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Shuttered raw-food restaurant in the North End could reopen - but with cooked food this time
By adamg on Tue, 10/05/2010 - 2:00pm
A lawyer for raw-food entrepreneur Alissa Cohen told the Boston Licensing Board today his client will soon either reopen her closed Prince Street restaurant or sell it off.
Grezzo was before the licensing board for non-use of its license - Cohen shut the place in May, citing "the rat race" of running a business that included two restaurants (she had one in Newburyport).
But her lawyer told the board she was looking to re-open. This time around, however, she would serve "natural," rather than "raw" food, in other words, some of the food would be cooked.
The board agreed to give her a month to either re-open or sell the business.
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Comments
Thank god. That Grezzo place
Thank god. That Grezzo place was not good. Almond Cheese for EVERYONE!!!
Raw food cures cancer? C'mon. Really?
Aside from the matter of the restaurant itself, I have to call BS on some of the claims this raw food movement make. Be vegan? I applaud you. Eat healthy? Great. Enjoy unique flavors and the creatvity of the food? Wonderful. But stop the unethical hyperbole. Her site claims:
"There are numerous benefits to eating a raw and living food diet. Some of these benefits include people healing themselves of diabetes, fibromyalgia, acne, migraines, back pain, neck and joint pain, asthma, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, hypoglycemia, colitis, diverticulitis, Candida, arthritis, serious allergies, depression, anxiety, mood swings, heartburn, gas, bloating, skin diseases, obesity, chronic fatigue, cancers and many more.
"People have reported their hair turning back to its natural color, teeth getting tighter and gums stop bleeding, wrinkles, deep creases and age spots disappearing, dark circles, bags and eye puffiness vanishing, acne and blemishes fading..."
Total snake oil. I'm not one of those "make fun of the vegans" types, but claiming a cure for cancer here is pretty sleazy. Any health food product on store shelves making such a ridiculous, falsely hope-inducing claim would be in hot water with the FDA and anyone else looking out for consumers. Say this raw diet can help prevent some kinds of cancer, or aid in recovery and remission, and I might not protest. But talk of "healing yourself" of various cancers is just terible -- either blissfully misguided or a con job.
Research begs to differ
I don't think anyone is claiming a miracle cure for advanced cancers. But vegans are statistically at much less risk for cancer and have slower rates of advancement of cancers. Research shows that eating animal parts causes more cell mutation.
And heart disease and digestive issues and whatnot being largely caused by animal products is kind of a no-brainer.
The research does not beg to
The research does not beg to differ, at least none any reputable journal would publish. Cohen's web site claims, as I quoted, that people have healed themselves of numerous diseases including "cancers." Making you less at-risk, helping the healing process or slowing advancement is not the same as curing or "healing yourself of."
I have no problem whatsover with a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. Never ate at her restaurant in the North End, but it certainly looked intriguing and had I known about it before today (sadly don't get to the North End like I used to) there are several friends and relatives who are vegans I would gladly have taken there.
But I do have a problem with claiming that these magical meals can cure cancer,much less any other disease. The claim is made. "Statistically at much less risk" is a very far cry from touting a cure. And, though its less serious, I defy her or anyone else to find me someone whose hair returned to its original color after a switch to raw food. Don't mar a perfectly good dietary alternative by throwing in junk science, lies of miraculous powers and false hope.
That doesn't seem farfetched at all though...
Regarding the hair thing, the melanocytes can shut off for any number of reasons, including vitamin deficiencies, stress, etc.
It's not likely that many or most people would have hair follicles start producing pigment again after switching diet, but it's certainly possible that someone could be eating absolute crap and not getting a lot of nutrients and having a lot of physiological stress responses because of all the cholesterol and stuff, then they switch to a better diet and start producing pigment. All of the right conditions would have to be present for this to occur, but it's certainly biologically feasible.
raw food touted benefits
Oh no, Eeka, was that sound your supraspinatus tearing during that long reach...if only you had eaten more ..... (just jesting, I am moving more towards raw/fermented foods myself)
He's arguing that the claims
He's arguing that the claims of raw food being a cancer curer is bogus. You're arguing that a vegan diet is healthy for you. You two are talking past each other but think you are debating.
More to the point of the original post--I don't have it handy, but there was a brief article in a recent Cook's Illustrated that mentioned some biological component of the human tongue/brain connection that finds foods more flavorful over 130 degrees or something like that.