Fruit Is Not Like Mother's Milk

The Nutritional Fallacies of a Popular
Fruitarian Myth Exposed

by Tom Billings
Copyright © 1999 by Thomas E. Billings. All rights reserved.
Contact author for permission to republish.

A detailed TABLE OF CONTENTS linked to all portions of the article is just below.

Abstract

In this article we will look into the available nutritional data which, when examined rigorously, shows that:

Fruit is not like (human) mother's milk; they are dramatically different foods.
Human milk is a fatty food that provides vitamins B-12, D, and biotin--essential nutrients that are lacking in fruits. Milk has limited sugar--lactose--that is slowly assimilated.
Fruits are effectively a sweet food (with the exception of a few oily fruits like avocado). They are high in sugar, minerals, and very low in fat and protein. The sugar in fruit is rapidly assimilated.
Goat milk is "closer" in nutritional composition to human milk than sweet fruit or the fruit blends analyzed in this paper.
The vitamin content of fruit varies considerably by type of fruit. In general, fruit is a good source of select (but not all) vitamins. Milk is a more complete food and has a wider array of vitamins than fruit; the result is that milk is higher in some vitamins, while fruit is higher in others.
The "fruit is like mother's milk" claim is false, and potentially dangerous. It is an example of crank science and crackpot mal-nutritionalism.

Introduction

The claim that sweet fruit is an ideal food because it is "like human mother's milk" is commonly used to promote the fruitarian diet. More precisely, the claim is that the nutritional profile of sweet fruit is very similar to that of (human) mother's milk. The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed and critical examination of this claim and related issues.

This paper contains three major parts:

SECTION I:
Nutritional Comparison Tables
This part provides detailed nutritional comparisons of human milk and selected sweet fruits, followed by a comparison of human milk, goat milk and a common fatty fruit--avocados. To see if an average (a blend) of fruits is comparable to milk, tables are provided comparing human milk with an average of selected sweet fruits (alone), and also with an average of sweet fruits and avocado.

SECTION II:
Analysis of Nutritional Comparison Data--Making Sense of the Numbers
The calorie composition, sugar, fatty acid, and amino acid/protein profiles of human milk are compared in summary against goat milk and fruits. A discussion is included with the summary tables.

SECTION III:
Challenging Fruitarian Defenses of the Theory
Some common claims made by fruitarians in defense of, and/or related to, the theory are described and analyzed. The nature of some of the claims made tells you more about the fruitarian movement than you might expect!

Note: If your time is limited you should read Sections II and III first, leaving Section I for later when you have more time.

Table of Contents

SECTION I
Nutritional Comparison Tables

SECTION II
Analysis of Nutritional Comparison Data--
Making Sense of the Numbers

SECTION III
Probing Fruitarian Defenses of the
"Fruit is Like Mother's Milk" Theory

APPENDIX
Defects of an Alleged Statistical "Proof"
that Fruit and Mother's Milk are Similar

Go to Section I: Nutritional Comparison Tables

Go to Section II: Making Sense of the Numbers

Go to Section III: Challenging Fruitarian Defenses of the Theory

Back to Waking Up from the Fruitarian Dreamtime
Back to Research-Based Appraisals of Alternative Diet Lore

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