Stefan,

When you speak of a fruitarian diet, I don't know if you mean fruit only, or
substantially fruit.  I am a 100% raw vegan nutritionist that eats about 90%
fruit, and two or three salads/week, as do many of my clients and students.
I have been all-raw for over 9 years, and have been almost all-fruit for
about 7.  I feel great, am perfectly healthy, and quite strong.

As a human being, and therefore, an anthropoid primate, our bodies are
perfectly suited for a fruit diet.  Not only is fruit loaded with necessary
sugar and vitamins, it is also second to veggies as a source of minerals, and
is the best source of enzymes.

Trying tell any of the apes the fruit is only for detoxing.  A 500 pound
fruit-eating gorilla is 20 times stronger than the average man.  We too, can
easily build all the strength we need eating a fruit-based diet.

The experience of one, or many people failing to thrive on this, or any other
diet, does not necessarily say much about the diet, as the most important
factor is not the quality of the food, but the ability of the system to
efficiently and effectively assimilate and use it.  Many people are so toxic
that the transition can be difficult and painful.  For some people, it can
take years to become clean enough for the system to operate on such a light
diet, after so many years of eating a typically much denser diet.

Fasting is the quickest and most efficient way to allow the system to cleanse
itself naturally, and I have yet to see a single person not respond favorably
-- eventually -- if they're willing to give it enough time to cleanse the
body.  When they do, the results are usually a quite amazing level of health,
vitality, strength, flexibility, and mental clarity.

Namaste,

Loren

In a message dated 3/2/01 3:58:11 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< You are right. A fruitarian diet does   n o t   work at least not in
 the long term. For some weeks, even some months people experience con-
 siderable improvements of their health because fruits are detoxing.
 Then the time is come to nourish your body again with minerals and
 fat, not only sugar and vitamins. There's the point where fruitarian
 diets fail.

 www.beyondveg.com contains a detailed report of Tom Billings who
 wrote about his fruitarian experiences and how they failed despite
 best quality, best ripeness (directly from the tree).

 Best instinctive regards,

 Stefan >>