crfg.org — Fruit Facts Fruit Facts are a series of publications containing information on individual fruits, including botanical identification, plant description and culture notes, and characteristics of cultivars. The information is derived from growers experience based largely on California research, as well as various published sources. Some of the more important published sources quoted include All About Growing Citrus and Subtropical Fruit (Ortho Books,1985); Fruit for the Home and Garden, by Leslie Johns and Violet Stevenson (Angus and Robertson, 1985); Fruits of Warm Climates, by Julia F. Morton (1987); Lost Crops of the Incas (National Academy Press, 1989); Manual of Tropical and Subtropical Fruits, by Wilson Popenoe (1920, reprinted 1974 by Hafner Press); Uncommon Fruits Worthy of Attention, by Lee Reich (Addison-Wesley, 1991); Tropical Fruits, 2nd ed., by J.A. Samson (Longman, 1986); and Tropical Fruit, by Glenn Tankard (Viking O'Neal, 1987). The Morton book is a particularly valuable source of information on a wide selection of tropical and subtropical plants. Many of the cultivar descriptions were adapted from Stephen Facciola's useful book, Cornucopia: a Source Book of Edible Plants. The Ortho, Morton, Reich and Tankard books are available through CRFG Book Service. We would be interested in hearing from users of these pages. Contact us. Fruit Facts are available on-line for: Volume 1: Avocado Banana Carambola Cherimoya Currants Feijoa Fig Gooseberry Jaboticaba Jackfruit Jujube Lychee Malabar Chestnut (previously listed as Guiana Chestnut) Mango Papaya Pineapple Raisin Tree Rose Apple Sapodilla Tamarind Tropical Guava White Sapote Volume 2: Acerola Babaco Cape Gooseberry Capulin Cherry Hardy Kiwifruit Kiwifruit Loquat Macadamia Miracle Fruit Mulberry Muscadine Grape Olive Passion Fruit Pawpaw Pepino Dulce Persimmon Pistachio Pomegranate Tamarillo Volume 3: Che Edible Hardy Palms

discovermagazine.com — Thus passed the bulk of three years. Milton found that most of the time the howlers ate leaves and fruit in almost equal measure, but when seasonal fruits were in short supply, the animals filled up on leaves. Howler monkeys were finicky, though. They ate only tender, young leaves, and only the tips at that....They appear to use a collective information pool to locate their foods. They’ll just set off in a straight line right to it....The howlers conducted these expeditions over 75 acres, searching out as many as 25 species of plants daily. Some, like the Ceiba pentandra tree, were edible for only a few hours a year; others were available more often. Unerringly, the howlers tracked them down. The ranges of various howler troops overlapped, so Milton would occasionally come upon a tree filled with monkeys, with other groups in adjoining trees politely waiting their turn at the table. All of which suggested that the animals had an extraordinary collective memory, an unfailing sense of direction, refined social manners, and a built-in barometer of what foods were good for them.This aggregate intelligence allows infant howlers to mature quickly. After 12 to 14 months, howler mothers don’t want to see their babies again, Milton says. The babies soon declare independence and rely on the group for support.Still, despite the obvious group intelligence, the monkeys individually didn’t seem particularly smart to Milton. They were relatively dull and placid - and unobservant. I ate lunch for months in full view of dozens of howlers, and not one ever seemed to realize that I was eating, much less that what I was eating might be something they would enjoy, too, she says. You could make noises and slurp and carry on - whatever cognitive processes are required to identify the act of eating, they don’t seem to use them.But spider monkeys did. I saw them all the time when I was studying howlers, says Milton. They’d go roaring by like greased lightning. Spider monkeys are the same size as howlers, and the two animals share parts of each other’s ranges on Barro Colorado. But there the similarities end. Whereas howlers travel through the canopy on all fours, spiders swing along like Tarzan. Unlike the placid howlers, spiders are playful and mischievous. They’re terrible teases, says Milton. And they’re mean little devils. They remind me of people, she confides with a laugh. Although not specifically any of my close friends.Spider monkeys had no trouble recognizing Milton’s lunch. ‘Food!’ they’d shout. ‘Let’s see if we can get it!’ They’d swing down toward you; they’d threaten you. They know what a banana is. They have a keen idea of what a peanut butter sandwich is. You simply cannot eat in front of them.Intrigued, Milton decided she’d add spider monkeys to her observations. She thought it might be interesting to compare how the two species evolved from a common ancestor. But while the comparatively sedate howlers were a researcher’s dream, dealing with the spider monkeys was something else again. They were too fast for me, says Milton. So I hired a young man to work with me. He would run through the forest as fast as he could, following the monkeys, and I would come behind. We communicated by calls. ‘Whooooo!’ Like that. The sound really carries through the forest.When the barnstorming spider monkeys found food, they’d finally screech to a stop, allowing Milton to catch up. They’d just stuff themselves. Then they’d lie around and take naps.Unlike the howlers, Milton discovered, the spider monkeys almost exclusively ate fruit, which often made up 90 percent of their diet. Even when fruit was out of season or in short supply, it constituted over half their food. But ripe fruit is even harder to find than tender leaves. To get enough, the 18 spider monkeys on the island would resort to splitting up and trying their luck on their own. During most of the year the distribution patterns of their foods are such that if they went around in a big group, there wouldn’t be enough at any one site to feed everyone, says Milton. So they’d spend almost the whole day foraging in small subunits or by themselves. Then around twilight they’d begin to call and coalesce, and then they’d spend the night together.As a result of this extended exploring, the spiders’ territory was huge, some 750 acres, ten times that of the howler monkeys. And that’s a conservative estimate, says Milton. Two thousand acres might be right. If the howlers displayed impressive feats of memory and direction by finding young leaves, the spider monkeys’ long-distance forays after fruit were astounding. Within an enormous area they had to remember at least 100 species of fruit and where to find thousands of fruit-bearing trees. They had to remember when each fruit was ripe, how best to approach the site, and how best to return home. If a howler forgot a food source or a travel route, the others were there to take up the slack. The spiders, though, had to fend for themselves.And they had to know how to stay in touch. Howler monkeys tended to be quiet, communicating through subtle clucks and rattles in the throat, except at daybreak, when their eerie howls declared. ...Spider monkeys, on the other hand, were conspicuously noisy. They’d yelp and cry, whinnying like horses, barking like dogs - sometimes for hours at a time. ...And in contrast to the howlers’ community messages, spider monkeys believed in individual expression. Spider monkey vocalizations are generally individualistic. ...All that variety and independence requires lots of training. As a result, infant spider monkeys mature slowly. They are nursed and carried by their mothers for two years, and they continue to associate almost exclusively with her until they’re about three or three and a half years old. ...Why were the two monkeys so dissimilar? Milton wondered about the differences in their diets. Howler monkeys ate mainly leaves, sometimes exclusively leaves, a low-quality source of nutrition. Leaves are plentiful and relatively high in protein, but they’re low in energy-rich carbohydrates. They also consist of some 60 percent indigestible fiber and sometimes contain toxic chemicals. How in the world did howlers get enough energy from this unpromising diet? And why did they stick to it even during seasons when there was plenty of ripe fruit in the forest?Fruits are loaded with easily digested carbohydrates and are relatively low in fiber - they’re high-quality, nutritious food. They mean instant energy. On the other hand, fruits provide little protein. So, Milton wondered, how did spider monkeys get enough protein? And why, when fruits were scarce, didn’t they fill up on leaves, as howlers did? Why did they go to such extremes to find fruits?Milton began finding some answers to these questions in 1977, when she returned to Barro Colorado after completing her doctoral thesis. She soon conducted an experiment measuring how long it took the monkeys to process their food. I needed to look at internal features of the monkeys, she says. I thought that perhaps the structure of their guts or efficiency of their digestion might be influencing their behavior.She trapped howler and spider monkeys, confined them in pens, and fed them food in which she had concealed tiny plastic markers. I used a type of thin plastic material that I cut with very fine manicure scissors into little colored plastic worms, she explains. When the monkeys excreted the remains of their food, out came the markers. Milton could therefore measure the time it took any one meal to pass through a monkey’s digestive tract. The results were dramatic: howlers took 20 hours to digest their food, five times as long as spiders. ...When Milton came upon monkeys that had died in the forest, she took them back to the research station, dissected them, and measured their gastrointestinal tracts. She then confirmed her figures against published material on differential gut measurements in various primates. She found that the colons of howlers were considerably wider and longer than those of spider monkeys. Food had to travel much farther and remained much longer in howler guts, and the monkeys had room for much more bulk. As a result, bacteria had a chance to ferment masses of fibrous leaves in the monkeys’ colons, producing energy-rich fatty acids. Milton eventually found that howlers receive more than 30 percent of their daily energy from such fatty acids.... Spiders were far less efficient at extracting energy from the fiber in their diet - but they didn’t have to be efficient. They ate easily digestible fruits. By moving a steady stream of fruit through their gastrointestinal tracts every day, they obtained all the carbohydrates they needed and some of the protein. The rest came from supplements of young, tender leaves.It was a striking example of evolutionary adaptation. Each monkey’s physiology fit its particular diet. Spider monkeys couldn’t get away with eating a howler diet of mostly leaves. With their smallish guts, they’d never keep enough bulk around long enough for fermentation to provide energy. And howlers wouldn’t manage for long if they used the spider monkey tactic of eating fruit - their slow digestive tracts couldn’t process nearly enough of it. Besides, it took smarts to track down sufficient fruit, and Milton thought it unlikely that the howlers were up to the job. Nor was the howler diet of leaves up to the job of fueling the amount of brainpower necessary. The brain, a big, hungry organ, requires a disproportionate amount of energy, and leaves just don’t provide enough....The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense that if you have a high-energy diet and widely distributed foods, you’re going to need a certain amount of ability to locate those foods. ...A scientist named Daniel Quirling had published extensive statistics about the sizes of primate brains. Spider monkey brains, he had determined, weigh twice those of howlers, 107 grams compared with 50.4. No wonder spiders are smarter....Compared with the howlers, spider monkeys were brighter and more lively. They matured more slowly and had more to learn; they made more ruckus, with a greater variety of vocalizations; they ate widely dispersed, high-energy foods that were harder to find--and their brains were twice as large. Why?As far as Milton was concerned, diet was the key to these discrepancies. Eating fruits fueled the evolution of the spider monkeys’ large brains. Says Milton, It would have been a feedback process in which some slight change in the monkeys’ foraging behavior conferred a benefit, which in turn permitted a modest improvement in the quality of their diet, which led to an excess of energy. Over generations, the monkeys that spent the energy on making their brain slightly bigger and more complex had an evolutionary advantage. Their improved brain allowed for more helpful changes in their behavior, and so on.Milton realized that if such a scenario was correct, similar differences in brain size should show up in other primates with similar differences in diet - monkeys and apes that eat fruits should have larger brains than their leaf-eating counterparts. Sure enough, when Milton checked the literature, she found the pattern held true. For example, of the three great apes, lively, quick chimpanzees, our closest animal relatives, have a bigger brain for their body size than do the slower, more placid gorillas and orangutans. Chimps take some 94 percent of their diet from plants, largely in the form of ripe fruits. Gorillas and orangutans eat 99 percent plant foods, but mainly lower-quality leaves, pith, even bark. Diet had to be the key to their disparate evolution.

www8.nationalacademies.org —  African Fruits Could Help Alleviate Hunger and Bolster Rural Development, Environmental Stability in Africa   WASHINGTON -- Africa's own fruits are a largely untapped resource that could combat malnutrition and boost environmental stability and rural development in Africa, says a new report from the National Research Council.  African science institutes, policymakers, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals could all use modern horticultural knowledge and scientific research to bring these "lost crops" -- such as baobab, marula, and butterfruit -- to their full potential, said the panel that issued the report.    Today, tropical fruit production in Africa is dominated by species introduced from Asia and the Americas, such as bananas, pineapples, and papayas.  Because these and other crops arrived on the continent centuries ago already improved through horticultural selection and breeding, they increasingly displaced the traditional species that had fed Africans for thousands of years.  The imported species also received the support of colonial powers who wanted familiar crops that were profitable to grow, and indigenous fruits continued their downward spiral of dwindling cultivation and knowledge.    With renewed scientific and institutional support, however, Africa's native fruits could make a much greater contribution to nutrition and economic development, the new report says.  Fruit trees and shrubs also offer long-term benefits by improving the stability of the environment.   The report highlights 24 fruits that hold special promise; some are already being cultivated in parts of Africa, while others are harvested from the wild.  Examples are:   Aizen.  Giving more people access to this wild fruit -- which grows in extreme climates with few other food resources -- could reduce malnutrition and mortality, the report says.  The fruits are a good source of vitamins A and C, calcium, and some minerals, while the seeds are high in protein and zinc.  This large, resilient Saharan shrub shows promise as a way to protect erodible slopes, stabilize dunes, and create windbreaks.    Balanites.  This small desert tree tolerates heat and aridity so well it thrives deep in the Sahara.  It produces heavy yields of datelike fruits, as well as kernels that are one-half oil and one-third protein -- similar to the makeup of soybeans and sesame seeds.  These fruits and kernels already feed families in arid zones where few other food crops exist, but their full potential is scarcely tapped.  The seeds supply a food-grade vegetable oil also used in local cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.  The trees stabilize the natural environment, helping dry areas resist desertification.   Baobab.  The fruits of the baobab tree contain a sticky pulp that can be dried into a nutritious powder high in protein, vitamins, and minerals.  The powder is stirred into warm water or milk to create a healthy drink, and also beaten and dried into thin pancakes for use months or even years later, aiding food security.  During the rainy season, villagers often store water in the tree's trunk for later use.  The sale of baobab fruits aids rural commerce, and the trees themselves -- which also yield a popular leafy vegetable -- are almost indestructible.   Butterfruit.  This small tree produces fruit that is mainly used as a vegetable.  High in calories and one of the best protein sources in the fruit world, butterfruit is especially promising for reducing child malnutrition.  Even now, these fruits help many communities survive seasonal food shortages in the harshest hot, humid lowlands.  Butterfruit also serves as a cash crop, pouring into cities and rural markets in large quantities.  And the trees, which yield mahoganylike wood, may have potential for plantation forestry.     Ebony.  The ebonies of Africa yield some of the world's finest timber and also bear abundant, bright red fruits that are succulent and sweet. These can be dried for use when seasonal foods become scarce. The seeds of some ebonies are also edible, and the leaves are used as animal feed.  Though the trees are known and valued on a local level, hardly anything scientific is known about managing them as food crops.   Marula.  This tree is a nutritional powerhouse, producing both fruits high in vitamin C and nuts similar to the macademia, high in protein and minerals.  The fruits are popular in markets and even exported, while the kernels contribute to nutrition and food security.  In addition, oils extracted from the nuts are also exported for high-priced skin care products.  Harvesting the fruits and shelling the nuts provide work for thousands of rural women who have hardly any other source of income.     Tamarind.  These fruits are a strong source of B vitamins and calcium, and can be stored for months without refrigeration.  In addition, tamarind's sweet-sour pulp can be preserved in the form of sun-dried cakes -- a simple procedure that perhaps millions throughout Africa could exploit for food security, the report says.  Already widespread, the trees have great promise for restoring damaged lands to health and productivity, and likely for sequestering carbon, since they are treasured and seldom cut down.

dailymail.co.uk — A study has found that to get maximum defence against heart disease, you need to eat at least eight daily servings of fresh food. Healthy harvest: Research shows we need to increase our intake of fruit and veg The Government’s five-a-day advice has its roots in World Health Organisation guidelines to include 14oz of vegetables in a daily diet. But there have been doubts over whether eating more than this level of fruit and veg meant even greater health benefits. Now the new study suggests every extra portion provides added protection. Significantly, those in the ­highest category – eating eight or more a day – have a 22 per cent lower chance of dying from heart disease than those who consume three ­portions, the UK average. A ‘portion’ weighs just under 3oz, equal to a small banana, a medium apple or a small carrot. The findings come from an ongoing European investigation into diet and health, looking at 300,000 people in eight countries. Dr Francesca Crowe, of Oxford University, is working on the project. She said that although ischaemic heart disease (IHD) – the most common form – was less likely in those who ate lots of vegetables, it could be explained because these people might also have healthier lifestyles. However, the study specifically showed a reduced risk of dying from IHD of around four per cent for each additional portion of fruit and veg consumed above the lowest category, which was those who ate two or fewer portions. The average intake of fruit and vegetables across all the countries in the study was five portions. People in Greece, Italy and Spain ate more and those in Sweden less.   Professor Sir Michael Marmot, of the University College London, said the findings were of ‘huge practical importance’. He said: ‘Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death. A reduction of 22 per cent is huge. There would need to be big shift in dietary patterns to achieve this healthy consumption of eight portions a day. It is worth trying to move in that direction.’ Scientists have previously suggested 15,000 lives a year could be saved if everyone ate five a day.

runningraw.com — What is the difference between Raw Food and Living Food? Although the definitions of raw vary, it is commonly held that for a food to be raw it must have not been heated over 118 degrees F. My personal belief is that foods begin to break down and lose nutritive value when subjected to temperatures over 100 degrees F. A living food may or may not be a raw food (it may have been cooked at one point), but it has been re-enlivened or populated with living cultures. Examples would be kombucha tea, miso, tempeh, kim chee and krauts, etc. What is a detox? Detox, short for detoxification, is the elimination of toxic substances from the body. What can I expect during my detox? The detox is a highly individual process. Everyone experiences it differently. For some there are no detox symptoms at all. My detox lasted 4 months. I was light-headed, nauseous, weak, tired, headaches, fever-like symptoms. It was not fun, but I came through the other side with a new body. Where do I get my protein? This is probably the most common question i get, and the answer is that I'm not really that concerned with protein intake. Yes, I do consume some protein in the few hemp seeds and nuts that I eat. The dark leafy greens and broccoli that I consume daily also contain protein, but all in all, I really don't consume that much protein. The human body breaks protein down into amino acids, so I cut out the middle man and eat foods that are rich in amino acids - ALL uncooked fruits and vegetables. How do I get enough calories? Actually, I consume much fewer calories than the average American... I'll be doing a caloric breakdown of a single day shortly... my guess is that my consumption falls short of 2000 calories. Raw food is a much more efficient fuel, whereas many of the calories consumed on a SAD diet are burned trying to break down the very food that's providing the energy, and to clean up the damage brought about by an unhealthy diet. Running Raw Diet How long have I been eating raw? I took the plunge into fantastic health on November 3rd of 2004. What do I eat on a daily basis? I don't really have a strict plan or routine when it comes to my daily consumption. I eat what feels good. On most mornings i'll start with a piece of fresh fruit or two (apple, bananas, orange, grapefruit, kiwi, peach, strawberries, etc...), then I'll have a Larabar sometime mid morning. Before my workouts I usually consume a banana and some young coconut water. After my workouts I'll have another piece or two of fresh fruit - within 15 minutes of completing my workout!!! Then when i get home I'll make a smoothie with fruit and greens (kale, lettuce, collard), a few dates and some dulse (for electrolytes). Mid evening I'll chomp on another Larabar, and then I'll make a massive salad at around 7pm... it's got tons of different greens, broccoli, red peppers, radishes, avocado, celery, snap peas, mushrooms and whatever else i can find to throw in there... every day is different... but this is somewhat normal for me, and gives me all the energy I need and more. Did I go vegetarian or vegan before going raw? I was vegan for 6 years before I went raw. The last six months before I went raw I was eating a macrobiotic vegan diet. What is my pre-race regimen? As for a pre-race dinner... I eat no later than 6pm the night of a race... and that meal is almost entirely fruit - bananas, apples, mangoes, kiwis, strawberries... just no melon (they don't play well with other fruit). I might also have a little romaine lettuce. Make sure you are very hydrated the day before the race. The morning of the race, I wake up 3 hours before my start time and have a large all fruit breakfast. Half an hour later I go for a 3 to 5 minute run to get my metabolism going (all the top runners do this). Then I relax and make sure I'm getting lots of fluids... I'll drink at least 32 ounces of water or coconut water before the race... I stop drinking 30 minutes before the start. What supplements do I take? Actually, I don't take any. The point of the Running Raw Project is to prove that one can accomplish incredible feats of physical health and performance using inexpensive, easy to find, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. What superfoods do I take? My belief is that a raw lifestyle should be as sustainable and economically feasible as possible. Therefore, I keep to the foods that are commonplace in any supermarket anywhere in the country, and cost very little to purchase. The miracle of the raw diet is not in the foods you are consuming, it's in the foods you are NOT consuming. Your body is the miracle, you don't need expensive "superfoods" to have a super body. The Running Raw Project How did the project begin? The Running Raw Project came into existence on December 25th of 2005. I was at a Christmas party at my friend's house in Venice, CA. The topic of my recent entrance into the world of running had come up. As I described the changes that were happening to my body and the abnormal feats of endurance that I was capable of, someone said - "you should film this". That hadn't occured to me before. Had anyone ever done that? Was anyone documenting the physical changes that occur when one goes raw? Were people testing this diet and it's relation to physical performance? I looked around online and found not one reference to a Raw diet and athletic performance. This blew my mind. What I was experiencing was off the charts, was I the only one experiencing these physical improvements on this diet? I had to find out. Thus the journey began. What is the status of the documentary film? As of September of 2008, the documentary is on hold. Other aspects of the project have taken precedence. My hopes are that a new team will be assembled and a new and better film will be produced. Raw Food and Performance Coming Soon. Recipes My personal favorite organic smoothie recipe: 2 ripe bananas 6 large dates 3 large leaves of kale 2 tablespoons Nutiva hemp seeds 1 tablespoon flax seeds 1 tablespoon dulse flakes 1 dash cinnamon 2 cups filtered water Training What does my training regimen look like? It all depends on the type of event I'm training for and the time of year. Currently I'm running about 91 miles a week. Which is accomplished by two runs of 5 to 13 miles a day. I also incorporate leg strength and core strength routines 3 times a week. On Tuesdays I do two to four mountain ascents at just below race pace. Typically, the mountains run have between 900 to 1,500 foot vertical gain. Thursdays are reserved for speedwork on the track. The length and intensity of the intervals depends on the event that I'm training for. I compete in a race every weekend which serves as a tempo run. Each race is preceded by a 3 mile warmup and a minimum of a 3 mile warmdown. Did I start training right away when I went raw? I was raw for a year before I started to train. I don't think it's a good idea to be on a training regimen when you are starting a raw diet. The detox can be pretty intense, and the exercise can further the stress on your immune system. What is my resting heart rate? Resting heart rate is measured the moment you first wake up in the morning, or after a period of 20 minutes of no activity. Currently, my RHR is 38. Was I athletic before I went raw? I was a competitive Cross Country skier and track athlete in high school. I competed my freshman and part of my sophomore years in college, then "retired" at age 20. (Back To Top) Weight Loss Eating a raw or living foods diet is one of the most effective ways to safely lose weight and keep it off. It is not uncommon for people to lose 25 lbs or more their first month of going raw.

pioneerthinking.com — Fruit is the most beautiful food on the planet. The variety of fruits on Earth is so massive it boggles the mind. Often people ask me if I feel limited eating a raw-food/fruitarian diet. I always respond by telling them 99.9% of all food on Earth is raw plant food! Fruit is our most natural food. It is the food we are attracted to most in its raw natural state. We define a fruit as a food which contains the seed(s) within it for regeneration and propagation of the plant. A raw-food/fruitarian diet makes you beautiful and pure inside and out. It leads to the clearest use of your mind -- it greatly enhances your mental abilities. In my book: Nature’s First Law: The Raw-Food Diet I wrote: "Every fruit has its secret." Once you are completely cleaned out of cooked-food residue and toxicity, you become attuned to special powers available in certain fruits! The durian fruit has an extreme smoothness and cleanness to it in the way it is metabolized in your body. It makes everything run smoothly and clearly and warms up the body in colder weather. Dates too, may warm you up in cold weather. Dates are a great food for endurance and long walks. Apples are a "clean-out food," they clear everything out as they go through. Mangos transport you into the ecstatic state of summer fun. Bananas make you feel like a wild primate!   How To Eat Fruit And How Much? Ideally, it is best to eat just one type of fruit at a time (mono-diet) and to wait 45 minutes until the next type of food goes in. You might want to eat 5 apples in the morning and nothing else or choose to eat cucumbers only for lunch! When you are eating a mono-diet, your body will give you a clear signal when to stop eating. Your appetite will turn off or you will suddenly feel you have eaten too much. Typically the fruit will actually change taste on you and won’t taste as good! At that point listen to your body and stop eating! If you combine foods, the signal as to when to stop eating is not as clear, and you must discipline yourself. If you overeat raw food or fruit or even cooked food remember the reasons why most people overeat: suppressed emotional issues and a lack of deep breathing. If you overeat, go outside and take 10-15 deep breaths! Or breathe deeply at night instead of eating -- if you have problems in that area.  

en.wikipedia.org — In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds. The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state, such as apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, juniper berries and bananas. Seed-associated structures that do not fit these informal criteria are usually called by other names, such as vegetables, pods, nut, ears and cones. In biology (botany), a "fruit" is a part of a flowering plant that derives from specific tissues of the flower, mainly one or more ovaries. Taken strictly, this definition excludes many structures that are "fruits" in the common sense of the term, such as those produced by non-flowering plants (like juniper berries, which are the seed-containing female cones of conifers), and fleshy fruit-like growths that develop from other plant tissues close to the fruit (accessory fruit, or more rarely false fruit or pseudocarp), such as cashew fruits. Often the botanical fruit is only part of the common fruit, or is merely adjacent to it. On the other hand, the botanical sense includes many structures that are not commonly called "fruits", such as bean pods, corn kernels, wheat grains, tomatoes, and many more. However, there are several variants of the biological definition of fruit that emphasize different aspects of the enormous variety that is found among plant fruits. Fruits (in either sense of the word) are the means by which many plants disseminate seeds. Most edible fruits, in particular, were evolved by plants in order to exploit animals as a means for seed dispersal, and many animals (including humans to some extent) have become dependent on fruits as a source of food. Fruits account for a substantial fraction of world's agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings.

30bananasaday.com — where the discussions will happen, i got tired of repeating...

30bananasaday.com — A community focused on living in line with Nature's design. 100% low fat raw vegans endeavoring to increase global peace!