Vegan, Raw Vegan, Fruitarian
Introduction: The intention of this article is to break down the differences between a vegan diet, raw vegan, fruitarian, and look at them through the lens of health. Before we start breaking down the three different diets, its important to mention crucial factors that are related to any diet, and more importantly the success of any diet. One of those factors relates to, abstaining from foods and liquids that hinder your health. For instance, dairy, meat, processed foods, liquor, energy drinks, etc.., get in the way of improving your health. Abstaining from these foods by itself will make a world of difference in terms of your health. From there you can start reaping the benefits of a diet.
Vegan: A vegan diet consists of eating only foods that are derived from plant-based sources and excludes the consumption of any food derived from animals. The type of vegan diet I recommend, is free of soy, wheat, corn, processed foods, and consists of whole foods with of emphasis of having a variety of fruits and veggies. So, a typical breakfast would be a fruit smoothie, lunch would be a quinoa salad, and dinner would be another salad (without any grains) or a bowl of fruit, any snacks in between those meals can be some dried fruit, or fresh fruit. Along with this diet, it is important to remain hydrated and drink enough water through the day. In the context of this article, the use of a vegan diet is to be used as a transition diet from a typical western diet, to eventually move into a raw, or fruitarian diet.
For most individuals, transitioning into a vegan (plant-based) diet, is the best thing to do before you jump straight into a raw vegan or fruitarian diet. Now, the benefits of this kind of vegan diet are as follows, weight loss, better digestion, improved energy levels to name a few. While a vegan diet can give you these benefits, a vegan diet can only take you so far in terms of how deep you can dig into your health, eventually, I recommend transitioning into a raw vegan diet.
Raw Vegan: Is the natural progression after a vegan diet. So what does it meant to be “raw vegan”, it means that you eat all your fruits and vegetables in there raw state or at the very least slightly steamed. Eating your fruits and vegetables in a raw state ensures your getting all the nutritional value from your food, on the other hand, the more amount of time vegetables are cooked, the more they lose there nutritional value. This kind of diet vastly improves your health since its easy on your digestive system, while that does not seem like a big deal at first, once the body is not occupied with digestion it can begin using that energy restore and rejuvenate cells in the body by a process called stem-cell rejuvenation. Stem-cell rejuvenation usually is a result of fasting, but because fruits and vegetables are not taxing on the digestive system they allow for this kind of stem-cell rejuvenation to take place more often. In individuals, who eat meat, dairy, large amounts of certain grains, or anything that compromises the digestive system, the body is always busy breaking down something down which in turn results in health problems. This is why bloating is so prevalent now a days.
In the spectrum of diets that exist, diets in which your primary intake, is raw fruits and vegetables help facilitate the detox process (cleansing). The diet helps with strengthening and restoring the function of your kidneys (adrenal glands,) and lymphatic system. These organs in the body are responsible for filtering waste and are the foundation of improving your health. Therefore a vegan diet can only take you so far, a vegan diet won’t improve the organs mentioned above as efficiently, as a raw vegan or fruitarian diet would. Since, individuals with a poor diet, these organs (kidneys, lymphatic system) become stagnate, the stagnation of those organs inevitably results in chronic conditions.
Fruitarian: A fruitarian diet consists of eating solely fresh raw fruits as your sustenance. The benefits of the diet lie in its ability begin the detoxification process within the body. Detoxification is the process of removing waste from the body and restoring the natural function of the body.
What makes fruits so perfect for restoring and rebuilding your health, lies in their properties. These properties are, high in vitamin C, (primarily citrus, melons, berries) have astringent qualities, high in flavonoids, easy on the digestive system, and the list goes on and on. As we have covered before, a raw diet helps with strengthening and restoring the function of the kidneys, and lymphatic system in the body. The only difference being that a fruitarian diet accelerates this process significantly more with the added benefit of being high in vitamin c. That is not to say that vegetables are bad, but in comparison to fruits, fruits have significantly more health qualities to them. Once, you go on this kind of diet of eating just fruits, you will undoubtedly be able to gauge the differences between vegetables, grains, etc.
Conclusion
These three diets as described above are the corner stone of a healthy and sustainable life alongside an exercise routine. I suggest using the three diets to serve their purpose. For example, a fruitarian diet is always best used as cleansing kind of diet in terms of removing blockages. You can draw parallels between a fruitarian diet and a fast. Fruits are primarily water as a result they get digested easily in the body, and because fruits are rich in vitamin c, they open the door to improving your health, there are numerous studies on the benefits of vitamin c (below I will leave links to studies). The longer you stay on this fruitarian diet, the deeper you will dig into deeper states of health.
A raw vegan diet has the same benefits and use of a fruitarian diet, the only difference being that, in a fruitarian diet you see the health benefits a lot faster. Vegetables do not contain nearly the same amount of vitamin c and other qualities found in fruits. Also, vegetables contain much more fiber, which contrary to popular belief slow down the digestive process. This is why juicers are so effective in the realm of health, juicers dispose of the fibrous material and leave you with all the vitamins and nutrients in the most digestible form (liquid.)
A vegan diet as described above, is best used as a transition diet coming from a typical western diet. Most of the health benefits you get will come from the things you stop consuming, in this instance meat, dairy, etc. Once you have got time under your belt on a vegan diet and no longer feel an internal struggle within to eat animal products, you can move onto a raw vegan or fruitarian with a lot more ease.
With all that being said, its important that you do not box yourself in, in the sense that you call yourself a raw foodist, vegan, fruitarian and as result you cannot step out of those parameters of what you can and cannot eat. The purpose in these diets is so that they are used as tools depending on what you are trying to accomplish in terms of your health. If your consistent in eating a plant-based diet (ideally raw vegan, fruitarian) and have some consistent (4-5 days) exercise routine, then there is no problem in indulging in a meal from time to time, that is not plant-based when there is a special occasion or your out with your friends. I hope this information has been useful and you can use it to better improve your health, below will be some links to check out that may be of use to those who are interested.
Links