Our bodies are clever, they tell us when things are wrong – so why should we ignore our headaches? Headaches can occur due to stress, hormone imbalance and high blood pressure to name just a few.
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The gut ecosystem and microbial diversity
The gut microbiota (also referred to as gut flora) is a vast and diverse reservoir of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi and viruses, which live in relative balance in healthy individuals.
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Ethos and environmental policy
Our ethos:
Nature’s Own is British, independent, and owned by a charitable foundation. Our mission has always been to impart knowledge to individuals in order that they are empowered to make choices in the field of nutrition. Our overall aim is to help with optimising the health of the nation, and this is the goal of the charitable foundation that owns our shares.
One of the main outcomes from the loss of biodiversity on the planet, through intensive farming, has been the loss to people of many mineral nutrients. In supplying Food State™ products, we believe we help redress this nutrition imbalance in people in the best way possible.
Our environmental policy:
Realistically, whether as an individual or as a company, we all make an environmental impact. However, it is our choice whether we make the effort to address the issue, and if so, with what dedication. Here at Nature’s Own we are environmentally conscious, and have an ongoing commitment to changes as and when they become available. We are all stewards of the planet and hold it in trust for future generations.
Our products:
Our unique Food State™ nutrients, where vitamins and minerals are grown into food concentrates in a process that replicates nature, is also environmentally friendly. The same is true of the Wholefood and Biofood ranges. In fact, all our products meet this criterion.
Our charitable work
Nature’s Own is wholly owned by a charitable foundation and throughout the year we look to do as much as we possibly can to raise money for different causes whether it be on home soil or globally. Below you can find out more about some of the annual charitable activities of Nature’s Own including a summary of some of the charitable work of the AIM Foundation, the 100% shareholders of Nature’s Own.
AIM Foundation
The charitable foundation that owns Nature’s Own is the AIM Foundation and we are a product of their ideology. Our profits are directed towards the core objectives of AIM. They are an organisation concerned with nutrition and health projects all over the world, as well as helping those less able to help themselves in various communities in the UK.
Projects influencing social change and policy
AIM has supported Impetus-PEF, a venture philanthropy organisation, for over six years. Impetus supports the most disadvantaged 11-24 year olds, so that they succeed in education, achieve their potential and gain employment. It achieves this through investing funds and management resources in a range of effective charities addressing this issue and build’s their management capacity to replicate their methods and reach more teenagers. For example, Think Forward provides super coaches to the most at risk 14 year olds in East London schools.
From this knowledge base they are able to influence government policy in this area. The other area that AIM is trying to promote a policy change is in the measurement of well-being economics, as an alternative to GDP, through the work of the think tank New Economics Foundation and their Centre for well-being. In Summer 2016 they launched their third report of Happy Planet Index, which compares global inequalities of life expectancy and life satisfaction. An education programme will be delivered to young people about “good lives do not have to cost the earth”.
Projects addressing youth development
AIM has also provided funding to a selection of charities, addressing the issues facing disadvantaged young people, by raising their confidence and potential and preventing further difficulties later in their lives. AIM’s donations have gone towards:
- The Wave Trust – they are trying to address the causes of child abuse and neglect through the setting up of three pioneering communities; where health and social care and the voluntary sector work together to identify families with the most difficulties, and give parenting support during late pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s development.
- The Children’s Society “Lifting the lid” project – which works with professionals to help teach them to identify symptoms of abuse amongst children with learning difficulties, and also towards their “Hidden Harm” project that focuses on the damaging effects of substance abuse of parents on their children.
- The Lighthouse group, which provides trained volunteer personal coaches to support primary school pupils through emotional problems, who are at risk of failing academically.
- The Who Cares? Trust programme for Young Trainers supports young people by using their experience of care to prepare and deliver training to professionals who are responsible for children in the care system.
A big thank you
Every customer who purchases our products, whether it be once, twice or ten times a year, is helping us to try and help those who are much less fortunate than ourselves. You may not realise it, but every time you buy from us, you are helping someone else. We believe this is a sound business model; one that we are very proud of and one that hopefully, in time, will achieve the goals we have set ourselves; to improve the health of the nation and the rest of the world too! Our charitable work – both on a small and large scale – is testament to this.
We hope that this information has given you a small insight into the charitable structure of Nature’s Own and the significant role it plays in the day to day running of the company. We hope you continue to support us in the future in whatever way you can.
About us
Nature’s Own was founded in 1980 by two idealists who strived for better forms of nutrition in a genuine desire to help the well-being of the nation. Over the past 36 years, our company has grown by both word of mouth and satisfied customer referrals. We pioneered the unique Food State™ and Wholefood forms of nutrition which offer better absorption, retention and utilisation of nutrients than conventional supplements.
We are a British owned and independent company, wholly owned by a charitable foundation. Our products are grounded in science, supported by research and peer-reviewed studies that testify to the efficacy of Food State™ nutrition.
We provide a unique range of supplements comprising Food State™ and Wholefood vitamins and minerals. When it comes to nutrition our philosophy is that:
a) There is a ‘Nutrition Gap’ in the population, supported by research, which means that most people are not getting the nutrients they need from their diet.
b) Nutrition supplements can bridge this gap when they contain the appropriate (and safe) levels of nutrients as long as the nutrients are in a bio-effective form.
Food State™ and Wholefood
What sets our Food State™ and Wholefood products apart from virtually all other nutritional products on the market is that they are presented to the body in the same form as food. In general, they are more bioavailable and more bio-effective. As well as being beneficial for all, they are gentle on the body, so also particularly suitable for individuals with sensitivities.
Food state™
Food state™ nutrients are combined in a variety of appropriate food bases which would naturally carry significant levels of the nutrient. This ensures they come complete with the phytonutrients and associated food factors that are necessary for optimal absorption, use and retention in the body. Food State™ nutrients are gentle, yet effective.
Examples of the appropriate food bases we use include citrus pulp for vitamin C, alfalfa for vitamin K, cornmeal for choline and carrot concentrate for beta carotene. It is in these foods that you would find the mentioned nutrients because these foods have receptor sites in abundance that the nutrient will target. Food State™ simply replicates nature.
Also, lactobacillus bulgaricus is used where appropriate because it too has receptor sites for most nutrients and in addition acts as a carrier through the digestive tract, permitting the nutrients to utilise the normal metabolic pathways.
Wholefood
Wholefood nutrients are equally well absorbed as the Food State™ form because they also utilise and replicate the way nature works.
Nature’s Own Wholefood nutrients are derived from a number of natural plant sources including vitamin D from lichen, vitamin C from acerola cherry and minerals from Brassica juncea, a member of the broccoli family of vegetables. The Brassica is cultivated hydroponically and fed a mineral-rich broth. When the plant is fully grown and is mineral rich it is harvested, dried, powdered and then formed into a vegan capsule.
The other great advantage of natural plant minerals is that they contain thousands of phytonutrients which have a complementary and beneficial action in the human body. They contain all the bioactives that our bodies expect to obtain from fresh vegetables including indole-3-carbinol, sulphoraphane and glucosilinates.
Minerals are taken up from the hydroponic growth solution into the root systems of the plants. They are transported into the leaf and become tissue metabolised into the plant leaf tissue. This is the natural process that also occurs during normal plant growth from the soil.
In summary; Food State™ and Wholefood supplements replicate nature’s way and are understood by the body as food.