Grapes, in Aajonus Vonderplanitz's framework, are not presented as a healing or nourishing food. They do not occupy a therapeutic or nutritive role within the Primal Diet the way that raw animal fats, raw dairy, raw meats, or even many other fruits do. Instead, grapes appear primarily as a cautionary subject, a fruit with a uniquely high and inherent propensity for mold contamination, both on the vine and after harvest. Their most significant appearance in Aajonus's teachings is in the context of wine and fermentation, where he uses grapes as the foundational example for why wine is problematic and why pasteurization was historically born as an industry intervention.

Grapes also appear in passing in the recipe literature as an alternative fruit option in certain combination dishes, but this is a minor mention without elaboration on therapeutic purpose. The dominant teaching about grapes is one of caution and, in most circumstances, avoidance, particularly in their fermented, processed, and chemically treated forms.

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Aajonus stated plainly that grapes have a tendency to mold even when still on the vine. This is a property unique to grapes among fruits, and it is the single most important biological characteristic he identified about them. He said:

This innate mold-prone quality means that consuming grapes, or anything derived from grapes, carries with it a high risk of ingesting molds. In Aajonus's framework, molds are not neutral substances. They are identified as sources of significant biological trouble for the human body. The language he used is direct: if you eat wine, "you're asking for heavy trouble."

The mold problem does not disappear when grapes are processed into wine. In fact, the fermentation process of wine is directly seeded by this mold tendency. Aajonus presented the mold issue as inherent to the grape plant itself, not as a result of poor storage or handling, it begins while the fruit is still growing.

Aajonus referenced a substance derived from grapes, referred to in different transcripts as "jellic acid" or "jyrelic acid", in the context of chemical deception in the food industry. He described this compound as something extracted from rice bran in a process that frees it up, and it is used:

1. As a treatment applied to grapes themselves to cause them to "grow fat and hold a lot of water." 2. As a pesticide.

Despite the industry calling this compound a "natural substance," Aajonus rejected that characterization entirely. He argued that by the time this acid is extracted from rice bran through the industrial process used to free it, "it is a complete chemical just like kerosene." The fact that it originates from a natural source does not make the final extracted product natural in any meaningful sense. He stated: "I tell you, when they pull it out of the rice bran to free up that jyrelic acid, it is a complete chemical just like kerosene."

This is presented as an example of a broader pattern of deception in the food industry, where the label "natural" is applied to chemically processed substances. The application of jellic/jyrelic acid to grapes means that commercially grown grapes may be swollen with water and chemically altered, making them even more problematic than their naturally mold-prone state.

In the context of people who lack enzyme-mutations for digesting cooked or processed red fruits and vegetables, Aajonus listed grapes explicitly among the foods to avoid in cooked or processed form. He noted that grapes have red pigment, and that cooked or processed foods with red pigment are particularly problematic for those individuals. He listed grapes alongside boysenberries, blueberries, coffee, and chocolate as foods that "have red in their pigment" and therefore fall into the category of cooked or processed red or orange fruits and vegetables to be avoided by those without the proper enzyme-mutations.

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Aajonus's warnings about grapes center almost entirely on their processed and fermented forms, particularly wine. Raw grapes are not given the same level of explicit warning, but the inherent mold propensity means even raw grapes are treated with suspicion.

Cooked or processed grape products, including grape jams, grape juices, grape syrups, and grape-based cooked preparations, are specifically listed as foods that should be avoided by people who lack enzyme-mutations for handling cooked or processed red fruits. This is presented in "We Want to Live" where Aajonus lists "cooked or processed apple, strawberry, cherry, boysenberry, grape and blueberry jams, juices, syrups" as foods that such individuals should avoid.

While Aajonus taught extensively elsewhere that fruit should generally be eaten unripe, because unripe fruit has lower sugar and higher enzyme content, he did not specifically apply ripeness guidance to grapes in a therapeutic context. His ripeness teaching for grapes is implicitly folded into his broader fruit guidance: ripe fruit is high in sugar, unripe fruit is better because it retains more enzymes and contains less sugar.

However, the mold issue with grapes complicates the ripeness question. Since grapes can begin molding while still on the vine, the concept of eating them "unripe" as a protective measure is not straightforwardly applicable. The mold risk exists across the ripeness spectrum.

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In the context of wine, Aajonus specifically listed the substances applied to grapevines as a source of contamination in the final product. He stated that wine may contain:

• Formaldehyde
• Other additives and preservatives
• Residues from inorganic fertilizers used on the vines
• Herbicides used on the vines
• Insecticides used on the vines

These are presented not merely as trace impurities but as substances that can cause significant harm. Even if wine lacks formaldehyde and lacks other preservatives, the alcohols themselves can still damage tissue. The contamination from vine chemicals means that the wine carries these residues into the body.

As described above, commercially grown grapes may have been treated with this extracted compound to make them grow fat and hold water. This means the grapes are swollen with water and have been treated with what Aajonus equates to a fully chemical substance, regardless of how it is labeled by the industry.

Aajonus used the history of grape/wine processing as one of his primary examples of how pasteurization was introduced. In a year of heavy rain, heat and moisture ruptured the cells of the grapes on the vine, causing widespread mold. Pasteur found that if he pasteurized the grapes and the wine, the crop could still be sold. The result was a low-quality wine that went to the poor because wealthy buyers would not purchase it due to inferior taste. This historical account establishes that grape processing via pasteurization was born from salvaging a damaged, molded crop, not from any nutritional benefit.

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Aajonus did not endorse wine consumption, but he acknowledged that if a person is going to drink wine, the traditional French practice of eating it with rich foods provides a degree of protection. He described this explicitly:

And again in greater detail:

The mechanism here, as Aajonus presented it across his teachings on fat and toxin binding, is that rich fats, cream, butter, cheese, heavy sauces, act as absorbing and binding agents for the contamination in the wine. The fats absorb the mold byproducts, the alcohol, the chemical residues, and the other contaminants so that they do not directly damage tissues. This is not a recommendation to consume wine freely with fat, but a recognition that the fat buffer mitigates, not eliminates, the harm.

The phrase "until it's removed" suggests that Aajonus viewed the ideal as stopping wine consumption altogether, with the fat-pairing being a transitional or emergency harm-reduction measure.

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The only direct culinary mention of raw grapes as a food item in the recipe context appears in "The Recipe for Living Without Disease," where grapes are listed as an alternative fruit option in a combination fruit dish. The specific context is:

This is presented as an alternative to a pineapple-based fruit preparation that also includes coconut cream. The quantities are small, 2 ounces each of two fruits, and grapes are listed as one of several interchangeable options alongside berries, peach, nectarine, and pear. There is no specific therapeutic rationale given for grapes in this context; they appear simply as a culinary alternative.

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Wine is the primary and most extensively discussed derivative of grapes in Aajonus's teachings. All significant teachings about grapes flow through the discussion of wine.

Fermentation seeding: The fermentation process in wine is seeded by the mold propensity inherent to grapes. This is not a neutral or beneficial fermentation in Aajonus's framework, it is a continuation and amplification of a mold problem that began on the vine.

Pasteur's role: Louis Pasteur's entry into the world of pasteurization began with grapes. Pasteur, described by Aajonus as a layperson who was "not a doctor, not a very educated man," who was "fascinated with crystals" and had "no experience with disease", discovered that heating wine could stop the mold from completely ruining a damaged crop. In a year when heat and moisture ruptured grape cells on the vine, causing mold, Pasteur's pasteurization allowed the wineries to sell what would otherwise have been unsellable wine. This wine went to peasants who could not afford better wine, and those peasants reportedly noted that they "don't feel as good on these foods. These are not a good thing. There's something wrong with processing food."

Aajonus used this history to illustrate that pasteurization was never about health or nutrition, it was about saving an economically damaged product and selling an inferior good to the most vulnerable consumers.

Even "clean" wine damages tissue: Even in a hypothetical scenario where wine contains no formaldehyde, no preservatives, no chemical residues from vine treatment, and no additives, the alcohol itself still damages tissue. Aajonus made this explicit: "the alcohols can still damage tissue."

Harm-reduction via French eating practices: The traditional French practice of eating wine with cream-based sauces, butter, and cheese was identified by Aajonus as a genuine (if partial) harm-reduction strategy. The rich fats absorb the contamination so that "it won't affect you", though this is clearly a mitigation strategy rather than a full solution, and Aajonus's recommendation is still to avoid wine altogether where possible.

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Aajonus returned to the story of Pasteur and grapes multiple times across his seminars and workshops, using it as a foundational example of how the food industry and government food regulation came to be controlled by commercial and financial interests rather than health interests.

The account, reconstructed from multiple transcript passages, is as follows:

• Pasteur was not a medical doctor. He was a layperson with an interest in crystals that led him into chemistry. He had no background in disease.
• A friend of Pasteur's had a vineyard. In a bad year of heavy rain, the combination of heat and moisture ruptured the cells of the grapes on the vine, allowing mold to invade the crop.
• This threatened to destroy the entire year's crop and potentially cost the vineyard owner his land.
• Pasteur found that heating the wine, pasteurizing it, could stop the mold from completely ruining it.
• The pasteurized wine was a low-quality product. "Nobody rich would buy that wine because it was not a good tasting wine." It was sold to the peasants.
• The peasants consuming this processed wine noticed a diminishment in their health and recognized that "there's something wrong with processing food."
• Aajonus noted that these early consumers "weren't into the chemistry of the byproducts that would form that would cause toxicity," but they were aware experientially that something was wrong.

This story is used by Aajonus as a template for understanding the entire history of food processing: commercial and financial interests (saving the winery's annual crop, avoiding economic loss) drove the development of processing technologies that were then imposed on consumers who bore the health costs. The fact that "big dollars rule" and that "they run the government" means that "all of the rules and regulations that are coming out of the FDA and USDA are based on friendliness to the food industry and the drug industry."

The grape and wine story is thus not merely a story about grapes, it is Aajonus's primary historical example of how processed food came to exist and why the institutions that are supposed to protect consumers actually protect industry.

The use of jellic/jyrelic acid on commercial grapes represents another layer of Aajonus's critique of food industry deception. The industry calls this compound "natural" because it is derived from a substance (rice bran) that is itself natural. But Aajonus argued that the extraction process, pulling the acid out of rice bran to free it up, transforms it into a fully chemical substance equivalent to kerosene, regardless of the original source material.

This is presented as part of a broader pattern: "they lie, and they lie, and they lie." The "raw" label on bottled juices, the "natural" label on chemically processed compounds, the selling of pasteurized wine to peasants as acceptable food, all of these are instances of the same deceptive pattern that Aajonus consistently documented and taught against.

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