Put the three filters in this title on top of each other and the menu shrinks fast. Vegan takes out every food that comes from an animal. Raw takes out the stove. Low-fat cuts back on oil and other fatty foods. Fruit and vegetables come through all three filters, and that is exactly where a plan like this does best on two vitamins and worst on how one of them gets absorbed. That push and pull is the “diet within a diet” this post is about.
What the NHS asks for on vitamins C and A
The NHS says adults aged 19 to 64 need 40mg of vitamin C a day. It also says vitamin C cannot be stored in the body, so it has to come from the diet every day. Its list of good sources is all plant food: citrus fruit such as oranges, peppers, strawberries, blackcurrants, broccoli, brussels sprouts and potatoes.
For vitamin A the NHS figures are 700µg a day for men and 600µg a day for women. Most of the retinol sources it names are animal foods (cheese, eggs, oily fish, milk and yoghurt, liver); the list also includes fortified low-fat spreads. A vegan gets most vitamin A through beta-carotene instead, which the body can convert into retinol. The NHS names yellow, red and green leafy vegetables such as spinach, carrots, sweet potatoes and red peppers, and yellow fruit such as mango, papaya and apricots. Unlike vitamin C, vitamin A the body does not need straight away is stored, so it is not needed every day.
How much raw produce covers the amounts
Using USDA FoodData Central values for raw foods (SR Legacy records), here is how many grams of each food hold 40mg of vitamin C or 600µg of vitamin A as USDA measures it (retinol activity equivalents). The NHS states its figures in a different unit, retinol equivalents, so the vitamin A column is a USDA-based guide rather than a direct NHS comparison. Every food in the table has 1.5g of fat or less per 100g, inside the NHS “low fat” line of 3g or less per 100g.
| Food (raw) | Grams for 40mg vitamin C | Grams for 600µg vitamin A (USDA RAE) |
|---|---|---|
| Red pepper | 31g | 382g |
| Kale | 43g | 249g |
| Broccoli | 45g | 1,935g |
| Papaya | 66g | 1,277g |
| Strawberries | 68g | 60kg |
| Orange | 75g | 5,455g |
| Mango | 110g | 1,111g |
| Spinach | 142g | 128g |
| Carrot | 678g | 72g |
| Dried apricots | 4kg | 333g |
| Deglet Noor dates | 10kg | 0µg recorded |
| Medjool dates | 0mg recorded | 8,571g |
On paper the vitamin C side is easy. 31g of red pepper does it, and so does 68g of strawberries. Vitamin A is easy too, as long as carrots or spinach are on the menu: on USDA’s figures 72g of raw carrot holds 600µg and 84g holds 700µg. Fruit alone is a different story: on USDA’s figures mango needs more than a kilo, and strawberries carry almost none.
Where raw helps
Skipping the stove is a point in this diet’s favour for vitamin C. A 2009 study from Zhejiang University cooked broccoli five ways and found that every method except steaming caused significant losses of vitamin C. Boiling, microwaving and stir-frying all took some away. The table uses USDA records for raw foods, so a raw plan eats them as listed.
Where low-fat works against it
Beta-carotene is the weak spot, and the reason is the fat filter. Researchers at Iowa State University fed seven people the same salad of spinach, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes and carrots with dressings holding 0g, 6g or 28g of canola oil. With the fat-free dressing, the beta-carotene showing up in the blood afterwards was negligible. It rose with the 6g dressing and rose again with the 28g one.
A 2017 follow-up from the same university gave twelve women salads with 0, 2, 4, 8 or 32g of soybean oil. Beta-carotene uptake climbed in a straight line across the 0 to 8g range, and absorption of every carotenoid and fat-soluble vitamin tested was highest at 32g. The response also varied a lot between people, and some barely responded at all.
So the table above tells you what the carrot holds. It does not tell you how much of it a person eating that carrot completely fat-free will take up. A low-fat raw plan does not have to mean a zero-fat meal, and the 2017 results show that small amounts of oil already moved the numbers. The NHS vegan page itself asks for nuts and seeds rich in omega-3, such as walnuts, every day, which is another reason a little fat belongs in the plan.
Vitamin C and iron at the same meal
The NHS vegan page adds one more link between these foods. Iron from plant food is absorbed less well than iron from meat, and to help, the NHS suggests eating foods containing vitamin C at the same time and avoiding tea or coffee during or after main meals. In a raw low-fat plan, that means the pepper, kale or strawberries go on the same plate as the iron foods rather than in a separate snack.
Where dates sit in this
Dates are a fruit that fits the vegan and low-fat filters: USDA lists 0.15g of fat per 100g for Medjool and 0.39g for Deglet Noor. For these two vitamins they add almost nothing. USDA records 0mg of vitamin C and 7µg of vitamin A per 100g for Medjool, so a 30g serving brings about 2µg. Deglet Noor has 0.4mg of vitamin C and 0µg of vitamin A (RAE). What dates do carry is sugar, 66.5g per 100g for Medjool and 63.4g for Deglet Noor. In this kind of plan they are a sweet fruit, and the vitamin work belongs to the peppers, greens and carrots.
The Kurma Rotab Green Diamond site describes rotab as a date picked at the soft, moist stage just before it ripens fully, sold fresh rather than dried. That is a question about the fruit, and it is separate from the vitamin figures above, which come from USDA’s records for Medjool and Deglet Noor.
Planning it properly
The NHS puts it plainly: with good planning and an understanding of a balanced vegan diet you can get all the nutrients you need, and without it you could miss essential ones. Stacking raw and low-fat on top makes the planning more important, not less. Anyone thinking of going fully raw and very low in fat for a long stretch should talk it through with a GP or dietitian first.
If you want to buy dates for your own kitchen, the about page mentions retail and wholesale (runcit & borong) and delivery across Malaysia, and the contact page takes questions on quotes, stock and delivery through a form or WhatsApp. Other posts are on the blog.