Turning over a new Sugarleaf

You know too well that all this guilty, like-there’s-no-tomorrow indulgence will catch up with you someday. Suddenly, your blood pressure soars and your energy level plunges. Just thinking of work makes you tired. You’re breathless and starting to have palpitations, and you know it’s not because you’re in love. You can’t even climb a flight of stairs without panting. The only “exercise” you can do is jump to conclusions or lift a finger. You can’t fit into your pants anymore. Worse, you can’t fit into the driver’s seat of your car anymore. Well, it’s about time you turned over a new leaf. And when you’re ready to commit to a healthy lifestyle, hopefully for life, you’ve got a friend: The MEDICard Lifestyle Center which boasts top-of-the-line facilities and services to promote good health and well-being among its valued members and clients.

Today, armed with a firm resolve to abandon my sinful eating habits (for the umpteenth time), I happily discover a healthy new resto on the ground floor of the MEDICard Lifestyle Center building at the corner of Paseo de Roxas and Buendia Avenue, right smack in the heart of Makati.  It goes by this sweet name: Sugarleaf … foods that nourish. 

Over the healthiest and yummiest sandwiches and salads I’ve ever tasted, Angelo Narciso Songco, Sugarleaf’s dynamic marketing and business development head, shares a mouthful: “Sugarleaf is the English name for Stevia, a sweet herb that grows in South America and also in the Philippines.” 

He confesses, “The truth is, none of us at Sugarleaf are vegetarians, we’re simply healthy eaters. I like to call myself a ‘foodarian.’” 

In a nutshell, Angelo dishes out Sugarleaf’s mission/vision: “We would like to offer healthier dining and living options to our public without necessarily telling them to stop eating what they enjoy eating or grew up eating. We try to serve items that can be consumed by vegetarians, but we don’t tell them not to eat this and instead eat that because if you follow a very strict diet, you might be healthy physically, but you might be feeling deprived because you’re not enjoying what you’re eating. What we’re telling people is they can still eat hamburger or meat every so often, but they must try to incorporate healthier items, which are fruits and vegetables, and organic as much as possible.”

 MEDICard president Dr. Nicky Montoya echoes Angelo’s sentiments.  “We strongly encourage our clients to make healthy food choices as part of living a fit lifestyle.  After all, healthy eating is a vital component to achieve optimum wellness.  That’s why we’re very happy that Sugarleaf is here at the MEDICard Lifestyle Center so it’s easier and more convenient for our clients to enjoy healthy food,” says Dr. Montoya. 

  Once more with feeling, Angelo asserts, “One of our advocacies is to try to go organic in what we eat as much as possible, especially vegetables. By organic, we mean no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, and this poses many challenges, which is why organic is more expensive. But consider it an investment in good health over getting sick and spending your money on medicines. Organic food nourishes you, it doesn’t give you empty calories, like heavily processed food, which may make you feel full but does not nourish or energize you.”

Angelo Songco: “We’re not vegetarians. I like to call myself a ‘foodarian.’” Photo by JOVEN CAGANDE

Angelo tells us more about Sugarleaf’s healthy cooking: “If you look at our menu, there’s only one deep-fried item, which is just a side dish — the banana chips. We don’t microwave our food. We don’t use MSG.”

Consider Sugarleaf as a one-stop shop-cum-mini mart of healthy food items in the city. There are healthy picks of organic produce — fruits, vegetables, and herbs — sourced from the La Trinidad Organic Practitioners Multi-purpose Cooperative farmers who are certified by the Organic Certification Council of the Philippines that ensures that their produce is all-organic.  

There are the much-touted superfoods (or functional foods) that have been around for hundreds of years and contain a very high level of a certain nutrient like organic malunggay, which is high in calcium and vitamin C, says Angelo. He goes on to enumerate the mini mart’s super shelf offerings: “Chia seeds, one of the most powerful superfoods in the world loaded with fiber and antioxidants; acai, also a potent antioxidant; maca powder, a hormone balancer for women and performance-enhancer for males with fertility problems.”  

Meanwhile, healthy food finds include free-range chicken, kefir milk, yogurt, organic highland coffee, natural sweeteners (coco nectar and sugar, stevia), home-made dips and dressings, and air-dried tea.        

“Because our offerings are as organic and natural as possible, they’re naturally weight-reducing, detoxifying, anti-oxidizing (to make you look and feel young), and energy-boosting,” Angelo stresses. “We ensure that the food choices at Sugarleaf taste great so they appeal to everyone, even kids, dispelling the mistaken notion that healthy organic food is tasteless and boring.” 

Wrap king: Goody kefir wraps & smoothies

Tasteless and boring? I don’t think so! But you be the judge. Try some of Sugarleaf’s bestsellers. For breakfast, have a bagel with jam & cream cheese. Sandwiches include basil-tomato-kesong puti, egg-mayo, free-range chicken, Turkey Waldorf, smoked blue marlin & dill, Iberico Belota Chorizo. All sandwiches are served with baked gluten-free soy chips. If you’re extra hungry, double the health benefits by doubling the filling. Or add other vegetables to the already healthy, fiber-rich treat, like alfalfa sprouts, spinach, etc.

At Sugarleaf, I also unwrapped more delicious discoveries — the Goody Wraps (crabstick & mango, smoked fish, free-range chicken, beef and vegetarian) that come with Goody Kefir dressing, organic lettuce, and cucumber. Kefir is a cultured, enzyme-rich food filled with friendly micro-organisms that help balance our inner ecosystem. It supplies complete protein, essential minerals, and valuable B vitamins.

More, there are soups using fresh produce, organic salads, freshly made pasta with organic vegetables, and yes, to-die-for, guilt-free desserts. “We serve low-glycemic cakes and pastries suitable for diabetics,” says Angelo. “We don’t use artificial sweeteners; we only use natural sweeteners or those that come from plants, like coconut sugar.” 

How about a chunky, crunchy slice of cashew sans rival or a velvety vegan chocolate cake or organic carrot cake or nut pie or kefir cheesecake? Want ice cream with that? A cool offering is Jello’s Coco-Kefir Ice Cream that everyone’s been raving about. It uses Goody coconut kefir which makes it completely vegan but still creamy and delicious.

When it comes to beverages, we’re spoiled for choice at Sugarleaf.  Choose from a whole selection of healing juices, depending on what you want it to do for you. For instance, if you want to detox, take an apple, carrot, or celery juice. If you’re nursing a hangover, go for the apple, orange, carrot or beetroot juice. To de-stress, try a refreshing glass of apple, pineapple or lime and mint juice. 

Go organic: Sugarleaf’s advocacy is to try to go organic in what we eat, especially fresh produce.

One more thing that makes Sugarleaf quite a sweet discovery is that it also educates people about healthier food. “There are people who are not familiar with organic food — they buy, but they don’t know how to prepare it or optimize the health benefits of the food,” Angelo notes. “That’s why we’ve come up with our health and wellness talks and workshops at our Sugarleaf branch in Greenhills, which opened only last February. We want to teach people about raw and living superfood preparation. We want to get even those who live in condos into organic farming and gardening.” 

 Surely, getting into the healthy habit never sounded this delicious!

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Sugarleaf occupies the ground and second floors of the MEDICard Lifestyle Center, complementing its overall mission of providing holistic health.  Call them on 385-0387 or e-mail angelo@sugarleafph.com.