Nieft / Secola wrote:

>
> I can show you a couple toothless ex-fruitarians in Hawaii, one of whom ate
> only wild fruit for several years, so he claims.

Just out of curiosity---do the wild Hawaiian animals that eat fruit tend to
have tooth trouble?  Very little of the fruit that falls on the ground in
citrus country in eaten by the animals.  I suspect it's because they sense low
nutritional value.  Certainly, it is the rule that most citrus drops quickly
decompose with blue-gray mold---a classic sign of poor mineralization.


> >Sadly, the backyard and organic growers, then and now, seem

> >to take their cues from the commercial interests.

It is sad, Kirt.  I have an organic orange grower friend whose feelings I
wouldn't hurt for the world.  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.  I knew he was getting a
premium price (I think about 4 times what the commercial harvest was bringing)
and I declined to take but a couple because I knew I would throw them out down
the road.  I suspect he thought I was foolish to pass up freebies.  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.

>
> 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.

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. :)  :)

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

Regards,
Rex Harrill
(*) this forum allows liberal definitions, so one definition of "b.s." is
letting one's past wrangles with others influence current conversation.