Are We Fruit Eating Frugivores?

[leavesofgrass]

Another quick post on diet. About 2 months ago I went raw vegan. It was a good start but as I was living the diet on a day to day basis I was also doing lots of research. I came across Douglas Graham's book 80-10-10 about how we should eat 80% of our daily calories from carbs, 10% from proteins, and 10% from fats...and all of this should come from fruits, lettuce, and a very small amount of nuts. I was incredibly skeptical to say the least...but then I did more research and found a lot of convincing evidence that humans are intended by nature to be fruit eaters. I have been on the all fruit thing now for a few weeks and have never felt better...so much energy, dont need nearly as much sleep, mood swings are all but gone....its like a new lease on life just from chucking all the old food out the window and eating only fruit. I am curious if anyone else has ever heard of this or is willing to try it yourself and post results here. I cant recommend this enough...but to each their own and every person needs to come to their own conclusions at their own time and place. But if you do the research on google by typing in "are we frugivores" or "frugivore" I think you will see a lot of convincing anthropological reasons why nature intended us to be a fruit eating species.

Cheers

[Szaxx]

Eating fresh and raw foods is definately good for you. This has been known for a long time. These foods are alive, and in a way you are eating the life force or their life energy too. It's been tested using kirlian photography on various diets. The most energy giving diet was organic fresh foods.
I always thought this fancy name was a fad ripoff. It appears not.
I found the story searching kirlian photography developments on google a few years ago.

[Stillwater]

I think you should be skeptical of anyone who says humans "should" eat this or that way. If you need further convincing, you only have to notice that there are a host of such people making polar opposite claims: never eat carbs / only eat carbs; never eath meat / only eat meat; never fruit, only vegetables / mostly eat fruit.

I don't think the science behind any of these claims is robust enough to support such edicts. I mean look how many times eggs have jumped between the always / never dichotomy. When you subscribe to one of these diets, you do so on faith, I am afraid.

That said, I do think fruits have been underappreciated perhaps; research sometimes suggests that the drive to eat sweet things is actually the body's order to eat fruit (which would have been the only sweet thing readily available in most places eons ago), for the reason that fruit is one of the best sources of vitamin C, and humans have a particularly insatiable need for vitamin C, being one of the few animals that doesn't manufacture it.

[Krishanna]

I think we are omnivores. We can eat & survive on many different types of food so that it can just become your preference.
Circumstances may change your ideal diet. I think people are different & what works for some may not work for others.
I do believe in the importance of getting your daily fruits & vegetables more than anything. It's the healthiest food on the planet.

[Little Bibble]

I've been on a no sugar diet for about 3 weeks now and I am starting to notice my energy levels are up. I don't get that after lunch weariness and getting up in the mornings is easier. Difficult to determine the effect on my meditations at the moment. Have noticed a little more focus but then it may take a little while longer to completely detox from thirty years of sugar in every meal.

One point on an all fruit diet is that it can have a laxative effect. Just have the rubber undies on standby.

[leavesofgrass]

Hi Everyone and thanks for your comments.

Bibble, nice job on the no sugar thing! I think if you keep it going you will notice increasingly better levels of focus in your meditation just like you are already noticing those subtle increases in energy such as easier to get up in the morning, etc. But hey, refined sugar is a hard one to drop so way to go. Every time a craving strikes, and it will happen, grab  a piece of fresh fruit instead. You will be satisfied and you will start to form new habits to replace the old ones. And when you do fall off the wagon and give in to some kind of refined sugar craving do not beat yourself up because beating yourself up leads to binging and then everything spirals downward. Whereas if you are nice to yourself and say, "ok, I ate some candy....that was nice but next time I will go for the Mango!"...its much better to love yourself and be flexible with yourself.

Stillwater, thanks for your comments. I am not really talking about any science here that says we should eat this and not eat that. And I  totally see what you mean with all the different diets out there and every one of them thinks they have found the one true answer and thus they want to convert everyone else to their side.

What I am doing is actually trying to look at nature. I am taking the stance that nature knows best so what I want to do is try and figure out what nature intended for me as a human. So the first thing I do is say ok I am an animal and I fall into the primate class. What do other primates eat? Then I look at our physiology such as our teeth which are clearly meant for grinding things down because we dont have the sharp canines of the other carnivores...then I look at our digestive track which is quite long compared to other carnivores...its long because fiber is supposed to move through slowly...whereas the carnivores have short digestive tracks with a ton of different acids in there to quickly process and break down raw meat.

Not to say that these are "correct" observations but when I came across these observations and more observations just like them it all seemed pretty logical to me that while we can eat and get by on any diet (omnivore as Krishanna pointed out)....the only diet we can really thrive on is the one that nature intended for us. Now does that mean mostly fruits with lots of leafy greens and some veggies? Well, thats what it means to me anyway. But of course to each their own!

Anyways, just some food for thought no pun intended!

Cheers everyone.

[Astralsuzy]

I believe in not worrying about you should eat this or that.  I eat what I want and I feel really good.  I do not measure how much fat, fruit, etc,  I eat everyday etc.  I believe in eating a good balance variety of food.  It is very important to enjoy what you are eating.  If you cannot stand eating it then it will not work.  I love eating fruit.  I eat healthy food such as eggs, cheese, milk, meat etc.  I rarely buy meals already made as I do not think it is very healthy.  I stay away from foods that is cooked in oil.  I do not eat McDonald's foods and similar restaurants as it is full of fat and rubbish.  I do not think there is any harm in having a little treat, such as a small amount of chocolate or whatever you want so long as you do not eat too much junk food.  It has to be a small amount.  It is important not to eat too much food so you do not become overweight.  If you follow those things you will never have to do on a diet.  You can eat what you want.  You must exercise. 

[Chaki]

When it comes to diet, I have no idea what to believe. I'm pretty sure no one really does. It appears our bodies are similar to non-meat-eating animals. But then I've read research stating the reason we developed such high-functioning brains is because of animal fats. I don't know. The one thing we do know is that eating processed foods is unhealthy. It's full of all kinds of chemicals and hormones that are truly bad for you. Beyond that, do what you want.

Personally, I'm into weightlifting, and largely as a result, I eat a lot of meat and protein, mostly complex carbs, and good fats. I add veggies and fruits to that for vitamins and nutrients. I always feel great, look great, and it is at least mildly annoying when people try to tell me we're only "supposed" to eat fruits & veggies. All of the vegan/veggie males I've met are physically frail, and they actually act like women. Which is fine for them if that's what they want, but I would never want to be frail and feminine. I've also met obese female vegetarians, which just blows my mind. Then they have the cojones to tell me meat is unhealthy. It's more unhealthy to be 100 lbs overweight than to eat some steak and chicken, in my unscientific opinion.