Two NIU graduate students chose to live on a “raw diet.”

Greg Dace-Randie, a political science major, and Candace Dace-Randie, an anthropology major, were vegetarians before becoming vegan, a diet that does not allow the consumption of any animal products where food cannot be cooked or heated.

The transition took three years, Greg said. The Dace-Randies have been “raw” since the start of 2007, eating vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts, sprouted beans and grains. They use a dehydrator to prepare food, which dehydrates the food and makes the water evaporate faster, Candace said.

“We make raw pancakes, pizza, lasagna, cakes, burgers, salads and nachos,” Greg said.

The Dace-Randies decided to switch to the raw diet after reading books on the subject and discussing it with doctors, they said. They saw several personal health benefits from following the diet, including weight loss, increased energy, clearer skin and a lesser propensity to be effected by seasonal allergies, they said.

“I had chronic pain from a nerve disorder from an accident, and the right side of my body stopped working,” Candace said. “After eating raw food and the natural medicine, the pain went away.”

The Dace-Randies encourage people who are interested in a raw diet to do their research first.

“It’s not hard to do, but I would rather have people do their homework,” Greg said. “We did a lot of reading to know what we were doing.”