Eating 30 Bananas a Day: An Experiment

I've been interested in going raw vegan/ fruitarian for quite some time now, but I've never had the money (Not saying raw veganism is more expensive, I'm just broke.). In the raw vegan community, there's a well-known couple called durianrider and freelee, these two have built a website called 30bananasaday.com dedicated to the raw vegan or fruitarian lifestyle. One of their major contributions to the raw vegan world is the idea of banana island. Banana island is basically eating nothing but bananas for a certain extended number of days. Now, I know what you're thinking already, but banana island is based on the idea of eating mono-meals of one kind of fruit. Mono-fruit diets are easy on the body, the fruit digests very quickly, cleans out your system, makes meal planning non-existant, satisfies all sugar cravings, regulates your system and gives you more energy than an animal based diet ever could.

Have you ever in your life seen a sick or obese long-term raw vegan?

No. Of course you haven't, neither have I and I've been researching raw veganism and fruitarism for almost two years.

Quite possibly, you've heard 30bad being called a cult and so you're leary to join them in their fruit lifestyle. Maybe you've come across the website called 30bananasadaysucks.com and concluded that they make a compelling argument against fruitarism. But I ask you, why would you believe someone who devotes their entire existence to attempting to debunk a fruit based diet? Isn't it strange to build an entire website on hate towards fruit?

I can tell you right now that 30bad is not a cult. The Manson family was a cult, Jonestown was a cult, the Church of Bible Understanding is a cult; so trying to put eating bananas on the same level as mass suicide and extreme psychological damage is just a bit more than irksome to me and other fruit munchers.

I do understand where the haters are coming from, though. Harley (durianrider) and Freelee (owners of 30bad) could come off as offensive to someone set in their ways. I used to be that person. Just a few years ago I hated vegetarians and vegans and would have hated fruitarians if I'd had even known what they were. I used the ridiculous argument, "well, plants are living too", thinking I was oh-so clever, thinking I knew about nutrition, health and morals. I had a legitimate reason for that kind of mind-set; I was raised in your traditional meat eating and protein obsessed American family. I grew up being taught that if you wanted to lose weight you needed to eat low-carb and high protein, I believed that fruit contained too much sugar and that I would get diabetes by "overeating" it. My parents told me over and over that dairy was healthy and full of protein and I believed them as any kid would because that's what they were taught -- that's what we're all taught.

Now when I look back on my childhood obesity, I can identify the culprit: bad food. Meat and dairy with every meal, usually with bread, chased with a diet soda and sweets: the standard American diet (SAD). It makes perfect sense to me now that my dad has been obese for as long as I can remember, that my mom exercises 3-4 hours a day while eating only 1,500 calories just to maintain her weight and that people are increasingly suffering from acne well into adulthood.

What really blows my mind is that our health problems can be cured! Getting a gorgeous body and keeping the excess blubber off can be easy and delicious, you don't have to kill yourself in a gym working your butt off everyday when you're already exhausted before you even hit the treadmill. Acne will disappear, skin will be vibrant and glowing, getting out of bed won't send a wave of dread throughout your body every morning. Mental clarity will be a given; a lot of raw foodists realize their life purpose on this diet, just from changing their food!

I've met people who are worried that their family or friends will think they're crazy, and to that I say: lead by example. When you're rocking a two piece and on your life path, let's see who'll be the envious one.

Now that you're all filled in on 30 bananas a day, you can go ahead and decide if you think it's an idea worth trying out. If so, continue on reading.

From October 21, 2012 through October 27, 2012 I will be eating nothing but bananas for seven full days. I have done similar experiments before; juicing for five days, green smoothies for a week, mono-fruit for days etc. This will, however, be the very first time I try bananas only for a week and I'm very excited! To prepare, I've been doing a couple days of bananas, berries and steamed potatoes to get in the mood of things and make it easier for myself.