Herbalife recently launched MultiBurn, a dietary supplement designed with clinically studied botanicals to support key areas of metabolic health. John Heiss, vice president of global product innovation at Herbalife, explained the science behind its formulation and emphasized the importance of a multi-mechanistic approach targeting various aspects of metabolic health. He highlighted the ingredients, which include chili extract Capsifen, along with Morosil, a Nutraingredients-USA Award winner, and runner-up Metabolaid.
Heiss detailed the rigorous ingredient selection process, which involved mining scientific databases like PubMed and leveraging Herbalife’s extensive library of previously researched compounds.
He also discussed how the convergence of scientific research and trademarked ingredients benefit companies like Herbalife by facilitating innovation and reducing risk in product development.
“I think the thing with these trademarked ingredients, like Morosil, produced by a third party company, and Metabolaid by a different company, those companies, they’ve carved out a niche in the space, and they’re able to do the real primary research,” he said.
“They might identify a certain polyphenol that they think has an effect at an in vitro or animal level and then maybe find a botanical source of that and go through the extraction process and standardize the extraction process, then develop an R&D pipeline to bring that polyphenol or botanical extract to market with clinical substantiation, carrying the risk of that R&D pipeline.”
From there, Heiss said Herbalife is able to pluck the scientific findings, use the claims, create a product and fully commercialize it to a consumer level.
As Herbalife celebrates its 45th year in business, Heiss credited the MLM’s successful track record to product formulation rooted in science, along with ethics, highlighting the importance of substantiated claims and maintaining consumer trust.
“Fourty-five years is a long time for a direct selling, multi-level marketing company,” he said. “If you think about weight loss specifically, weight loss in the supplement space has a long history, starting with ephedra in the 80s. And after that was banned, a whole new wave of ingredients were popularized. I think MultiBurn reflects the latest generation of thinking on ingredients used for weight loss.”
To hear more on Herbalife’s evolution, the pressure the company faces as an MLM and how it stays rooted in science, listen to the NutraCast above or on your preferred podcast platform
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