A low-fat raw vegan plan really is a diet inside a diet inside a diet. It starts as vegan, keeps only food that has not been cooked, and then cuts fat on top of that. Each layer takes foods away, so the useful question is what people who eat this way for years actually end up with. A few studies of long-term raw food eaters give a clearer answer than the enthusiasm around the diet suggests.
What long-term raw food eaters actually eat
A 2005 study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill interviewed 17 leaders of the US raw food community. They had been on the diet for 13 years on average, with a range of 3 to 32 years, and 12 of them reported a diet at least 85% raw. All of their diets were mainly vegan. The main foods were fruits and juices, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and vegetable fats. In a typical week none of them ate dairy, eggs, meat, fish, poultry, commercial sweets or alcohol.
Against recommended intakes, the group on average met or exceeded the targets for vegetables, fruits and fats. It fell short on calcium-rich foods, protein-rich foods and grains. Only one of the 17 took a commercial, non-food supplement every week, and that was vitamin B12.
Note the fats. The raw diets in this study were not low in fat, and nuts, seeds and vegetable fats were among their staples. A low-fat raw vegan plan cuts back on exactly those foods.
Fat and the pigments in fruit and vegetables
The largest of these studies comes from the University of Giessen in Germany and was published in 2008. It covered 198 strict raw food eaters, who on average ate 95% of their food by weight raw, about 1,800g a day and mainly fruit. Vitamin A status was normal in 82% of them, and 63% had beta-carotene levels the authors describe as favourable. Lycopene was another story. In 77% of the group it was below the reference values for healthy populations.
The finding that matters most for this title comes next. Fat from fruit, vegetables and nuts, together with oil, was a significant predictor of blood carotenoid levels, and the authors conclude that carotenoids in raw food eaters are predicted mainly by fat intake. A plan designed to be both raw and low in fat works against that.
Food form comes into it as well. A 2006 French study used a model of digestion to measure how much carotenoid and vitamin E their main food sources release. The figure ranged from less than 0.1%, for beta-carotene from raw tomato, to almost 100%, for alpha-tocopherol from white bread. It depended on the compound, the food matrix and how the food was processed.
A Berlin comparison with vegans and omnivores
A 2022 study from the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment in Berlin compared 16 strict raw food eaters, who had followed the diet for 11.6 years on average, with 32 vegans and 27 omnivores. It defines a strict raw food diet as one based mainly on fresh fruit and raw vegetables that waives any heated or processed food. Food choice varied a great deal among the raw food eaters. As a group they had a lower BMI and lower body fat than the comparison groups, along with lower intakes of energy, protein, carbohydrate, calcium and iodine. Their blood tests showed lower zinc and vitamin D3.
Vitamin B12 split the group. The 9 who took a B12 supplement had a median level of 399 ng/L, and the 7 who did not had 152 ng/L. The NHS says sources of vitamin B12 for vegans are limited and a supplement may be needed. The vegan sources it lists are fortified breakfast cereals, fortified unsweetened soya drinks, and yeast extract or nutritional yeast flakes fortified with B12. A plan that waives processed food leaves very little of that list.
Where dates sit in a raw, low-fat plan
Dates need no cooking and carry very little fat. USDA FoodData Central gives Medjool dates 0.15g of fat per 100g, with 66.5g of total sugars and 277 kcal. They do nothing for the lycopene gap: the same record lists 0µg of lycopene, against 2,570µg in raw red tomatoes. Beta-carotene is 89µg per 100g, small next to the 8,280µg in raw carrots.
Mazafati dates, the variety this site is named after, come from Bam in Kerman province, Iran, and are also traded as Rotab Mazafati Bam. They are dark and very soft with high moisture, they need refrigeration, and they are cold-stored and sold year-round. Rotab means the soft, fresh-ripe stage of a date. Kurma Rotab Green Diamond describes Kurma Rotab as a date picked at the soft, moist stage just before it ripens fully, sold fresh rather than dried.
On portions, the NHS counts a 30g portion of dried fruit such as dates as 1 of your 5 A Day. It says this should be eaten at mealtimes, not as a snack between meals, to reduce the impact on teeth.
The plan within the plan
So yes, it is a diet within a diet, and the studies put a name to what each layer costs. Going vegan raises the B12 question. Going strictly raw drops fortified foods and, in the Berlin group, came with lower energy, protein, calcium and iodine intakes. Going low-fat trims the fat that the Giessen authors found mainly predicted carotenoid levels. The NHS makes the general point plainly: with good planning a vegan diet can give you all the nutrients you need, and if you do not plan it properly you could miss out on essential ones. A low-fat raw plan needs that planning more than most.
More articles on dates are on the Mazafati blog. The about us page explains who runs this site, and the contact page is the place for questions.