Natural Heart Health Blog | Fructarian Diet, A Natural Alternative

The Fructarian (Fruitarian) Diet

Fruits

Fructarians (or fruitarians) are a strict subset of vegans who eat only the fruit of plants — so that the plant does not have to be killed. This includes not only things such as apples and grapefruit, but also berries, nuts, seeds, peppers, tomatoes, squash, beans, peas, grains, etc. It does not, however, include things such as carrots, beets, and potatoes, which require the death of the plant in order to be harvested.

Most fructarians choose the lifestyle for two reasons:

  1. They believe it’s more ethical to not have to kill to live
  2. They believe the diet is healthier.

As to the first point, it probably is more ethical to not have to kill to live. As to the second point, the answer is more complex.

No diet is without consequences. Many people believe that a pure vegetarian or fruitarian diet is automatically healthy because they avoid meat and dairy. This is not automatically true. Every diet has built-in deficienciences or excesses. To make the diet work you must accommodate its strengths and weaknesses. A fruitarian diet will give you less cancer and less heart disease, but it will present you with deficiencies in things such as:

  • B12
  • Omega-3 fatty acids
  • Vitamin D
  • Calcium
  • L-carnosine
  • L-carnitine
  • And possibly protein

And it may also lead to diabetes because of the potential for high sugar consumption.

And yet, all these deficiencies can be accommodated within the parameters of the diet, but you actively have to do so. Vegetarian based supplements, for example, are available to overcome all these deficiencies.