Siete Foods: Healthy Food That Still Tastes Good

How One Family Changed The Health Food Scene

How Siete Got It’s Start

“Family first, family second, business third.”

The motto written on their website really does reflect the path that the Garza family took when they began a Mexican food brand that would eventually become a household name.

Siete Foods products are now found in large chains like Costco, Walmart, and Whole Foods. Regardless of their range and growth, their famous products were not created to start a business; Siete Foods started to solve a problem for a member of the family.

Veronica Garza was still in high school when she became sick with various debilitating autoimmune diseases. Autoimmune diseases can cause a wide variety of crippling symptoms with extraordinary range. It took a family-wide CrossFit craze for the Garza’s to discover the Paleo Diet: an anti-inflammatory diet that is very popular among CrossFitters. This diet also has the potential to reduce symptoms of autoimmune diseases.

At the urging of her siblings, Veronica and the rest of the Garza family adopted the Paleo diet in an attempt to help her heal some of her ailments and reduce the discomfort that her health caused her.

The Garza Family’s love of CrossFit led to the opening of a gym that they owned and operated, with different family members teaching classes while others managed and ran the business. Their health continued to improve between the CrossFit and the Paleo diet, and Veronica began to notice her symptoms were becoming significantly less tiresome.

All the pros and benefits of their new lifestyle aside, there was a definite downside to their commitment to their health.

As a Mexican American family living in Texas, switching out their tortillas for lettuce wraps really wasn’t even close to the same as the authentic, delicious homemade tortillas that they grew up with.

In an effort to make dinner more enjoyable for herself and her family, Veronica began experimenting with almond flour to make a paleo-friendly tortilla substitute. Over time, she also began to incorporate tapioca flour into her recipe and discovered a new tortilla that actually tasted good, while also accommodating her family’s unique dietary needs.

They began selling tortillas to regulars at the CrossFit gym in an effort to support the other paleo dieters in the area. It didn’t take long for the family to realize the potential of Veronica’s product on a larger scale. They all worked together to increase production in order to accommodate the high demand for their tortillas.

Eventually, they began selling products to a local vendor, while preparing food in a Certified Gluten Free kitchen in Austin, Texas. The family worked nights to produce products over the weekends, creating stock to sell throughout the week.

The company initially sold their tortillas with the name “Must B Nutty.” One brother, Miguel, became the CEO of the company, and Veronica became the Chief Innovation Officer.

Their growth continued to skyrocket. More friends, family and people they knew were recruited to help the Garza family make their paleo tortillas. They even found employees by talking to people in grocery stores and offering them work.

Finally, the Garzas struck up a deal to put their products in Whole Foods stores. This was one of the first major retailers to begin carrying the Siete product line. Overtime, their product range expanded to include chips, beans, sauces, seasonings, cookies and salsas.

Not only has Siete become one of the most acclaimed and praised health food brands on the market, but the incredible quality has helped the company compete with other major Mexican food producers.

Their products are now found in almost all major retailers, and the company continues to expand and grow.

My Thoughts

I couldn’t eat tortilla chips for a very long time.

My anti-inflammatory diet excludes corn, canola oil, vegetable oil, and preservatives. That meant chips were completely off the table, with every ingredient being a firm no. When my mom bought Siete chips for the first time, I remember telling her, “Fake versions of the real thing always taste awful. These are going to taste like cardboard.”

They did not taste like cardboard.

They actually tasted better than traditional chips, in my opinion. Their products are a favorite of mine since the quality of their ingredients never wavers; it’s one of those brands that I can throw in the grocery cart without double-checking the label. Learning about how this brand got started makes me even more excited to support this business.