The Fruit Cure

01/13/24 • 27 min

This week, Joeita speaks to Jacqueline Alnes, author of The Fruit Cure: the Story of Extreme Wellness Turned Sour - "an unforgettable deep dive into the world of fruitarianism".

Highlights:

Excerpt from “The Fruit Cure” by Jacqueline Alnes (00:00)
Opening Remarks “Disability & Wellness Culture” (00:43)
Jacqueline Alnes Introduction (01:58)
About her book “the Fruit Cure” (02:24)
Combining an Autobiography with a History of Wellness Movements (03:22)
Jacqueline’s Experience with the Medical Establishment (05:35)
The Rise of Wellness Influencers (08:30)
Racist & Puritanical Origins of Thinness (11:04)
Desperate Need for Cures & Answers (13:25)
Difference Between Cures & Healing (16:14)
Are Social Media Platforms Responsible for Wellness Misinformation? (18:09)
Navigating Contradictory Wellness Trends (21:00)
Jacqueline Reads from “the Fruit Cure” (24:38)
Where to find “the Fruit Cure” (26:18)
Show Close (27:10)

Guest Bio:

Jacqueline Alnes has published essays in The New York Times, Guernica, The Boston Globe, Women's Running, Iron Horse Literary Review, and elsewhere, and her interviews with writers can be found in Longreads, The Rumpus, and, more regularly, Electric Literature, where she serves as a contributing writer. A series of her paintings featuring inspiring athletes was featured on NBC during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and in Runner's World. Currently an Assistant Professor of English at West Chester University, Alnes earned her MFA from Portland State University and her PhD from Oklahoma State University.

Alnes's first book, The Fruit Cure: The Story of Extreme Wellness Turned Sour details how mysterious neurological symptoms derailed her career as a Division I runner and left her desperate for answers. She found hope in an unlikely place: a thriving, online community of fruit-eaters. In The Fruit Cure, Jacqueline Alnes takes readers on a spellbinding and unforgettable journey through the world of fruitarianism, interweaving her own powerful narrative with the popularity and problematic history of fruit-based, raw food lifestyles.

About The Fruit Cure

“A deeply compelling read ... Spellbinding ....” – BookPage
“Her journey from desperation to self-acceptance is moving and well rendered. In the crowded medical memoir field, this stands out.” — Publishers Weekly
A powerful critique of the failures in our healthcare system and an inquiry into the sinister strains of wellness culture that prey on people’s vulnerabilities through schemes, scams, and diets.
Jacqueline Alnes was a Division One runner during her freshman year of college, but her season was cut short by a series of inexplicable neurological symptoms. What started with a cough, escalated to Alnes collapsing on the track and experiencing months of unremembered episodes that stole her ability to walk and speak.
Two years after quitting the team to heal, Alnes’s symptoms returned with a severity that left her using a wheelchair for a period of months. She was admitted to an epilepsy center but doctors could not figure out the root cause of her symptoms. Desperate for answers, she turned to an online community centered around a strict, all-fruit diet which its adherents claimed could cure conditions like depression, eating disorders, addiction, anxiety, and vision problems. Alnes wasn’t alone. From all over the world, people in pain, doubted or dismissed by medical authorities, or seeking a miracle diet that would relieve them of white, Western expectations placed on their figures, turned to fruit in hopes of releasing themselves from the perceived failings of their bodies.
In The Fruit Cure, Jacqueline Alnes takes readers on a spellbinding and unforgettable journey through the world of fruitarianism, interweaving her own powerful narrative with the popularity and problematic history of fruit-based, raw food lifestyles. For readers plagued by mysterious symptoms, inundated by messages from media about how to attain “the perfect body,” or caught in the grips of a fast-paced culture of capitalism, The Fruit Cure offers a powerful critique of the failures of our healthcare system and an inquiry into the sinister strains of wellness culture that prey on people’s...

This week, Joeita speaks to Jacqueline Alnes, author of The Fruit Cure: the Story of Extreme Wellness Turned Sour - "an unforgettable deep dive into the world of fruitarianism".

Highlights:

Excerpt from “The Fruit Cure” by Jacqueline Alnes (00:00)
Opening Remarks “Disability & Wellness Culture” (00:43)
Jacqueline Alnes Introduction (01:58)
About her book “the Fruit Cure” (02:24)
Combining an Autobiography with a History of Wellness Movements (03:22)
Jacqueline’s Experience with the Medical Establishment (05:35)
The Rise of Wellness Influencers (08:30)
Racist & Puritanical Origins of Thinness (11:04)
Desperate Need for Cures & Answers (13:25)
Difference Between Cures & Healing (16:14)
Are Social Media Platforms Responsible for Wellness Misinformation? (18:09)
Navigating Contradictory Wellness Trends (21:00)
Jacqueline Reads from “the Fruit Cure” (24:38)
Where to find “the Fruit Cure” (26:18)
Show Close (27:10)

Guest Bio:

About The Fruit Cure

Previous Episode

Gift of the Magi

We continue our annual Christmas story tradition with O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi, read by Andy Lehrer.

"The Gift of the Magi" is a short story by O. Henry first published in the New York Sunday World on December 10, 1905.

Highlights:

“Holiday Tradition” - Opening Remarks (00:00)
Introducing Andy Lehrer (01:02)
About “Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry (02:19)
“Gift of the Magi” read by Andy Lehrer (3:48)
Remarks on “Gift of the Magi” & Gift Giving (15:02)
Sacrifice, Stress and Showing Appreciation (16:36)
Most Memorable Gifts (21:59)
Show Close (23:58)

About The Pulse

On The Pulse, host Joeita Gupta brings us closer to issues impacting the disability community across Canada.

Joeita Gupta has nurtured a life-long dream to work in radio! She's blind, moved to Toronto in 2004 and got her start in radio at CKLN, 88.1 FM in Toronto. A former co-host of AMI-audio's Live from Studio 5, Joeita also works full-time at a nonprofit in Toronto, specializing in housing/tenant rights.

Find Joeita on Twitter: @JoeitaGupta

The Pulse airs weekly on AMI-audio. For more information, visit https://www.ami.ca/ThePulse/recent_episodes

About AMI

AMI is a not-for-profit media company that entertains, informs and empowers Canadians who are blind or partially sighted. Operating three broadcast services, AMI-tv and AMI-audio in English and AMI-télé in French, AMI’s vision is to establish and support a voice for Canadians with disabilities, representing their interests, concerns and values through inclusion, representation, accessible media, reflection, representation and portrayal.

Learn more at AMI.ca

Connect on Twitter @AccessibleMedia

On Instagram @accessiblemediainc

On Facebook at @AccessibleMediaInc

On TikTok @accessiblemediainc

Email [email protected]

Check out the Pulse on YouTube!

About AMI

AMI is a media company that entertains, informs and empowers Canadians with disabilities through three broadcast services — AMI-tv and AMI-audio in English and AMI-télé in French — and streaming platform AMI+. Our vision is to establish AMI as a leader in the offering of accessible content, providing a voice for Canadians with disabilities through authentic storytelling, representation and positive portrayal. To learn more visit AMI.ca and AMItele.ca.

Find more great AMI Original Content on AMI+

Learn more at AMI.ca

Connect with Accessible Media Inc. online:

X /Twitter @AccessibleMedia
Instagram @AccessibleMediaInc / @AMI-audio
Facebook at @AccessibleMediaInc
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Email [email protected]

Next Episode

Accessible Fashion, Part 1: Fashion as Function

In the first of three episodes on Accessible Fashion, Joeita speaks to Izzy Camilleri, the founder of IZ Adaptive, a clothing brand that provides accessible fashions for people with disabilities.

We discuss her foray into inclusive fashion and design at a time when no one was talking about it. She discusses how her desire to create clothes that are functional, as well as beautiful, changed the course of her life while conferring dignity to people with disabilities.

Highlights:

Opening Clip – Izzy on Adaptive Clothing (00:00)
Opening Remarks – Accessible Fashion as Function (00:39)
Accessible Fashion Series Overview (01:42)
Introducing Izzy Camilleri & IZ Adaptive (03:32)
A Life-Changing Phone Call (04:11)
Initial Challenges Designing Clothes for a Wheelchair User (06:30)
Designing for People Who Need Help Dressing and Those Who Dress Themselves Independently (08:19)
Disability Inclusive Features of Adapted Clothing (09:58)
Inspiration for Getting into Fashion Design (11:11)
Reaction of Colleagues to Izzy’s Shift into Adapted Clothing (11:46)
The Business Side of Adaptive Clothing (13:58)
Consulting with Large Labels on Accessible Design (14:58)
Toronto as Accessible Fashion Hotbed (16:11)
Creativity in Adaptive Clothing (17:01)
Wardrobe Essentials (18:53)
Feedback on IZ Adaptive (19:40)
What’s Next for IZ Adaptive? (21:44)
Show Close (22:38)

Guest Bio:

Izzy Camilleri is one of Canada’s leading and most celebrated fashion designers, and a pioneer in adaptive clothing. Izzy first ventured into the world of accessible clothing after initially doing custom work for a wheelchair user in 2004. It opened her eyes to the huge necessity for this type of clothing in the world.

In 2022, Izzy received 2 awards for her adaptive line. She won the Innovation Award from the Women’s Empowerment Awards and the Fashion Impact Award from the CAFA Awards. In 2006, she received CAFA’s Womenswear Designer of the Year Award. Her adaptive line has been featured in the Royal Ontario Museum. For more than 39 years, she has designed custom clothing for an international clientele, crafted gorgeous collections featured in fashion magazines from Vogue to InStyle, and dressed celebrities like Daniel Radcliffe, Mark Wahlberg, Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie and David Bowie. Since 2009, Izzy has focused on inclusive fashion through her brand IZ Adaptive, with the mission to make great looking and well-fitting clothes accessible to everyone. To learn more about Izzy, visit www.izzycamilleri.com.

See more of Izzy Camilleri on AMI-tv’s Fashion Dis!

Each episode of Fashion Dis celebrates the head-to-toe overhaul of a frustrated style seeker discouraged by an industry that lacks adaptive options.

The Story of IZ Adaptive

IZ Adaptive was launched in 2009 after fashion designer Izzy Camilleri spent a few years creating custom clothing for a client who was a wheelchair user living with paralysis. This experience opened her eyes to the clothing challenges and limitations people face while living with a physical disability.

After years of creating these first custom pieces, Izzy realized that if her client had all these obstacles around clothing, there must be many others with the same issues. Izzy decided to hold a focus group meeting where other voices were heard around the challenges, likes and dislikes around everyday clothing while living with a physical disability. With listening and learning, the seeds of creating a line of adaptive clothing were being planted. After doing online research of the market, she saw that there was very little out there designed specifically for this demographic of people. Most of what was available was for the elderly or for people living in long term care facilities. Clothing that was very dated in both design and fabric choice. Seeing this huge void in the market, Izzy saw this as an opportunity to create a line of clothes for people living with a disability, starting with modern wardrobe basics. In June of 2009 IZ Adaptive was born.

Izzy Camilleri was hailed a trail blazer pioneering the category of adaptive clothing in the form of fashionable, functional pieces. Her new and innovative work was called revolutionary. The path since that time has been long and hard, but Izzy kept it on life support, knowing the importance of what she was creating and how many lives IZ Adaptive positively affected.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Izzy also created the first ‘Seamless Back Pant’ which helps to reduce the risk of life threatening pressure sores. This patented technology is t...