A low-fat raw vegan plan is a diet with three filters stacked on top of each other. The vegan filter removes every food that comes from an animal. The raw filter removes anything cooked or baked. The low-fat filter then trims the fattiest plant foods. So yes, it is a diet plan within a diet, and each layer makes the shopping list shorter.
The NHS page on the vegan diet is a useful place to see what that costs. It says that with good planning a vegan diet can give you all the nutrients you need, and that without planning you could miss out on calcium, iron, vitamin B12, iodine and selenium. This article follows two of those, calcium and iron, through the extra raw and low-fat filters, and checks where dried fruit and dates sit.
What the NHS lists for calcium
The NHS names these as good calcium sources for vegans: green leafy vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and okra (not spinach, because the body cannot digest all of its calcium), fortified unsweetened soya, pea and oat drinks, calcium-set tofu, sesame seeds and tahini, pulses, brown and white bread, and dried fruit such as raisins, prunes, figs and dried apricots.
Run that list through the raw filter and bread goes, along with anything that has to be cooked first. Run it through the low-fat filter and sesame seeds and tahini shrink to small amounts, since FDC lists 49.7g of fat per 100g for whole dried sesame seeds and 53.8g for tahini. What clearly survives all three filters is the leafy greens and the dried fruit; whether fortified plant drinks or tofu fit depends on how strict your version of raw is. The NHS separate page on calcium gives the target: adults aged 19 to 64 and over need 700mg a day.
What the NHS lists for iron
For iron, the NHS vegan list is pulses, wholemeal bread and flour, breakfast cereals fortified with iron, dark green leafy vegetables such as watercress, broccoli and spring greens, nuts, and dried fruits such as apricots, prunes and figs. Again the raw and low-fat filters remove most of the grains and nuts, and leave greens and dried fruit doing more of the work.
The NHS iron page sets the daily amount at 8.7mg for men aged 19 and over, 14.8mg for women aged 19 to 49 and 8.7mg for women aged 50 and over. The vegan page adds two practical points: iron from plant foods is absorbed less well than iron from meat, and eating foods with vitamin C at the same time helps, while tea or coffee during or after main meals should be avoided.
Where dates sit among the dried fruits
Dates are not on either NHS list. To see how they compare with the dried fruits that are, here are USDA FoodData Central figures, scaled to the 30g portion that the NHS counts as one of your 5 A Day.
- Deglet Noor dates: 11.7mg calcium and 0.31mg iron per 30g.
- Medjool dates: 19.2mg calcium and 0.27mg iron per 30g.
- Prunes: 12.9mg calcium and 0.28mg iron per 30g.
- Dark raisins: 18.6mg calcium and 0.54mg iron per 30g.
- Dried apricots: 16.5mg calcium and 0.80mg iron per 30g.
On these numbers Deglet Noor lands close to prunes, which the NHS does list, on both minerals, and Medjool sits close to prunes on iron. Medjool edges ahead of the others on calcium. Dried apricots carry between two and a half and three times the iron of either date. None of them gets near the targets on its own: 30g of Medjool gives under 3 in every 100 of the 700mg calcium figure, and 30g of dried apricots gives about 5 in every 100 of the 14.8mg iron figure.
All five are also sugary. FDC lists 63.4g of total sugars per 100g for Deglet Noor and 66.5g for Medjool, and the NHS says a 30g portion of dried fruit should be eaten at mealtimes, not as a snack between meals, to reduce the impact of sugar on teeth.
Putting dates into the plan
The two NHS rules fit together neatly. Dried fruit belongs at a meal, and iron is absorbed better with vitamin C at the same time. A raw meal that has a portion of dates next to a raw vegetable rich in vitamin C follows both. FDC lists 184mg of vitamin C per 100g for raw yellow sweet pepper, against 0.4mg for Deglet Noor dates, so the pepper does that job, not the dates.
The bigger lesson from the NHS lists is that every filter you add removes sources. B12, the NHS says, comes for vegans mainly from fortified foods such as cereals, soya drinks and yeast extract, and a supplement may be needed. Check whether your version of a raw plan allows any of them. If it does not, that is one more reason the NHS stresses planning. If you are unsure whether your version of the diet covers what you need, a GP or a registered dietitian can check it.
If you buy dates from a seller such as Kurma Rotab Green Diamond, the portion rule is the same: 30g, at a meal.
Buying dates through Kurma Borong
Kurma Borong Malaysia's about page describes everything from retail buys to wholesale supply, with delivery across the country and a range of date types and grades. Questions, quotes and orders go through WhatsApp, and the number is on the contact page. Other articles are on the Kurma Borong blog.