The 200 fruitarians who find this country to be their Garden of Eden

fruitarian-laptop-dreads

Vegetarians criticise meat eaters for giving the world cow farts (greenhouse gases) and for making animals endure unspeakable suffering. Vegawarians criticize both for not seeing the middle ground. Vegans take on all three groups saying that no animal products should be consumed by us humans, but there is another level of food piety: fruitarian.

When you think “Middle East” grilled lamb kebabs might come to mind. Other strange delights dangle on the Middle Eastern menu including sheep testicles.

But in Israel, the land of milk and honey and meat, about 2.5 percent of the population are die-hard vegans, with many restaurants offering vegan options. Among Israelis a new movement is emerging: fruitarianism. These fruitarians are people who eat nothing but fruit, some veggies and maybe some nuts.

They believe that even the vegan processed food industry is harmful and polluting and they are swearing off most every kind of food.

Despite having to eat kilos of fruit a day to sustain oneself, there are upsides: “it’s definitely less expensive than eating animals and animal products,” fruitarian Aviv Bracha, a 34-year-old psychologist from Lod told Haaretz.

Fruitarians also in general believe it’s just a healthier way to eat – with some fruitarians claiming that the size of our human jaw and teeth have been adapted to eating a fruit-only diet.

According to this fruitarian, fruitarianism in Israel is paradise: “I remember of eating the best figs, pomegranates, etc. there, and I suppose I couldn’t eat anything else but fruit, lol. It’s really the Garden Of Eden.”

With dates, figs and so many fresh options every season Israel is definitely a fruitarian paradise, like Thailand.

If you want more on Israel, the Hebrew-speaking community has a website 30 Bananas a Day which you can use to help find fruitarian food ideas when in the Middle East. If you can’t read Hebrew send it through a Google translate. 

Famous fruitarians?

Ghandi
Ashton Kutcher, while rehearsing for his role as Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Idi Amin, Uganda’s military dictator while in exile in Saudi Arabia

Image of fruitarian catching some sun from Shutterstock

Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloostermanhttp://www.greenprophet.com
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist, innovation strategist, and founder of Green Prophet, one of the Middle East’s pioneering sustainability platforms. She has ranked in the Top 10 of Verizon innovation competitions, participated in NASA-linked challenges, and spoken worldwide on climate, food security, and future resilience. With an IoT technology patent, features in Canada’s National Post, and leadership inside teams building next-generation agricultural and planetary systems — including Mars-farming concepts — Karin operates at the intersection of storytelling, science, and systems change. She doesn’t report on the future – she helps design it. Reach out directly to [email protected]
2 COMMENTS

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

TRENDING

Earth building with Dead Sea salt bricks

Researchers develop a brick made largely from recycled Dead Sea salt—offering a potential alternative to carbon-intensive cement.

Farm To Table Israel Connects People To The Land

Farm To Table Israel is transforming the traditional dining experience into a hands-on journey.

Remilk makes cloned milk so cows don’t need to suffer and it’s hormone-free

This week, Israel’s precision-fermentation milk from Remilk is finally appearing on supermarket shelves. Staff members have been posting photos in Hebrew, smiling, tasting, and clearly enjoying the moment — not because it’s science fiction, but because it tastes like the real thing.

An Army of Healers Wins the 2025 IIE Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East

In a region more accustomed to headlines of loss than of listening, the Institute of International Education (IIE) has chosen to honor something quietly radical: healing. The 2025 Victor J. Goldberg Prize for Peace in the Middle East has been awarded to Nitsan Joy Gordon and Jawdat Lajon Kasab, the co-founders of the Army of Healers, for building spaces where Israelis and Palestinians — Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, and Bedouins — can grieve, speak, and rebuild trust together.

Peace hospital opens between Jordan and Israel

The proposed medical centre, described by Emek HaMaayanot Regional Council head Itamar Matiash as “a centre for cancer treatment, so that people from Jordan or further away could come and receive treatment,” would become the flagship of a wider cluster of medical, academic and innovation-based services planned for the Israeli half of the zone.

Qatar’s climate hypocrisy rides the London Underground

Qatar remains a master of doublethink—burning gas by the megaton while selling “sustainability” to a world desperate for clean air. Wake up from your slumber people.

How Quality of Hire Shapes Modern Recruitment

A 2024 survey by Deloitte found that 76% of talent leaders now consider long-term retention and workforce contribution among their most important hiring success metrics—far surpassing time-to-fill or cost-per-hire. As the expectations for new hires deepen, companies must also confront the inherent challenges in redefining and accurately measuring hiring quality.

8 Team-Building Exercises to Start the Week Off 

Team building to change the world! The best renewable energy companies are ones that function.

Thank you, LinkedIn — and what your Jobs on the Rise report means for sustainable careers

While “green jobs” aren’t always labeled as such, many of the fastest-growing roles are directly enabling the energy transition, climate resilience, and lower-carbon systems: Number one on their list is Artificial Intelligence engineers. But what does that mean? Vibe coding Claude? 

Somali pirates steal oil tankers

The pirates often stage their heists out of Somalia, a lawless country, with a weak central government that is grappling with a violent Islamist insurgency. Using speedboats that swarm the targets, the machine-gun-toting pirates take control of merchant ships and then hold the vessels, crew and cargo for ransom.

Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López Turned Ocean Plastic Into Profitable Sunglasses

Few fashion accessories carry the environmental burden of sunglasses. Most frames are constructed from petroleum-based plastics and acrylic polymers that linger in landfills for centuries, shedding microplastics into soil and waterways long after they've been discarded. Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López, president of the Spanish eyewear brand Hawkers, saw this problem differently than most industry executives.

Why Dr. Tony Jacob Sees Texas Business Egos as Warning Signs

Everything's bigger in Texas. Except business egos.  Dr. Tony Jacob figured...

Israel and America Sign Renewable Energy Cooperation Deal

Other announcements made at the conference include the Timna Renewable Energy Park, which will be a center for R&D, and the AORA Solar Thermal Module at Kibbutz Samar, the world's first commercial hybrid solar gas-turbine power plant that is already nearing completion. Solel Solar Systems announced it was beginning construction of a 50 MW solar field in Lebrija, Spain, and Brightsource Energy made a pre-conference announcement that it had inked the world's largest solar deal to date with Southern California Edison (SCE).

Related Articles

Popular Categories