5. What are the possible side effects?
Lockman: “Simply changing one’s diet to a diet that is invariably much higher water and fiber than one is used to will often create some digestive-system upset initially as the body begins to rehydrate and move old material. Similarly, there may be other symptoms that can occur as the body begins to cleanse and heal much faster on a fruit-based raw vegan diet than it ever did before. Many people don’t realize that symptoms are always evidence that the body is attempting to cleanse and heal and so imagine that the symptoms mean that there’s a problem with the diet, but this is not so. Once the body is truly clean and efficient (achieved much more rapidly via water-only fasting both long-enough and properly) there is no comparison to how it feels on an optimal fruit-based raw vegan diet versus any other diet.”
6. What is the Tanglewood Wellness Center?
Lockman: “Tanglewood is the world’s largest dedicated water-only fasting center where over the last 22.5 years we’ve guided more than 5000 clients from more than 110 countries (including dozens of Israelis) through water-only fasts averaging 26 days.”
7. What is water fasting and it’s process?
Lockman: “Water fasting (more accurately called, ‘water-only fasting,”) is the process of resting completely while sipping water for a period of time so that one’s body can use all of its energy to cleanse and heal itself.”
8. How do you encourage and inspire your clients at the wellness center?
Lockman: “ I use a multi-fold approach to encourage and inspire them:
A) I teach them the principles so that they truly understand what’s possible
B) I share many case histories with them so that they can see examples of people who have gotten the results that they wanted for themselves, and
C) I model the behavior for them, being a living example of the principles in action”
9. For someone who is considering adopting a fruitarian lifestyle, how would you recommend they get started in a safe manner?
Lockman: “One can simply change to a fruit-based diet with no danger. And if they prefer, they can also begin to modify their diet little by little rather than changing everything at once.”
10. How do you handle vitamin deficiencies and would you say that this lifestyle choice is “extreme” and not recommended for everyone?
Lockman: “ Nothing contains more vitamins than fruit and soft, tender leaves, and more important than vitamin (and overall nutrient content) is nutrient availability. Each species has a digestive tract specifically adapted to their particular diet and eating anything else will never come close to meeting their body’s needs as well as their own species-specific diet. In one study which demonstrates this, they gave human subjects a measured quantity of kale. They determined how many “vitamin A equivalency units” were available from the kale (the amount of beta carotene that could be converted into vitamin A in the body) and then measured to see how much was actually absorbed. At a later date, they gave the same subjects a measured quantity of papaya and again, calculated how much vitamin A could be made in the body from the beta carotene that the specific serving contained and then compared it to what was actually absorbed by each person. On average, the subjects got twice as much vitamin A from the papaya as they did from the kale even though the kale contained twice as much beta carotene, meaning that it was 4 times easier/more effective to get vitamin A from the papaya then from the kale. This clearly demonstrates that it is Not about how much of a nutrient a substance contains, but rather, how easily the body can absorb it and each species invariably does best with the natural diet that it’s body is particularly adapted to.”
