The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-05-31
THE FRUIT DIET.

IulneSS or frult diet, Dut the most en-
thusiastic supporters of such a dietary
hardly go so far as to recommend one
restricted exclusively to fruit New
ertheless, there are individuals in
these modern days who rigidly adhere
to the food resources of primitive man
and reject even vegetables from their
daiIy -reativrrS.-H HFa..y- vv5~tariaro,
while refusing animal foods, indulge
in the products of animals, such as
butter, cheese, eggs and milk. The
idealist believes, however, that as
vegetarian diet is superior to the or
dinary mixed animal and vegetarian
diet, so a fruitarian diet, if it were
attainable, would be superior to the
vegetarian.
1t is of interest in this connection
to record some recent Investigations
of the California Experiment Station,
covering the nutrition Of a family that
habitually ate nothing but fruit, re-
jecting even cereals and vegetables.
The family under observation, con-
sisting of two women and three chill
dren, who fortunately had all been
fruitarians from five to seven years,
so that the value of the experiments
is considerably enhanced by the fact
that there was no radical change in
the customary diet of the subjects
during the investigation.
In the six studies scheduled the
subjects ate only twice day, as was
their custom. The first meal was
taken about 1890 in the morning,
always consisted of nuts and fruits,
the nuts being eaten before the fruit.
At their second meal, which was
about S o'clock in the afternoon, they
usually ate no nuts, substituting
therefor olive oil and honey. AL
monds, Brazil nuts, pinet nuts, pig
nolias, variety of pine nuts, and
walnuts were used, as we'll as fresh
and dried fruit, the former including
apples, apricots, bananas, figs, grapes,
picked olives, oranges, peaches, pears,
plums, dates and raisins with some
tomatoes, which are really a fruit,
though ordinarily classed otherwise,
and celery, vegetable olive oil ex-
pressed from fruit; honey, gather
ed from flowers and fruit, and in one
experiment some cereal food.
All these were eaten without any
cooking or dilution whatever, the
dried as we'll as the fresh fruits being
taken in this manner. 1t is surpris-
Ing that u1eu made up OF what most
people would regard as mere luxuries,
or relishes more valuable for their
delicate or agreeable favors than for
their t1utritive elements, should be
capable of sustaining life comforta-
bly,, yet this was clearly demonstra-
ted in these investigations. This
diet, as calculated by the Govern
ment experts, when reduced to the
cost of feeding a man, represented a
cost of 371a cents per day, which is
somewhat higher than the figures of
an average American mixed diet of
the same nutritive value. The nu-
triton furnished by the foods was
carefully calculated, a number of
chemical analyses being made to de-
ternine the food value of the differ
ent articles. According to the ex-
perts, while the dietary furnished a
smaller quantity of protein flesh
forming food, and lower fuel value
than the conventional empirical stan
dards demand the subjects of the ex-
pertinent were at all times apparently
healthy and active, appearing to suf-
fer no discomfort. They were able
to do as much work as similar indi-
viduals could on mixed diet, and did
not lose any in weight, the children
even gaining, although the weight of
each member of the family was below
the standard for their respective
heights. The children, in particular,
were very active and romped and
played as much as children of their
age would naturally do.
Notwithstanding the peculiar diet,
the total quantities of protein, fats
and carbohydrates did not differ in
their proportions from those furnish
ed by an average mixed diet. The
protein, or fesh-forming element,
usually supplied by meat, fish, eggs,
cheese, cereals and legumes,. was in
the fruitarian dietaries chiefly sup
piled by nuts. The fats, usually sup
piled by butter and animal fats, were
supplied chiefly by the nuts and the
olive oil, while the starches and sugar,
the carbohydrates, were supplied by
fruits and honey.
These experiments are unique in
that they are the only ones 7on record
where the diet has been so vigorously
confined to fruits, and owing to the
lack of comparative data, the Gov
ernment experts have been unable to
draw any general conclusion, or to
form a positive opinion in regard to
the claims of the fruitarians.