fruit and vegetables

[mamaofthree]

i am wondering about this, due to a couple people i know who are big into TF.
they say that you do not need fresh fruit and vegetables at all to be healthy.
i have a hard time buying that. even our traditional eating ancestors would eat fresh fruit and vegetables when they came into season.
i get the raw dairy, grass fed meats and eggs. we do that. i am 100% a non-traditional american grain based diet, but i don't get the not eating produce. haven't people done that all along?

[FairyRae]

I guess it depends on your body. There were some traditional groups that did not consume much (or any) fruits/veggies. But, as you mention, for the most part, folks have always tended to utilize whatever was available to them, including fruits/veggies that were growing wildly or in gardens, etc.

I feel much better eating lots of veggies and some fruit, than not eating them at all, although I haven't gone long w/out them. You can get the vitamins/minerals available in fruit/veg from most animal based foods *I believe*, but the antioxidant levels in veg and fruit is much higher than in meats, among other things that are unique to plants...

[Fi'sMom]

Even little kids know that this is a silly belief! Good grief, I get so tired of some foodies labeling certain food groups as either bad or unnecessary. Isn't it just common sense that anything from the earth is good for your body? I'm not irritated with you, mamaofthree... Just the people who say you should or shouldn't ever eat this or that. I'm a total TF health nut, but to me that just means that I believe in whole foods created by God. Okay sure, I don't think that people should eat a lot of fast food or foods containing trans fats, or foods that they're allergic or intolerant to... But no fruits and veggies????? I don't get it.

[Jaxinator]

Originally Posted by Fi'sMom

Isn't it just common sense that anything from the earth is good for your body?

Not at all! There are many many plants that will hurt you if you eat them.
But I agree that fruits and vegetables are very important, especially for my own body. I know I feel amazing if I've been eating lots of vegetables all week.

[Magelet]

I don't think you NEED them (look at the inuit, they ate little/next to no vegetable matter and did just fine on their traditional diet)

I'm certain you have to eat some raw something though (meat or veggies or fruit) for the vit. c. I also think there is a lot of great stuff in veggies and fruit and that eating veggies is practical. They're cheaper, and easier on the earth than eating huge amounts of meat. Outside of summer, we eat very little fruit and I really don't feel fruit is nessicary. I think it's more of a treat. You can get the same nutrients elsewhere, without the sugar, so fruit is more about enjoying the sweetness and deliciousness than about needed fruit for the nutrients imo.

So no, I don't think you NEED fruits and veggies to be healthy. however, I'd say your diet would need to be pretty perfect in ways we might not even know yet to do without them. and that it makes more sense to eat them.

[Purple Sage]

I agree that fruit and vegetables are not totally necessary as PPs have already said. Certain groups of people have demonstrated that it is possible to live without them. If you really want to get inside the brains of people who follow this kind of diet, just google Zeroing in on Health. Interesting stuff there.

[Astral Mama]

Originally Posted by Magelet

I don't think you NEED them (look at the inuit, they ate little/next to no vegetable matter and did just fine on their traditional diet)

Inuit eating their traditional diet -- at least those Inuit far enough north that they don't eat many fruits and vegetables -- have a much shorter life expectancy than cultures that do eat them. Inuit eat mostly animals largely because that's what's available, not because it's particularly healthy.

Outside of summer, we eat very little fruit and I really don't feel fruit is nessicary.

It's better than most other things if you want something to satisfy your sweet tooth, but yeah, I agree. Fruit (sweet fruits, at least) are not something you can just eat lots and lots of.

[deditus]

Originally Posted by FairyRae

I guess it depends on your body. There were some traditional groups that did not consume much (or any) fruits/veggies. But, as you mention, for the most part, folks have always tended to utilize whatever was available to them, including fruits/veggies that were growing wildly or in gardens, etc.

I feel much better eating lots of veggies and some fruit, than not eating them at all, although I haven't gone long w/out them. You can get the vitamins/minerals available in fruit/veg from most animal based foods *I believe*, but the antioxidant levels in veg and fruit is much higher than in meats, among other things that are unique to plants...

I agree wholeheartedly.

[californiajenn]

Here's a three part article from Harpers documenting a man that ate only animal products for 5 of 10 years (or something similar.)

http://harpers.org/subjects/MeatOnlyDiet

I think veggies are very healthy and taste great and encourage everyone to eat them. I also understand if a person consumes every part of the animal, they're likely to be healthy too.

[blessedmama59]

I think fruits and veg play a HUGE role in good health and well being. I could not imagine eating only meat or very little plants..just seems crazy to me.

[FairyRae]

Originally Posted by californiajenn

Here's a three part article from Harpers documenting a man that ate only animal products for 5 of 10 years (or something similar.)

http://harpers.org/subjects/MeatOnlyDiet

I think veggies are very healthy and taste great and encourage everyone to eat them. I also understand if a person consumes every part of the animal, they're likely to be healthy too.

That's what I've read in my research as well. I'm not a big organ meats fan, so I stick w/ veg/fruit. But if I didn't want to eat those things, I'd think eating lots of organs would be imperative to my health/well being...

Thanks for the link Jenn!!! I've read about him in a couple of books--cool to see the articles on him!

[anneliza]

Weston Price wrote that the Inuit ate almost no vegetable matter, and that the Swiss ate very little, also the Masai in Africa. But the Inuit ate wild animals, and the Swiss ate dairy from cows who grazed on wild pastures in the Alps, and the Masai also on cattle's blood, milk, and meat who roamed the African savannahs. Some of us can get grassfed dairy and meat, but how good is the pasture, with modern soil so stripped of minerals, and maybe only grass planted, not the large variety of wild plants that wild animals and free roaming cattle might find? So I agree that it might have been possible back then to live on animal foods alone when there wasn't the depleted soils and pollution that we have today.

However, it's good to remember that even in my parents' time, fruit and vegetables were not available year-round. My mother says they ate root vegetables in the winter, and fresh green vegetables only when they were locally available. Same for fruit. So eating seasonally makes sense. I try to do that, especially with fruit -- local berries when they are ripe, apples and pears in the winter. More root vegetables and winter squash in the winter, green vegetables in the summer. But I do like my salads all year round, which I am not sure used to be available.

[japonica]

Originally Posted by anneliza

Weston Price wrote that the Inuit ate almost no vegetable matter, and that the Swiss ate very little, also the Masai in Africa. But the Inuit ate wild animals, and the Swiss ate dairy from cows who grazed on wild pastures in the Alps, and the Masai also on cattle's blood, milk, and meat who roamed the African savannahs. Some of us can get grassfed dairy and meat, but how good is the pasture, with modern soil so stripped of minerals, and maybe only grass planted, not the large variety of wild plants that wild animals and free roaming cattle might find? So I agree that it might have been possible back then to live on animal foods alone when there wasn't the depleted soils and pollution that we have today.

However, it's good to remember that even in my parents' time, fruit and vegetables were not available year-round. My mother says they ate root vegetables in the winter, and fresh green vegetables only when they were locally available. Same for fruit. So eating seasonally makes sense. I try to do that, especially with fruit -- local berries when they are ripe, apples and pears in the winter. More root vegetables and winter squash in the winter, green vegetables in the summer. But I do like my salads all year round, which I am not sure used to be available.

Exactly...it's not that long ago that fruit and veggies really were seasonal in nature...my older relatives used to pick berries during the summer months (and either dry them, can them, or make jam). They'd can whatever fruit they could find...this was in rural Canada in the 1930s. They all grew massive gardens during the summer months and had root cellars. There really was no running to the store during the middle of winter for fresh veggies and fruit...and yeah, an orange at Christmas...that was a big deal.

I recall someone saying that part of the problem with us moving away from eating seasonally is the access to fructose year round (from the readily available fruit) compared to how the situation was even two generations ago. Obviously, fruit is not the worst thing we could be eating, but we do have more of it at hand than our ancestors ever did.