“This is so incredible! We just had a healthy and natural mushroom lunch at the Great Wall.” Dr. Luigi Gratton, Vice President of Medical Affairs and Education of Herbalife International said so in excitement at the conference room of China World Hotel in Beijing in the afternoon of January 11, 2007. As a medical and nutritional doctor, this is Luigi’s first time in China. That’s why he was so excited about the original oriental diet.
“Traditional Asian diet is the most healthy in the world. However, when people in the west are learning to eat in a traditional occidental way, people in the east, on the other hand, are taking more and more western fast food and coffee which is high in calorie. This is really regrettable.” Dr. Luigi said when pointing at Herbalife’s leaf logo on his suit that when Mark Hughes founded the company in 1980, he put the wisdom of health-preservation of the traditional Chinese into the products and that was why the company was named Herbalife (life based on herbs).
His Meet with Herbalife Who Shares the Same Goal
Dr. Luigi who was born in Los Angeles graduated from the UCLA where he earned an undergraduate degree in science and a Masters in public health. He was awarded a medical degree from Mount Sinai Medical School of New York University and fulfilled his residency in family medicine at Los Angeles County Hubert Humphrey Family Medicine Center. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical nutrition at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. In addition, Gratton has worked as a physician specialist in family medicine and as a clinical physician at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition in the risk factor obesity program.
In 2004, Dr. Luigi started his medical and nutritional research at the UCLA with obesity issue as his main concern. There are 70% Americans who are suffering from the metabolic syndrome with the obese belly as its symptom. This local obesity is very harmful to human body. Heart diseases, high blood pressure, stroke and diabetes can be easily resulted even if there is only 10 pounds (less than 5 kilos) fat amassed on the belly. After many studies on various products, Dr. Luigi found that Herbalife抯 weight-loss products Protein Drink Mix was very effective in controlling the belly obesity. And this was exactly when he started his bond with Herbalife.
According to the Huang Di Nei Jing an ancient medicine book of China “early education and prevention can drive diseases away.” Dr. Luigi who is in charge of medical education for Herbalife, is also given the opportunity to call as many experts as possible for disease check and prevention. He joined Herbalife in March 2005 as the Vice President of Medical Affairs and Education, a responsibility in the research and development of nutritional products and in the health education for distributors. The effectiveness of Herbalife抯 weight management has products helped Dr. Luigi found a good way to prevent obesity. From a public health perspective, he will be able to achieve greater accomplishments as the Vice President of Medical Affairs and Education of Herbalife by trying to prevent various chronic diseases resulted from obesity. And that抯 something he definitely can achieve by assuming such a post at Herbalife.
Over the past 20-plus years, it was medical doctors who kept providing Herbalife with research and development theories on products. After Dr. Luigi joined the company, more and more medical experts in different fields were recruited globally to spread to the world through prudent professional index the impact on health by Herbalife抯 nutritional products and to provide useful theoretical support to distinctive Herbalife抯 markets throughout the world.
“When we established the Nutritional Advisory Board, we didn抰 mean to take advantage of these medical experts to promote our products. We did this because we shared the same health and nutritional ideology and we wanted for more academic interactions so as to help product research and development of the company. We also listen to their views on the medical community throughout the world.” With Dr. Luigi抯 efforts, Herbalife has built as strong think-tank with 24 doctors specializing in various disciplines such as nutrition, sports medicine and paediatrics. Their job is to conduct researches and instructions for over 60 markets of the company, and Dr. Luigi recruited 12 of these doctors. These advisors of Herbalife are teachers of universities in charge of various research jobs. With their helps, Herbalife can spread the most updated medical findings and Herbalife抯 nutritional concept to every corner of the world by conducting nutritional and health trainings for its distributors.
Five Health Principles Carried by the Tri-Leaf
“With the prevailing western food and faster lifestyle, Chinese healthy diet is changing. I have seen many American fast food restaurants at scenic spots in China and there are many consumes going after them. ”Dr. Luigi said in anxiety. “Although western food is convenient, it contains too much calories per serving and it抯 not good for health if people always take these food. China is going the wrong way which America used to go.”
Dr. Luigi said that traditional Chinese food was very healthy with various grains, high quality protein, beans, fruits and vegetables. A diet like this is balanced and suits Herbalife抯 concept of nutrition. Specifically speaking, there are five principles.
Firstly, calorie needs to be controlled. Many people get fat even if they don抰 each much, why? For example, if one takes three cups of coffee, two slices of butter and two pieces of pizza per day, why his/her weight still goes up? Dr. Luigi did the math for us: one cup of coffee with sugar and cream contains around 760 calories and three cups would be 2280 calories. Then with butter and pizza, this person actually has taken in around 4500 calories while the daily calorie need for human body is around 2200 calories. Therefore, the excessive calories would be stored in the body and eventually becomes fat.
Herbalife抯 Protein Drink Mix, a meal replacement for two servings everyday, contains only 300 calories per serving. And if the remaining diet of the day can ensure balanced nutrition intake, then the calorie intake will be no more than 1200 calories for each day, which is far lower than the average consumed calories by a person. Thus, the weight can be effectively controlled.
“Americans always want to control their weights but they don抰 know the right way of doing this. They go after tasty and fast food and they are greatly influenced by the diet culture in America. Few American can resist fast food. Even today, Most American people still don抰 know how to eat in a healthy way.”When American eventually realize the harm that high calorie does to the body, they turn to Herbalife. And Herbalife has practically and remarkably helped them lose the weight. For these American people who are not good at calculating calories, the results are really miraculous.
Secondly, taking healthy protein is a must. Dr. Luigi told the Foreign Investment in China that from a medical perspective, what抯 really miraculous was the high quality protein. The intake of high quality protein is being neglected and this is because we are leading a fast lifestyle and we don抰 have time for a balanced nutrition but for American fast food which lacks meat diversity and is high in calorie. Food in such form will result in too much fat intake while taking the protein.
“The third principle of Herbalife抯 concept of nutrition is to extract natural ingredients from the plant instead of animal. Our logo is made with three leaves, which represents the extraction of nutrients from plants and herbs. The human being was created by the Mother Nature to eat different food, take different nutrition so as to help the growth and antioxidation of the cells.”
Chinese green tea is very popular in America where a story illustrating that a Chinese emperor always took green tea and lived a long life is widely heard. Dr. Luigi also found when he was doing researches that green tea is a very effective antioxidant which cant burn body calories while prevent oxidation of the cells. Herbalife抯 Herbal Concentrate which is made based on traditional herb concept and with essence extracted from green tea and black tea has enjoyed a great popularity in America.
“The fourth principle of Herbalife抯 concept of nutrition is to protect the cells.” Dr. Luigi explained that Herbalife always conducted in-depth researches on natural food when it was developing a product, “Plants have their own antioxidant systems to protect the cells from being harmed. For example, tomato and apple have red coats to protect them from being harmed by the sun. If an apple is cut into two and is put in the open air, it will turn to tawny half of an hour later. But if lemon juice is put on the apple, its color will not be changed half of an hour later. This is because the apple is oxidated in the air and lemon juice is an antioxidant which can prevent the apple from changing the color.” Herbalife has developed, based on natural plants and cellular nutrition, many nutritional supplements such as Garden 7 and Triple Berry Complex which is made with deep colored berries, etc.
Aside from pursuing perfection and professionalism in product development, Herbalife also advocates healthy and active lifestyle. “The fifth principle is to enhance physical exercises, improve sleep and maintain a good physical and mental status.” As a typical American, Dr. Luigi, on the contrary, is not in an obese form but rather like a bodybuilder with a nice T-shape body. “I take the Protein Drink Mix everyday and keep exercising after work.”
Standing on the Shoulders of the Giants
Herbalife, the leader in the health industry has proudly established three scientific organizations: Nutrition Advisory Board, Scientific Advisory Board and Medical Affairs Group which are comprised of distinguished doctors, awarded scientists and world renowned health experts who help develop the nutritional science and make sure that Herbalife抯 products are up to the highest standard. They are also responsible for spreading health knowledge to customers around the world. Dr. Luigi coordinates these job functions in most of his working time.
In1985, Herbalife established the Scientific Advisory Board which consists of respected medical experts to help Herbalife make breakthroughs in scientific research and experiments with an annual input of 10 million USD. Dr. Louis Ignarro who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1998 for his discovery of nitric oxide being an important messenger molecule is also on the board.
“It is Herbalife抯 mission that has made Dr. Ignarro work with us. We value nutritional health and at the same time, we also have a strong sales system which can bring Dr. Ignarro抯 dream to all over the world at a faster pace.” Regarding Dr. Ignarros cooperation with Herbalife, Dr. Luigi told the Foreign Investment in China that Niteworks, an innovative product which can help maintain cardiovascular health had been jointly developed by Dr. Ignarro and Herbalife. “Niteworks contains L-Arginine, L-Citrulline and Vitamin C and E which can bring vessels into normal play. And the flexibility of vessels can be ensured in order to transmit blood containing oxygen to every part of the body.” Dr. Luigi also revealed that this stellar product would be launched in China in this year.
Presently, Herbalife launches at least one new product every year. In the second quarter of 2006, the company launched an effervescent energy drink-Liftoff and skin care product-NouriFusion which takes vitamins as its basis. The Liftoff is hoped to take shares of the energy drink market with young people as its target consumer, which represents Herbalife抯 high-speed penetration into the energy drink market.
In 2005, Herbalife launched the NouriFusion in 23 of its 60 markets. And this product series has become the largest product line in the company抯 history. It is rich in Vitamin A, C and E which can help improve the skin texture with its antioxidant and moisturizing features. Individual products of the series also contain various herbs in order to have better results.
Dr. Luigi said that with the fast business development of Herbalife across the world, the company has paid more attention to localization in product development. For instance, western people like tan while people in the east are into white; American like sweet food while Chinese favor moderately light taste. Given these circumstances, Herbalife has launched localized products for different markets while natural and healthy ingredients are ensured at the same time.
Now, Herbalife has expanded its product line from the original weight control to target nutrition and weight control, healthy energy, outer nutrition, children抯 nutrition which include over one hundred products. As a member of the American Dietary Supplement Association, Herbalife will keep bringing the most up-to-date research results into its products.
Health Education Also A Social Responsibility
Herbalife has, as always, committed itself to the worldwide charity cause. Herbalife Family Foundation and Casa Herbalife have helped children in need in over 23 countries. In Dr. Luigi抯 eyes, being a messenger of healthy ideology is also an embodiment of social responsibility.
“My dream is to bring health to wherever the tri-leaf is seen by gathering more experts globally and influencing more consumers. In another word, we hope that we can engage ourselves more into the education on public health and that we can honor the social responsibility that we are supposed to have. Herbalife is a humanized business with strong penetration. We will educate and ask all distributors to change consumer抯 lives based on the actual product efficacy and to persuade others by using their succeed stories. And our brand is build based on these stories.”
Dr. Luigi said:“We build our brand with service and experience. The reason why distributors can be successful when doing the business is that are consumers which is the foremost. They have personally experienced the product results before sharing the results with more people. And our Nutrition Advisory Board will provide the most updated scientific results to them telling people what kind of lifestyle is the healthiest. More than one million distributors of Herbalife are now benefiting from the health improved through our products and from spreading the concept of health.
Herbalife has adopted various education methodologies and enhanced the trainings on distributors to improve its services. Herbalife has had complete and comprehensive training plans during the past 26 years. With the development of the company, both its products and training contents are enriched. However, the only invariable is the core concept of health of Herbalife.”
“Our education department is in charge of conducting trainings for our distributors. We use 80% of our time to communicate with these distributors.” Aside from recruiting experts, another important job for Dr. Luigi is to educate distributors and to conduct trainings on products and nutrition. Dr. Luigi has created the “5W” methodology regarding the product Q&A which can fractionize health concept and product usage. With this method, a standard Q&A pattern is provided to distributors across the world through the website.
“We have a strict management system for our distributors. It is prohibited to describe products in an untrue manner which is bad for our branding effort.” Dr. Luigi will work closely with worldwide distributors to ensure the authenticity of the product information. He also attends Herbalife抯 big events as a speaker to enhance distributors抯 insights on the products. The company holds 25,000 trainings annually and it also use its own satellite TV programs to conduct trainings.
Dr. Luigi has visited Beijing, Dalian, Qingdao and Hangzhou during his first trip to China. His purpose of this visit is to conduct lectures on Chinese healthy diet and Herbalife concept of health. Dr. Luigi is a very prudent scholar who will bring his professionalism into fullest play when communicating with distributors. He tells distributors patiently that Herbalife抯 products are nutritional supplement rather than medicine and that they can not be used to treat diseases but prevent diseases and supplement nutrition. He asks distributors to tell the actual efficacies of products to consumers and provides medical research results regarding diseases resulted from local obesity to distributors to help them understand the products in a comprehensive way.
China-A Home To Herbalife
Herbalife has a predestined bond with China starting from 26 years ago when Herbalife抯 founder Mark Hughes brought Chinese herbs to the west to taking China as one of its main strategies.
Percy Chin, Managing Director of Herbalife Greater China said in many occasions that Herbalife wanted to be the No.1 health company in China. We can clearly see how important the Chinese market is to Herbalife from remarks of Michael O. Johnson, CEO of Herbalife International and of Gregory Probert, COO of the company and from visits paid by Dr. Ignarro and Dr. Luigi to China.
“Every company is excited about the Chinese market where the population is over 1 billion. And everyone knows how big the market is. By using Herbalife抯 products, population suffering from obesity in China will be reduced and China will be healthier. Herbalife will help people with health concern achieve their health management goal.”
As early as 1999, Herbalife established its factory in Suzhou Industrial Zone which is the only manufacturing base outside of America. Gregory Probert, COO of Herbalife International told the reporter during his previous visit to China that Herbalife had invested tens of millions of dollars in the Chinese market and this was the largest amount being input by Herbalife in an individual market.
In February 2007, the chairman of Herbalife抯 Nutrition Advisory Board will visit the Chinese mainland, Hongkong and Taiwan to pick medical doctors who will be responsible for studying the Chinese market and providing products that are more suitable to Chinese consumers. Dr. Luigi normally spends a plenty of time to land a good and right medical doctor, “We need to work with those experts who conduct researches at universities. And what he/she studies must match Herbalife抯 concept of health and involve nutrition, sports medicine and obesity. And such people also need to participate in social activities and disseminate health ideologies apart from conducting researches in the lab.” Educating and training distributors is an extended and arduous task for Dr. Luigi, “My job is to let more distributors and consumers know the health philosophy of Herbalife through academic efforts. Therefore, I will be back to China very soon.” Dr. Luigi then finished his first trip to China with countless memorable moments. |
