Vicki:
  >"The Gracies are fruitarians.
  >A typical meal in the Gracie family consists of sliced persimmons, watermelon
  >juice, and bananas as a side dish.
  >Apparently before a championship fight in Japan,Rickson Gracie consumed fruit
  >juice and papayas as his sloe diet during the two weeks before his fight.
  >He is presently the World Jiu-Jitsu Champion.
  >Just thought you might be interested that a world champion fighter is a
  >fruitarian!"

Actually the real truth is probably that a few of them are part raw.
Fruit plays a varying role depending on the specific Gracie.
Only uncle Carlos was a
strict fruitarian. (He *looked* like a fruitarian. None of the others
do.) Take Royce Gracie for instance. Royce is a four-time winner of the
Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Prior to his third UFC competition (which he nearly lost), he gave an
interview in which he said that he ate fruit till dinner time, then a
"regular" meal  (i.e. conventional, cooked.)
During his third UFC, he almost lost to Kimo Leopoldo. Royce had to be
practically carried out after being mauled by Kimo. (Kimo is a very
tough guy with almost zero martial arts experience.) The Gracie family
attributed this to hypo- glycemia. Subsequently I understand that Royce
has decreased the quantity of fruit in his diet even further.

I think the only fruitarian (by NFL's definition) is their late uncle Carlos.
Carlos was a mean SOB, who reportedly took pleasure in breaking the
bones of challangers. Brother Helio is a real gentleman, so are all his kids.
(I guess the Gracie attitude is inversely proportional to the percentage
of fruit in their diets :-)

Currently Rickson competes mostly in Japan, and is not technically the "world
champion fighter", as NFL claims, unless he participates in, and wins key
no-holds-barred competitions outside Japan, such as the US
Ultimate Fighting Championship. I would agree that Rickson is probably
the best martial arts fighter out there in the competition circuit
today. But claims that he is "World champion", and that
the Gracies are all "fruitarian" are bogus. I'm not surprised, since
I wouldn't expect anything more :-)


Best,
RoyD