It’s been a tough couple of days so I’m planning to keep it a bit light today. I had a difficult conversation with my doctor yesterday that left me hating myself until we met again today. Now I’m better. It is a function of my case of C-PTSD that once I begin to value somebody’s opinion of me and they later get frustrated with me, it’s easy for me to become convinced that I have fallen out of good standing with that person and then the poor person has to go through a lot to convince me that they are not mad anymore and I am not “bad” and it’s a whole disaster. I feel like if I can tick off a psychiatrist, I must be the most annoying person on the planet and nobody will ever care about me and then I go on to notice all my flaws, like how I appear to people like I’m acting helpless, or how I massively overreact to any negative emotion anybody I respect has toward me, which sets off a self-perpetuating cycle of self-hate. Thankfully, my doctor is kind and also very used to working with crazy people like me, so I’m recovered now.
In the meantime, when I was too dysregulated to be writing, I was watching YouTube videos on ahimsa and fruitarian diets. It was definitely more of a curiosity thing than any part of me at all thinking that maybe I should reject Western medicine altogether and move to a remote location in a tropical jungle somewhere and marry someone primarily because of our shared love for an extreme diet. But there are definitely people who do that, and honestly, I respect them. I don’t think I could ever do it because my tendencies toward extreme versions of things would have me ending up with a seriously limited life if I tried; but I wish I knew the people in these videos because they seem to be afraid of absolutely nothing! While surfing the interwebs, I encountered three extreme variants of veganism that seem to be mutually exclusive; at the very least, I did not find anyone applying more than one of them to their life.
Variant #1: Refusing to end the life of any plant OR eat their leaves, as this causes pain to the plant
Variant #2: Refusing to end the life of any plant or plant embryo
Specifically, green-leafed vegetables must be eaten ass they contain heavier minerals, calming properties, fiber, and certain intangible items not available in fruits – all frugivorous (fruit eating) primates include green leaves in their diets; also, fats must be derived from avocados, durians, or olives instead of nuts if one is to remain within the fruitarian Ahimsa paradigm -eating nuts kills the plant embryo.
(Savry, 2021)
Variant #3: Concern for the well-being of both plants and microorganisms
This one was written by a young woman named Priyanka Shah, PA-C, who did not consider herself to be fruitarian (as the other two did) but rather a vegan who followed additional restrictions presented by her Jain faith.
While we obviously can’t be 100% non-violent as humans. If we ate no plants, then that would be a unhealthy diet not providing for our sustenance. It is our goal to limit violence as much as possible. The extent of this limitation of violence in dietary practices includes that Jains avoid consuming root vegetables. This is because root vegetables tend to have many more microorganisms which are killed when the plant is consumed. Also, consuming root vegetables involves killing an entire plant, not just taking one of its’ fruits or letting it naturally wither (like squash or pumpkin plants would). Root vegetable restrictions include potatoes, onion, garlic, carrots, beets, radish, leeks, mushrooms, etc.
(Shah, 2014)
Musings
I had to look up Mr. Wodzak’s actual YouTube channel, and in one video he actually agreed with some of my conclusions on plant sentience, specifically that more plants die as a result of people eating meat than from vegans. I don’t know exactly how reliable he is as a source since I haven’t looked into his credentials but he seems like one of those wacky-but-in-a-cool-way types. 🙂
One more positive thing I will say positive about fruitatianism is that the is a YouTube channel called “Fit Shortie” and the gist of her videos is that she and her husband are from Europe but domiciled in Bali and traveling the world in search of fruit. They just seem so overwhelmingly sweet and it really seems like their diet makes them genuinely happy and energized. I do recommend that you check out her videos, as you will get a smile!
However, if it seems too good to be true it often is, and it seems that some of these more extreme spin-offs of veganism present some serious health risks.
This was the only review of fruitarianism that I could find by a medical professional. Personally, I disagree with one key thing that Fit Shortie said that the dietician actually didn’t mention, and that is that children must eat what their parents eat. If I ever were to become a mother, I would change my diet according to what the child needed while I was pregnant or breastfeeding. Then, if I wanted to go back to being vegan (or, as in Fit Shortie’s case, fruitarian), I could, but I would also research the best diet for babies learning to eat solid foods and feed them that. The child’s nutritional needs would be more important than mine because they would still be developing, so the most likely outcome would be that I would change my diet rather than trying to stick to whatever I was eating before. I know that Fit Shortie honestly believes that eating just fruit is the best thing for the baby because it’s been a good experience for her, but she seems ignorant of some important information.
I couldn’t find anything on a combined vegan/Jain diet, as the Jain diet historically has included dairy products. Still, this last diet seemed to be the least restrictive of the variants, so it would probably be the least risky. Absolutely nothing whatsoever in me sees any logic to the claim that more microorganisms are killed in the harvesting of root vegetables, however, and even if there were a peer-reviewed study that proved it, I have never heard of anyone anywhere that has suggested that microorganisms can be at all sentient. If it turned out that they were, unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing I could do about that! It’s sweet that anyone would want to protect microorganisms, but I feel that it would also be completely impossible for most people to live our lives that way without becoming a completely neurotic mess (or in my case, even more of a completely neurotic mess…).
Fruitarianism seems really cool, though. Living in a tropical jungle and going on adventures with an adventure-loving family sounds like a piece of heaven, like a lifelong extension of the summer I spent abroad and the hopes and dreams I always had that I would one day live in Central or South America. The whole thing of having a trauma disorder that has left me unusually dependent on Western medicine kind of puts a damper on that, unfortunately. And although I have the utmost respect for people who can commit so strongly to ahimsa, I do not see myself following any of these more extreme forms of veganism, ever. If I manage to become vegan and stick with it for the rest of my life and go off it only if and when I ever get pregnant (which would definitely not be for quite a number of years because I have to get myself together first), then that in itself will be a bona fide miracle. I’ve currently been vegan for 1.5 days, with the exception of two hard-boiled eggs for breakfast each day. So I’m not exactly an expert. But I’m proud of myself for allowing myself to ease into it this time, as I suspect that that will make it easier to stick with it. The hospital’s vegan entree menu consists of pasta; hummus; soy milk; and plain, unseasoned slabs of tofu. That’s actually a lot better than what I had anticipated, so I’m doing my best to go ahead and start being vegan while I’m here, which I’m very excited about!
I’m still planning to get an entry up explaining the name of my blog and discussing what I love about my turtle and why he’s so very special, but that may be a project for another day.
Toodles!
References
Abbey Sharp. (2019, June 12). Dietitian Reviews Fit Shortie Eats | Raising a Fruitarian Baby [YouTube video]. Retrieved August 13, 2021 from: https://youtu.be/gutRUuPV-7g
The Feed SBS. (2014, March 4). Fruitarian Life [YouTube video]. Retrieved August 13, 2021 from: https://youtu.be/JsRfoCGMDlY
Fit Shortie. [YouTube channel]. Retrieved August 13, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7vTq7aY0zIbr8a2Fa0a_Zw
Mango Wodzak. (2017, February 20). Do Plants Have Feelings? [YouTube video]. Retrieved August 13, 2021 from: https://youtu.be/wLokzQnBZgs
Savry, K. (2021, January 6). Fruitarianism [Blog post]. Retrieved August 13, 2021, from Karel’s Nutrition Blog website: https://www.karelsavry.us/sunfood_diet/fruitarianism.html
Shah, P. (2014, January 10). Jain Diet [Blog post]. Retrieved August 13, 2021, from Pinki’s Palate: Jain Vegan Cooking & Lifestyle website: https://pinkispalate.com/jainism/jain-diet/
