The Fruit Cure

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 vulnerabilities through schemes, scams, and diets masquerading as hope.

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.

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About AMI

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