Interview: The Ultramarathon Runner Who Only Eats Fruit

Art by deltatas

There are few people deserving of the word phenomenal—Michael Arnstein is one of them. Not only is the guy one of the fastest living ultramarathon runners (check for yourself his 100-mile times), but he did it all while eating a fruit-only diet known as a ‘fruitarian’ diet. While veganism went mainstream in the last few years, fruitarianism has remained a fringe diet, yet one with a storied past. Everyone from Gandhi to Steve Jobs has experimented with fruitarianism; Arnstein is the most prolific athlete to adopt this lifestyle.

In order to fuel his controversial diet—Ashton Kutcher landed in the hospital after following Steve Jobs’ fruitarianism—Arnstein will typically purchase his fruits wholesale. Before moving to Hawaii in pursuit of natural and abundant produce, he had several refrigerators in his home in New York. When he’s training, he can eat around 4000-6000 thousand calories a day—bananas, grapes, blueberries, peaches, and more—running over 200 miles a week.

Countere reached out to Arnstein and caught up with him at his Hawaiian home as he reflected on his past successes and prepares to tackle new personal records at the 100-mile distance in 2021.

In your opinion, what is your most memorable ultramarathon run?

Most people don’t know this about me but I DNF’d (did not finish) my first and second 100-mile races. The first time I tried to run 100 miles I thought I was going to die, no kidding, I was scared. I had never felt that bad.

I’ve got a friend who says if you're going to run a 100-mile race, and you train for it—that’s cheating. He’s always about suffering. I’m into it too. He wanted to start a 100-mile race that would ask people to sign a pledge saying that they wouldn’t train for it. I love the idea. Peak suffering takes you to peak joy.

Hmm…but my greatest ever? It was when I won the Vermont 100. I did it in 15 hours and finished strong feeling even better at mile 100 than I did at the first mile. Then there was Badwater Ultramarathon, known as the 135-mile ‘toughest race in the world’. Man, running through Death Valley at 120 degrees, it was an amazing adventure. When I was a kid I used to wonder how it was possible for anyone to run a race like that—and then to do it myself and kick ass? It’s a great feeling.

120 degrees in Death Valley? How did you prepare for something like that?

…I did a lot of running. But most importantly I ate fruit. A low-fat high-water diet. And no one else really did that.

If you carry less fat, you need less energy to propel your body through the desert. You need less water to cool yourself. It’s all physics. Look at fat people when they are in a long hallway and its 70 degrees—they start sweating. They basically have a full coat on.

The cars that can go the fastest weigh the least. Anything with fiberglass moves faster than steel. Same as a human body. So get lean, eat fruit, and you’ll feel great.

What’s been the longest time you’ve spent on your feet running an ultra-marathon?

The longest I’ve been on my feet was 33 hours. I only stopped because I reached the finish line; I think I can run for 60 hours. As long as your heart is beating, you’re not dead—if you’re not dead, keep going.

Michael Arnstein running in the wild.

What are some unexpected challenges of an all-fruit diet?

A lot of it has to do with finances. If you want the best quality of food, you need to spend money. Most ultra-marathon runners and people in long-distance sports don’t make a ton of money. You can perform well on a high-fat diet—it’s proven—but it’s not good for your long-term health and it also compromises your immune system.

Fruits and vegetables aren’t just about calories—they are medicine. You can get by on bread, but you won’t thrive on it, and if you care about the environment at all, you need fruits and vegetables.

Cooking food takes a lot of energy. So, if you're at all tied into animal rights, but you’re still eating animals, then you’re just unconscious about your decisions in life. It is important to see fruits as not just for performance but for karma. It is the food we were designed to eat.

[I Ate the Favorite Foods of Trump, Putin, & Kim Jong Un]

It’s been said that if you eat fruit your blood will clot slower. What’s been the most surprising health effect you’ve seen from your diet?

Overall, if you're not eating fruits and vegetables—you're not respecting your health. There will be consequences and you do not want to go down that road. When I eat all fruits, I’m kicking ass, I don’t know what depression is, I don’t have body odor, I don’t get injured. It’s all diet, man. People don’t know what they are missing.

I’m not always 100% fruitarian. But I hate waking up in the morning feeling like “What the hell did I just do to myself?” It’s unbelievable the difference between eating clean and eating what you’ve been sold as healthy.

When I tried to be a fruitarian I felt like a pariah among my friends. How do you balance personal commitments with social demands?

It's a personal choice. You can say “Look, I will do it seasonally.” If it’s winter, I won’t beat myself up for eating starch. But I made a personal choice—I moved to Hawaii and now have good fruit all year round. Because if I eat some potatoes, it snowballs into potato chips and then I’m like “Damn, what happened?” So you have to know your limits. I can’t casually have a cigar or pizza or marijuana. I don’t want to go down that road.

Do you have a doctor?

No, man…that’s like saying “I need a lawyer because I’m scared someone will sue me!” People are delusional. Doctors are there to enable your bad habits if you’re sick, because you made stupid lifestyle choices—change them.

Does your family share your diet?

It’s funny, I like to lead by example. I tell my kids if they are sick to notice that Dad never gets sick. It’s not just luck. When they get sick, I tell them to stop eating garbage.

You just got to beat your own drum. You need to stay strong, hang out with the right people. If your friends are people who run all day, you will run all day. If your friends like being healthy, then you will try to feel good all day too.

Michael Arnstein’s shopping cart.

Do you think it could be unhealthy to be singularly focused on health?

It’s called orthorexia, and no. Most people are focused on money but it’s probably better to be obsessed with your health.

I don’t beat myself up too much but I know my limits. If I’m going camping and my kids want to eat s’mores, I might eat the marshmallows—hell I’lll eat three or four. Same goes for Halloween. But if I think one marshmallow leads to a bag, I don’t touch it. I haven’t had pizza in 17 years because its addictive. It’s an Achilles heel and I don’t miss it.

Do you consider yourself vegan?

I’m not attached to a label but I do eat eggs sometimes and usually raw.

[It Is Time To Practice Raw Egg Nationalism]

How has the pandemic impacted your running schedule and daily life?

I’m 43, so my best athletic years, in terms of prime results, are behind me. With COVID-19, all the races were canceled this year. I had a full schedule lined up but it’s all been wiped out. So I wrote 2020 off. I’m down to running 50-100 miles a week right now.

In life, there are many different races. The race I’m currently most focused on is the financial race—improving my long-term stability outside of athletics. I’m focused on putting hours in at work; hopefully, other people are doing the same.

But I recently went to Colorado for a week and did 25 hours of running just as a way to remember what it was like to train hard. I think I’ll come back harder in 2021. The time off—who knows?—is probably good for all of us.

How has going from 180-210 miles a week to only 50-100 affected your mindset?

I don’t like exercising less. A lot of people look at ultramarathon runners with awe but in my mind, it’s a sad reminder of how out of shape people are. I have a dog and he weighs 12 pounds. He can run 30 miles as long as it’s not too hot out. During the fall months, he wags his tail from mile 1 to mile 30 and doesn’t think about it—he’s just built to do it. Humans are so pathetically out of shape that the idea of running 10 miles is absurd to most people. If you tell most people in NYC that they need to walk 20 blocks they decide to hail a taxi...I don’t even want to think like that.

I’d love to go back to 150-mile weeks. That’s what we’re built to do. We were designed to be on two feet, moving all day every day, and that’s why this pandemic is wiping out most people—we are so sick, so weak, we can’t handle any viruses, and it’s sad.

The idea of eating only fruit to most people is absurd. Do you see a way to introduce the fruitarian diet to mainstream society?

Sadly, the conspiracy theory of big companies controlling everything is kind of true. I don’t usually look at the cup half-empty, but if we look at the history of humanity, we have gone backwards health-wise. People are living longer but it’s based on taking drugs. For all the progress, the amount of drugs written for blood pressure and heart disease is worse than ever. Meanwhile, I’m eating fruit and running up mountains. The funny thing is, in the mountains, no one’s there. Everyone’s behind a desk hating their lives, their jobs.

We’ve gotten too far away from the essentials of diet and lifestyle. The big problem with fruit is that it’s perishable. You need to be wealthy enough to have a few refrigerators. So you don’t need to be 100% fruit, but I hope the truth will prevail and people come around. The better habits you have, the more success you will have, and your greatest asset is your health. If you don’t have it, you have nothing.

Michael Arnstein is the Founder of the Woodstock Fruit Festival, which you can check out on their website.