Some Vegetables are Better, Fruit is Best

We know of hundreds of different vegetables that are edible. Some are easier to digest and more nutritious than others. Some vegetables can be nutritious, but are not edible in their raw state. Potatoes, when eaten raw, may cause abdominal cramps, diarrhea, fever, and an upset stomach. Legumes are often cooked, when eaten raw they can be extremely toxic, unless you sprout them.

Many edible vegetables may not be as toxic as raw potatoes and legumes, but they are still hard to digest. There are strategies to go around these limitations, such as soaking and sprouting vegetables before consuming them.

The need to cook, soak, or sprout these vegetables makes them less accessible than fruit, which can be consumed straight from the plant. On top of that, there are vegetables that can’t be used as a whole meal. A good example of this are herbs. Few people would be happy with a meal of parsley, but many would be delighted with a meal of bananas, oranges, berries, or avocados.

After eliminating all vegetables that can’t be consumed on their raw state, and those that don’t provide enough nutrition to sustain us, we are left with just a few dozen options. These vegetables can be eaten with minimal preparation and little to no digestive discomfort. Most of them can satisfy our hunger without requiring additional food. This list includes carrots, beets, fennel and cauliflower. We can also include spinach, celery, lettuce and kale. The later contain fewer calories, but are still nutritious, and capable of sustaining us for a number of days.

Of course, living on nothing but beets and kale sounds like a horrible idea. That is why it’s more exciting to live on fruit’s than vegetables.

Many people take their time moving away from vegetables and some never do at all. There are countless of raw vegans thriving on their carrots and cauliflower, still, most of them will focus on eating fruit, with a salad perhaps as their evening meal. These raw foodist often think that vegetables are needed for humans to avoid potential deficiencies that come with a fruit based diet. Others simply love the taste of vegetables, and the variety they provide to their diet and social life.

In my personal experience, I’ve found it challenging to stop eating vegetables. I have only done this a few times, the longest beings two weeks, with a handful of times when I did it for a full week. That being said, I have only spent a few months living in areas where fresh fruit was available. Most of the fruit’s in supermarkets come from other countries, are grown out-of-season, and have been in storage for months. We need to expand or fruit resources in order to provide adequate experimentation.

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