The long read: Fruitarians believe that eating nothing but raw plants promotes health and happiness. But all is not well within their community
Stumbled across this article today. It’s old but this really brings back the memories. For anyone curious, this is the online vegan/raw vegan cult that I got sucked into back in college that led to YEARS of disordered eating along with the massive rebound weight gain of 90+ lbs from my lowest adult weight back in 2013 that I’m currently dealing with now. Truly one of the worst things in my life I could have done to myself and my body LOOKS like what I put it through sadly.
As I deal with this nearly 100 pound weight gain, all I’ve been able to do lately is just retrace my steps, rewatching hours of content on YouTube and reading through any and all blog posts/forums of content that used to absolutely enthrall me when I was (still kind of am) an extremely insecure, low self esteem having person in my early 20s with body image issues. Reading this article, I now see from the author’s perspective. I see how truly bizarre, illogical, and unhealthy this entire movement really was. It seems obvious now but back then, I could not see the light for anything. Especially the part where they talked about how each daily women’s session just revolved around cravings, how literally everyone talked about food all day every day, which looking back is an obvious sign of starvation but back then I just took as a “true passion” for raw foods. I’ve also been looking into all of the cult doctors I used to believe were legitimate and just..... wow. I’m so glad I got out. I came across the term “hygienic religion” yesterday when looking into this stuff and it really does perfectly summarize my state of mind at the time. Food literally was my path to salvation, to finally becoming clean enough and good enough. This is a topic I could reflect on for hours if wasn’t scared to admit in public that I used to think “meals” of 10 bananas was reasonable ugh lol.
Friendly reminder that propaganda/cult tactics can work on ANYONE, even if you think you’re smarter than that.
