Fruitarian Diet

Introduction

The fruitarian diet, AKA fruitarianism, is an extremely restrictive dieting plan that emphasizes consuming mainly fruits. This vegan eating plan disqualifies eating all foods of animal origin and encourages eating primarily natural fruits. Vegetables, nuts, dried fruits, and seeds are also allowed in moderation in the fruitarian diet.
Your fruit intake might compose 50-75% of all consumed food if you eat according to fruitarian diet rules.
Fruits are high in fiber, and eating a lot of them may decrease your cholesterol levels and improve bowel movement. Furthermore, fruits are plenty of antioxidants, which may enhance your immune system.
In addition, some people carried by the desire to save living organisms support the fruitarian eating plan. Such people may eat only fruits that fall on the ground and avoid eating the fruits picked from the trees.

Key points

On the fruitarian diet, raw fruits must compose at least half of your daily calorie intake. You are allowed to consume all fruits you want, including bananas, coconut, grapes, oranges, apples, mangoes, etc. The remaining 25-50% of consumed calories typically derive from nuts, vegetables, and seeds. After all, strict fruitarians receive up to 90% of calories from fruits, and the remaining 10% comes from seeds and nuts.
The fruitarian diet arranges all fruits into seven categories, which involve:

1. Acid fruits: lemons, oranges, pineapples, grapefruit, cranberries, and tangerine
2. Sweet fruits: melons, bananas, and grapes
3. Subacid fruits: apples, figs, raspberries, and cherries
4. Vegetable fruits: tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and bell peppers
5. Oily fruits: avocados, olives, and coconuts
6. Nuts: cashews, pistachios, macadamia nuts, almonds, walnuts, and hazelnuts
7. Seeds: melon, sunflower, squash, and pumpkin seeds

The fruitarian diet does not establish any meal timing or calorie limit. Instead, this diet emphasizes intuitive meal intake. It means that you should consume food only when you are hungry. When eating intuitively, you use your appetite as a guide.

Contraindications

The fruitarian diet is highly selective. Pregnant and nursing women, infants, children, people with pancreatic and kidney disorders, diabetes or prediabetes, insulin resistance, or polycystic ovarian syndrome cannot follow this eating plan. In general, the fruitarian diet is inadvisable. Consider consulting with the healthcare provider before starting this diet plan.

How to avoid possible nutritional deficiencies

The fruitarian diet carries a high risk of malnourishment due to its restrictiveness. This diet may result in protein, healthy fats, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B-12, zinc, and iodine deficiency.
Consider talking with a qualified dietitian before following the fruitarian diet and pay attention to the listed products when planning your meals to avoid possible nutritional deficiencies.

• Protein: hemp seeds, guava, blackberries, chia seeds, nectarines, cherimoyas, nuts, and mulberries.
• Healthy fats: seeds, avocado, and nuts.
• Calcium: kiwi, apricots, pineapples, mulberries, blackberries, oranges, litchis, passion fruit, papaya, and tangerines.
• Vitamin D: since there is no available food rich in vitamin D in the fruitarian diet, you should take vitamin D supplements.
• Vitamin B-12: beetroot, banana, mushroom, apple, potato, blueberries, orange, and mango.
• Zinc: avocado, pomegranate, guava, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, apricots, peaches, cantaloupe, and kiwi.
• Iodine: prunes.

In addition, you may consider taking supplements to ensure that your body receives all vitamins and minerals it needs.

Tips on improving your dieting experience

If you are curious about the fruitarian diet, you should talk with your healthcare provider as well as your dietitian before following this diet plan. It is better to discuss your health goals and your current health condition with them to avoid undesirable outcomes. In addition, it would be helpful to visit your doctor while following the fruitarian diet to make sure that you do not harm your health.

Conclusion

Fruitarianism is a highly selective and hard-to-follow diet plan. Although you get nutrients from fruits, the fruitarian eating pattern excludes sources of some vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, and proteins, possessing a high risk of malnourishment. This diet plan may contribute to the increase in your blood sugar levels or weight gain. Moreover, the fruitarian diet increases food cravings resulting in a higher risk of disordered eating development.
Therefore, the fruitarian diet possesses certain health risks, so you should consider less restrictive diets for health improvement, such as the Mediterranean or Nordic diets.