2. Fruits Still Best Meet Our Needs Despite Their Present Lower Quality

We often hear the cry today that we cannot subsist on fruitarian or fruitarian/vegetarian fare today because of the lowered quality of this type of foodstuff due to artificial fertilizers and pesticides, among other things. This argument is quickly disposed of in two ways. First, whatever may be said against this kind of fare on this account usually goes double for the fare the eater is partaking of in its stead. Secondly, one may cite the actual components of fruits and demonstrate in a most convincing way that fruits contain all our needs in the quantities determined to be essential in the human dietary.

2.1 Tables of Composition of Fruits Compared to our Recommended Daily Allowances

In support of this lesson's message we are happy to introduce you to the composition of some of our most common fruits. So that this comparison will have meaning for you, we have chosen 1 1/2 lbs. dry weight as the given amount of each food. This amount of food yields, in the case of fruits, about 2,400 calories, more than enough to sustain a very active healthy person even though less than the RDA. Fruit yields far more calories than conventional foods.

The average American eats about seven pounds of food a day. More than 40% of this caloric intake is in the form of fats. The average American has a caloric intake of 3,380 calories per day. We have listed the RDA for various food components as well as our actual needs as determined by realistic norms for fruit-eaters and in light of RDA's of other countries.

It must be distinctly understood that the RDA's listed are for a 150-pound man and that the needs of women and children will vary from this. Heavier men will usually require more than the RDA's listed.

This table of food composition has numbers assigned at the headings. Following is the legend for those numbers.

1. NAME OF FOOD. In its fresh ripe raw condition.
   
2. WEIGHT IN POUNDS of 1 1/2 pounds (680 grams) of the food, dry weight with natural water content.
   
3. GROSS CALORIE CONTENT. We obtain about 90% of the energy potential from fruits, whereas from proteins we obtain about 30% of their energy potential. We must actually expend more energy in processing foods such as celery and lettuce than is  obtained from the food. Calories are meaningful in the human dietary only from the standpoint of utilization rather than what energy the food will produce in a firebox.
   
4. PROTEIN CONTENT. Note that the RDA is nearly three times higher than our actual need. All listings are in GRAMS.
   
5. VITAMIN A. Values are in International Units or I.U.
   
6. VITAMIN B-1, Thiamine in milligrams.
   
7. VITAMIN B-2, Riboflavin in milligrams.
   
8. NIACIN in milligrams.
   
9. VITAMIN C in milligrams.
   
10. CALCIUM. Listings are in milligrams.
    
11. MAGNESIUM. Entries are in milligrams.
    
12. PHOSPHORUS. Entries are in milligrams.
    
13. POTASSIUM. Figures indicate milligrams.
    
14. IRON. Figures indicate milligrams.

For comparison purposes let's now consider some foods you'd never under any circumstances eat 1 1/2 pounds of (dry weight) but which might be added to the diet on some occasions with advantage insofar as it gives you excellent nutrient insurance.

* These items would yield few if any calories. In fact, you'd probably expend more calories in processing most of these foods than you'd obtain from them.

I feel these listings serve as sufficient examples to indicate that fruits, with certain exceptions, meet our needs. Apples may be seen to be the most deficient of the fruits. Yet there were whole cultures of ancient times that subsisted on a diet that was about half apples!

If we eat a varied diet of fruits, the excesses of one, in view of the body's ability to husband excesses, compensates the deficiencies of the other. So we might paraphrase an old saying: "Eat and be merry. Eat and don't worry. Eat correctly without sorrow and you'll enjoy many a tomorrow."

2.2 A Brief Note on the Present Theory of Caloric Needs

An examination of the peoples the world over who live active lives and thrive on from 1,200 to 2,000 calories per day affords us grave suspicions as to our supposed calorie requirements. Raw food fruitarians rarely eat more than 2,000 calories per day even if they labor hard and long!

1. Fruit fare yields more calories than conventional American fare. While conventional fare will yield 3,380 calories in the firebox, it does not yield this amount of energy to the human digestive/ assimilative system.
   
2. Cooked  foods have some of their caloric values destroyed.
   
3. Cooked food eaters require more energy for digesting, processing and removing the toxic debris of cooked foods.
   
4. Cooked foods are usually eaten with condiments which are toxic. More internal energy is required to deal with toxic materials.
   
5. The average American is toxemic. More energy is required for body maintenance purposes than in non-toxemic persons.
   
6. Healthy fruitarians, conversely, require less calories for internal maintenance and, because of extraordinary health, make more efficient use of the calories they obtain.
   
7. Fruit fare yields more than 90% of its calorie potential. Conventional fare yields only about 65% to of its calorie potential. Taking this into account, plus the extra energies involved in maintaining a perpetually pathological condition, it can be seen why fruitarians thrive on about half the calories considered needed.

These considerations, of course, resolve nothing. There are serious discrepancies between what conventional nutritional science says we need and the actual needs of raw-food fruitarians.

2.3 Observations on the Significance of These Charts

These charts have been prepared and presented to establish that fruits, as our natural foods, supply our real needs amply. They often supply many times over what we are said to need by conventional standards such as the Recommended Daily Allowances.

We do not support the idea that "more is better." To have a margin of safety is an excellent practice, but gluttonizing on nutrients overloads and burdens the body unduly. This burdening occasions pathological problems. The body is wise beyond our comprehension and provident beyond our knowledge. It flourishes on fruit fare and will never suffer any of the grave consequences said to result therefrom. Supplying the body with enough, is all that we need concern ourselves with.