Mother, entrepreneur, and holistic health advocate Angela Palanca on why bone broth is worth the bother.
Gut Decisions
Angela Palanca believes that one of the best decisions she’s ever made was from her gut— literally. She was pregnant with her second child in 2011 in the Bay Area of San Fransisco. “I first learned about bone broth and its many healing properties,” shares the mother of three, “I was instantly drawn to it because it claimed to address conditions I suffered from.” And when her skin, digestive, and hormonal issues healed— “I have been taking it ever since!” She gushes.
Angela’s plight turned out to be some classic symptoms of a leaky gut. It is when the semi-permeable layer of the intestines is compromised— causing unwanted bacteria and toxins into the bloodstream. Bone broth, in particular, grass-fed beef bone broth, is excellent at regenerating our body’s natural defense mechanism.
Eager to spread this revelation to the local market, she started selling bone broth on her village market’s Facebook page. “We didn’t even have a brand then!” She recalls. Luckily, if not ironically, it was 2020’s pandemic that caused bone broth sales to surge— first in terms of clientele. “My earliest customers were mostly women in their late 20s to 40s,” says Angela, “they felt they needed to hit the reset button after all stress, extra eating, less movement, and extra pounds gained during community quarantine.” Secondly, the pandemic also revealed a fault in the local supply chain. “At the height of Covid, where many restaurants were not operating at full capacity or had not yet pivoted into delivery models, our community turned to our village FB group to fill in the gap, so I was lucky to have started with a good online market.”
While the break-in supply would result in sales, Angela knew that success was in repeat sales. “I saw the potential. I wanted to be a platform that could effectively share information and engage customers.”
Today, BrothedPh calls their biggest fans ‘souperstars.’ “They are friends and customers-turned-friends who have gladly continued their brothing journey,” shares Angela. She surmises that them having also experienced the ‘heal-thy’ effects of bone broth, have caused them to incorporate it into their diets. “I haven’t really had many unhappy customers,” she shares, “I guess if they don’t believe in the product, they just don’t buy (it).”
Yet while the early fears of bone broth being a fad are fading and with sales encouraging (even Starbucks in the US is carrying bone broth as a staple)— Angela’s biggest role as an influencer is felt at home.
Ingredients to a Healthy Lifestyle
In the same way that a healthy lifestyle rests on multiple factors (diet, sleep/stress, and exercise) – Angela rises each morning keen on optimizing her day. “I do things that ground me and give me the capacity to face the day.” She starts with a shot of coffee, balanced out with calming Scripture, alongside journaling her thoughts and prayers. A little later, she goes on a workout— either via brisk run, virtual training in Athlete’s Edge Performance, or an indoor cycle class. She laments these will have to do, due to the pandemic’s effects on offline classes. “Then I have breakfast… “ says the self-confessed brekkie person, “then I am pretty much prepped for a day of work and attending to the kids.”
And it is her role as a mother to her children which occupies the lion’s share of Angela’s concerns. “Aside from the obvious health risks that the pandemic presents, my biggest fear is that they miss out on key experiences that affect their development.” She laments the past year’s quarantine affecting 25% of her 4-year-old’s lifetime, for example, and how distance learning is challenging their face-to-face interactions. “I am thankful for their little bubble of playmates that they can see now and then,” Angela says, who aims for a balance between safety and proper socialization.
“Hard work, discipline, and persistence,” she says, are the values that fuel dreams. They are also the qualities she wishes her children to grow into. “I also want them to view work not just as a means to a paycheck but as God-given calling to serve people and make the world a better place.”
A Full-Feeling Future
While most influencer-entrepreneurs consider their careers glamorous, Angela feels otherwise. “I feel the life of an entrepreneur is very humbling,” she confesses, “in that your successful ventures stand on the shoulders of your failed ones.” Much like dark chocolate, the experience is bittersweet, and BrothedPh’s founder considers herself blessed to be doing what she’s doing years from now, albeit on an improved and larger scale. “I want to significantly improve the lives of our customers and employees,” she confides, “I dream of a company that doesn’t just pay its employees minimum wage but grants a fair living wage.” And by this, she means paying someone enough to cover their needs, and then some.
In fact, given the chance at REAL influence (ie. Government), she presumes to address issues faced by those at the first rung of society. “I am sure you have come across stories of farmers who have tons of rotting produce due to limited transportation and a shift in buying patterns of consumers,” she mentions many a Facebook story that has garnered both sympathy and outrage in equal amounts, “yet food prices are at an all-time high which is strange. The problem is the supply chain which is not able to get the food to the consumers.” Future-congresswoman Palanca would then help draft a ‘Baranggay Market Bill’ — which tasks LGUs to procure the most basic meat, rice, and produce. “Going straight to producers would cut costs and provide more affordable food to communities,” she reasons, “hopefully this can give people the option of a home-cooked meal over (less-than-healthy but oh-so-much-more-convenient) instant noodles.”
As a parting anecdote, Angela Palanca reveals that she was in fact working to launch an activewear brand, with a sourcing trip scheduled for March 2020. It was a trip that got canceled due to the pandemic. “God had other plans for me!” She theorizes. We (and many other happier, healthier insides), are thankful she went with her gut— and started BrothedPh.
Try a cup of Angela’s bone broth goodness now. Get in touch through their Instagram page or 09178538395.
– let Medicine be thy food, and food be thy Medicine.”
Hippocrates of Galen
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