For the most part,
meat must be
cooked. Some
veggies can be eaten
raw, but you can't count on them.
Nuts are nice but many people are
allergic (an
allergy to some, or all nuts, is the most common
food allergy in humans) Also, you must destroy a
seed to eat a nut. When you eat a
fruit you're eating a part of the plant
designed especially for eating. The plants have evolved
fruits to trick us in to planting their seeds for them. Considering how
yummy many fruits are, it's not a bad trade off.
Ingesting banana seeds, spitting
watermelon seeds and tossing
peach pits in the yard is
a small price to pay for the juicy bright sun-filled
flesh of fruits.
The belief that fruits are the only things that humans can
morally eat is known as
fruitarianism. It is a fairly romantic form of
orthorexia. The only
fruitarians who are able to stick to the
diet also eat nuts. The
avocado is the only widely available fruit with
protein and it hasn't got a complete set of
proteins... (but
I digress)
Fresh fruit is essential to a
healthy diet. (
Okay, to be honest, you can get by without it, but it makes things much more simple when it come to weight loss, avoiding illness and staying hydrated.) Start by
resolving to eat
5 a day (that's
five pieces of fruit every day) if you eat them before messing with any other
food there is a good chance you
loose weight, simply because the
vitamin rich,
sweet craving satiating, water-infused
pulp will lessen your
cravings for
refined sugars and
carbohydrates. So you
eat less, and (depending on the fruit you choose) get all of your
vitamin C and
A (and some others) from
natural sources which are easier (some studies show) for the body to
absorb.
What is wrong with fruit that is not fresh? (you might ask) Well, when fruit is
pickled,
canned, or otherwise
processed some of the
fructose turns in to a
monosachride. There is nothing terrible about monosachrides, it just breaks down faster in the body leaving you
hungry sooner. Also some of the vitamins (especially those in the skins of fruits) are eliminated during
canning and
saucing. Not to mention the fact that fruits naturally
high in fiber (such as the
apple) may become
low fiber once
juiced.
Other than
hanging around the fruit stand and stealing apples you can also prepare fresh fruit as a
fruit salad. Many people avoid making large fruit salads since they turn to
juicy mush after a few days. But with the aid of
vacuum packing jars you can make your salad last for a week.
Whatever it takes, I urge you do to your best to
eat some more fresh fruit. Apples really do
keep away doctors!