Why Eating Healthy Is Still a Struggle, and How Chef Gerick Manalo Is Trying to Change That

Drawing on his experience in the kitchen and more than two years of product development, the EarthLab & Co. founder is exploring how taste and convenience influence everyday nutrition habits.

A chef who struggles to eat his vegetables might seem like an unlikely person to start a wellness company. But for Chef Gerick Manalo, Founder and CEO of EarthLab & Co., that personal contradiction became the starting point for a business built around a familiar challenge: why is eating healthier so difficult, even when we know what is good for us?

Despite years of experience preparing food for others, Manalo found it difficult to maintain the healthy eating habits he understood professionally.

“As a chef, I could tell you exactly what a balanced plate should look like, how to prepare vegetables, and even make them taste good for other people,” Manalo says. “But when it came to my own plate, I was the one avoiding them.”

That gap between knowing and doing would become central to how he approached EarthLab.