The Fruitarian Diet

By David Wolfe

Fruit is the most beautiful food on the planet. The variety of fruits on Earth is so massive it boggles the mind. Often people ask me if I feel limited eating a raw-food/fruitarian diet. I always respond by telling them 99.9% of all food on Earth is raw plant food!


Fruit is our most natural food. It is the food we are attracted to most in its raw natural state. We define a fruit as a food which contains the seed(s) within it for regeneration and propagation of the plant.

A raw-food/fruitarian diet makes you beautiful and pure inside and out. It leads to the clearest use of your mind - it greatly enhances your mental abilities.

In my book: "Nature's First Law: The Raw-Food Diet" I wrote: "Every fruit has its secret." Once you are completely cleaned out of cooked-food residue and toxicity, you become attuned to special powers available in certain fruits! The durian fruit has an extreme smoothness and cleanness to it in the way it is metabolized in your body. It makes everything run smoothly and clearly and warms up the body in colder weather. Dates too, may warm you up in cold weather. Dates are a great food for endurance and long walks. Apples are a "clean-out food," they clear everything out as they go through. Mangos transport you into the ecstatic state of summer fun. Bananas make you feel like a wild primate!

How To Eat Fruit And How Much? 

Ideally, it is best to eat just one type of fruit at a time (mono-diet) and to wait 45 minutes until the next type of food goes in. You might want to eat 5-10 bananas in the morning and nothing else or choose to eat cucumbers only for lunch!

My organization Nature's First Law distributes a laminated "Pearamid" chart which describes graphically and inspirationally the structure of a long-term fruitarian diet. The chart was created by Dave Klein the editor of Living Nutrition Magazine who has been an all-raw fruitarian for over 5 years.

When you are eating a mono-diet, your body will give you a clear signal when to stop eating. Your appetite will turn off or you will suddenly feel you have eaten too much. Typically the fruit will actually change taste on you and won't taste as good! At that point listen to your body and stop eating! If you combine foods, the signal as to when to stop eating is not as clear, and you must discipline yourself.

If you overeat raw food or fruit or even cooked food remember the reasons why most people overeat: suppressed emotional issues and a lack of deep breathing. If you overeat, go outside and take 10-15 deep breaths! Or breathe deeply at night instead of eating - if you have problems in that area.

Hybrid Fruit 

Unfortunately the quality of fruit available in most commercial supermarkets is less than excellent. The fruit is biologically weak: it has not picked up the minerals from the soil properly, its sugar are too high, if left to Nature the insects, worms, and bacteria would wipe it out quickly. Many fruits today have been hybridized: they have been genetically or biologically tampered with. For example, most orange trees are actually two orange trees in one. The roots are of one type and the stem and leaves are of another type. They are grafted together. This leads to a fruit which is has an improper balance - it is confused. The fruit may be seedless or the seeds may not be viable.

What to do? Seek out high-quality organic fruit grown from non-hybridized plant strains or better yet grow your own fruit trees from seed or even seek out wild fruits. The best way to determine if a fruit is too hybridized is to examine its seeds. If the fruit is seedless, do not eat it or at least be very frugal when eating it. Seedless fruit actually should not be eaten - you will become more and more sensitive to this as you become internally cleaner and cleaner. If the fruit has seeds, try planting them. If they grow, the fruit, even if hybridized, still has enough natural vitality to be excellent nourishment.

Farmers and biologists have noted that after several generations of hybridization a most interesting event occurs. The hybrid strain will either die out - it will have lost its vitality - or it will revert back into a more primal form - a seedless strain can suddenly start producing viable seeds! I had the most incredible experience the other day. I was juicing a pineapple for a friend and I discovered the pineapple contained seeds! This is the first time I had ever seen this. Pineapples are hybrid fruits many of us have eaten, at least occasionally, our whole life. How many times have you discovered seeds in the pineapple? After many generations of hybridization we see the pineapple reverting back and now seeding!

One final note: hybrid sweet fruit is still better for you than cooked food!

Is Fruit Too Sweet?

Most fruits on Earth are not sweet fruits! It is important to include in your fruitarian diet a host of non-sweet fruits such as avocados, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, cranberries, lemons, limes, squash, corn, zucchini, okra, etc. These foods provide heavier minerals and are soft on the body. Ideally, they should constitute at least 50% of your diet.

Tooth Trip 

Are fruits bad for your teeth? The internal condition of the body is the best indicator as to the health of the teeth. If teeth are bad, there is an internal disruption in the body, and we need to bring in more calcium in the form of green-leafy salads and green juices, as Dr. Shelton has pointed out in his great book: "The Science And Fine Art Of Nutrition."

There is a great misconception that fruits are bad on the teeth. Why the myth of poor teeth on a fruitarian diet? The clue I picked up from Johnny Lovewisdom's book: "Spiritualizing Dietetics: Vitarianism." He attacks nuts and seeds viciously as being the cause of teeth problems in fruitarians, not fruit. I've noticed that myself. Nuts leave an acid ash and are high in phosphorous which must be balanced with calcium (found abundantly and usable in greens). If you eat lots of nuts and seeds, you should also eat plenty of greens. If they are not balanced the phosphorous will eventually acidify the body and leech calcium from the bones, especially the jaw and teeth - the body is signaling the mouth to stop taking in food, especially the nuts and seeds. Another important point appropriate here is that raw animal foods too leave an acid ash and are high in phosphorous, just like nuts and seeds. If they are not balanced off with greens (calcium) they'll de-calcify the teeth over the long term.

For those interested, my organization distributes Johnny Lovewisdom's book: "Spiritualizing Dietetics: Vitarianism" and we will soon be carrying 6-7 of his other incredible books including his latest "Vitalogical Hygiene" the culmination of Dr. Lovewisdom's more than 60 years on a raw-food/fruitarian diet.