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randall, are you saying that you got heavy metal poisoning from fruit? please explain/elaborate – I want to protect my child/myself
Shane,
I had no medical problems prior to starting the Essene Fruitarian Diet. On a typical day I ate about 1-2 lbs of citrus (mostly mandarins but also oranges, grapefruits, etc.), about 1/2 lb of wildcrafted greens (foxtail grass, miners lettuce, chickweed, etc.), 1/2-1 lb of nuts (mostly pecans but also walnuts, pine nuts, etc.), 1-2 avocados and 8-12 large dates. I also ate a variety of other fruits according to what was in season. This included apples, persimmons, figs, blackberries, pears, peaches, cherries, plums, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, tomatoes, and a few cherimoyas. One of the key principles of the Jesus Diet is to eat what is local and in season, so I didn’t eat any tropical fruits or anything that wasn’t grown outside of Cali. I should also mention that I ate some of the skins and seeds of these fruits, including citrus peels and a few avocado skins and pits. As I’m sure you are already aware, Fruitarian diets place enormous emphasis on eating whole foods as much as possible. Another key principle of the “Jesus Diet” is eating mono meals. One food at a time and the separation of different foods into different meals. So I would eat citrus for about an hour, and then wait about an hour and eat greens for about 45 minutes, then wait an hour and eat nuts, etc, etc. So I was eating from dawn to dusk with only about 4 hours during the day that I wasn’t eating anything. And yet, every day I woke up more emaciated than I was the day before. Of course I had diarrhea, but I was under the impression that that was just “cleansing” or “detox”. Little did I know that I was setting the stage for the gastro-intestinal and other health related nightmares that I am dealing with today.
P.s. Newbie, I not saying that I got the heavy metal poisoning from fruit. I am saying that the fruit predisposed me to the heavy metal poisoning because it is so demineralizing. If your body already has all of the minerals it needs in the proper proportions, you are alot less likely to get metal poisoning than someone who is demineralized and deficient. And by the time you weigh 85 lbs, you have lost alot more than just minerals.
Peace,
Randall Gentry
Sacto, Ca
Randall, how did you get heavy metal poisoning?
Randall: Actually, considering you ate greens and nuts, it isn’t the ‘typical’ fruitarian diet. What is it that you think you were lacking? It sounds to me like a horrible digestive problem. Wildcrafted greens should be pretty mineralizing…
Randall, what is it that you are eating now? And do you have any advice on what you would do differently? So sorry to hear your outcome, hopefully raw food leads you to healing also.
Newbie, The story of how I probably got heavy metal poisoning is a long one. But for those who really want to know, here it is. After crashing on the fruitarian diet, I was at a fork in the road. Take my fruitarian dogma with me to the grave, or do whatever it takes to regain health. Since I didn’t want to go down with the sinking ship of delusional fruitarian dogma, I started eating other foods. I was starving on raw vegan fare and cooked food gave me all kinds of problems, so I opted to start eating a raw vegetarian diet (the Dr Bass diet). I started gaining my weight back, I felt great and didn’t even have diarrhea! The only problem was, I was still starving for fats and protein. I found that the more RAF I ate, the better I felt. At first I was eating raw honey & bee pollen, raw dairy and raw egg yolks. I started getting really impressive results when I added raw fish and even more-so from raw beef. At this point, I decided to start testing the Primal Diet. Here is a post from one of the blogs I was on at the time regarding dental health;(Btw, AV is the founder of the PD) Hola Louise, My dental health improved drastically when I switched from my vegan Essene fruitarian diet to AV’s diet about four months ago. On the fruitarian diet, even though I was brushing my teeth after everything I ate, my gums were receding, my teeth were feeling looser all the time, and it hurt to chew just about everything. Now I transitioned off of the fruitarian diet over a period of 1 to 2 months experimenting with raw milk, cooked foods, Dr. Bass’s version of the NH diet, etc. In a nutshell, I ditched the cooked foods, read about AV on www.drbass.com, bought AV’s books and started trying his diet out. Even before I started testing AV’s diet, the condition of my teeth was already much better. They were no longer loose, my gums stopped receding, it didn’t hurt to chew, etc. At this point I read about how Weston Price found that many isolated/indigenous people didn’t really bother with cleaning thier teeth and yet, they had excellent dental health, no carries, etc., all from sticking to thier native diets. So I decided to stop cleaning my teeth all of time and see what happened. When I do clean my teeth, I use a technique I read about online where you use a small, dry peice of cloth to gently blot/wipe the teeth without rinsing the teeth afterwards. I started cleaning my teeth in this way (in conjuction with flossing) whenever the time felt right (usually about once or twice every two weeks, sometimes more, sometimes less). Now after doing this in conjuction with AV’s diet over the past four months, my teeth and gums look and feel better than ever. My teeth have never been as white, bright and beautiful as they are now. Peace, Randall
Now here is a post from the same blog, two years later.
Hi everybody, The last time I posted on this list was in the fall of 05 regarding the dental effects of RVAF dieting. At the time, I had been eating the Primal Diet for a few months and my teeth seemed to be in excellent condition. Now, after two years of Aajonus eating, almost every tooth in my mouth has at least one cavity. On top of this severe tooth decay, I now also have severe chronic diarrhea, severe kidney damage (indicated by frequent urination (up to five times an hour) with very low output (as little as a tablespoon), shortness of breath, neurological symptoms (including hot flashes, confusion, lack of mental clarity), chronic fatigue, diabetes, eczema, psoriasis, etc, etc, etc.�
These symptoms, however, did not appear simultaneously. The tooth decay began in the fall of 06. I suspected the unheated honey (which was giving me severe hypoglycemia) was playing a role in my problems so I tried to cut it out of my diet . I talked to Aajonus about it and he said that I had hypoglycemia because I wasn’t eating enough raw honey! He said the tooth decay was caused by the detoxification of heavy metals and that the solution was to eat raw cheese with unheated honey (he said the cheese was indigestible unless eaten with raw honey). He also said that the cheese would resolve the diarrhea if eaten in large enough quantities. Since the cheese was indigestible and the honey was doing nothing but damage, I opted to eat as much raw fish (as per the advice in WWTL on demineralization) as I could and cut out the dairy which I suspected could cause the diarrhea and tooth decay if I was allergic to it. I learned that dairy wasn’t causing my problems when I reintroduced it several months later with raw goats milk kefir, etc and saw nothing but benefit.
By July 07, I was having 6-15 bowel movements per day. Not knowing what the cause was or what to do, I consulted with Dr. Stanley S. Bass (Aajonus was in DC at the time). Bass promised me he would give me all the secrets on how to perfect the Primal Diet with meal plans etc, everything I needed to know. I paid him $300 for a month of consultation and he told me to fast until the diarrhea (which he suspected was caused by carbs) subsided. After five days of water fasting, the diarrhea was much worse than before, I weighed 122 lbs , had constant headaches, nausea and felt like I was on the verge of passing out much of the time. I told Bass and he said to keep fasting. When I explained to him that that wasn’t an option, he said I was on my own and to let him know how it all worked out. I told him that I wanted a refund and he said that if anything I owed HIM money.
At the time, I suspected that the diarrhea might be caused by parasites. I had been eating some rather esoteric raw animal foods such as entire birds, fish, ground squirrels, (save the pelts and contents of stomach and intestines) live insects, (grubs, worms, ants, mosquitos, flies, crickets, etc.) etc. I had a total of five stool samples analyzed all of which came up completely negative for everything they tested for. To be sure, I went ahead and did Hulda Clark’s three week herbal parasite cleanse (which some folks have reported impressive results from) and saw no improvement what so ever. I also considered that the problem could be caused by molds and fungi (mycotoxicosis), however the lab tested for all that and found nothing. Several weeks prior, I submitted a hair analysis and when I finally got the results, they revealed SEVERE heavy metal toxicity! Since I had eaten at least $10,000 worth of raw seafood over the past two years, It seemed extremely unlikely that the fish had nothing to do with it. I contacted AV about it in the following email:
Hi Aajonus, Since I last talked to you, my health problems have increased exponentially. If you recall, I had dental decay with numerous caries, hypoglycemia and diarrhea. Since I seemed to be demineralized, I followed the advice in WWTL and ate TONS of fish and seafood (all of which was fresh, wild and ocean caught). I ate at least a pound of fish (mostly Salmon) daily. I also ate the heads and spines of these fish including the brains, eyes, etc. I’ve been eating raw since 04 and RVAF since 05 with at least 3/4 of my meat consisting of seafood. The fish gradually became less and less appealing and I got to where I could no longer eat the heads or spines and eventually to where I couldn’t even eat the muscle meats. After about a week without any fish, I ate a meal of Salmon and since then, (July 07) I have had SEVERE diarrhea – to the tune of 6-15 bowel movements per day, many of which are very watery and explosive. I had a hair analysis done which revealed extremely high levels of Mercury, Arsenic, Chromium and Vanadium. So much for the idea that if you eat the fish raw you won’t absorb any mercury. Just look at the fish themselves – their diets are as raw as they come and yet they are full of mercury, pcb’s, etc. Needless to say, I wish that I had figured that out sooner. Perhaps if I had been healthier at the time I read your books, I would have thought a bit more critically and averted this toxic nightmare.
Randall
In his latest PD newsletter Aajonus broached the subject and while he admitted that the fish absorb the mercury, he denied that it causes them harm, supposedly because it is contained in their fat. He also refused to acknowledge the fact that eating methlymercury contaminated fish will cause mercury poisoning. He said that most human mercury poisoning comes from Thimerosol – in vaccines, other injections and various topical antiseptics such as Mercurochrome and Merthiolate (neither of which I had even heard of). He went as far as claiming that one vaccine contains the same amount of mercury found in about 4,000 lbs. of Swordfish. I decided to do some investigation and find out if he was right.
According to a relatively recent (2004) analysis of Swordfish sold in California supermarkets, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/09/29/MNG5B90MPE1.DTL, out of 25 samples tested, the lowest was 1.02 ppm (
Hi, Randall,
Your conclusion is not based on fact but misinformation and fear. As I stated in my last PD newsletter and published the results of my tests eating raw fish with animals in the Summer 2007 issue, mercury does not store animals eating fish contaminated with mercury at a 15.1 level (swordfish). However, eating a lot of fish will cause the mercury from vaccines and other metals to heavily detoxify. In order to offset the diarrhea and often vomit, a person must eat a major amount of no-salt-added raw cheese and some other dairy products to provide types of minerals that will bind with the toxic mercury, ether, formaldehyde, aluminum and detergents in vaccines. One vaccine contaminates the body with as much mercury as you would get from eating about 4,000 lbs of swordfish. I hope that you are getting the picture from where your toxins originated. I am not beyond believing that some people may digest and absorb the mercury in fish but my animal test did not support that theory and I do not believe that you could absorb enough mercury from fish that causes your symptoms when eating a raw animal-fat based diet, and almost impossible if eating raw dairy.
healthfully,
aajonus
When Aajonus makes outlandish claims like the one about the 4,000 lbs of Swordfish, one cannot help but wonder how much of what Aajonus says is made up off the top of his head. At this point, It is clear to me that he is far more concerned about his ego than anyone’s health. The same goes for Dr. Bass. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I didn’t go into a coma and die while fasting.
Peace,
Randall Gentry
Sacto, Ca
oh Randall, I’m so sorry to read about what you’ve been through. May you find peace, happiness, and excellent health and healing this year and for years to come.
it seems like noting but fruit can satisfy me these days. everything else i try tastes absolutely disgusting to me! from the smell of my old cooked favourites (like fresh baked bread) to the taste of my raw buckwheat granola. i made a “caesar” salad for dinner and it tasted rancid (it wasn’t though… i had my roommate try it, and she loved it). could my tastebuds be changing so dramaticlly in such a short period of time? i’ve only been raw for a few weeks and already, raw gourmet cooking is start to taste processed and dull.
Randall- Oh my gosh what a journey you went through! How are you doing now? Is your health starting to improve? What does your diet consist of these days? Please post us! I feel so angry at those doctors right now.
By the way, your little slogan says it all:
randall,
i’m sorry to hear about what happened too. i guess i’m trying to figure out what is so different about the jesus diet, and a raw vegan diet besides the eating locally. from what you listed it sounds very high in sugar, and also volume. were you that hungry all the time? or did you feel like you had to fit in so many different foods to get the nutrition?
i have read that everyone is a different metabolic type, and from your success adding animal protien, i suspect you are a protien type.
i started out on raw food with type 1 diabetes and my situation has improved dramatically on a primarily fruit based diet. i feel like i have to eat less and less to sustain energy, i can go for 6 or more hours without eating. even when i was juicing mangoes and oranges i still had good blood sugar control. i still take insulin, but i take less now and i have less spikes in my levels.
what you’ve told us, should make us all pause, and make sure we listen to our bodies.
well i’m certainly not pregnant, so that doesn’t explain the strange food aversions LOL i think my body is just craving pure food. i considered making a study break green smoothie, but the thought of it made me nauseous! i do have some watermelon that looks mighty tasty though…
Thanks roadrunner. I’m glad someone that is knoweledgable on this backs me up. I love the way I feel, and am not deficient, or lacking anything my body needs. We dont even need to drink water!! Isn’t Richard Blackman such an awesome inspiration? Keep up the good work and cheers to our health!
Hi everyone,
In general, I have seen alot of improvements in my health since last summer. I am down from 6-15 bowel movements per day to about 4-12. Also, they aren’t quite as watery and explosive as they used to be. Overall, my kidney function is better, but there is quite a bit of variation. For instance, it’s worse when I’m chelating. With the diet that I am currently eating, I am able to keep the chronic fatigue under control for the most part and the same goes for the diabetes. The neurological symptoms are caused by the presence of and damage done by the heavy metals in the brain. I have been able to keep some of these symptoms in check to a certain extent with my current diet. The shortness of breath, respiratory problems, eczema and psoriasis are all symptoms of chromium poisoning. I have seen substantial improvement with these symptoms since I stopped using stainless steel (and all metal for that matter) for anything that comes into contact with my food or drink. The tooth decay is the one thing that not only hasn’t improved, but has gotten worse. For whatever reason, the body needs alot of calcium to excrete the metals. Again, if its not in your diet (or you aren’t digesting it) it will come right off of your bones… including your teeth.
I am currently eating an RVAF version of the diet outlined in Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution. http://www.diabetes-book.com/book/chapter10.shtml
Obviously, I’m not eating any fish and I only eat white meat when I don’t have red meat. I don’t have truly organic eggs right now, but if I did I would be eating them. So my current diet consists of red meat (grass fed), fermented dairy from grass fed goats and cows, fermented below 96 coconut oil and cream, fermented nut and seed milks, low carb vegetables and medicinals such as kale, burdock, brocolli, garlic, coliflower, daikon, kohlrabi, ginger, tumeric, dandelion greens, cilantro, lettuce and other greens. The only fruits I’m eating are those that are low in carbs such as peppers, cucumbers, rose hips, Schizandra berries, Bilberries, etc. In general, I don’t eat the fruits and vegetables unless they have been lacto-fermented.
I usually add all of this stuff to my krauts. The exception is certain greens like cilantro, lettuce, escarole, etc which I usually eat in salads with sauerkraut and raw fat. The RAF constitutes about 2/3rds of my diet. I don’t eat more than 30 carbs per day and about 75% of those carbs are lacto-fermented. I’m not eating any cooked foods because they make all of my symptoms worse. However, I am freezing all of my meat now because I can’t afford to mess around with the risk of parasites, etc. I am also taking r- ALA (alpha lipoic acid) 33 mg 8x a day as per Andy Cutler’s Mercury chelation protocol. I’m looking into more supplements to help chelate the metal and I’m also going to start making raw kombucha with medicinal herbs and rose hips.
IM SORRY BUT RANDALL NONE OF YOUR ISSUES COULD HAVE BEEN THE FAULT OF FRUIT AT ALL.IT IS IN NO WAY AT ALL DEMINERALIZING. THATS THE DUMBEST THING IVE EVER HEARD! SORRY ABOUT ALL OF YOUR HEALTH ISSUES, BUT MY DIET HAS CURED ME FROM LOTS OF THINGS
randall sorry to hear about your ailment . though it sounds like your very well studied on the topic thought ide post a link to dr david kleins site dealing with g.i. tract / chrohns issues . also another person on the same subject would be jordan rubin , wrote book ’ patient heal thyself ’ . both these guys dealt with and healed cases similar sounding to yours . though ive not read all your post so not sure exactly what youve ruled out or tried . also , on the heavy metals did you ever see the ’ pascalite clay ’ products . ive dealt with a companys whoms address i cant recall in worland wyoming that had good products . goodluck !!! klein link = http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geu6hz.bBHXkkButpXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTFhOTJyZTdlBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMgRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkA01BUDAwNF85NARsA1dTMQ—/SIG=11sbu9mf7/EXP=1202866931/**http%3a//www.colitis-crohns.com/about.html
whoa , i guess that dr klein link didnt work . but you just have to search it and hes right on first page .
Please take no offense jmasterson, but calling someone’s addition to the forum “the dumbest thing you ever heard” takes away the purpose for posting within a forum. You have embarked on the fruitarian lifestyle only very recently, and dismissing another person’s experience could be quite an ignorant step. I would implore you to take a moment to review what others say with reverence and humility before you step forth and dismiss their input. While I sincerely applaud your good health and inspiration, there should always remain continual learning on your journey.
Randall,
You stated that you have seen improvements with some of the symptoms since you stopped using stainless steel for anything that has come into contact with your food or drink (your words). This really stood out to me because I was planning to buy a stainless steel water bottle from the health food store since I am trying to avoid the plastic bottles due to thier plastic toxicity. Do you mean to say that the stainless steel bottle also leech out the metals into the water??? Does anyone have any knowledge about this? Please answer because I am desperately worried now.
I haven’t posted on these forums before but I do frequent them. I felt compelled to offer some advice on this as well, especially because jmasterson is only 20 years old and seems to already be getting sucked into the fruitarian dogma.
Jmasterson, from reading your responses to people’s often genuinely concerned advice, based on experience (like Randall’s), you already seem to be spitting back out the rawfoods/fruitarian “party line,” which is extremely dangerous, seeing as you’ve only been on the diet for TWO weeks (at the time of your post, which is now around a month I guess). Don’t be fooled by what you read on the internet. IT’S THE INTERNET. Let’s repeat that again – NOT EVERYTHING YOU READ ON THE INTERNET IS TRUE. The people you called “knowledgeable” also cited links to fruitarian websites in their posts, and things you referred to as “factual” were from fruitarianism promoting websites. Don’t believe all the hubub about people being “naturally evolved” or adapted to eat a certain diet. Even nutritionists and biologists with PhDs and YEARS of experience can’t agree on what humans are “naturally adapted” to eating. I’m pretty sure that some fanatic raving on his blog doesn’t have the answer either.
People will use pseudo-science and citations of “fact” to get you to believe anything, and that has only gotten exponentially worse with the advent of the internet, especially because of the preponderence of people who will seriously believe anything they read online and spew it back out to others on forums like these. They’ll try to tell you that our prehistoric ancestors were all on raw vegetable diets, that primates don’t eat meat, etc. Just read a couple of studies by anthropologists and primatologists and you will immediately find that this is NOT true. Our ancestors did eat raw vegetables, but they ate a lot of raw lean game as well.
As for feeling great all the time right now… I was basically fruitarian for a little while as well, and have known many failed ones. The fact of the matter is, you’re consuming such an OUTRAGEOUS amount of sugar that you’re just constantly on a sugar high. Many raw-fooders (non-fruitarians at that) become seriously addicted to dates or other small sugar-packed fruits over time because that “spiritual” feeling of well-being becomes diminished over time after your body becomes used to all that sugar.
In addition, fruit is very easy for your body to digest, a little too easy. Most long-term fruitarians develop digestive problems because their digestive system stops working hard, and when they try to switch their diet back to normal, they encounter a lot of problems because they just can’t eat anything else anymore.
I would highly recommend reading over all of the articles on this website (yes, even after my internet rant). The authors frequently cite REAL studies by anthropologists, nutritionists, and biologists, and most of them speak from 30+ years of experience in raw foods. They caution against idealism and dogma in raw foods, because it’s extremely dangerous in more than just nutritional terms. Psychological problems sometimes develop. Some raw fooders become absolute nutritional fanatics, and go out of their minds obsessing about foods and what they can and can’t put into their body.
Troubleshooting in rawfood/vegetarian diets – very useful if you’re experiencing problems
http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/troublesh/t…
List of several articles that critically examine raw foods dogma and myths. These are written by current raw-fooders and insiders with 30+ years on a variety of raw diets, so it’s not like it’s an outsider criticizing rawfoods outright. It’s just looking at the diet reasonably.
http://www.beyondveg.com/cat/frank-talk/index.s…
jmasterson, all in all, I would just recommend that you keep your eyes open for the time being. If people are offering you advice, don’t dismiss them just because what they say isn’t agreeing with what you read on fruitarian.com or whatever else. It is easy to get unwittingly pulled into nutritional dogma, and right now is the time that you’re most vulnerable to that.
atragicvillain, that was SO well said. i couldn’t agree more.
Ok IM not promoting anything or telling people what to do. I said I agree with jmasterson.
“The people you called
Randall, so sorry about the health issues. It reminds me of a friend who was having a similar problem (the frequent defication) until she got a colonoscopy and a polyp was found. I read everything you wrote, but I didn’t see if you had one done (sorry if I missed something!). Good luck.
Carmentina,
I’ve been reluctant to get a colonoscopy (for all the obvious reasons) but given the situation, it might be a good idea. I’ll look into it.
Thanks & Peace to You and Yours,
Randall
i don’t believe that the essence gospels are the real teachings of Christ. I believe Christ ate cooked food. He ate the passover meal which was cooked lamb and bread (matzah). When He was in His glorified body He told the disciples to go to Jersulam because that was were He would be instead they went fishing. He stood by the shore and told His disciples to cast their net on the other side and they caught a bunch of fish. They came to the shore and Jesus already had fish grilled for them. Don’t forget about the mulitpling of the fish and loaves. If Jesus didn’t eat it. He would have made sure He’s disciples didn’t eat it, but He did eat it and His disciples ate it too. So I think the essence gospels is a big lie. I really don’t believe Jesus said those things at all. Many people hated Jesus so I’m sure someone would have made something up and said those were the words of Jesus in order to confuse people. If you read the Bible and then read the essence gospels you see that it doesn’t even have the same flow in speech. I like eatting raw, but I really don’t think Jesus was a 100% raw foodist because He did eat with the sinners, He ate with his disciples. His disciples offered Him bread. They would not have offered if He said that cooked food was poison. I put no trust in the essence gospels…I think it’s full of lies and it’s just the conclusion I came to with reading the Bible and comparing. It just doesn’t add up. The two are contradictory.
Those are all very goods points koolieaided. Since the Bible should not be read literally and since we really do not know that much about Jesus we cant be sure what he ate. It was quite possible that he ate bread like you said. He was after all located in the Middle East where unleavened (pita) bread was a staple food.
This is a very interesting topic because lately I’ve been feeling drawn to a fruitarian diet. I realize this might just be a temporary thing based on where I’m at in my raw journey, but recently the only things that taste and feel “good” are fruits, including cucumber and red pepper.
I think if we look at Jewish customs we see that in the Mosaic covent that God gave the jewish people a lists of laws and rules to follow, and in the category of food God told the people that their were unclean meat and clean meats. Really the mosaic covenant was only set in place in order for people to realize they couldn’t live up to those standard, so they would need someone to take away their sin. So they sacrificed a lamb, but the blood of animals could never take away sin..The idea behind it is reference to Jesus ‘the lamb’. That He would come and take away the sins of the world..so they might know God and become the sons and daughters of God. Okay sorry I got off subject. Anyway Jews tried to keep the laws, so their were certain types of meat that was unclean, but they still ate meat. I’m sure it was probably on a rare occassion. Like weddings and celebrations. In the New Testament we see that Peter is give the instruction to eat meat ‘raise peter, kill, and eat’. He protests and says ‘I have never eatten anything unclean.’ Then the voice says ‘What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.’ It was the sign to go to go teach the gospel to the Gentiles and also it was the sign that they were free from bondage under the law. If you think about it, the church was just starting so they were still thinking by the laws standard and under legalism, and God wanted them to think in the standards of freedom throught Christ.