Raw Bento

Hi everyone, thanks for your enthusiastic comments in my last post on dealing with raw turbulence. I’m enjoying the dialogue and it’s why I keep this blog alive.

Today I’m going to talk about a brand of chia seeds, MILA, that was introduced to me by a fellow rawbie in Tokyo, Trine Mork. She very kindly sent me a packet to sample and I’ve been consuming this for over two weeks now. It was a small bag but I still have a few scoops leftover.

I understand that MILA is very finely cut compared to your average chia seeds. Apparently this very fine consistency helps to increase better absorption of its nutrients which aid more efficient digestion. Here‘s where you can read more about the multiple benefits of chia seeds.

For me, I take chia seeds for calcium and omega fatty acids, and also it’s a filling type of raw food that’s a great base for tasty cereals and smoothies. If I don’t have my chia fix, I always feel something is missing. I never get sick of it because it’s tasteless and I can mix and match ingredients so that it never gets boring.

Let me show you a few things I made with these chia seeds:

Pumpkin seed milk, MILA, Go Raw “Live” Granola (raisins, dates buckwheat, flax seeds), blueberries, a chopped banana, and a dash of cinnamon.

From this close up picture, you can see that these chia seeds look very fine and smaller than other brands like Go Hunza and Navitas. This picture was taken after soaking the chia seeds for 30 minutes.

This green smoothie was made of spinach, two frozen bananas, one nectarine, a scoop of MILA, hemp seeds, pumpkin seed milk, and topped with bee pollen. I was sad when I drunk the last drop of this smoothie. Nectarines are no longer on sale at my local supermarket…boohoo, but that means fall is definitely making its way to Tokyo.

I found the consistency of my smoothie to be very smooth. It’s similar to making a smoothie with ice and non-frozen bananas which is more liquid than slushy (a result of using frozen banana) — that’s the closest description I can come up with. If I use other chia seeds, my smoothies would be smooth but you could still see little bits of the seeds and it would be a little bit more gloopy.

This one was an absolute winner — frozen blueberries, frozen banana, big dash of cardamon, spinach, walnut milk, and MILA. I was in smoothie heaven. Strictly for people who love chai flavours and the like.

Summary of my thoughts…

Pros:
+ Very fine texture so makes very smooth smoothies in my cheap-ass blender, unlike less fine chia seed powder.
+ Great for detoxing my system after coming back from Moscow. I consumed a lot of unhealthy carbs and dairy so this helped me flush my system very well. Let’s just say, I stayed at home till it was over.
+ If you dislike the slippery gel-like texture of chia seeds, this brand could help you avoid the stickiness (it gels when in contact with liquid but not as much as other brands) but reap the health benefits.
+ Located in Japan so it makes life easier for me if I am caught chia-less.

Cons:
+ Pricey. (Please contact Trine here for a detailed price list) This is a big factor for me because I consume this daily. The non-raw fiance is my unofficial chia seed smuggler as he travels to the US pretty often so I do get a steady supply.

My purpose of doing this review is really to support a fellow raw food enthusiast in Tokyo (I wasn’t paid for it and was given a sample to try). It’s a tiny community but an emerging one that’s for sure.