Rex:
>Just out of curiosity---do the wild Hawaiian animals that eat fruit tend to
>have tooth trouble?

You seem to be missing an important point here, Rex. There are no animals I
know of in Hawaii that eat _exclusively_ fruit, as misguided humans are
sometimes apt to. Granted there aren't many mammals here in general ;) But
none come anywhere near what would be considered even a kinda sorta
fruitarian diet. Further, if an animal was evloved to an omnivorous diet
and somehow decided that it was better to eat only fruit, then yeah, I'd
bet money that they would have, at the very least, tooth problems. A fine
experiment would be to feed a breeding set of pigs exclusively on fruit and
see how they fare (if they fare) through a couple generations. You can even
feed them the highest brix fruit the world has ever known.

If you are claiming that it doesn't matter what kind of food a human (or
wild animal or domesticated animal) eats as long as it is high brix, I
think you may be taking the brix matter to an non-useful extreme. Feed a
lamb or a calf, exclusively high brix fruit--are you claiming either would
be in perfect health?

>He was harvesting one day when I stopped in and
>he offered me all the oranges I wanted.  They were running about 9.5 to 10
>Brix
>and I find it difficult to eat anything less than 14.

You are indeed a lucky man to call a 13 brix orange sour.

>Quite
>honestly, "organic" has become a buzz-word and there's ultimately going to be
>trouble if it's practitioners don't learn about true quality.

I agree that quality is not synomonous with organic, but like everything,
lots of folks are enamored with the simplicity of "'chemicals' are bad" and
can't see beyond the simplistic paradigm. For others it is "'low brix' is
bad" ;)

>> Well, Rex, its time you started supplying the world with fruit grown to
>> your high standards and we can all be fruitarians w/o dental problems. ;)
>
>You guys have pretty well convinced me that "fruitarians" have to be, or soon
>become, nutty, so I'd be one of the last to push fruitarianism.  OTOH, I
>assume
>you're quite familiar with Dr. Weston Price's "Nutrition and Physical
>Degeneration."  Perhaps you'll agree his world-wide studies that showed almost
>*zero* dental trouble for those who stayed with a traditional
>highly-mineralized diet will remain a lasting classic long after the b.s. (*)
>on this forum ends.  I bought 32 copies a year ago to give to friends and
>family.

You are _indeed_ a lucky man to be able to afford such quality/quantity gifts!

Actually, I like when you talk like this. Before you seemed to imply that
fruitarians would have no dental problems if they ate only high brix
fruits. Now I see that you weren't saying that. Of course that leaves me
confused. ;) Which is a pleasant state at times...

>Anyway, I do dream of one day helping bring back a poor-quality orange
>grove to
>high-Brix, high-mineral, status.  My thought is that you and the
>anti-fruitarian brigade would find it easy to cast aside dogma and enjoy a box
>(1+3/5ths bushels) of brixman-approved oranges.   Wish me luck. :)  :)

Good luck! I enjoy a wide variety of fruit, Rex. Being "anti-fruitarian" is
a far cry from being anti-fruit.

Our fruit-tree-in-the-ground-and-growing count is at about 70 right now and
will be over 100 in a couple months. And by next year we will be deciding
what sort of $$ orchards to plant (durian, mangosteen, and longon are top
contenders). My refractometer has had its fun, but so far it has been
mostly a curiousity. Maybe some day you will be able to cast aside your
dogma and enjoy a shitload (that's a whole bunch together) of lowly
medium-brix mangosteen.  Wish us luck :) :)

>Of course, the real answer is for consumers to learn about quality and then
>demand it.  All the growers will get in line.

It would be cool if the brix of every item in the produce section was
posted along with the price. I wonder when, or if, this will ever happen.
In the mean time if something tastes great it gets bought the next time
which amounts the the same message for growers (but this is possible more
so at the farmer's market than the supermarket).

Cheers,
Kirt


Secola  /\  Nieft
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