ARIANNE UEBEL,

When we first met Arianne, she chirpily told us she was on a one-week juice fast; think only three fruit and veggie smoothies a day. But no surprise there – after all, the raw food advocate limits her diet to fruits, veggies, nuts, sprouts and seaweed, and does not touch meat, dairy and processed foods. “I’ve often been to events and restaurants that can’t accommodate my diet,” she says. “I’ll either eat some nuts that I carry around with me or ask for a salad or lightly sauteed veggies.”

She’s so committed to her diet that if she craves a “banned” food, she’ll make a raw version of it: She’s made sushi using jicama, a root vegetable, as a substitute for rice, and mooncakes by fashioning the skins out of sprouts that she germinates and grinds into flour.

She got hooked on the raw food diet seven years ago, after she visited a friend in Colorado. “She told me that we’d be going ‘raw’ for the week, and all she had in her fridge were fruits, vegetables, nuts and lentils. I was horrified!” But she changed her mind after realising that a raw food diet didn’t mean that she could eat only uncooked items (you can cook food as long as the temperature is maintained at 40 deg C). After going on the diet, she also lost 15kg, and had more energy and glowing skin.

Two years ago, she started The Rawyal Kitchen, a catering service that provides gourmet raw meals for corporate events. For the record, we tried the Portobello burger she made for this photo shoot (right), and it’s surprisingly delicious.