I Ate a Raw Vegan Diet For a Week in USC Dining Halls

By: Alexis M Peters ‘20

You may have heard of vegetarian and vegan diets. But what the heck is raw vegan? Let me explain. Raw veganism is a diet in which you don’t eat any meat or dairy products, and you don’t eat anything cooked. So what do you eat, you may ask? Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and sprouts. “Why would you do this to yourself?” This was a question my friends asked of me many times. My plan was actually to eat raw vegan for two weeks, and I wanted to do it as a sort of cleanse, so that I could have a fresh, healthy start for the new year. Except, two weeks didn’t really work out for me… But, we’ll get to that later. My goal for this raw vegan journey was to eat super fresh foods, cleanse my body, and maybe have glowing skin and silky hair by the end of it. Since I have a meal plan (and also for experiment’s sake), I planned to exclusively eat food from the dining hall. So, let’s begin!