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Spotlight on Nutrition: Daily Diets of Ultrarunners; Part 1

Fuego y Agua 2013

November 12, 2012 Comments (2) Nutrition

Spotlight on Nutrition Part 2: Fruitarian Power

 
This is the 2nd in a series of articles on the daily nutrition of ultramarathon runners. In “Part 1“, I shared the stories of two ultrarunners with similar dietary choices. In this post, we will venture deeper into the realm of plant-powered ultrarunning. Meet Michael Arnstein, a “fruitarian” ultrarunner.
 

Fruitarian Ultrarunner Michael Arnstein

 Skeptical? How about a blazing 14:38:26 100 mile win at Javelina Jundred just two weeks ago… grab an apple from your kitchen and read what the fruitarian has to say on the subject of diet and performance.

Q1: Briefly describe your daily nutrition choices. What is the guiding factor for the choices you make?

A: I eat food that is created in its natural state, as made in nature, just as all other living creatures do on the planet for the last 4 billion years.  I don’t try to improve on what’s already perfect.
I eat what tastes good, what’s a good value and quality.  Whatever is in season is what I go for, so in winter I do a ton of citrus, in summer I eat an ever expanding variety of produce.
Fruit has it all, pure water, high in calories, the best sources of vitamins and minerals and it’s about as environmental as you could ever hope for: no packaging.  It’s perfect nutrition every time. Period.

Q2: Your favorite meal within your nutritional boundaries?

A: Soggy pizza is as bad as a green banana.  So the point is: ‘Freshness’ is what matters most in what I want to eat.  Great apples are a pure pleasure to eat, even 20 at a time! 
Bad apples are horrible!  So I love whatever is top quality, and most ‘fresh’.  Freshness… That is my ‘favorite’food. 
I don’t consider bread, pasta, grains, beans, pizza, animal based foods, as foods, they all need tremendous processing to be ‘food’ and inevitably we see that these things cause problems for our health.  So I stick to raw plants as my boundaries.

Q3: What lead you to make the choice to eat this way?

A: Failure.
I kept being disappointed in my health and performance on all other diets until I took up fruitarianism.  If fruitarianism starts to fail me, I will look for another option, but for the last 5 years it hasn’t so I remain eating this way.  In fact my performance, health and wellbeing continues to get better and better the longer I eat this way.
I don’t get sick, I don’t get injured, I don’t have emotional or mental disorders or issues like depression or brain fog, I don’t have body odor, and I don’t have food addiction type reactions to the food I eat like I did when I ate conventional foods.

Q4: In a testimonial to the benefits of your daily nutrition habits, what benefits have you gained? Can you provide some examples of improvements you’ve observed in your ultrarunning, overall health, or well being…

A: My physical performances have skyrocketed. I literally have become an entirely new athlete all together. Not just in my raw leg speed, but also my ability to train with tremendous loads and recover seemingly overnight.  I’ve reached tremendous levels in the short to mega distances that I never could even dream of previously.  My marathon PR went from a 2:45 to a 2:28, my weekly milage went from 85 to 100 miles a week, to 150-180 miles a week for months on end.  I set new distance achievements in the 100 mile, 135 mile, 24 hour and even 154  mile Spartathlon race in Greece.  All while having zero injury or illness related to running.  Sounds impossibly too good to be true right?  Well it’s really the truth. And I take no supplements outside of B12 a few times a week.

Q5: What challenges come with the choice to eat this way?

A: Social isolation.  Winning and being at the top is lonely… it’s true.

Q6: What advice do you have for someone who is thinking of changing to your nutritional choices?

A: Read my forthcoming book ‘Fruit IS Fast Food’.  I am certain it will be a best seller among athletes who are willing to do whatever it takes to reach peak performance. I am due to release my book by April 2013.

Want more of this guy? Who wouldn’t!…Check out Michael’s website: The Fruitarian.com !

 

 

 

2 Responses to Spotlight on Nutrition Part 2: Fruitarian Power

  1. Joey says:

    Looking forward to your book. When I came across your YouTube video it was inspiring. Made me realize what Im doing now wasn’t 100% but what your doing is. I really think this will work for me come 2013, I promised my wife to start in January so we can “get ready.”
    Good luck on your future runs and endeavors and thanks for opening up my eyes to a cleaner way of living that doesn’t involve meats.

  2. Great interview. Difficult to argue with the logic. I have just pointed people towards it by making it a post of the week at http://www.barefootbeginner.com/2012/11/16/barefoot-running-5-best-barefoot-posts-of-the-week-pick-of-the-posts-number-18/?preview=true&preview_id=2717&preview_nonce=2c8e11081e

    Regards Chris Fielding

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