it.
- How much protein one needs? ↓
- How much protein is in fruit and seeds? ↓
- Is that the right protein? ↓
- Details
- Author: Lena Nechet
- ▲ Life
- ▼ Fruitarian
Recommended intake of calcium for adults 19–50 years, in milligrams per day (RDA, recommended dietary allowances based on North American and western European data) is 1000 mg a day (1 g).
Example of calcium plant food sources, fruit and seeds:
- Sesame seeds, whole, roasted - 989 mg calcium / 100 g.
- Chia seeds, dried - 631 mg calcium / 100 g.
- Figs, dried - 162 mg calcium / 100 g, ~ 600 g figs for 1000 mg (1 g) calcium.
- Olives, ripe, canned - 94 mg calcium / 100 g.
- Dates, medjool - 64 mg calcium / 100 g.
- Details
- Author: Lena Nechet
- ▲ Life
- ▼ Fruitarian
I composed two lists with a few examples of the fruitarian food sources of zinc: fruits, seeds, seaweeds and mushrooms. You can compare the amounts of zinc in them with the recommended daily allowance of the mineral. RDA is usually around 20% higher than the amount needed for half of the healthy people.
- Details
- Author: Lena Nechet
- ▲ Life
- ▼ Fruitarian
Subcategories
Orchard × 5
All about my little fruitarian orchard in Southern California, US planting zone 10a (extreme minimum temperature 30-35 F or -1 to 1.7 C, USDA Plant Hardiness Zone), founded in 2018. The growing surface is about 0.17 acre (or approximately 688 square meters), and more than half is taken by the native or already established plants, like yucca, pines, palms, schinus, and sago).
This tiny garden is located ~3.5 miles (~5.6 km) from the Pacific coastline, on a hill, and is exposed to strong winds - usually cold, bus sometimes from the desert, blazing southern Californian Sun, and significant daily temperature changes. Lots of wild life visits it, especially birds.
We have very little rain most of the year, and the city water here is very expensive because of the drought conditions. The native soils are very poor, with clay and rocks. I am building the soil up with compost, mulch, and other methods from permaculture, Hügelkultur, and other horticultural techniques.
Plants in my orchard that live many years. I concentrate on trees, bushes, and self-propagating patches.
Data × 218
This is my collections of snippets of scientific data related to fruitarianism, environment, and health - from scientific internet publications and other seemingly credible online sources, with links:
- concise knowledge summaries of results derived by scientific method,
- short aggregated definitions and overviews, citations, expert opinions.
Sources:
- Primary sources, like governmental agencies, peer reviewed journals;
- Secondary sources, like scholarly articles and expert reviews;
- Tertiary sources, like encyclopedias, dictionaries, and textbooks.
Data - factual information used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation.
Knowledge - the body of truth, information, and principles acquired by humankind.
Definition - a statement of the meaning of a term.
Community × 44
- Materials from the Fruitarian network of practicing fruitarians, people considering fruitarian lifestyle, supporters and researchers of the fruitarian community.
- Fruitarian discussions - talking about fruitarianism, exchanging fruitarian ideas - conversations and debate about fruitarian topics.
- Plus, interesting people answer fruitarian questions and my responses to publications from a perspective of my version of fruitarianism.