The clamor towards a healthier lifestyle is a welcome trend that almost everyone is trying to embrace.
The growing number of those who are into Ketogenic diet and those who are cutting back on sugar says it all. While we were raised to fear the effects of fat in our body, we failed to notice that Sugar can be far notorious.
A special type of diet usually arises from a health condition or a call for a healthier lifestyle. Having to adapt to a new diet is hard enough specially if this is accompanied with medicines in the case of those who have diabetes, cancer, renal failures and other diseases that calls for Low-Carbohydrate/ Sugar-Free diet.
Diabetic Cases
The Philippines is considered one of the diabetes “hot spots” in the Western Pacific region. It is estimated that 1 out of 5 Filipinos are diabetic. This statistic is very alarming and calls for attention of the general public. Several cause-oriented group has already started campaigns to spread awareness in the hope to help hinder the growth.
It was noted that unhealthy lifestyle habits of Filipinos is the main cause of diabetes. This was also tackled by World Health Organization and they also included sedentary lifestyles as major lifestyle risk factors, stating that 1 in 3 is overweight and 1 in 10 is obese.
Obesity
Obesity cases is another red flag in the country. Those who consume excess of sugar and carbohydrate lead to accumulating that excess weight overtime. Per record, Philippines has estimated a staggering 18 million citizens who are either Obese or Overweight.
Cancer Cells feed on Sugar
To clarify, consuming sugar does not cause cancer. Studies have been conducted which proves that sugar essentially feeds tumors and encourages cancer growth. Hence, starving these cells from sugar may help cancer patients.
Given these health conditions, a group of young entrepreneurs have decided to develop bread alternatives for those whose dietary requirements needs special attention. Evan Dykimching and Vicson Ngo are the people behind Hearty Bread, Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free.
The company started out as suppliers for some of the major hospitals in the Metro. They cater to doctors and in-house patient with conditions mentioned above. Evan recounts “When one of our family member got confined in the hospital, we were surprised that the price of our bread were quite high due to several administrative fees”
With the company’s desire to promote affordable and quality health, they created the brand “Hearty Bread” to make healthy breads readily available and affordable to the general public.
To give you an idea, if you are not familiar with the price of Gluten-Free/Sugar-Free market, other producers are selling at 500php to 600php per loaf. For most people, this price tag is very expensive.
Hearty Bread invested in research & development for 2 years in order to come up with bread that are double the size and sell them at half the price. Hearty Bread’s Almond Loaf line retails at only 180Php for the plain Almond Loaf while their Cheesy variants – Cheesy Charcoal and Cheesy Coffee are pegged at 250php/loaf.
They also have other products such as their Sourdough/Probiotic line which includes Malunggay Sourdough Pandesal which sells at 40php/6pcs, while their other Sourdough loaf sells at 115php. Hearty Bread’s Fruit loafs are also in demand, Banana Sourdough Loaf retails at 200php, Banofee Walnut Sourdough Loaf and Pumpkin Carrot Sourdough Loaf sells at 280php/ Loaf. These are all Gluten-Free/Sugar-free!
A lot of other products are in the pipeline and are being developed which gives those who are into these type of diet something to look forward to.
Evan also shares the secret to making their bread available at a very low price – “We can really lower the cost of our products since we produce them commercially in volume quantities. We also own the lot where our facilities operate so we don’t pay rent.” He further explains “We make our bread affordable not to kill the market price but to make these healthy bread affordable and help those who are burdened to begin with.
Speaking of accessibility, Hearty Bread are available at selected Rustan’s Marketplace, Weekend Markets and Delivery hubs thru Zomato and Grab. For a complete list and updated list, please follow their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/heartybreadph/ .
