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by Michael Arnstein
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Fruitarianism and Dates: a Message of Personal Experience
After eating pure low fat fruitarian diet for several years, you will notice that you feel better eating high water content fruits such as melons and oranges as opposed to denser fruits such as dates, raisins, bananas, mamey etc.
Lower water content dense fruits are a must during the transition of giving up cooked food and overt fats. Once you are free from cooked food, you will feel that eating high water content fruit brings a different physical and emotional experience from eating low water content fruit. Even though dense fruit doesn’t introduce toxins into the body, it does require much more digestive energy and supplemental water intake. After a meal of dates or bananas you might notice that you feel tired, sleepy and, somewhat, sedated, similarly to how you used to feel after eating cooked food. You might also notice that the elimination process takes longer and perhaps is not as effortless as it normally is with lighter, high water content fruits. As the body becomes cleaner and more pure — the detox process takes less time and effort and your need for a sedative effect from more dense fruits lessens. Your body craves high water content fruits that have the advantage of needing less energy for digestion. I think that dried fruit, particularly, dates, and other dense fruit are invaluable for the transition period and also in situations where it is difficult to obtain high quality ripe fresh fruits as during winter season. I do recommend dates for very high activity levels like marathon running or beyond, yet outside of these situations I don’t believe they are an ideal food for everyday eating. I am now convinced that dense fruit is not an optimal long term solution for obtaining the majority of your calories. This is something you need to remember as your fruitarian journey unfolds. If you want to experience peak health and energy levels that fruitarianism allows – you will need to create a lifestyle for yourself where you will be able to enjoy all the amazing delicious fruits that nature creates and won’t have to depend on dates and other lower water content fruits to carry you through. Warning: I do not recommend eliminating dates and other dense fruits from your diet until you completely transitioned off cooked food and overt fats and have been on 100% low fat fruitarian diet for at least one year.