By: Alana Dale

The diet of raw vegan, high-carb, and low-fat has been around for ages. But recently, it has significantly increased its popularity. In the diet, only uncooked fruits and vegetables are eaten. No salt is included in the diet. Since people consume only foods that are raw they get their protein and stay healthy, while staying in their range of options. Avocados are used for oil and protein. Special juiced citrus fruits and anything else that is raw can supply the body the necessary daily nutrients. Getting used to this diet can be very difficult if one does not follow the gradual steps of being a vegetarian, then becoming a vegan, and lastly changing to eat only completely raw food.

Why does the food have to be raw and uncooked in a raw vegan diet? This is the most frequently asked question when the diet is explained to those unaware. Kristina from fullyraw.com explains this: “Applying heat to foods provides no nutritional benefit to the food and is detrimental to the person ingesting the cooked food. There are reported instances where, by heating food, certain nutrients are more easily released, like lycopene from tomatoes. However, this ignores that hundreds of other nutrients in that heated tomato that were damaged or destroyed; and also assumes that more of a specific nutrient is better, instead of trusting that the body has learned to extract just the right amount that it needs for optimal health.” The food does not have to be in its original state, and therefore can be blended, cut, shredded, etc.

This diet is not for everybody. It is for the people who are passionate enough to want to improve their body while only eating natural foods and for people who do not want to put processed, cooked foods into their body. Time and cost of the food are huge factors that influence people to take up or not take up this diet. Buying all natural organic fruits and vegetables can be very costly, because the cost of these items are higher than that of processed food as well as being less filling than their unhealthy counterparts.The usual lunch could be compared to eating twenty apple bananas, six to eight mangoes, or a salad with chopped up avocado on top with additional lemon. Time is another factor because you need to have time to prepare the juice, smoothies, salads, or cut the fruits and vegetables. Most people do not have time in their day to make all the necessary preparations.

After reading all of this, you may be wondering why anybody would ever want to partake in this diet. Some people want to only feed their body with what is naturally grown from the Earth. Opponents of this diet argue animals, and their meat, were also naturally grown on the Earth. But these raw vegans are very adamant that humans were born to only eat Earth-grown natural plants.
“One of the first effects of the raw food diet is the weight you will lose. No matter how much raw fruits or veggies you eat you will never gain weight. You will in fact LOSE weight, especially if you are unhealthy or overweight. It is the perfect weight loss diet!” Said by (librarising.com) This is a diet that will help aid the weight loss process. Meat and grains have a lot of protein and carbohydrates, so when eaten the person racks up more calories because of how dense the foods are. When fruits and vegetables are only eaten it is easier to lose weight because they are mostly composed of water. Therefor if less and less calories are taken in, then weight will shed. If you continue to only eat those items, then your body will stay the same because it will have gotten used to the diet.