ccording to certified holistic nutritionist Kelly LeVeque, the fruitarian diet is “a subset of raw

veganism, where you eat botanical fruits in their natural state.” This includes all sweet fruits and
seeded fruits (such as avocado, tomato, cucumber, and olives), as well as nuts and seeds. No
grains, no cooked food, certainly no processed food. The strictest of fruitarians don’t even
eat vegetables or starches… literally just fruit. At first, I was horrified, and then I was
fascinated—enough to want to give the diet a try myself.
To see how my weeklong stab at fruitarianism went, keep reading.

One of the most prominent fruitarian spokespeople is a YouTuber who goes by Freelee the
Banana Girl. To all of her 670,000 subscribers, Freelee preaches the benefits of a fruit-heavy
lifestyle, downing 30 (sometimes 50!) bananas in a single day. (Watching her do this on
camera is oddly gripping.) Freelee’s view is that eating low-calorie fruits in large
quantities delivers maximum glucose to the brain, fueling her mind and body
while keeping it slim. From the looks of her washboard abs and fiery demeanor, she seems to
be on a constant sugar high.

But even Freelee’s diet isn’t 100% fruit. “Depending on who you talk to, you can be a fruitarian
if you eat at least 50% to 75% of your calories this way,” says LeVeque. In other words, there’s
no official definition of the diet. That’s not to say someone who eats fruit salad for breakfast and
lunch and then a Taco Bell feast for dinner would be considered a fruitarian, but the term is
somewhat up for interpretation.

You might be wondering what on earth the argument is for eating a fruitarian diet. The answer
here varies as well. “Motivation to follow this lifestyle includes avoiding animal protein,
increasing fiber, detoxifying the body, lowering calorie intake, and eliminating the need to
cook,” says LeVeque. Some fruitarians even argue that there’s a moral component to it—that it’s
only natural to eat food that falls from a tree naturally instead of ripping it from the ground. (I
urge you to take this with a grain of salt.)

Despite the different interpretations, one thing all fruitarians have in common is this: They eat
massive quantities of food and seem to manage to stay incredibly lean. Do a quick YouTube
search, and you’ll find flat-stomached people from all over the world downing papayas and
mangos by the dozens.

Personally, I’m not looking to lose weight. But the idea of getting to stuff your face and
wake up with a flat tummy enticed me. Plus, even though I was already vegan when I discovered
fruitarianism, my diet featured more processed junk and fewer fresh foods than it really should
have. If nothing else, I figured a bout of fruitarianism could help me get into the habit of eating
more raw fruits and veggies.

So as an experiment, I resolved to follow a strict fruitarian diet for five

The night before my diet, I did a giant fruit haul at Trader Joe’s (Sidenote: Following a fruit-only
diet is delightfully cheap), and I ate a “last meal” of vegan pizza and cupcakes. The next day, I
would wake up a fruitarian.

Here is exactly what I ate on my first day as a fruitarian:

Breakfast: A big smoothie with three bananas, blueberries, dates, and about a cup of
coconut milk.

Morning snack: A handful of dried peaches.

Lunch: Two massive bowls of fruit salad, filled with bananas, grapes, and berries (followed
by a vitamin B12 supplement).

Afternoon snack: A handful of dried figs.

Dinner: A large bowl of chopped avocado, cucumber, and tomato, dressed with olive oil,
lemon, salt, and pepper.

Dessert: A bag of raw almonds.

As strange as it sounds, hunger was not the issue. This diet has nothing to do with portion
control. You’re encouraged to eat as many fruits, nuts, and seeds as you desire. Polishing off
those two bowls of fruit for lunch was shockingly difficult. Calorie-wise, I could have eaten the
equivalent in tacos or pizza and still be starving. But the calorie density of these foods is
so low that you can fill your stomach to the brim without actually overeating. Of course,
downing raw fruit all day isn’t exactly exciting, but at least it doesn’t leave you hungry.

This diet has nothing to do with portion control. You’re en couraged to eat as
many fruits, nuts, and seeds as you desire.

It does, however, encourage frequent bathroom breaks. Fruit is packed with fiber and water,
two substances that seem to slip and slide right through the digestive system. All day, I could
feel every twist of my intestines churning and bubbling to digest the food. Needless to say, this
wasn’t comfortable. But sure enough, I woke up the morning of day two completely cleared out.
My belly was astoundingly flat, and this was after a single day. With results like that, I had
just one thought: Bring on the fruit!

My second-day fruitarian menu was very similar to my first. This diet doesn’t exactly permit a
ton of variety. My digestive system continued to writhe, but happily, my hunger level didn’t
increase. However, things did get complicated when I realized I was slated to attend a cocktail
party that evening.

Incidentally, the fruitarian literature doesn’t say much about alcohol. But I figured if I couldn’t
even have broccoli, booze was probably off the table too. Like many other restrictive
diets, fruitarianism isn’t conducive to social gatherings. Just imagine showing up to a restaurant
with friends and asking for a crate of bananas.

By the time the cocktail party rolled around, my fruitarian enthusiasm was dwindling. I wanted
to enjoy myself at the event (one vodka soda wouldn’t kill me, would it?). Plus, I was starting to
get decidedly non-fruitarian cravings. Interestingly, these food hankerings weren’t for a big
home-cooked meal or a fatty dessert. All I wanted was some kind of starch. Potatoes, maybe, or
rice. Or pasta. Or bread. Just something a little more substantial to break up the sugary
fruit.

So, admittedly, I cheated. There were plates of vegan avocado toast at the cocktail party, and at
around 7 p.m., I said screw it and had a couple of slices (washed down with a vodka spritzer,
might I add).

Even though I strayed from the diet, I didn’t want to throw in the towel. Health experts say this is
a classic mistake. Just because you have a minor slip doesn’t mean you should give up
altogether. Plus, 75% of my calories that day had been fruit-derived, so I was still technically in
the fruitarian range.

Just because you have a minor slip doesn’t mean you should give up
altogether.

I woke up the following day flat-stomached once again. The bread hadn’t ruined me after all. I
was actually glad I had cheated. Sticking to a raw diet two meals out of three
seemed like a reasonable lifestyle to me—something I could continue doing after my
fruitarian “cleanse.”

referencehttps://www.byrdie.com/fruitarian-diet