Amazing Fruitarians, Coconuts and Tomatoes for Dinner, and My New Favorite Earth-Friendly Sunscreen

Fruitarians Kveta Martinec and Mango Wodzak

Saw a very cool Emile Bokaer documentary last night called ‘Pure Fruit’. It’s a look at the lives of fruitarians Kveta Martinec and Mango Wodzak as they travel to tropical Queensland to find a permanent home. Along the way (they drive clear across giant Australia), they meet and mingle with other fruitarians, vegans, and activists. There’s lots of great discussion, and interesting disagreements.

Martinec and Wodzak have been fruitarians for many years, are in their 50s, and in good health. They don’t have health insurance or bother with doctors. They defy the belief that a fruit-only diet is a slow death of malnutrition. Interestingly, they drink nothing – not even water. All the fluids they need are found in the large amounts of fruit they eat each day.

Wodzak says the decision to go fruitarian followed in the footsteps of his choice, decades ago, to go vegan. He went vegan to drop out of a world that has become what he calls a “killing machine”. He then decided that to eat a vegetable is to eat seeds, which is a form of killing of the potential life of the seed. The fruit he and Kveta eat all bear seeds and pits, which they toss to the ground – never in the garbage – to, as he says, “let nature take its course”. And Kveta agrees.

I’m with them up to the point that any form of animal product is bad news. To strike meat, dairy, honey, and eggs from your diet is to make a conscious choice for compassion. But to view the eating of veggies as a form of killing (by consuming the seed) gives me spooky flashbacks to my Catholic upbringing, where birth control was prohibited because it lays to waste sperm and egg, which are also seeds of life. This always struck me as utterly ridiculous.

Still, I admire this couple. Neither holds a straight, soul-killing 9-to-5 job, both live lightly, own little, travel a lot, spread their message, and have much love to give. They bathe nude in water holes and wash their hair with fruit peels (you know I’m going to have to try this). They’re not youngsters with no notion of what the world is. They have plenty of life experience, and what they’ve seen, they don’t like. So, they made radical, brave choices.

It’s interesting to see ordinary people become extraordinary just by waking up and dropping out. If Kveta and Mango were at any American shopping mall right now- with their long hair, batik clothing, beat-up sandals, and bags of fruit – they would be considered strange, and people would stare. But they are in fact floating on a higher plane than everyone at the mall who’s clutching shopping bags and bottoming out their debit cards. Much higher.

I think I’ll mono-meal it tonight. Mangos for dinner: we have a big bowl of them in the kitchen. I may never transition from vegan to fruitarian (or maybe I will), but bringing as much fruit into our diets is not just good for us, it’s good for the world.

Two years after they set out to find their permanent home, Kveta and Mango found it. There are jackfruit trees in the backyard, and lots of room to plant more fruit trees. Their home is small, sparse, clean, bright, warm, and full of fruit. Win.

Speaking of good things, last night’s dinner was epic and completely improvised. Inspired by Bali cooking (my latest infatuation), this is all raw, vegan, nutrient-packed, and yummy. In a large bowl, I combined equal amounts of:

💚 Grated fresh coconut meat

💚 Diced tomatoes (I hate market tomatoes, but we have no choice right now – I got these from Garden of Light in Avon)

💚 Sun dried tomatoes, chopped

💚 Mushrooms, chopped

💚 Chopped fresh basil

💚 Minced garlic

💚 Finely chopped green onion

💚 Juice of one fresh lime

💚 About a teaspoon of sweet paprika

Mix well, being sure to incorporate well the tomato and coconut. The acidic tomato draws out the healthy plant fat of the coconut meat, making this dish really rich. I served it Buddha bowl-style, with some fresh chopped arugula on the side. It’s a little sweet, a little spicy, creamy, and chewy. Can’t wait for summer, when I can make this dish again with our garden tomatoes, onions, garlic, basil, and even lime from our Mexican lime tree. All good.

This is in no way a sponsorship, just me again recommending something I’ve found that is awesome. Coola brand 100 percent organic, GMO-free, cruelty-free sunscreen will be this summer’s sun protection. I received free samples late last summer – the unscented spf 30 face sunscreen, the spf 30 pina colada spray-on body sunscreen, and the spf 30 unscented lip balm. Tried it several times, and love it.

For me, the test of a good sunscreen includes all organic, natural, cruelty-free components in a product that doesn’t go on white or oily or make me break out. Coola brand passed the test, so next payday, I’ll be buying full size bottles of the face, body, and lip balm products. I’m also caving in to pressure from my husband and buying an Indonesian coolie hat. As much as I lerve the sun, it’s powerful out on the water.

Coola brand also makes a vanilla-peppermint sunscreen lip balm that looks good. The pina colada body spray smells like a heady tropical paradise – not sickeningly sweet or artificial. Makes sense since the fragrance is derived from all natural, GMO-free, organic fruit oils. Coola isn’t cheap, but I don’t cut corners on good, animal- and Earth-friendly sunscreen. Love the skin you’re in, and love the planet!

Live in peace