Could a person live on a diet of only seeds, nuts, dried fruit, and water, assuming they ate a wide variety of these items?
Well, your nuts and fruits cover your “big three” nuritional needs of carbs, fats, and protein. Assuming you have a widwe enohu variety of fruits, you will also get a good amount of vitamins and a few minerals. Other seeds and nuts have more minerals as well. However, one thing I don’t think you would get a lot of is calcium.
Are we planning to go on a trail mix diet anytime soon? 
Offhand, I would say you’d have trouble getting enough B12 and folic acid, although there are some fruits that have the latter in reasonable quantity.
Can a person live on such a diet? Probably. Would said person be completely healthy over the long haul? Depends. Many strict vegans live on similar diets… albeit usually with a lot of veggies thrown in… but at least some of them I know take supplements to cover their bases.
I would guess that in the process of getting enough protein, you would get way too much fat.
There actually is a name for this diet: “fruitarian”. A fruitarian is the next step beyond an ethical vegan: while ethical vegans refuse to kill or exploit animals, a fruitarian carries the principle to plants, and will only eat what falls naturally from the plant without killing it. Some grains can be allowed if they fall from the plant; unfortunately most grain plants are cut and threshed, so the diet is effectively limited to fruit, nuts and seeds. (Logically, if you can eat nuts and seeds, you can eat eggs; each is a potential life without being itself sentient. However, logic is not the point of a fruitarian lifestyle.) It’s a difficult diet to stick to, and getting an adequate balance of nutrients is a real chore. If you don’t have a strong fanatic streak, don’t consider it.
Say then, how much more work to get to level five vegan where you don’t eat anything that casts a shadow?
Well you’ll need an Archmage in your party. First you make a saving throw of fortitiude to…
What?! :dubious:
i believe that you can probably live quite a healthy life on that diet, but as with any diet, it is next to impossible to get the rda’s of all vitamins and minerals. i believe it is important to take a good quality time release multi vitamin every day no matter what diet you pick.
i think that the items you do not eat have a huge impact on your life. i stopped a lot of the bad food stuff and have seen my health and mental state increase quite a bit. ie, no sugar, alcohol, aspartame, trans fats, processed foods, limited red meat, etc)
rick
(not a doctor, minor health nut)