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1. Are changes profit motivated?–It is commonly assumed that all companies operate with the profit motive. Wysong, however, began with the idea of making a fundamental difference in health through education, research, and product development. All resources and income are used in the furtherance of those goals. In this respect, Wysong is a not-for-profit organization. We do not make changes in order to disperse profits to shareholders.
On the contrary, many Wysong products have been sold at near or below their cost in order to make them as accessible as possible. Wysong, although a relatively small company, builds and maintains its own manufacturing facilities to permit innovation to maximize nutrition. For example, recent multimillion dollar costs include pilot and production twin screw extruders permitting higher fresh ingredient inclusion (to improve nutrition), vacuum enrobing of lipids and nutraceuticals (to improve nutrition), freeze driers (to improve raw food nutrition), subzero freezing of ingredients (to improve nutrition), computer generated packaging (to permit rapid nutritional changes), nitrogen generation (to protect nutrients), computer batching (for more precise nutrient formulation), air conveying (to increase food safety)... and much more, and on an ongoing basis. None of these costs were necessary if simply producing products and turning a profit were the goal. Nor would they have been necessary if we had simply outsourced manufacturing to toll manufacturers, as most for-profit companies do.
In addition, Wysong spends enormous time in educating people in self-care. Who, among all companies, provides more free educational materials, books (Dr. Wysong has written 14; none for profit), and health newsletters (for thirty years, none for profit)? Moreover, we do the most unprofitable thing any company could ever do: we teach people how to eat and feed without buying any processed products at all, even ours! See the Wysong Optimal Health Programâ„¢, How To Choose a Healthy Pet Food Company, How To Apologize To Your Pet.
This is not to say that some economic considerations have to be made in selecting ingredients. But this is only done to make products affordable, and never do we compromise health and nutrition in so doing.
An all organic, non-GMO, free range, locally harvested ingredient list containing filet mignon and lobster tail in the number one and two positions on a label would create a product almost nobody could afford. But neither is such a formulation necessary to achieve good health.
2. Product changes–Science, nutrition, and health are rapidly unfolding fields. New discoveries in proteomics, epigenetics, nutrigenomics, and nutraceuticals demand change in order to keep up...if health is the objective.
3. Packaging–Because the preparation and production of packaging are exceedingly costly, large production runs must occur. This locks food companies into years of inventory, and years using the same ingredients listed on the packaging. This, of course, permits no rapid innovation or the ability to take advantage of new health discoveries.
For this reason, Wysong has introduced an entirely novel packaging method whereby the ingredient label can be computer generated and affixed in-house. This required us to retire very costly and functional machinery and buy the new costly replacement. This was exactly the opposite of profitable and was done with the sole purpose of health innovations.
4. Ingredient listing–Ingredients must be listed on packages in order of predominance in the products. However, if ingredient A, B, C, D, E...are in the formula at the same level, they can be listed in any order. One cannot look at an ingredient label and decipher the exact formulation.
If one ingredient in the batch of 10,000 lbs. outweighs another by 1 lb., the higher weight ingredient must go first on the label. Because an ingredient is listed first does not mean that it is the "primary" ingredient within the product, i.e. that it is the main ingredient making up the majority of the product.
Consider the following hypothetical product formulation:
Chicken: 100 lbs.
Tapioca: 100 lbs.
Corn: 100 lbs.
Wheat: 100 lbs.
On the label, this could be accurately depicted as:
Chicken, Wheat, Corn, Tapioca...leading consumers to mistakenly interpret the product as a chicken-based product. It's the first ingredient after all. In reality it's anything but. The starch ingredients outweigh the chicken by a 3:1 margin!
There are important factors in ingredient order that can have a serious impact on the stability of the end product, its final integrity, flavor, and nutritional effectiveness in relation to other nutrients. The average person cannot discern these nuances and is not capable of drawing fair conclusions. You must read company explanations in order to more fully understand the rationale behind the product. Also, test feeding and observing results is an important measure.
So don't make the mistake of putting too much stock in the order of ingredients on a product ingredient list.
5. Toxins and the Internet–The Internet and the information it provides is potentially the most enlightening tool ever devised by humans. However, with the glut of information provided, it can be confusing and can lead to erroneous conclusions if one does not have depth of knowledge and experience. The most prevalent inquiry we now receive from consumers is concern that this or that ingredient is toxic, because of urban legend or it says so on the Internet somewhere.
What is not understood is the most basic principle in toxicology: anything can be toxic at high enough dosage, even oxygen and water. Also, what may be lifesaving at one level, can be toxic at another. These factors must be understood and these links will help - Toxin Paranoia, So You Think Wysong Uses Toxins in Its Products.
