Christian-owned Revelation Cafe helping people fight food addiction with healthy alternatives

LUTZ, Fla. — Christian couple Mia and Robby Graham have cultivated a space where their community and tourists can be fed spiritually and savor a nutritious meal. 

"Revelations Cafe: Food for the Soul” from producer John Corry of the critically-acclaimed documentary “Forks Over Knives,” takes viewers on Mia's and Robby's journey that united the couple and led them to build a cafe that's helping others to lead healthier lives by nourishing the body, mind and soul. 

"I think that everyone who is a nonbeliever and new believers are looking at us and we need to think about how we're presenting the body, and not just the Body of Christ, but the physical body,” Mia told The Christian Post. 

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"We are three-part beings,” she said. “We are the temple, and we have to honor God with what we put in our bodies.”

The faith-based cafe features a plant-based menu designed to "heal the body."

"We've looked at alcoholism, drug addiction, pornography, gambling and all those sins in a way different from how we look at food addiction because food addiction is something you can easily hide, Mia explained.

"You can hide it, but you really can't hide it because of the external aspect.” 

Obesity goes hand-in-hand with many chronic diseases and the Grahams want to help as many people as possible to get healthy and lead lives enriched by the healing properties of nutritional foods. 

However, like Robby, some people can look healthy on the outside while other dangers lurk on the inside. 

At 57, Robby suffered a heart attack due to a blocked artery and plaque build-up in multiple blood vessels. Exceptionally fit, Robby had no idea he had heart disease. He reluctantly embraced a plant-based diet and saw firsthand how his new eating habits improved his cholesterol numbers, lowered his blood pressure and reversed heart disease.

According to the Mayo Clinic, 70% of Americans are on at least one prescription drug, and more than half are taking four or more prescriptions daily. The Grahams believe this doesn't have to be. 

With no previous restaurant experience, the couple transformed a former mattress store into Revelations Cafe. 

"It was like someone had put a computer chip in my brain and all this information just started pouring in," Mia told CP. "God gave me a vision of what our life was going to be like together. But I'm thinking it was just going to be that we were going to be friends, we were going to have this ministry because I was not looking for a husband, or a boyfriend or anything."

When Mia and Robby first met, she was a newly divorced single mother raising two teenage boys and Robby was homeless living in the Salvation Army due to drug abuse. 

Robby, once a fit and successful businessman, injured his back while squatting and became addicted to pain pills. The addiction became so severe he found himself snorting and shooting up drugs. Robbie became an IV drug user and lost everything within three years. In 2013, he found himself homeless at a Salvation Army shelter and met Mia shortly thereafter. 

Mia struggled with alcohol and food following her divorce. But one day, God showed her how her addiction to food was a "distraction that the enemy was using" and what her future would look like if she didn't take back control of her life and live for His glory. 

The couple said they want people to be aware of the enemy’s tactics to keep them distracted and unhealthy.

"I just think that we don't recognize it right away. We're not aware of the times that we eat because we're bored — hungry, angry, lonely, tired,” she explained.

She advised that before binge eating, people should ask themselves: "Am I hungry?” 

Mia said people would be better off if they “think more than act on a lot of things.” 

Revelations Cafe has become so popular that some local physicians began prescribing meal plans from the restaurant to their patients instead of pharmaceutical drugs.

Mia and Robby make all of the meals themselves and the restaurant features a prayer wall and booth in the back of the cafe where Robby prays with customers. 

In conjunction with the documentary, which can be streamed at revelations-cafe.com, the Grahams recently released a book, 222 Says It Was Always You, that delves deeper into their testimonies and God's work in their lives.