A photo posted by Runner's Kitchen (@runnerskitchenph) on Apr 2, 2016 at 7:43pm PDT

MANILA – Acting is not the only thing Bianca King is passionate about.

In fact, her keen interest in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and making healthy choices when it comes to the food she eats has led her to opening her own restaurant.

In December 2014, King partnered with veteran photographer Xander Angeles in opening Runner’s Kitchen, her first venture into the restaurant industry.

King said there were many factors that inspired her to open the restaurant.

"First one would be because I’m an actress and I’m very conscious of my image. It’s really my lifestyle,” she said in an interview with ABS-CBN News.

“Second thing is my grandmother and my dad both suffered from health-related illnesses at the same time. My grandmother passed away from it. My dad recovered so I had to understand why they were getting sick and it was because of the food that they were eating," she added.

"The other reason is I’m super passionate about food.”

Supporting the organic food movement, King is proud that one of her restaurant’s thrusts is to help small farmers.

“There are companies that seek small organic farms and see what they are harvesting and they find people to buy it. So there are people approaching us now saying that ‘Can you buy the goods that we have from the people in the province of Bukidnon and so on and so forth?’ It’s a nice feeling to be helping small farmers,” she said.

Given the number of choices of healthy restaurants in the metro, King believes that what sets Runner's Kitchen apart is that it offers dishes for every type of diet.

“Every item on the menu has a health factor to it. So you know how when you go out to eat sometimes and you want to eat healthy but you’re like ‘I have nothing to order here.’ You end up ordering a Ceasar salad. In general, if you want to eat healthy, you can come here and you can eat anything,” she said.

To those who find healthy eating very expensive, King only has this to say.

“What I normally ask them is ‘Ano ba ang luho mo?’ Some men spend a lot on expensive rubber shoes, they even buy two of each, one they wear, one they keep. For girls naman, it’s clothes, bags. I also ask them if they have had anyone close to them that has suffered from the way they used to eat before.”

“I tell them, you want to look and feel good, yes, but think about 30 years from now. Whatever you put inside your body, it’s going to reflect on you when you’re much older. If you could prevent yourself from getting sick or from being overweight, wouldn’t know be the time to start?” she said.

For King, living healthy is really about self-esteem.

“For you to be truly happy with your life, you have to look good and feel good. It’s just that aspiration of living a better life that comes along with being healthy. It’s not trendy or expensive. It’s just something you have to do for yourself. Be happy,” she said.

Since this is just King’s first venture into the food service industry, she finds managing Runner’s Kitchen “very challenging but fulfilling.”

Runner's Kitchen is located at the Creekside Square, Tomas Morato Ave, Quezon City.

Here are some of the restaurant's best-sellers: