Calorie Restrictors Stay Hungry in Hopes of Living Longer

He waded slowly into the raw way of eating last August, starting with drinking Chocolate Bliss for breakfast and lunch, then sitting down to a "decent-sized dinner." In three months, Browning had lost 40 pounds. "And I wasn't hungry," he says.

Now calling himself a "quasi-raw guy," Browning predicts raw-veganism will become more mainstream as people look for a lifelong eating plan that is healthy, satisfying and affordable. He also sees himself staying vigorous well past middle age, something that has particular meaning: His father died of a heart attack at 55.

Michelle Steiner, 38, a 5-foot-2-inch massage therapist and full-time college student in The Woodlands, suffered for years from fibromyalgia (pain in muscles and other connective tissues) and debilitating chronic fatigue. She decided to try a vegan diet for 30 days. That was nearly four years ago. She says she felt so good after that first month — pain gone, energy up — she stayed vegan, "losing 35 pounds without even trying."

She's now "working toward raw," she says. The difficulty is finding restaurants with more to eat than salads and broccoli. Instead of in-home potlucks, her Meetup group goes out to eat together to places that cater to vegans and raw food fans such as Pepper Tree Veggie Cuisine and Hometown Vegetarian Cafe.

Being part of a community of like-minded eaters is as beneficial as the food itself, says Dallas raw foodist Isaac Clay. "Getting together physically is a powerful thing. You can't just do it through the Internet. Life is all about relationships."

And his relationship with calorie-restricted raw foods has a higher goal: Living longer. "I just don't plan on dying," Clay says. "And as long as we're nourishing our cells properly, we're basically immortal."

On a diet of salads and seaweed, however, it might just feel like forever.

While working on this story, writer Elaine Liner started taking resveratrol daily and eating raw foods. She has lost nine pounds.