Kitsune and amse, thanks for your input, especially on chewing - I try to get around this one by eating (thoroughly ) about half a cupfull of raw nuts and dried fruits (my own mixture) at the same time. I believe this stimulates enough saliva to aid digestion and make up for the lack of chewing of the whole vegetable. Your thoughts on this?

BTW, I'm only very lukewarm on the theories of fruit sugar and restricting consumption. My own personal experience (and it's all I have to go on) is that lots of fruit produces a very contented all-body feeling without any weight gain. I have also made comparisons of kids on low and high fruit diets - besides the obvious benefits of increased energy, one thing I really noticed was how kids would sit down and eat fruit more contemplatively than if theyvwere eating a pie or biscuits.

I always feel better when fruit is a regular part of my diet but I don't think having 10 pieces of fruit in smoothie form is really all that healthy as you are living off sugar highs all of the time.

2-4 pieces of fruit a day keeps my digestion ticking over nicely and gives me a bit more energy.

Bill Clinton was on Esselstyns extreme low fat diet and was having all sorts of tremors perhaps due not having enough fatty acids to conduct signals in the nervous system.

His approach may certainly work for some people with pre exisiting heart disease but there are plenty of critics that point out issues such as his under 20 person study size that is the basis of his books etc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/18/bill-clinton-hand-tremor_n_2503432.html

http://www.inquisitr.com/1615589/ex-vegans-anne-hathaway-and-bill-clinton-praise-paleo-style-low-carb-diets-for-energy-and-weight-loss/