A low-body-fat raw vegan plan stacks three rules on top of each other. No animal foods. Nothing cooked. Very little fat. The title asks whether that makes it a diet inside a diet, and the honest answer is yes. A simple way to see what the extra rules do is to follow the energy. Take the fat out of a plant-only plate and most of the calories have to come from somewhere else. On a raw plan, that mostly means fruit.
How much fruit a day of energy takes
The NHS says an average woman needs 2,000kcal a day and an average man 2,500kcal. Using USDA FoodData Central figures per 100g (SR Legacy records, 2019), here is roughly how much of a single fruit it would take to reach 2,000kcal:
- raw strawberries at 32kcal: about 6.25kg
- raw papaya at 43kcal: about 4.65kg
- raw banana at 89kcal: about 2.25kg
- Medjool dates at 277kcal: about 722g
Nobody eats a single fruit all day. The list still shows the problem a low-fat raw plan has to solve. Watery fruit is light on energy, so the volume gets very large. Dried fruit such as dates packs the same energy into far less weight.
What that much fruit brings with it
Energy is only one line on the label. Protein per 100g is 0.67g for strawberries, 0.47g for papaya, 1.09g for banana and 1.81g for Medjool dates. Even the 2.25kg of banana carries only about 24.5g of protein, and 722g of Medjool about 13g. Almonds, by comparison, have 21.2g of protein per 100g, but also 49.9g of fat, which is the thing this plan is cutting.
Sugar runs the other way. The Medjool record lists 66.5g of total sugars per 100g, so 722g of dates would carry around 480g. The NHS reference intake for total sugars is 90g a day. Sugar in whole fruit is not counted as free sugar unless the fruit is juiced or puréed, but it still adds up quickly at these amounts.
What the vegan rules still ask for
The NHS says that with good planning you can get all the nutrients you need from a vegan diet, and that without it you could miss out on essential nutrients such as calcium and vitamin B12. Its balanced vegan plate includes potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, some beans and pulses, and fortified foods or supplements for nutrients that are harder to get, including vitamin D, vitamin B12, iodine, selenium and calcium. It also suggests eating nuts and seeds rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as walnuts, every day.
Set that list next to a raw, low-fat rule and you can see where each part rubs. A fruit-heavy day covers energy. It does not cover the protein foods, the starchy foods or the fortified foods on the NHS list, and the daily nuts sit awkwardly with a strict fat limit. Anyone planning to eat this way for long should talk it over with their GP or a dietitian.
Where dates fit on the plan
Dates are low in fat. The Medjool record lists 0.15g per 100g. For a low-fat plan that makes them an easy fit, and their energy density is useful when the rest of the plate is watery fruit.
Portion size is the part to watch. The NHS counts a 30g portion of dried fruit, and it names dates, as 1 of your 5 A Day, and asks that it is eaten at mealtimes, not as a snack between meals, to reduce the impact on teeth. Thirty grams of Medjool works out at about 83kcal, 20g of sugars and 2g of fibre. Reaching 2,000kcal from dates alone would take around 24 of those portions, which shows why dates work better as one part of a meal than as the base of the day.
Blended into a smoothie, dates change category. The NHS counts the sugars in puréed fruit as free sugars and limits juices and smoothies to a combined 150ml a day. Whole dates eaten with a meal keep to the 30g rule more easily.
Rotab, or rutab, is the name for the soft, fresh-ripe stage of a date, and tamar is the fully ripe, drier stage. Kurma Rotab Green Diamond has a longer page on how rotab dates are picked. Whichever stage you buy, weigh out a portion the first few times so you know what 30g looks like.
A diet within a diet, then
Each extra rule makes the plan smaller. Vegan rules remove animal foods. The raw rule rules out much of the starchy food on the NHS list, such as bread, rice and pasta. The low-fat rule trims the nuts and seeds. What is left leans hard on fruit for energy, and the numbers above show how much fruit that is.
More articles on dates are on the Jual Kurma blog. You can read about Jual Kurma, or send questions and orders through the contact page, which lists our WhatsApp number.