Living in a city with as many restaurants as Dallas, many of us find ourselves in a dilemma: where to eat? 

But for Miranda Martinez, that decision becomes much more complicated than just deciding between Tex-Mex or Thai.

Martinez is a raw foodist. Eating out, even in Dallas, with its diverse restaurants, her options are limited. 

More often than not, Martinez finds herself eating at home even if she is meeting up with friends at a restaurant. 

If she does decide to eat out, she’ll take a look at the restaurant’s menu ahead of time. 

She will tell the waiter exactly what she wants as if it were made in her own kitchen- a salad, dry, with no croutons, a slice of avocado and no cheese. 

“I try to eat as fresh as possible,” said Martinez, an SMU graduate who became a raw foodist nearly three years ago due to a life-long struggle with her weight. 

Today, she is a raw food vegan chef and enthusiast.

For Martinez and other raw foodists around the world, the raw food diet consists of no food cooked over 116° F. 

The diet includes unprocessed and uncooked plant foods like fruit, vegetables, seeds and nuts. Most raw foodists also regularly eat unprocessed organic and natural foods like freshly juiced fruit and vegetables.

“I don’t eat any breads, any processed stuff or anything from a can,” Martinez said. She encourages living this lifestyle despite its restrictions because it yields many health benefits. Some nutritionists say the raw food diet increases energy, promotes better digestion, a decreased risk of heart disease and weight loss. 

Other studies have shown that the standard Western diet is high in sugar, fat and meat. The raw food diet significantly lowers total cholesterol and supports a much healthier American lifestyle.

When asked about the benefits of switching to the raw food diet, registered dietitian, Donna Israel P.H.R.D., said, “There’s nothing wrong with it.”

However, she does admit this diet can be quite extreme. Israel also says eating foods from local growers can actually create similar health benefits without risking the possible contamination of uncooked foods.

In Dallas, local restaurants are now looking towards a new way of thinking about the way we eat. 

Sara Tomerlin, the owner of Dallas’ Spiral Diner, located on Beckley Ave. in Oak Cliff, is a vegan enthusiast. She made a place where locals can enjoy vegan cooking without the less appetizing stereotypes. 

Serving just a few raw food options, Spiral Diner is taking steps toward a more vegetarian and vegan friendly metroplex.

People associate vegan cooking with eating salads and tasteless tofu, but Tomerlin thinks people don’t realize the possibilities. 

“You can eat almost anything.”

and make a couple of really easy substitutions and make it vegetarian,” Tomerlin said.

Tomerlin does admit the vegan lifestyle requires more commitment than your everyday carnivore. 

“You may have to make an extra trip to the grocery store, or you may have to get a new cookbook or learn a different style of cooking, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible, just means it take more effort,” Tomerlin said.

Both the vegan and especially the raw foodist lifestyle involve a immense amount of added effort not particularly crucial to the typical Western diet which demands two simple requirements: fast and cheap.

The vegetarian diet consists of mostly plants. Furthermore, vegans eat mostly plants but also exclude any animal bi-product including dairy. 

Although the raw food diet is the most intense adaptation of the vegetarian and vegan diet, recent studies show that four percent of American adults identify themselves as vegetarians and five percent of vegetarians as vegans. 

As a vegan, Tomerlin admitted she would never be able to eat raw foods all the time but understands why people crossover to the raw food lifestyle in order to get the full amount of nutrients without washing foods’ nutrients away by cooking.

In addition to the food restraints, the raw food diet also requires a great amount of preparation: sprouting seeds, grains and beans; juicing fruits and vegetables; soaking nuts and dried fruit; blending and dehydrating. 

The raw food diet also requires atypical kitchen gear like dehydrators, juice extractors, blenders, food processors, and glass soaking containers for various fruits and vegetables. 

“I admire their dedication, honestly,” said avid meat eater and SMU sophomore Carrie Pope, who had never even heard of the raw food diet.

But for every carnivore there is a vegetarian, like SMU senior Pavan Puttaparthi who, along with the rest of his family, has been a vegetarian his whole life. 

Puttaparthi agrees that there are actually lot of health benefits with being a vegetarian, as long as you eat the right foods and watch your diet. Puttaparthi encouraged anyone considering vegetarian or vegan lifestyle to just, “Go for it.”

But just like the vegetarian and vegan diets, the raw food diet does exclude foodstuffs normally present in a typical healthy human diet. 

Raw foods are low in sodium, high in potassium, magnesium and folate, and deficient in many essential vitamins like calcium, iron and B12. 

Similarly, these raw food tendencies can create a detoxification reaction (especially if the original diet was rich in meat, sugar and caffeine) and result in mild headaches, nausea and moderate to extreme cravings. 

“It was just hard for me to find enough foods that have the nutrients that I needed,” said vegetarian and SMU senior Trent Matthews who tried being a vegan raw foodist for about three weeks before he began to wake up everyday feeling sick.

Martinez, however, has found a way to make the raw food diet work for her. 

Not only does her diet make her feel healthier, but her commitment to her lifestyle transformation has made her eating habits simple.

“I drink juice and smoothies that I make myself,” Martinez said about her daily intake. She makes raw soups and salads as well. 

Martinez considers herself a “mono-mealer,” eating a small variation of practically the same food groups in subtle variation. 

Her diet allows 100 percent nutrition and 10 percent motivation. “If you don’t really want to be a raw foodist or vegan…then you’re not going to do it,” Martinez said.

Because of local places like Natural Grocers and Whole Foods, Martinez shops for seasonally fresh fruits and vegetables as often as she can, but mostly just looks for produce that is plain and simply 100 percent organic.