So this past May 24 long weekend my fiancé and I decided to go to Detroit. Yes Detroit. Funny enough the city is quite fascinating. Did you know Detroit was founded by the French, was once known as the Paris of the West, was where Motown (aka motor town) was born, has crazy massive beautiful buildings that have been abandoned, farmland in the centre of the city and finally a burgeoning raw food scene (this is where I come in!)?
After an enthusiastic welcome to the city by our AWESOME tour guide at the MoTown Museum we headed out for lunch at a raw restaurant called “The Raw Café”. I was lucky enough to visit 2 raw food restaurants while in Detroit
The Raw Café’s food was amazing! We were there right after lunch and it seemed a bit empty but I did notice a lot of college students popping in to grab something to go. I like it. Raw food to-go; full of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and nutrition. The new fast food? I hope so ;p
Check out the sentence behind me in this pic! “Health is your greatest asset”
Check out the sentence behind me in this pic! “Health is your greatest asset”
For lunch I ordered a pesto wrap. It was full of marinated veggies and drenched in olive oil. If this were not a raw place I might have been concerned with the amount of oil but the server reassured me that everything was organic. My fiancé had the nacho plate. It was d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s! The refried beans were a combination of chopped pumpkin seeds and seasoning. It was very good. Now I know why they don’t share their recipes too readily with patrons!
The second raw place we visited was recommended by one of the owners of “The People’s Records”. Among his recommendations was one that stood out to me “The Cacao Tree”, a raw café! With a name like that I could not resist twice (we went there for dinner and lunch the next day!).
For dinner, I had a falafel wrap and my fiancé had the burrito. These things were massive. We had planned on ordering 2 salads to start but were cautioned that would be too much food. Whoa, really! This server had no clue that I can pack away food like a monster! In the end he was right, the food was plenty and left enough room for dessert. Pumpkin pie and chia crispies, raw of course. Heaven!
Ok, so I won’t bore you too much about our lunch the next day. You can try to figure out what we had 😛
I love raw food as you can probably tell. I am by no means a raw foodie or advocate a 100% percent raw diet but I must admit that I probably would eat something uncooked as opposed to cooked if I had my way 🙂
Why is raw food so great?
- it is nutritionally dense
- leaves food in its natural, unprocessed form
- enzymes in food are alive and this helps with digestion
- phytonutrients in the food are intact (cooking over 40*C destroys many beneficial vitamins)
- contains easily assimilated amino acids (the building blocks of protein)
- cooked food tends to be acidic in the body (think processed foods)
- fats are more bio-available and healthy (heat destroys delicate fats such as omega 3s)
How to get the best nutrition on a raw food diet:
- Eat a variety of plants so that you get a variety of amino acids, minerals, and vitamins
- Eat organic
- Eat mostly green vegetables or vegetables (salads, green juices, green smoothies); many raw foodists consume too many nuts which can be acidic in the body and promote weight gain. Don’t get me wrong, nuts contain amazing fats and minerals so eat in moderation!
- Soak and sprout your nuts and seeds to increase the nutrition profile
Now go get yourself some raw-mazing food for lunch 😛
~Michelle
