World recognition of the importance of phytonutrients is spreading. This week the Chinese Nutrition Society (CNS) announced that it is revising its “daily reference intakes,” or DRI, to include phytonutrients.

That means the society will now recommend people get a daily dose of phytonutrients along with their vitamins and minerals to maintain optimal health.

We are proud to say that the Nutrilite Health Institute worked closely with the CNS in gathering research and scientific data to establish the DRIs.

The announcement comes as the 11th China Nutrition Science Conference and the 2013 China & Korea Joint International Phytonutrient Symposium wrap up this week where our own Dr. Keith Randolph presented.

Dr. Randolph is the nutrition technology strategist at the NHI. He called the decision by the CNS “a significant development in the effort to improve the overall health of a large portion of the world’s population.”

Read more about the announcement at the Amway Global Newsroom and see more photos from the symposium at our Nutrilite Facebook Page.

Yesterday’s Financial Times featured this article (registration required to view in full) about Cecilia Qing Tang, one distributor who has made her way in a new country by leading and growing her Amway business.

Amway United Kingdom General Manager Andy Smith is also interviewed about the growing trend of migrants exercising their entrepreneurial spirit through direct selling.

In four years, Cecilia has defined her own success. We applaud her, along with the millions of other Amway distributors worldwide who focus their time, talents and energy on their Amway businesses.

Amway President Doug DeVos, in the April 2013 edition of  Harvard Business Review, shares the lessons Amway learned working through China’s direct selling ban in the 1990s.

“The idea that direct selling could be outlawed was incomprehensible to us. This method of marketing was the foundation of Amway’s business—it had been tested and proved over time and across borders. And now it appeared that we could be put out of business, despite our commitment to and investment in our China operation,” he writes in Harvard Business Review.

In “Amway’s President on Reinventing the Business to Succeed in China,” Doug describes how Amway worked with government officials to create strong direct selling legislation and made significant changes to the way it did business in China, such as opening stores.  Doug details four key lessons – understand the market, stay true to your mission, build strong, trusting relationships and take a long-term view – that helped Amway become the industry leader in China.

Doug’s column also appears in the China edition of Harvard Business Review in April, along with a story about Amway China’s innovation and growth strategies. 

Today Amway’s parent company, Alticor, announced record sales of USD$11.3 billion for 2012. 

That’s a huge accomplishment, driven by the strength of our NUTRILITE™ brand, which accounts for 46 percent of product sales. The introduction of eSpring™ in China in 2012, the company’s biggest product launch ever, and the restaging of the ARTISTRY™ beauty brand, created excitement and generated strong sales. First-year sales of eSpring in China are expected to top USD$500 million.

Those are impressive numbers.  But we calculate success another way:  The strength of  the millions of Amway distributors operating their own businesses in more than 100 countries and territories, supported by more than 21,000 employees worldwide.  They are drawn to our business to earn extra income and create more flexibility and work/life balance. When they achieve, we achieve. 

That’s why in 2013 we’ll fuel their success through USD$335 million in investments in manufacturing and research and development expansions in the U.S., China, India and Vietnam.  We’ll continue to create innovative products in nutrition and beauty.  And we’ll find new ways to support our distributors doing business wherever they are.

Congratulations to our distributors and employees on another record year.  Thanks to you, we have a “strength in numbers” that creates success.

The London Olympic Games were undoubtedly a highlight for the Chinese people last year thanks to the impressive performance of the Chinese Olympic team.

Sponsored by Nutrilite, the team won 38 gold, 27 silver and 23 bronze medals – the best performance outside of the 2008 Olympics held in Beijing.

Thanks to Nutrilite’s reputation for safety and credibility, the Chinese Olympic Committee extended the sponsorship agreement for eight more years. That means Nutrilite will continue to support the Chinese Olympic Delegation until 2020.

And, the official Olympic rings will continue to appear on Nutrilite products in China. How’s that for a symbol of optimal health and Nutrilite’s credibility?

In 1919 when Nutrilite founder Carl Rehnborg was selling canned milk in China, he wanted to understand all he could – from milk’s nutritional properties to the natural processes that make it. He was especially interested in how nutrition affected the health of dairy cows.

What he found was that the healthiest animals were fed just green alfalfa and water – they produced the most milk, weighed the most and had beautiful coats. He noted the nutritional makeup of the green leafy vegetables the cows were eating and began to understand how important they were to their diet.

Observing this simple plant-based diet of healthy, contented cows was an “ah-ha” moment for Rehnborg. He saw the direct relation between the nutritional value in milk and what the cows were ingesting. It was clear that cows eating green leafy plants made good healthy milk, and that milk provided the daily nutritional support and protein our bodies require. Ultimately, he realized that by extracting and concentrating alfalfa he could create the first ever dietary food supplement.

Today, nutritional science helps us further understand the vital importance of protein, a macronutrient that plays an essential role in maintaining healthy cells throughout our body. It acts as a cell repair nutrient, provides energy by producing the red blood cells that carry oxygen throughout our bodies, it builds lean muscle and supports the immune system.

But protein needs to be replenished daily and many individuals run short of their bodies’ needs. Without enough protein, the body will just not function as well as it could.

Supplementing with NUTRILITE All Plant Protein Powder is a sensible way to fill the protein gaps in your diet. The unique NUTRILITE tri-blend of soy, wheat and pea delivers the right combination of proteins and amino acids to keep you feeling healthy and energetic – all without animal products or dairy side-effects.

So instead of counting on cows to provide dairy based protein, you can now go directly to the protein source in plants. It was the key ingredient Carl Rehnborg observed when he watched those contented cows nibbling alfalfa in the early 1900s.

Nearly 70,000 Amway distributors, employees and their guests: That’s the total number of people who came to see Amway Chairman Steve Van Andel on his recent tour of three cities in China and one in Taiwan.

Our leadership makes annual trips to markets across the world to recognize the our top performing distributors, rewarding and recognizing them for their hard work and leadership and motivating them to keep striving.

Van Andel spoke to 11,000 in Beijing, 13,000 in Guangzhou and 10,000 in Shanghai. And when he traveled to Taipei, Taiwan, he spoke to two crowds of 17,000 each. In Taipei he also was joined by Dr. Sam Rehnborg, president of the Nutrilite Health Institute and, at one of the events, Holly Chen, one the most successful distributors in Amway’s history.

In the more than 50 years that Amway has been operating, Van Andel told the crowd he has seen many changes in the company.

“But what hasn’t changed is the people,” he said. “It’s the people that make Amway successful. People like all of you.”

See more photos of his visit at our Facebook page, facebook.com/amway.

A team from the Amway One by One Campaign for Children went to China recently to capture the wonderful stories of Amway distributors helping those who need it most.

They went to the remote Long Ma Village to learn about the Spring Sprout program that helps feed children whose parents moved to the city to find work.

And they went to Beijing, where other distributors are helping the rural children that moved with their parents to find work through Project Sunshine.

Migrant children in the city don’t have access to the same schooling as the children who live there. That’s where Project Sunshine comes in, helping to build libraries and supporting other educational programs.

The Amway One by One blog chronicled the team’s first impressions of the trip – Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 – and there will be more to come. Until then, check out the collection of photos at the Amway Facebook page.

If success is judged by the numbers, the China & Korea Joint International Phytonutrient Symposium held in Bejing last month exceeded expectations.

More than 300 people attended when organizers anticipated 200. Among them was our team from Nutrilite, including Keith Randolph, the Nutrilite Health Institute’s director of research and development, who presented the latest findings on the antioxidant paradigm.

The one-day event was a lively packed house of scholars and professors, all of them focused on nutritional science and phytonutrient research. Plenty of Q&A took place between the audience and speakers after every presentation.

The speakers presented their interpretations of Randolph’s presentation articulated the fact that we are at a turning point in understanding the role antioxidants play in the body, while identifying the importance of phytonutrients in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli: Specific phytos turn on switches in our cells that enable our bodies to fight oxidative stress.

The symposium played an extra key role in China, where the Chinese Nutrition Society is reviewing whether to institute a daily recommended intake, or DRI, for phytonutrients. The conference presentations gave them a better understanding of the role of antioxidants and the emerging phytonutrient science.

The event was hosted by China Nutrition Society and the Korean Society of Food Science and Technology and sponsored by Amway China Ltd and Amway Korea. Participants are already looking forward to next year’s symposium.

When you think about the Nutrilite story, China is really where it all began.

It was nearly 100 years ago that Carl Rehnborg was living and working in China when the “seed” of an idea came to him: He noticed a difference between the health of people living in towns and those living in the country.

He also noticed they had different diets. That’s when he made the connection between health and nutrition.

This week, a team from our Nutrilite Health Institute in Buena Park, California, is headed back to China to discuss the latest research connecting health to nutrition at the China & Korea Joint International Phytonutrient Symposium.

The mantra “more is better” is often applied to supplements, including phytonutrients, those wonderful things in fruits and vegetables that give them their vibrant colors. But NHI Director of Research and Development Keith Randolph, PhD, will present the case for “better is better.”

What does that mean? If you get the right kinds of phytonutrients in the right amounts, it will buoy your body’s own defense mechanisms.

“This research is in its early stages, but we have data that shows cruciferous vegetables as being particularly potent inducers of antioxidant response within the body,” Randolph said. (To save you a trip to Wikipedia, some examples of cruciferous vegetables are broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy and cabbage.)

Randolph will be joined at the symposium by nine leading nutritionists from Canada, Japan, China and Korea. And it will include opening remarks from Colleen Carkeet, PhD, senior group leader in Global Regulatory Affairs at Amway.

The event is hosted by China Nutrition Society and the Korean Society of Food Science and Technology. Amway China Ltd and Amway Korea are sponsors.

The symposium takes place on Friday. For live updates, follow us on Twitter.