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Natural Products Asia Resource is an informative newsletter reaching over 50,000 professionals around the world in the nutraceutical, nutritional, dietary supplement, cosmetic, wellness and food industries, published by Natural Products Expo Asia.

Mintel Predicts Global Beauty TrendsFor 2010

Information provided by Mintel International

Asia Resource

Market Research

“Austerity chic” ruled the beauty in-dustry in 2009, but as we move on from this challenging year, Mintel Beauty Innovation forecasts the top beauty trends for 2010. Though manufacturer and consumer attitudes were changed by the recession, innovation and resil-ience have shaped a new landscape for beauty in 2010.

Nica Lewis, director of Mintel Beauty Innovation says: “While 2009 brought its challenges for the industry, beauty brands and suppliers have continued to seek creative new ways to merge science, nature and sustainability for better results and more eco-friendly formulas and packaging. In 2010, we will see more consolidation in the beauty industry and the evolution of

old trends, as well as new ones, as con-sumer confidence returns.”

1. MOOD BEAUTYMake-up has long been associated with making the wearer feel better, but recent product evolution has seen ac-tual ingredients enabling this. In 2010, consumers will be able to enhance their mood through make-up and sk-incare, going beyond aromatherapy and simple use of scent.

“Mood Beauty” creates a new beauty space, intersecting psychology and wellbeing with beauty products that offer psychological benefits and ingre-dients that act on people’s neurotrans-mitters. Expect manufacturers to make use of textures, temperatures or sounds

that affect the mood, as well as innova-tions like make-up that “switches on and off.”

Meanwhile, the idea of beauty sleep will take on new meaning, as cosmet-ics claiming to induce positive moods or improve sleep quality inject new life into night care products.

2. PRO-TECH’TThroughout 2009, there was a renewed emphasis on protection, one of the basic functions of skincare, hair care and color cosmetics. Beauty products offered increasingly powerful shields against not just UV rays, but also phys-iological and man-made factors.

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In 2010, “Pro-Tech’t” will strengthen this shield. Marketing language is al-ready growing more robust, borrowing from computer technology (e.g. “fire-walls”). Packaging, too, will expand beyond traditional glass and plastic to materials like neoprene and concrete.

In addition, Mintel Beauty Innovation expects growth in immune-boosting and skin-defending claims, as well as new products that contain ingredients from extreme environments such as the Arctic, Alpine or Desert. Expect more healthcare actives like rhodiola rosea, griffonia and superoxide dis-mutase to appear in 2010’s beauty products, forging a stronger link with nutricosmetics.

3. TURBO BEAUTY 4GDeveloping 2009’s “Turbo Beauty”’ trend, “Turbo Beauty 4G” continues to capitalize on advances in biochem-istry for higher-tech beauty products. Expect more quasi-medical results and “mix-it-yourself” solutions: at-home kits and cures that offer alternatives to cosmetic surgery and non-invasive procedures.

In 2010, products will increasingly include medical- or pharmaceutical-grade actives and next-generation nan-otechnology. In addition, clinical test-ing to substantiate claims and results will move from prestige into “masstige” (affordable for general consumers but positioned as luxury).

Following the explosion of social me-dia, Mintel also expects beauty manu-facturers to start marketing anti-aging products in particular to “digital na-tives.”

4. NU NATURAL“Nu Natural” is a new vision of natural that is less focused on certification and more focused on results, efficiency and safety. In 2010, beauty products will evolve from today’s trend towards or-ganic ingredients, revisiting attributes like authenticity, provenance and local production.

Mintel Beauty Innovation expects claims like “free from” and “sustain-able” to appear in products that simul-taneously contain synthetic actives like peptides, hyaluronic acid, ceramides or collagen. Beauty manufacturers will further explore simple formulas, such as infusions and fluids, but they’ll for-mulate them with a new generation of phytochemicals, anthocyanins and fer-mented actives.

An in-depth look at NU NAT-URAL around the globeThe New Zealand-based Snowberry range is now available in France. The range is formulated by a doctor and biochemist without lauryl sulphates, petrochemicals, propylene or buty-lene glycols, volatile alcohols, artificial colours, silicones, DEA or MEA in-gredients, or animal products (except for honey, silk and cultured pearl and coral). The Cellular Intensive Renewal Face Serum (€196) also contains hu-man oligopeptide-20, acetyl pentapep-tide-3 and dipeptide diaminobutyroyl benzylamide diacetate. The BioN-atria delivery system is said to emulate ‘transdermal Botox’. This anti-ageing product is targeted to women 35+ and claims “visible results expected within 28 days.”

Italian naturaceutical brand Bakel in-troduced a new line made up exclu-sively of fluids - not emulsions – that contain no water. The brand interprets natural as “zero useless substances and 100% actives”; it claims to “eliminate the superfluous and increase potential of active ingredients.” The P-Lipic Se-rum Four Revitalizing Formula serum contains only four ingredients (aloe barbadensis gel, glycerin, panthenol, ubiquinone).

In China, Nu Natural closely links safe-ty and natural claims. Herborist Whit-ening Essence (CNY380 / €39) has repackaged its whitening ‘cure’ with Traditional Chinese Medicinal herbs. It features a “fresh-lock” package for safety and convenience. The individu-ally wrapped powder and liquid forms are mixed prior to use. The kit is avail-able from Herborist spas and selected department stores.

US brand Själ embodies Nu Natu-ral with its blending of traditional medicine, biotechnology, energy sci-ence and quantum physics. The new Kashmir Saphir Perfecting Mask ($150) contains Chinese herbs, silk proteins, blue lotus, copper peptide, tissue salts, nano-minerals (including gold, silver and platinum) and GABA amino acid. It is free of “temporary lifts or fillers, such as petroleum jelly, mineral oil, silicone or caffeine.”

Market Research

Mintel is an independent award-win-ning provider of world-leading market intelligence, delivering robust infor-mation, analysis and critical recom-mendations. Mintel’s trusted portfolio of proprietary industry solutions and products has been supporting high pro-file clients in key sectors such as FMCG, financial services, media, retail, leisure and education for over 38 years. With office locations in London, Chicago, New York, Shanghai, Tokyo and Sydney our global presence continues to grow. www.mintel.com

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Written by Daniel Tsi and Wai-Mun Poon, EAS Strategic Advice Pte Ltd Source: NPIcenter Asia

Hong Kong is one of the vibrant mar-kets for health supplement products in Asia. There is an increasing trend among consumers to take various kinds of health supplements for good health and well-being. The most popular sup-plements are vitamin-based although products containing herbs and other ingredients are growing.

When planning to import, or manufac-ture, and market health supplements in Hong Kong, a company should have basic clarity on the regulatory require-ments. A health supplement, depend-ing on the dosage form, product com-position and usage claims, may be regulated as pharmaceutical products, proprietary Chinese medicines, or pre-packaged foods.

Health supplements in pharmaceutical dosage forms (tablets, capsules, syrup), containing vitamins, minerals, and other ingredients such as glucosamine, fish liver oils and digestive enzyme such as lipase, amylase and cellulase are clas-sified as pharmaceutical products.

Products containing herbal ingredients commonly used in Chinese medicine

and which carry claims that are stated in the recognized traditional Chinese medicine text, shall be regulated as proprietary Chinese medicines un-der the Chinese Medicine Ordinance. Health supplements that fall under these 2 categories must be registered with the Department of Health for pre-market approval.

Product that contains other bioactive ingredients such as fish oils, coenzyme Q10 and herbal ingredients may be classified as food. However, if the prod-uct carries claims that are linked to the diagnosis, treatment, mitigation or prevention of a specific disease or dis-ease symptoms, a health supplement will be categorised as a pharmaceuti-cal product. Such claims usually make reference to a certain disease or disease symptom, examples are:

• soothes sore throats• this product may lower blood sugar• can alleviate pimples• prevents osteoporosis• relieves constipation

Under the Undesirable Medical Ad-vertisement Ordinance (UMAO), high risk claims are prohibited. Examples of prohibited claims are those related to the prevention, elimination or treat-ment of breast lumps, and the regula-tion of the endocrine system. Certain claims related to maintaining normal or healthy blood sugar or blood pres-sure or cholesterol levels may be used subject to conditions stipulated in the Ordinance. It should be noted that

health supplements with such claims have to be registered as pharmaceuti-cal products or proprietary Chinese medicines.

In term of the maximum and minimum daily levels of vitamins and minerals permitted, there is no official limit but the levels incorporated into health sup-plement have to be supported by safety evidence. The usage of other bioactive ingredients such as fish oil, bee pol-len and herbs/ botanicals are allowed in principle, provided there is a good safety record for the ingredients.

Companies interested in the Hong Kong market should note that proper documentation is required when reg-istering health supplement products. The safety, quality and efficacy aspects should be supported by main docu-ments such as free sales certificate, certificate of analysis and test meth-ods, manufacturer’s GMP certificate and stability study reports.

EAS has released a unique and easy-to-follow guide to help companies build successful regulatory strategies to en-ter Asian region’s nutritional product market. The guide, titled ‘Marketing Health Supplements, Fortified & Func-tional Foods in Asia: Legislation & Practice’, covers national and regional rules for health supplements, includ-ing rules for ingredients (vitamins and minerals, herbs and other functional ingredients), claims and regulatory procedures for product marketing. Visit www.eas.asia for more information.

Dr. Daniel Tsi is the Re-gional Director of EAS Strategic Advice. He served as a scientific ex-pert on ASEAN Techni-cal Scientific Committee of Traditional Medicine and Health Supplement (ASEAN TMHS), work-ing on the harmoniza-tion of regulatory claim guidelines for health supplements and tradi-tional medicine.

Wai Mun Poon spe-cializes in regulatory affairs for health sup-plements in a regional capacityShe man-ages the Secretariat of ASEAN Technical Sci-entific Committee for Traditional Medicine and Health Supple-ments.

Legislative Issues

Hong Kong Regulatory OverviewHealth Supplementsfor


Achieving Market

What’s your Asian strategy? Today, every natural company needs one. Whether that means sourcing or man-ufacturing there; exporting from your home base into one of the many enor-mous potential markets in Asia; invest-ing directly in Asian firms; selling an interest in your firm to an Asian part-ner; or simply learning how to compete with Asian companies and their goods as they enter your home market.

For many supplement firms, exporting is likely to the first international strat-egy that comes to mind. Meeting and beating innovative competitors abroad can assist companies to maintain the competitive edge you need to domi-nate your own domestic markets, assist you to test or innovate or market new products and new marketing tech-niques, identify new ingredients, and hone your competitive skills.

There are however also real costs – time, money, opportunity, etc. as well as considerable risks associated with exporting. It is up to each company to weigh their necessary commitment against the potential benefit for their firm before proceeding, keeping in mind that the rewards of succeeding in Asia can be substantial.

Many companies however make sig-nificant and costly mistakes in some instances be virtually impossible to recover from later. To achieve market success in Asia, keep the following tips from leading Asian marketing consul-tants in mind:

Start by developing a preliminary mas-ter international marketing plan and utilize qualified export counseling be-fore you begin. The plan should clearly define goals, objectives, potential costs, problems and risks that you are likely to encounter. Be prepared to revise this plan many times while doing the due diligence necessary before putting your plan finally into action. Distribution, logistics and human resources can be much greater challenges in Asia than they are at home and sales, marketing and distribution costs are also higher than you likely anticipate.

Be committed. Not only do you need to secure a commitment from top man-agement to a long-term view of your export program but you also need a commitment to overcome the initial difficulties and financial requirements of exporting that you will encounter. Early delays and costs involved in im-plementing your export plan may seem

in Asia

Business Insights

Written by Mrs. Valerie Bell, Bell Alliances International IncSuccess

Valerie Bell is the President of Bell Alli-ances International Inc., (www.allianc-esinternational.com) a company that specializes in building alliances, joint ventures and business partnerships be-tween Asian and North American com-panies in the natural products industry. She brings a wealth of unique insights and experiences from living and work-ing in both Asia and North America and has led many products to #1 market po-sitions internationally


difficult to justify in the short term in comparison with established domestic sales, but exporting can offer your firm substantial benefits in the future. You also need to plan for and be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to do reg-ular travel, take after hours telephone calls and be patient with the other dis-turbances that the time difference with Asia will create. Travel is essential to building trust, developing personal re-lationships and clearing up misunder-standings with your Asian partners.

Ensure your due diligence is thorough. Everyday your firm likely receives emails from companies you don’t know in Asia. Are they big, small, good part-ners, bad? Don’t make the mistake of leaping at the first offer. Thousands of opportunities present themselves daily in Asia. You key challenge will be to pick the right opportunity at the right time for your business.

Mitigate Risk. Risks are also much more plentiful, different and much more costly and harder to recify in Asia than in your home market. Learn how to mitigate risks before you begin. Reg-ister your trademarks before you make your first trip and investigate what is the best strategy to protect your pat-ents in each country you are interested in entering. It is critical that you take as much time as you need at the begin-ning to ensure that your due diligence

is as thorough as possible rather than start out with what will end up being the wrong strategy, partner, products or marketing plan. Trying to recover from those later – if you can at all - can be costly if not virtually impos-sible. For example, in many parts of Asia there are few distributors. Select the right distributor the first time as other distributors will not take on new partnerships with you later if your first relationship fails or you introduce the wrong products. Research is critical to literally every phase of your success. Don’t assume that because one strat-egy, product or marketing technique works at home or in one country in Asia that it is the right one to use in every country there. Ignore local regulations at your peril. Be willing to modify products to meet regulations or cultural preferences that you find in Asia. The penalties for non compliance can be extreme too and registration requirements are generally very stringent and much more costly than North America or Europe. Most western products will require extensive reformulation for literally every country because some countries will accept supplements as foods and others as drugs. Some allow marketing claims and others don’t. It is best to initially assume that you have to create a new product line for every country and be pleasantly surprised if

your due diligence tells you otherwise. Local safety, security codes and import restrictions can also not be ignored by foreign distributors and must be ad-dressed as early as possible in the ex-porting process. Research your concept and marketing claims thoroughly prior to registration as you may not be able to change them later. The rewards may also be unexpected. many firms find that in entering Asian markets, that they innovate exciting new products that can be enormously successful in their home markets.

Study the competition. Identify your key product difference versus local competitors and then capitalize on it. Invest in marketing that is culturally relevant. State of the art manufacturing technology, cheap labour, and higher regulatory fees, branding, marketing and distribution costs may mean that your imported products simply can’t compete in Asia. You may, as a result, have to make significant changes to your export plans. Be prepared to in-vest more than you would at home to be as or more successful. Building brands at home and abroad takes time. Be patient.

Adapt. Learn to understand key differ-ences in local business culture, consum-er attitudes and purchasing behaviors. Although a distributor’s top manage-ment may speak English, it is extreme-ly doubtful that all of his staff or any of your consumers will have this same ca-pability. Print all advertising, product descriptions, and marketing messages in locally understood languages and utilize marketing messages that are as locally and culturally relevant as possi-ble. Understand how these differences can also greatly impact other areas of your business including overseas com-munications and transportation, forc-ing distributors, consumers and oth-ers to all act very differently than their domestic counterparts. You may also have to create special websites for your Asian business and add domestic staff that understands the languages of the countries you export into.

Business Insights


In the 15 years I have been working at BI Nutraceuticals, the leading provider of raw materials to the dietary supple-ment industry, I have been consistently involved with the value of quality to the organizations for who I have worked. As a machine operator, I learned the value of a HAACP program; as a su-pervisor I spent countless hours being grilled by internal and external audi-tors; as a manager I looked on in envy at the new testing equipment afforded the quality department. While I always had a deep respect for the level of dili-gence and perseverance my colleagues in the quality field displayed, as a GM of an entire operation, the true quality and the culture that drives it is a pow-erful tool for the health and growth of business.

There are many well known cases of just how damaging inadequate quality control in the ingredient value chain can be. In Australia from 1996 to 2003 Pan Laboratories, at the time the larg-est manufacturer of OTC medications and dietary supplements in AU/NZ had hundreds of product recalls for a variety of inadequate quality control measures (ingredient substitutions, falsified test results) that ultimately lead to hospitalizations for consumers of its products, hundreds of millions in losses for Pan’s customers and the eventual closure of Pan Labs altogeth-er. More recently, the 2008 issues with

Chinese milk products tainted with toxic levels of melamine (done illegally to create false levels of protein) result-ed in several deaths (including two of the perpetrators), billions in financial losses, collapse of several companies and the worldwide tarnishing of an en-tire nation’s product quality.

While these are extreme cases, they all started as single events that, due to inadequate control measures, turned into complete disasters. Granted, the above cases were started purposefully, but those corporate victims in the sup-ply chain did not adequately protect themselves. What will continue to challenge the consumer goods industry is that due to these extreme cases, the regulation of our products will contin-ue to be even more strict and the effects of a single quality control problem can spread worldwide very quickly, with a torrent of negative media soon to cer-tainly follow.

Let’s take a look at some less extreme, but more recent lessons in the value of quality in the supply chain. In the U.S., the FDA (which regulates drugs, food, supplements, medical devices, ani-mal products, tobacco and cosmetics) maintains and publishes a list of the worst case scenarios of product quality issues, recalls (http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/). Product recalls are often necessary to prevent harm to consumers, but are

financially disasterous for a company. Examining just the last 12 months of recalls on their site shows how chal-lenging and costly inadequate quality control in the supply chain can be. But quality is a continuous process, and part of that continuum is learning from the past. Following then, is a summary of the major categories of recalls for 2009, what can be learned from them and questions you should be asking about your ingredient supply chain. Category 1 – AdulterantsThe summary: There were 12 specific recalls of various foods and supple-ments that were directly related to adulterants. There were two cases there were heavy metal issues, but the remainder were ingredients that were found to be illegal and potentially harmful.

The lesson: These companies and their suppliers did not conduct ad-equate identification testing and toxin screening.

The cost: Millions of dollars in recalls.

The questions, for you and your in-gredient suppliers: (1) Are your in-gredients tested by one (or preferably more) identification tests? Are you screening your ingredients for heavy metals and pesticides?

Quality Control

QualityWritten by Mr. Mike Swenson, BI Nutraceuticals

Valueof


Category 2 – AllergensThe summary: There were at least 56 separate cases of product recalls due to undeclared allergens. These allergens are typical ingredients, wheat, milk, nuts, soy, sulfites, etc. These are not toxic in and of themselves, but there are many individuals who have severe allergic reactions to one or more of these items. While the use of these in-gredients was neither deceptive nor il-legal, it was usually a matter of declar-ing these on the documentation (C of A’s, specifications sheets, labels) that these ingredients were in the product. The lesson: Examine all product doc-uments to insure that all ingredients are listed.

The cost: Millions of dollars in losses for more than 25 different companies

The questions, for you and your suppliers: Do you have documenta-tion indicating that your products are allergen free? Do you have the test re-cords and data to back this up? Do you know what ingredients your supplier is putting into your product?

Category 3 – BacteriaThe summary: 2009 was a year plagued with bacterial outbreaks in the food supply, with cases of injury and death resulting from fast spread-ing cases of salmonella, lysteria, bacil-lus cereus and other such pathogens, and a total of more than 400 recalls due to these issues. The nut industry (peanuts, pistachios and hazelnuts) particularly suffered the consequences of inadequate micro testing or reme-

diation, with more than 80% of these recalls being related to nut products sold as is or as an ingredient for a final product. In all, from just this list along, more than 300 companies were forced to recall their products.

The lesson: Micro organisms and pathogens are everywhere, but ade-quate and diligent testing, along with the use of remediation methods are the best defense against these toxins that can multiply and spread very quickly.

The cost: To just the peanut industry alone, more than US $ 1 billion. In a single separate case (Unilever’s self re-call of diet drink SlimFast due to bacil-lus cereus), the product loss alone was US $ 13.4 million.

The questions, for you and your suppliers: Are your ingredients ad-equately tested for micro organisms and pathogens? Are your suppliers conducting environmental testing of their production facilities? Are they conducting stability tests on their in-gredients? Are they using any remedia-tion methods (sterilization) to prevent bacterial growth in their ingredients?

The nutritional and dietary, supple-ment and food industry has continued its growth pattern as both a sustainable industry – we provide healthy products and are able to make a living at doing so. But as the industry expands into new areas and products, the need for better quality control measures is grow-ing as well. We cannot move forward as an industry if we move backwards in quality control. And not just internal quality control – the external quality control, the auditing and supervision of our suppliers from the packaging to the ingredients, is of equal impor-tance. Low quality companies are risk-ing not just their business, but yours, the industry and the health of our consumers. Supporting suppliers with inadequate quality control can ruin a product, a company, an industry and ultimately, harm people – the exact op-posite of what we are trying to do.

Next time your purchasing staff begins the process to purchase an ingredient, don’t just ask the price; calculate the quality value of the ingredient in your supply chain. Does your ingredient supplier have a qualified laboratory? Are they conducting the right tests? Have you audited their facility? Then when you begin to calculate the savings on the lower priced product, remem-ber those 500 companies in 2009 that lost as much as US $ 2 billion in recalls alone. If you are rating your procure-ment team strictly on purchase price varience then you are missing the far more critical metric, cost of quality. The impact of a rejection, recall, ship-ping delay etc has far more of a negative impact on the business than a favorable ppv metric.

Quality Control

Mike Swenson started in the dietary in-gredient industry in 1991. In 1997 Mike returned to California and joined BI Nutraceuticals in the sourcing depart-ment. In his 13 years with BI, Mike has lead several departments, including his last position as VP of Operations. Mike supervised the construction and opened the facility and is currently VP of Asian Operations for the BI group of compa-nies. BI Nutraceuticals is the leading provider of quality, specification com-pliant raw materials to the Nutraceu-ticals, Food, Beverage and Pet Markets. We source from over 35 countries, and have wholly owned production facili-ties in the US and China and sell to a worldwide market of 1000+ customers throughout Asia, Europe and the Amer-icas.


Health ClaimsMisleading?

Are Antioxidant

Why antioxidants?An antioxidant is a synthetic or natu-ral compound capable of slowing or preventing the oxidation of other mol-ecules. Most commercial food antioxi-dants work by scavenging free radicals or chelating metals. It is well-known that oxidation damages various bio-logical substances and subsequently causes many diseases such as cancer, liver disease, Alzheimer’s disease, ag-ing, arthritis, inflammation, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, atherosclerosis, and AIDS. As a result, many diseases have been treated with antioxidants to prevent oxidative damage. The tra-ditional “trio” of antioxidants, such as ascorbate, β-carotene and α-tocopherol has had bad press recently. Several re-cent human intervention trials giv-ing mostly-negative results, and some meta-analysis and other studies sug-gesting that these agents not only fail to protect against disease, but also that some of them accelerate development of cancer or cardiovascular diseases. This obviously raised the concern about the century-long antioxidant’s health benefits in human.

Current marketMintel’s Global New Products Database (GNPD) indicated that more and more products are entering into the market with antioxidant contents on the label. In 2008 Europe had over 135 products launches with ‘antioxidants’ labelled, compared to 111 in 2007, and only 37 in 2006. A similar growth of the use of the term was observed across the At-

lantic (North American market), with 106 launches in 2006, 131 in 2007, and a two-fold increase in 2008 with 262. These figures exclude the products that label specific antioxidants like vitamins A, C, and E, and are therefore the to-tal numbers would be several hundred times higher.

According to Nutrition Business Jour-nal, antioxidant sales continued to grow by about 6% overall, reaching more than $3 billion in 2007. The big-gest standouts in this segment have been antioxidants from fruits and veg-etables, which witnessed an impressive 21% upswing. The next most significant growth has been in the non-vitamin antioxidant category, which saw an 11% sales increase.

Goji berry and acai exemplify one of the most sweeping trends to impact the antioxidant market in recent years: the public’s romance with exotic super-fruits. Following the highly successful marketing campaign of Pom Wonder-ful, which brought in $165 million in sales in 2007, pomegranate products have popped up everywhere, and the door has flown open for novel, antioxi-dant-packed fruits.

Consumer perception and marketing strategy of antioxidantsProduct differentiation is the center-piece of a successful campaign to win over better-educated, cost-conscious consumers (from the Baby Boomer

to Generation X) in today’s crowded market. According to some estimates around half of the US adults take anti-oxidant pills daily.

To attract consumers the use of anti-oxidant on the label of food products is increasing, and numerous assay meth-ods such as ORAC (oxygen radical ab-sorbance capacity) and DPPH (2, 2’-di-phenyl-l-picrylhydrazyl) have been developed to measure this antioxidant potentiality. However, according to new research from the Department of Food Science at the University of Mas-sachusetts, basing antioxidant activity claims on results of basic antioxidant assays such as ORAC and DPPH could be misleading. The results from the free radical scavenging assays are not consistent, even sometimes confusing. According these data from these assays should not be used to imply that com-pounds with high free radical scaveng-ing capacities are good antioxidants in food systems.

Science behind “antioxidant” theoryFinding efficient antioxidants as thera-peutic agents has been one of the hot-test areas in biomedicine. According to the MDL Drug Data Report (MDDR) database, only two antioxidant drugs have been launched (i.e. idebenone and edaravone) in the past 30 years. Thus, it seems that it is urgent to im-prove the translational efficiency of antioxidant research. Some dietary compounds have beneficial activities,

Sourcing and Merchandising

Written by Dilip Ghosh, PhD, FACN, nutriConnect


which are not direct antioxidant ef-fects (e.g. glucosinolates) whilst others (e.g. vitamins C and E, and the carote-noids), previously recognised only for their classical antioxidant character-istics, are also being shown to induce other biological responses, such as signalling molecules in cell function, proliferation and differentiation, and cell death, and that has altered this over simplistic “antioxidant theory”. Unfortunately the majority of data available to support this theory have been obtained from cell culture and animal experiments and the relevance of these data, obtained under non-physiological conditions, needs to be re-assessed.

Natural vs. supplementsA significant number of studies have shown that fruits and vegetables pro-mote health, while antioxidant supple-ments do not. Recent evidences for health benefit strongly support the food synergy pattern than for individ-ual foods or food constituents. Several reviews of dietary supplementation suggest that although supplements may be beneficial in states of insuffi-ciency, the safe middle ground for con-sumption likely is food.

The American Heart Association doesn’t approve of taking antioxidant vitamin supplements to improve your heart health. On the other hand, in-tense marketing propagandas argue that antioxidant supplements are ben-eficial for your health. A supplement can help you have a proper antioxidant intake even if you don’t get it with food. But the levels of incidence of adverse effects and substandard products are increasing.

RegulationIn June 2008 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published guidance that describing the level of antioxidant nutrients present in a food is a nutrient content claim, and may be used on food labels in conjunction with food regulations (21 CFR 101.54(g)). However, antioxidant nutrient content claims can only be made if the nutri-

ents have an established Reference Daily Intakes (RDI), as well as scientif-ically recognized antioxidant activity. In order to use a ‘high in antioxidants’ claim, the food would have to contain 20 percent or more of the Daily Refer-ence Value (DRV) or RDI per serving. For a ‘good source’ claim, the food would have to contain between 10-19 percent of the DRV or RDI per serving. In other countries such as Australia, Canada and European Union, there is no antioxidant-specific regulation. Most of the claims in relation to anti-oxidant are centered on nutrient con-tent or nutrient profiling.

CommentaryToday’s consumers are not satisfied with a generic antioxidant benefit un-less their activity offers proven health benefits through clinical trials. A recent good example is Danone removing Es-sensis, an ‘inside/out’ beauty product that contained borage oil, vitamin E, green tea-derived antioxidants from the market. But most of the marketers have simply touted that antioxidants help protect the body against oxidative damage caused by free radicals. However, in recent years intense de-bate continues to surround what con-stitutes a valid measurement of an-tioxidant activity. In the past, ORAC value has been the most frequently cited scientific backing for an antioxi-dant product. ORAC is physiologically meaningless; it is strictly a test tube phenomenon.” Since biochemical sys-tems, in relation to oxidative status, work at a variety of levels or strata, ORAC won’t pick up all those levels. Moreover, water-soluble and lipid-soluble antioxidants are adding more complexity in this puzzle.

Overall, experts predicted that it could take more than a decade before human clinical trials confirm antioxidants as physiological nutrients with specific effects on organ tissue, which will sub-stantiate health claims. Meanwhile, “consumers will continue to crave these compounds, in a variety of forms and applications. Supplying such demand

Dilip has received his PhD in biomedi-cal science. He has been involved for a long time in drug-development and functional food research & develop-ment and its commercialisation both in academic and industry domains. He is a fellow of American College of Nutrition and also a member of several editorial boards. Currently Dr. Ghosh is a direc-tor at nutriConnect (www.nutriconnect.com.au). His research interest includes oxidative stress, bioactive, functional foods and their relationship with hu-man health, personalisation of food and nutrition, regulatory and scientific aspects of functional foods and nutra-ceuticals. Dr. Ghosh can be reached at: [email protected]

Sourcing and Merchandising

will be in the hands of the innovators who can grow the category, in spite of the obstacles that exist today.”


Industry Insider

Bioactives in nutraceuticals and cos-meceuticals play an important role in enhancing health as well as disease pre-vention properties and they are currently purported as major contributing factors to a healthy lifestyle. There is an increas-ing trends towards plant bioactives as alternatives to medications. Hence, bio-actives with promising nutraceutical and economic potentials have raised interest in the market place.

Did you know that such valuable anti-oxidants are available abundantly in oil palm fruits (refer to Table 1)? Oil palm fruits are packed with various phyto-nutrients ranging from vitamin E, car-otenes to phenolic antioxidants. These bioactives extracted from oil palm fruits have been researched intensively and supported by scientific evidence for their health benefits which include prevention of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and other degeneration diseas-

for

es. Encapsulated vitamin E extracted from palm oil, palm carotenoids com-plex and supplements enhanced with palm antioxidants is presently available in the global nutraceuticals market. Malaysia exported some USD20 million worth of palm oil health supplements, mainly to Europe, the US, Canada and Japan. Currently, Malaysia is the big-gest Vitamin E tocotrienol producer and exporter in the world.

Palm oil is nature’s richest source of vitamin E-tocotrienols. These are sur-prisingly not found in most vegetable oils commonly consumed such as soy-bean, corn, canola and sunflower oils (refer to Table 2). Tocotrienols consti-tutes 66-79% of the vitamin E (total 600-1000mg/kg of palm vitamin E) in crude palm oil. The remaining are to-copherols. Commercially, tocotrienols are mostly extracted from palm oil, with rice bran oil a far second. In the past, vitamin E- tocopherol was the at-tention of research and it is the most common form of vitamin E used in supplements and in the European and American diet. However, nowadays much interest has been focused on to-cotrienols as these vitamin E species possess powerful antioxidant proper-ties and portray other important bio-logical activities which are not shared with tocopherals. Tocotrienols have 40–60 times the antioxidant effects of alpha-tocopherol and this is believed to be the key attribute of tocotrienols contributing to its positive health attri-butes, particularly in the area of cardio-vascular, cancer and skin health.

Palm Basedthe Global

MarketInformation provided by Malaysian Palm Oil Council

Bioactives

Nutraceuticals


Oils

Palm

Rice bran

Soyabean

Olive

Corn

Rape (Canola)

Sunflower

Tocopherols

133

311

1162

100

603

271

636

Tocotrienols

1015

308

-

-

-

-

-

Table 2: Tocotrienols in Edible OilsRef: Ong, A.S.H (1993), Natural sources of Tocotrienols.

In Lester Packer & Jurgen Fuchs (eds), Vitamin E in health and disease. Mercel Dekker, Inc: New York.

Palm Phytonutrients

Carotenoids

Vitamin E (Predominantly Tocotrienols)

Sterols

Squalene

Co-enzyme Q10

Glycolipids

Triterpene alcohol

Amount (ppm)

500-700

600-1000

60-620

200-500

10-80

1000-3000

40-80

Table 1: Phytonutrients found naturally in Palm Fruits

Industry Insider

It has been widely known that carote-noids play an important role as a pre-cursor of vitamin A and amongst the convertible carotenoids, β-carotene is the most efficient. Many may not know that crude palm oil has the high-est β-carotene content as compared to the available plant sources. The con-tent of carotenes per kilogram in crude palm oil is so high as it is reported to be 15 times more than in carrot! Crude palm oil contains 500-700mg/kg of mixed carotenes (refer to Table 3). 90% of these carotenes are β-carotene and α-carotene, while remaining is made up mostly of lutein, lycopene and ze-axantin. Palm β-carotene has higher bioavailability than that obtained from other rich vegetative sources and demonstrates no toxicity unlike hypervitaminosis A due to preformed vitamin A intake. Such concerns do not arise from the intake of β-carotene from natural sources such as red palm oil. Among the proven and reported health benefits of long term intake of

red palm oil are increases in the vita-min A status of pregnant and lactating mothers and breast-fed infants. For example, one popular brand of red palm oil, called Carotino has obtained various endorsements for its health at-tributes.

Palm oil has a history of food use of over 5000 years and has emerged as a preferred oil of this millennium by bil-lions all over the world. More than 150 countries worldwide favour it for its natural, versatile and excellent prop-erties. To those who wish to reap the benefits of this oil and its products, the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) will be your trusted information pro-vider. Please visit MPOC website at www.mpoc.org.my for more informa-tion.

Text written by Pon Lai Wan ([email protected])

Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) is responsible to promote the market expansion of Malaysian palm oil and its products by enhancing their image and creating better acceptance through awareness of various techno-economic advantages and environmental sustain-ability of palm oil.

Besides the oil, by-products of palm oil milling and refining also contain bioac-tives. These are water-soluble vitamins that have been successfully extracted from aqueous by-products generated from the palm oil mill. As these palm phenolics are potent antioxidants, they have been associated with a num-ber of health benefits. Anti-oxidative effects of palm phenolics were report-ed to be comparable to that in green tea. Recent scientific findings dem-onstrated that these valuable active compounds play a promising role in lowering cholesterol and prevention of arthrosclerosis, cancer, and skin relat-ed photo-oxidative damage. Presently, phenolic-rich compounds are expen-sive due to inadequate worldwide sup-ply. Palm phenolics which could be re-covered abundantly from palm ‘waste’, could become an abundant source of these phenolics. In conclusion, due to its wide range of bioactives with supe-rior antioxidant properties, palm oil is the currently earmarked for various applications ranging from functional foods, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and to cosmeticeuticals.


Carotene

β-carotene

ά-carotene

Cis-ά-carotene

Phytoene

Lycopene

Phytofluene

γ-carotene

Cis-β-carotene

δ-carotene

ζ-carotene

Neurosporene

β-Zeacarotene

α-Zeacarotene

Total

RefinedRed Palm Oil (%)

47.4

37.0

6.9

2.0

1.5

1.2

1.3

0.8

0.6

0.5

trace

0.5

0.3

545

CrudePalm Oil (%)

56.0

35.1

2.5

1.3

1.3

0.1

0.7

0.7

0.8

0.3

0.3

0.7

0.2

673

Table 3: Carotene Composition of Refined Red Palm Oil and Crude Palm Oil

Ref: Ooi et al. (1994), Recovery of carotenoids from palm oil. JAOCS. 71(4):423-6.

R: What drives ingredient manu-facturers to build a brand? How can they transform their business into a brand, especially when it comes to “natural and organic” products?

J: What drives any company to brand itself is the need to differentiate its products or services from its competi-tors. There are two ways to get busi-ness, either differentiate your products or sell cheap. If you are not distinctive, you will have to sell cheap to secure the business. In doing so, the profit margin is driven down. If you can’t sell cheap, find a way to differentiate your brand. And the principles of branding are the same whether you are selling food in-gredients, microchips or cars.

A strong brand must own one powerful idea in the minds of its customers. For example, Caterpillar is a strong brand, as it owns the idea of construction ma-chines; Coca-Cola owns the idea of the real thing; Mercedes-Benz owns the idea of prestige. The easiest way to cultivate an idea in people’s minds is to be the first one to get there.

If you are not the first, then create a new category to secure the “first”. Many powerful brands opt for this approach, such as Xerox as the first plain paper photocopier; FedEx as the first over-

night letters, and Red Bull as the first energy drink. This holds the same to ingredient manufacturers. For exam-ple, if there are strong brands already dominating all the different catego-ries of FLOUR, such as organic flour, white flour, corn flour, vitamin-forti-fied flour and so on, they might want to create a new category of flour. An example could be Oxygenated Flour – flour that is dosed with oxygen.

R: Do the branding strategies inAsia and Western countries show any differences?

J: As the principles of branding are the same regardless of industry or geography, there should be no dif-ference in how branding is done. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. I wrote a book called Great Asian Brands: Tiger Beer in which I examined the Tiger Beer strategy in the East and West. SInce Tiger Beer is a Singaporean brand and Singa-pore is not known for beer, it strived to win as many awards as possible and brands itself as the award-winning beer in Asia. For the West, it brands itself as an exotic Asian beer. This can work but you have to be very careful that you don’t create a schizophrenic brand as a result of two different strat-egies.

R: What marketing channels can ingredient manufacturers utilize when building brands?

J: There are many various channels that can be used by ingredient manufactur-ers. The choice depends on various factors, such as target markets, com-petitive landscape, size of war chest (ie, money), etc. We spend a great deal of time to work with clients on finding the right mix during every branding project.

There are a few things that companies should take note of:

a) If you don’t communicate your brand, then somebody else will communicate it for you and that some body will be your rival. So, don’t be outdone by competitors in terms of the volume, and more importantly, the quality of the brand messages.

b) There are 2 types of communications channels – STATIC and DYNAMIC. Static communications refer to things, like website, logo, tagline, brochures, corporate video, name cards, delivery vehicles, etc. that are quite easy to control. Dynamic communications refer to people, covering management, employees, ex-employees, media, distributors, customers, suppliers, etc. Both are very important but the dynamic channels are harder to get right.

R: What determines a successfulbranding for ingredient manufac-turers?

J: The battlefield of branding is not in the real world but in the minds of customers. The success of branding depends on how well you manage to associate your brand with a powerful idea in the minds of customers. But idea ownership is mutually exclusive.

Ingredient branding emerges as a hot topic within the natural / organic sector. It is simply because more and more ingredient manufacturers are aware of the enchantment of branding behind sales. Think deep-ly: what are the points for consumers to buy some-thing that does not mean anything to them and that does not have a differentiating identity? Customers making purchases, in fact, spell the recognition of a differentiating idea or message that a brand delivers. To achieve branding success, it is not a hard task but just stick to several rules. Natural Products Expo Asia talks to Jacky Tai, Principal Consultant of Strategi-Com to explore the essentials of branding natural / organic ingredients.

Marketing

Differentiating: The Keyword of Branding Natural /

R: ReporterJ: Jacky Tai Principal Consultant StrategiCom

Organic Ingredients in Asia


Once a competitor has successfully owned an idea, you will have to find a new idea to own. Coca-Cola owns the idea “The Real Thing”. So, Pepsi found a new idea, “The Young Thing”. You need to find out what ideas are already owned by competitors through a pro-cess known as the Perception Audit.

R: What advice on branding will you offer to a company if it intends to establish a foothold in Asia?

J:a) Determine the list of your rivals.b) Ascertain the ideas that rival brands are most strongly associated with.c) Find a way to differentiate your brand clearly (or be prepared to of fer lower price range).d) Dramatize your differentiating idea (make it more exciting, more exag gerated and larger-than-life).e) Communicate that differentiating idea consistently at all customer touch points.

R: Many of your writings andspeeches highlight “differentia-tion”. Can you provide some tips for natural / functional ingredient companies to set themselves apart from the industry players even in a downturn economy?

J: I think the first step is to understand the 13 strategies of differentiation stat-ed in the book Killer Differentiators. Here are some of the key points:

1. Sales Leadership – 95% of buyers are imitators, they follow what other people buy.2. Technology Leadership – You don’t need to be a technology company to use technology.3. Performance Leadership – It can be used in industries where perfor mance is important.4. Next Generation – Buyers are afraid of being seen as outdated, so they would want to buy the latest thing.

5. How A Product Is Made – Most products within the same category deliver exactly the same thing, and very often, the difference is in the way they are made.6. Where A Product Is Made – Country of origin can be as important as a differentiator, provided that your country of origin is known for the product you sell.7. Attribute Ownership – There are usually 5 to 7 important attributes within any category.8. Personality – Hard to use for an in gredient brand.9. Opposite Position – Find out what the No. 1 brand stands for and do the opposite.10. Specialization – Specialist brands are seen as having more knowledge than generalist brands.11. Preference – Your customers can give you a differentiating idea.12. Heritage – If you have been around a long time, you must have done something right.13. Design – Not a useful strategy for ingredient brands.

R: As a branding consultant, what are on your not-to-do-list when it comes to branding natural ingredi-ents?

J: The most important thing is DO NOT OVER-EXTEND THE BRAND. That means, don’t try to be everything to ev-eryone. One brand can only stand for one idea. Many consultants tell their clients to line-extend the brand to in-crease their business. Such move will cause serious damage to your brand.

Jacky Tai is the author of 3 critically-acclaimed branding books which in-clude Transforming Your Business Into A Brand (2007); Killer Differentiators (2008) and Get A Name! (2009). He has more than 13 years of experience in the field of branding and marketing - hav-ing worked with start-ups in USA and Singapore. Jacky joined StrategiCom in 2007 where he helps clients to cre-ate effective differentiation and naming strategies.

Jacky believes that the difference be-tween a successful brand and an also-ran is the correct strategy.

Marketing

Brand Building With Trademarks: A Study Of Singapore Food ManufacturersOnce companies have found an idea they can capitalize on to differentiate the brand, they will need to protect their trademark (an important Intel-lectual Property). A research study on Singapore food manufacturing com-panies, undertaken by StrategiCom in partnership with the Singapore Food Manufacturers Association (SFMA) 2008, discovered that the majority of food manufacturers actually looked to famous brands for inspiration when designing their logos/trademarks. • 54 per cent of Singapore food manufacturers would select colours and designs that looked like their competitors’ before creating a brand.• 57 per cent selected colours and designs akin to famous brands.

This is not advisable as the aim of any company should be to differentiate from its competitors. So this is something the food ingredients industry can take note of.

The Keyword of Branding Natural /


read books on raw vegan food. We have to build a good foundation by learning and gradually practise steps in our diet. For me, I like Gabriel Cousens’ books, such as Conscious Eating and Spiritual Nutrition, underlining some examples on transition and a deeper understand-ing of this lifestyle. We can try step by step, starting with a raw vegan break-fast, then raw lunch on alternate day to see how you feel and gradually build your own menu! Also, start with some basic kitchenware at home. A high-speed blender is always recommended. Either a Vitamix or Blendtech blender is a good investment for life!

Q: What is your daily diet?

M:

BreakfastGreen Juicing Celery + Cucumber + Green Apple + Ginger + Pinch of TurmericAlmond/Macadamia milk with a raw muesli made of chia seeds, fresh coconut noodles, and seasonal fruit

LunchHemp seed taboulehNut paste with Live crackers

orRaw Vegan super food shake + Salad DessertsSpirulina / Pomegranate/ Strawberry/ Raw Pie Snacks

Raw vegan apple cookiesJicama with lemon juice, cayenne pepper and sea saltMix of cacao & goji berries

DinnerGreen salad with seeds and nutsSprouted (soked) wild rice with pecans, olives, coriander, cold pressed olive oilor

Sprouted Quinoa saladRaw Zuchinni soup

SupplementsLiquid B12, MSM, green powders

Trends & Insights

M: Moises Meh

Q:How did you first discover live foods?

M: I was lucky enough to be raised by a family involved in raw food. Back to the early 80’s, my maternal grandma, a great yogini, artist-cum-vegetarian writer, studied raw foods with my aunt (my mother’s twin sister) and Ann Wig-more (among pioneers of raw foods). I was about 6 years old when having my first contact with this type of food in the kitchen, helping my grandma soak-ing and sprouting seeds without being aware of its importance. For a while, I practiced a lifestyle of consuming typi-cal food, and at the age of 26 (now I’m 38), I turned to be a vegetarian for pro-tection of animal rights. Since then, I started doing self-study on nutrition and it took me about a year and half to get interested on the work of MD Gabriel Cousens. I came to assist his

Raw Living Food Lifestyle

with Moises Mehl and MankeiAQ&

Chef Moises Mehl, also known as Chef Moy, is a long-time practitioner of raw food living style. Chef Moy specializes in the design of recipes that are organic, wheat free, gluten free and dairy free.He can help you prepare delicious and nutritious REAL food in a quick, fun and easy manner. To know more, visit: www.raw.hk

lectures on a yoga conference and was being inspired to formally initiate my journey into raw foods.

Q: How can raw food better our lives?

M: In many ways it does, from con-necting us with natural food and enjoy-ing the flavors of nature, to experienc-ing an amazing way of life restoration and enhancement. I feet more ener-getic and sensitive and care myself and other living beings, and have a stronger sense of connection with our planet.

Q: Is it hard to buy raw foods at lo-cal outlets? Where can you buy raw nuts and chocolate, for instance?

M: At the beginning, it was chal-lenging but I went on to search them on my own and was able to identify lots of people and places. I also became more creative on making food and selecting sea-sonal ingredients. Since certain ingredients are pricey in Hong Kong, I recently start to import my own products like raw cacao and nuts from online; but get veggies and fruits from local or-ganic markets and wet market. I also go to some local organic shops for organic grains and seeds. I made a page at www.raw.hk to share my resources.

Q: Where can we learn more about raw food life-style? And if we want to have a closer look, where should we start?

M: Frankly, I suggest un-derstanding veganism as a foundation diet first, and


Trends & Insights

Q: How often do you eat out? Do you miss hot food? How do you avoid feelings of deprivation?

M: I’m not a 100% raw diner but a 100% vegan and take up 70 to 80% of raw food in each diet. If I’m eating out I might go for one vegan hot meal and try to compensate at home breakfast, lunch or dinner. I can go for veggie su-shi that made with all raw ingredients. I usually carry a meal with me, espe-

cially when I go out to work. For hot food, I take warm soups, a blend of veggies and nuts in hot wa-ter below boiling point. This kind of soups is still considered raw. I make such warm food as pizzas and burg-ers on the dehydrator. I’ve long been in such lifestyle that I don’t feel being “deprived”. My mind keeps on thinking about enjoying other food options. Q: Do you find raw food movement getting wider and more influential? And why?

M: Yes, I’ve seen more and more friends get interested on this topic day by day and asked me about it. Mean-while, training institutions on raw food have grown popular, not to mention a greater amount of documentaries and movies related to this topic, like Food Matters and Simply Raw.

Q: What current projects are you working on?

M: I started my career in personal coaching, food catering and work-ing with other health institutions to spread the word. I also started a Mas-ter’s degree in the HKU on education and IT, through which I can learn how to use technology to impart knowledge and educate people on this healthy and amazing lifestyle.

Man Kei is a graduate of Living Light Culinary Arts Institute in California, USA where she received her certifica-tion as a Raw Culinary Arts Associate Chef and Instructor. She teaches raw culinary arts classes in Hong Kong and in Asia and is launching her organic, gluten and dairy free decadent desserts series.

Man: Mankei

Q: How did you first discover live foods?

Man: In Jun 2006 when I was look-ing for a naturapathic school in the US, I found that raw food sector is huge and where my passion lies, I came to a decision that wellness was the path I wanted to take.

Q: How can raw food better our lives?

Man: In the following ways:1) Eating raw food is not new but it is the original way of food consumption for both humans and animals. 2) Food cooked or prepared below 108 degree F tend to retain most of its nutritional benefits and enzymes that our body needs.3) Raw food with less processing

promotes better digestion, faster absorption and more efficient elimination of waste materials.4) Raw food diet makes you feel better, look better, more vibrant and energetic. You become more alive!5) Greener living with less energy consumption is better for the environment. Q: Is it hard to buy raw foods at lo-cal outlets? Where can you buy raw nuts and chocolate, for instance?

Man: There are many juice and salad bars, cafes and delis available in Hong Kong. You can easily order fresh or marinated salads. It would be chal-lenging if you are looking for some-thing fancy, yummy and nutritious all in one. There are a couple of places that offer raw food for dine-in and by reser-vations only. So far as I know, they are not 100% raw food outlets.


Trends & Insights

There are many organic and health food shops that stock raw nuts and seeds. I usually make my own choco-late candies, sweets or desserts. Choc-olate or cocoa powder is not raw. You can buy raw cacao chips and grind them into powder. Q: Where can we learn more about raw food lifestyle? And if we want to have a closer look, where should we start?

Man: I offer raw food workshops where people can come and listen to an introductory talk about raw food. The 90-minute session features a talk, demonstration and ends with a sam-pling of mini raw buffet.Interested participants, kindly contact me at 2108 4800 for further details on class schedule and fee.

Q: What is your daily diet?

Man: I usually have a smoothie, fruit or shake in the morning; salad and/or blended soup for lunch and dinner, de-pending on how hungry I am. Some-times I do add some cooked grains like quinoa or brown rice to make a warm salad.

Q: How often do you eat out? Do you miss hot food? How do you avoid feelings of deprivation?

Man: Since I have wheat and gluten intolerance, I minimize eating-out to once a week. There are a lot of ways to warm your tummy up in cold winter day with hot herbal tea or vegetable broth before meal. I listen to my body and rarely deprive myself of eating well. Q: Do you find raw food movement getting wider and more influential? And why?

Man: More people become aware of and understand the importance and health benefits of a high raw diet. At the beginning of organic movement in Hong Kong, raw is just the next level. Right now, people are more educated, more health conscious and more spiri-tually aware of eating raw and adopt-ing a plant-based diet for health in body, mind and spirit. Raw diet keeps

you peaceful, calm and non-violent and helps you to be more compassion-ate, pure, and kind at heart.

Q: What current projects are you working on?

Man: I am authoring a recipe book to introduce raw food and spa cuisine for Asian readers. I am also working on a website www.rawfood123.com with my IT consultant. Besides, I am available for coaching, consultation, workshops, retreats, catering and private chefing events.


Systemize family medicine chestAll the medicines and health care products should be checked carefully about their expiry dates. They also need to be separated according to their nature and medicine effect.

For medicines to be preserved, we need to keep them in cool and dry place and any direct sunlight should be prevented. We also need to pay particular attention to keep the medicines out of the reach of children.

For the medicines to be disposed off, we need to be extreme careful not to put them directly into the trash bin. Instead, we need to figure out a proper way to throw them away to avoid any possible misuse of those unused medicines.

It is worth noting that taking some vitamin supple-ments and other nutritional supplements is a sensible choice to meet the body’s needs when unbalanced diet occurs. But these supplements should be taken accord-ing to diverse needs and in proper dosage. We actually could consult a pharmacist for some advice before choosing and taking any supplements.

Know, update, and systemize your personal health dataHealth management and monitoring is one of the most effective ways to accumulate health. Monitoring differ-ent values of human body enables us to prevent, control, and treat diseases positively. Many experts also believe that regular check of blood pressure, blood glucose and weight/body fat could be especially effec-tive in preventing common illnesses, such as, cardiovas-cular disease, diabetes and obesity in advance. There-fore, we should attach importance to regular monitor.

The following data are for your reference:BMI (Body Mass Index): refers to an estimate of a healthy body weight based on people's heights. BMI= mass (kg) / height2 (m2).

Blood Glucose: refers to the amount of glucose present in the blood of a human. Normally, the blood glucose level is maintained at a reference range between about 3.6 to 5.8 mmol/l and 4.0 to 7.8 mmol/l 2 hours postprandially. It is tightly regulated as a part of metabolic homeostasis.

Since you can easily monitor and control your and your family’s health through advanced, high accuracy, safe and reliable healthcare measuring instruments at home, why not purchase some right away for the sake of health?

Cellulose plays an important role in daily lifeDietary fiber, a substance which cannot be digested and absorbed, used to be considered "waste", and now is the good remedy to protect human health and sustain prolong lives. Therefore, cellulose is known as the seventh nutrient.

Natural fiber sources could be obtained from Psyllium. Comparing to other plant fibers, Psyllium has better water absorption degree, which could help to soften faeces and relieve constipation. In addition, it has a calm-ing effect, and could help to lose weight naturally.

As Psyllium is rich in soluble fiber, it would get several times bigger and form hydrated micelle when absorbing water, which could then increase satiety feeling, reduce calorie intake, maintain the fecal materials moisture, promote intestine movement and facilitate excretion. In 1998, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a statement that soluble fiber in Psyllium could reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Advertorial

Health Management Trickle

Information provided by Great Eastern Healthcare Ltd.&

As more and more people become aware of, health is as important as our wealth. When we are accumulating our wealth, don't forget to build up our health. In fact, getting a prosperous life needs unremitting efforts and a long period of accumulation of health, which we call it as "life wealth". How to get and maintain this precious life wealth? Starting from a healthy way of living could be a shortcut. Numerous studies have shown that lifestyle plays an important and decisive role in wellness. We need to pay atten-tion to every detail in order to develop a healthy lifestyle. After all, to spend some time on health management and get good returns is also a living wisdom.

Blood Pressure: refers to the pressure exerted by circulat-ing blood on the walls of blood vessels, which is one of the principal vital signs.

CategoryHypotensionNormalPrehypertensionStage 1 HypertensionStage 2 Hypertension

Systolic, mmHg＜9090-119120-139140-159≥160

Diastolic, mmHg＜60and 60-79or 80-89or 90-99or ≥100

CategoryUnderweight Normal Overweight Obese

BMIBMI < 18.518.5 < BMI < 2424 < BMI < 28BMI > 28

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Advertorial

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Comparing to the common fruits and vegetables we eating, organic foods have the advantages of being not destructive to the soil environment, being rich in nutrition and giving great benefits to human health. Beyond that, organic foods have balanced trace elements and are more easily absorbed by the body than ordinary foods. In a word, organic foods should be the most secure foods at present.

Whenever you want to have a better lifestyle, or you want to prepare healthier and safer foods for your family, organic foods is always your wise choice.

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Editor’s Note: Visit Great Eastern Healthcare Limited (Booth no. G01) during Natural Products Expo Asia 2010, which will take place at Hall 1, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, August 26-28, 2010. For details, visit www.NaturalProductsAsia.com

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Totolax: Proper natural psyllium fiber could help you to relieve constipation, prevent gastrointestinal diseases and lower your cholesterol.

Vita-basics: Vitamins promote normal growth, provide proper metabolism, ensure good health and protect against certain diseases. You should always take some suitable vitamins supplements according to various situations when having an unbalanced diet.

Mornin’ Glory: The combination of rich valley soil, climate and abundant water supply creates ideal growing conditions for the pollution-free Mornin’ Glory® Organic Prune Products.

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Organized by:

To exhibit, please contact:Mr. Angus Chow

New Hope Natural MediaTel: +852.2975.9051Fax: +852.2857.6144

Email: [email protected]

Natural Products Expo Asia is the premier platform to meet this emerging market needs providing measurable results and market exposure throughout the Asia Pacific region.

Each summer, thousands of industry’s most important execu-tives and buyers assemble at Natu-ral Products Expo Asia in Hong Kong, the gateway to China and South East Asia, to investigate the latest products, industry trends and practices to grow their healthy business.

Date: 26-28 August, 2010Venue: Hall 1, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre

Tap Opportunities in Asia&Natural Products Expo Asia 2010

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