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Recently, Ware dined at Mount Rainier’s A Quest For Fresh, Smarter Bar Café. The new restaurant offers alternative eats like cheese and meats made of nuts, cush, a soaked grain meal, and sea vegetable dishes. The menu also includes sandwiches, tofu popcorn and roasted marinated vegetables.

‘‘I believe that people are looking for something fresh, quick with good quality taste,” Ware said. ‘‘I think people would pay a little bit more for something other than unhealthy fast food.”

Afriyie Robinson, owner of A Quest for Fresh, is working hard to ensure people in the area are not only fed well, but also are educated well.

‘‘[Eating healthy] stems from a personal lifestyle,” she said.

‘‘I used to work at [various] fast-food restaurants ... and I noticed that the only thing I was eating was what I was working with,” Robinson said, adding she noticed her digestion was not as healthy as she wanted. ‘‘So I made a commitment to not eat meat any more.”

Originally from Philadelphia, Robinson, who lives in Washington, D.C., once owned three healthy food restaurants. She and business partner Janet Carson chose Mount Rainier for its eclectic charm.

‘‘I saw the empty space and like the quaint area,” she said, adding the restaurant will complement GLUT, a local health food co-op.

Some of her dishes include avocado rolls and avocado-banana pudding. She has learned a lot from experimentation and her travels to Africa.

‘‘If God created all this beautiful food for consumption in its natural state ... your body can recognize all those nutrients. It’s like a puzzle,” she said.

Everlasting Life Health Complex and Organic Market in Capitol Heights offers a complete spread of vegan food and a juice bar.

The restaurant, which also offers a catering service, does not serve food made with animals or animal bi-products, said Sister Edyah, owner of the catering business.

‘‘We came from the earth, so the earth has what we need to put into our bodies to keep going,” she said. ‘‘We were never meant to eat animals anyhow. We were meant to eat from the ground.”

‘‘They’re putting so many chemicals and so many toxins in the animals that it’s going into our systems and causing all types of diseases. We’re getting second-hand [food]. They say we need proteins — we’ve got proteins in plants, we get proteins in beans.”

She sees a trend in diet consciousness and finds evidence of it in a steady increase in clientele.

‘‘We get at least four or five new clients every day asking questions about vegan food,” she said. ‘‘A lot of people seem to be opening up to changing their diets. Everybody seems to be trying to find a new way to eat.”

Many people look to organic food with the thought that it might not include possible cancer-causing additives, but such a connection has not been 100 percent proven, said Jeffrey Prince, vice president for education at the Washington, D.C.,-based American Institute for Cancer Research.

However, there could be other reasons for the spike in organic food stores and eateries, he said.

‘‘Generally, I would say that people today are concerned with the connection between food and chronic disease and other kinds of disease,” Prince said.

‘‘We think people should eat a lot of fruits and vegetables to reduce the cancer risks. If you can afford organic fruits and vegetables and you have access to them, buy them. ... But don’t let the fact that it’s [not organic] stop you from eating fruits and vegetables.”

E-mail Sarah Nemeth at snemeth@gazette.net.

healthy food venues

A Quest for Fresh

4009 34th St., Mount Rainier

11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and Sunday

Everlasting Life

9185 Central Ave., Capitol Heights

10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday

11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday

The Berwyn Café

5010 Berwyn Road, College Park

11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday