HYOGO, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Health awareness is expanding rapidly throughout the world, with consumers being more proactive than at any time in recent history. Today’s watchword is wellness – the idea that it is better to rally the body’s strengths and defenses before illness takes its toll than to concentrate on remedies and cures after health declines or injury sets in. This isn’t news to House Wellness Foods – “wellness” is, literally, their middle name.
With this in mind, House Wellness Foods has reintroduced its trusted flagship product, heat-killed Lactobacillus plantarum L-137™ to the market with a series of six practical and fun food options including drinks, snacks, meals and add-ins that make it user-friendlier and more versatile; and importantly, give consumers a slew of new choices.
The new products have been embraced enthusiastically by consumers in every category in Japan, and the company anticipates that they will surpass in popularity its vaunted global standard in the blossoming field of immunobiotics Immuno-LP20, which has long enjoyed widespread sales dominance in North America and China.
This new push for their clinically proven immunobiotic L-137™ takes it to new heights of usability and presents it in colorless, odorless forms that health-conscious consumers can easily and naturally make part of their everyday regimen going forward.
For nearly three decades House Wellness Foods has devoted the lion’s share of its massive research efforts to proving that daily intake of L-137™ can not only support but enhance the body’s innate ability to combat infection and improve physical condition. The idea came from the study of ancient Southeast Asian cultures which, from time immemorial, had looked to diet for superior resistance to disease, infection, and stamina under stress. HWF researchers homed in on the process of fermentation that allowed olden cultures to safely preserve food for long periods without refrigeration. They reasoned that lactobacilli that proved favorable to preserving organic matter to be consumed could confer their cellular health maintenance properties to living organisms. The ultimate refinement of this concept came with House Wellness Foods’ bestselling Immuno-LP20, the introduction of which ushered in the fledgling category of immunobiotics, which not only support the immune system in the manner of everyday probiotics, but work in concert with it to enhance its ability to fight infection and bolster immunity for the long-term.
With the 2013 publication of a groundbreaking peer-reviewed, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel study in the Journal of Nutritional Science that proved decisively that oral intake of L-137™ could both prevent and ameliorate the misery of upper respiratory tract infection and the onset of allergic reactions, Immuno-LP20 soon became the trusted name in immunobiotic supplementation, achieving popularity as a functional ingredient at home and across the world.
Now House Wellness Foods has successfully reintroduced in Japan the fruit of its decades of research and rigorous testing with a line of six ultra-convenient food products that fit today’s outlook on supplementation. These include drinks, soluble powder, sauces, instant noodles, desserts and confections, and in just the past few weeks, an energy gel pack.
The point is to make consumers aware of the importance of immunobiotics in their ongoing pursuit of good health, and to provide numerous ways to make them part of their lifestyle.
The key to L-137™ is stability. The process of heat-killing the bacilli (the “HK” of the technical name) stabilizes them, keeps them potent before they enter the body (L-137™’s extensive shelf life sets it apart); during processing, where they are not subject to degradation by heat and processing with other ingredients; and after entering the body, due to their unique ability to withstand decomposition by gastric fluids, continuing to prove effective throughout the tract, down to the lower bowel.
That landmark 2013 study led to subsequent clinical proof that L-137™ has proved stunningly beneficial to oral health. It was shown that just 12 weeks of controlled administration of HK L-137™ resulted in a dramatic improvement in periodontal condition, as indicated by the probing depth of gaps in the oral environment that shelter and foster pathogenic organisms being measurably reduced.
To think that such vast benefits could flow from such a humble and natural process, the ancient practice of fermentation, is staggering in itself. To now put these benefits in the hands of consumers, inviting them to take responsible custodianship of their health, makes this new line of L-137™ products a harbinger of the times. House Wellness Foods is looking to international sales of ¥7 billion by 2020, ¥10 billion by 2023, and invites formulators, fabricators, retailers and all interested parties to join in this effort to give wellness the essential place it deserves in the everyday lives of consumers throughout Asia and the world.
To learn more about the clinical background, research and testing of L-137™, please visit https://health.housefoods.jp/hk-l-137/index_e.html.
