The Fruit Cure was an interesting memoir about using an all-fruit diet to help cure a mystery illness. I would have liked a bit more science included, but interesting overall.

As a criticism of the American health care system, this is a powerful book written by an athlete felled by a neurological condition which doctors could not diagnose. It seems that fruitarianism was a key concept in her recovery.

In The Fruit Cure, Jacqueline Alnes takes readers through different fruit examples and how raw fruit changed their lives. She was a Division One runner during her freshman year of college. She would run in the rain and in the cold and she didn’t care. She began to experience a bad cough and was diagnosed with bronchitis and they gave her medications. She confessed to collapsing and hit her head and had neurological pain. She struggled to practice and kept wanting to run. She had some success and was able to beat her personal best record in running a 5K. Her symptoms would return again and again and no doctor could fix it. She at one point wound up in a wheelchair for several months and went to an epilepsy center. She sought help from an online community where they used fruit-based techniques to heal their bodies.


In the book, she looked at Esther Honiball and she lived in South Africa. She exercised regularly and was a lecturer who taught Health. She loved to swim and earned championship titles. She developed a cough which turned into night sweats, chest pain, and weight loss. She was diagnosed with tuberculous. She explained how she followed Cornelius and his special fruit diet. She goes into great detail providing an overview of her memoir.


I would recommend this helpful book about her journey with her fruit diet to anyone who is also experiencing a health scare. It was heartbreaking to read about her struggles in her health and how no doctor could help her. I have been there before too and it’s not fun. I liked how she enclosed example of others who also turned to fruit as a cure.



"I received this book free from Melville House for my honest review.”

Thanks to Melville House Publishing & NetGalley for this free ARC in return for my honest review.

What do you do when modern medicine is unable to diagnose a medical condition and there seems to be no hope for your return to normalcy. People, for years, have turned to alternate medicines or alternate attempts to treat these problems and it is their plight that is highlighted in this new book by Jacqueline Alnes. Jacqueline, herself, was a college athlete when she was struck down by a mysterious medical condition that none of the doctors could cure. They ran her through batteries of tests with no positive results. She could no longer run, she could barely walk, she couldn't eat she couldn't speak at times, and yet at other times things mysteriously got slightly better before another setback. This is all detailed in “The Fruit Cure” a book which tells the tale of a normal college girl who no longer can function in society, as well as all those others who have had issues or ailments or beliefs that lead them away from normal patterns of living, lifestyle, and eating. Many have become either proponents or followers of those who have preached the gospel of vegetarianism, fruitarianism and the drastic change to their lives, all in an attempt to solve the mysteries that modern science cannot unravel. Jacqueline takes us to Banana Island along with some rather unique individuals who go by the name Freelee and Durianrider and who used the Internet and YouTube to expound their beliefs that eating 30 Bananas a Day will cure you of your medical problems. They preached that eating nothing but bananas and raw food will cure you. That meat and fats are poison and that anything other than what they believe in will cause you harm. The author traces the history of vegetarianism, fruitarianism and takes us on a journey that is most fascinating and educational as we get to read some of the actual transcripts of the YouTube messages and see how body shaming also plays a big part in causing people going to the extreme in order to lose weight. While the author never completely adapted to the 30 Banana a Day diet, she admittedly began to change her eating patterns and behavior, none of which cured her medical condition. Eventually the author was able to lead a normal life, is now a college professor, and therefore has approached this subject in a clinical manner. I appreciated this approach to these issues because I think that is the best way to explore all that was 30 Bananas a Day, fruitarianism and “The Fruit Cure”. 3.5 ***

A look into the world of the all-fruit diet told by someone who experienced it. I thought the author might alternate more between her memoir side and the more historical/background of this, but it was definitely more memoir focused. As someone who doesn't love memoirs, that definitely affected my reading of it, and I would have preferred more history interspersed throughout. However, if you do enjoy memoirs a lot, you would enjoy this more. I did find the whole fruitarianism fascinating (in a creepy way).

I didn't really like this book. I love the title and the cover, but the information didn't work for me. Sadly.

This was an eye opening read as far as western medicine and so called wellness culture, but it was very much based on personal experience and opinionated.

1 stars
I wanted to like, I really did. But, it was so rambling with pointless tangents. Why the part of Essie, it made no sense to include it. So much extra information included for no real reason. I gave up a 41%.