30 Bananas A Day. 20 Mangoes For Lunch. The Disordered World Of Fruitarians
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Jacqueline Alnes was fit and healthy until one day she collapsed. That was the start of it. There was something really wrong inside her head and her neurological episodes were undiagnosable. Her nightmarish search for answers led her to an online-fruit community and she became entranced. It took her down a rabbit-hole of Vegan YouTube videos, disordered eating, fasting, and before and after photos.
“You can sort of feel like you're part of their life, when in reality, it's a very empty form of consuming someone else's life when you're not participating in any way.”
At the same time Australia's Freelee The Banana Girl and Durianrider exploded on YouTube from 2012, convincing their followers that fruit was the only way to achieve extreme wellness. Even eating 30 bananas a day. It wasn’t just a fad diet for their followers and still isn’t, it’s a lifestyle.
“They were very obsessed with things being pure and raw… You'd eat 20 mangoes for lunch because they believed that if you stuck with one fruit, your body could digest it better and it would be better for your energy levels”
So how does anyone get swept up in such a strange and dangerous movement? Jacqueline explains in this episode of No Filter.
THE END BITS:
Jacqueline Alnes' new book The Fruit Cure is available here.
Jacqueline is on Instagram here.
Mia interviewed Kate for a No Filter episode here
Kate Langbroek's book Ciao Bella is available here.
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CREDITS:
Host: Kate Langbroek. You can find Kate on Instagram here.
Find Mia on Instagram here and get her newsletter here.
Executive Producer: Kimberley Braddish
Audio Producer: Madeline Joannou
Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
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