The Sweet Fruits Controversy… Fruit or No Fruit

In the past, I consumed a good quantity of sweet fruits. Half a watermelon and 5-7 peaches was a typical day. And I achieved great results. It works. On the other hand, I heard from other authors how great it is to live with no sweet fruits at all. For several years I’ve been wanting to try this approach myself.

The rationales these no-sweet fruit promoters were giving did make sense. I had to give it a try. So in December 2009 I began my experiment…Consuming no sweet fruits. I still followed the raw food diet and ate tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers—botanically classified as fruits, though most of us think of them as vegetables. But absolutely no bananas, no berries of any kind, no sweet fruits. Mercifully, I did this in the wintertime when good fruits are harder to obtain anyway. I stuck to it for four months, and I’m ready to share my observations.

When I eliminated all sweet fruits from my diet, I noticed immediately that I had to double my quantity of nuts. Before, my energy level was going through the roof. Without sweet fruits, my energy definitely dropped. Before, I needed five, at most six hours’ sleep. Without fruit, I was needing 7. Practicing yoga twice per day used to be a breeze. Now it became harder. I can see how athletes would favor a high-fruit, low-fat diet. So, why didn’t I abandon it right away? Simple answer: because of the amazing results I was getting dentally. I’d had seven root canals done in Russia before I was 25.

Keeping my gums in good shape around these troubled teeth has always been a challenge. But with no sweet fruits, I have to say, my gums have never looked better. I can see how people who deal with infections or cancers in their bodies can benefit from abstaining from any sugar, including sweet fruits. There’s another difference to report: Gaining extra muscle has become easier. I even gained a few pounds—pounds of muscle. So it seems people who need to gain weight might prefer this diet plan. It also works for this purpose.

Two things remained constant during my experiment, however: I was still following a calorie restriction diet and did not eat late in the day. Overall, I was doing well on both plans—fruit and no-fruit—and I was getting anti-aging benefits on both plans. I believe that how much we eat and when we eat are just as important as what we eat.

I did miss my favorite fruits and the overflowing energy they brought. I am eating sweet fruits again. But how did I resolve my dental dilemma? Green smoothies became my saving grace. Thank you, my dear friend Victoria Boutenko for introducing them to me and thousands of others. Now I get my watermelon, my peaches and mango, mix them with greens, and get the best of both worlds. I also discovered I can eat fresh ripe fruits and have healthy gums and teeth if I use our natural pine resin gum.

If you are still eating sweet fruits in any quantity, remember to clean your teeth a few minutes after fruit consumption. The high level of sugar in sweet fruits will wreak havoc on your teeth otherwise. For those times when you cannot brush your teeth right away, the pine resin gum can be a solution, as it will stimulate production of saliva along with exercising your jaw.

So which is better in the end—fruits…or no fruits? I believe every person must find his or her own way, as to how many and what kinds of sweet fruits they ought to consume. We must not only abide one another’s differences, we must appreciate them. None of us has found an unarguably perfect way. There aren’t all that many long-term raw foodists out there, and virtually no lifelong ones. We are all experimenters, and all (I hope) learners. Everyone’s experience is precious. Everyone’s story is something to value, something to learn from. It’s out of the differences among us that comes the unpredictable, the fresh new idea.