Melaleuca Scientists Make “Revolutionary” Breakthrough; New Product Unveiled

KIFI Local News 8 | Nate Eaton |

One of Eastern Idaho's largest companies made a big announcement Thursday that will forever change the vitamin and supplement industry.

Melaleuca President and C.E.O. Frank Vandersloot unveiled a new product in front of thousands of excited customers.

"We've never announced any product as a big breakthrough. This is a breakthrough," said Vandersloot.

For years, the company has been working with some of the world's best scientists from George Washington University and the University of Iowa to come up with a product that will permanently change the vitamin and supplement industry.

"We think it's going to make a big difference in the nutrition world," said Vandersloot.

On Thursday, that product was revealed. It's called Oligofructose Complex and it helps you keep anti-oxidants in your body.

Antioxidants fight off diseases and help you live longer and while they're found in some foods, they're also in mineral supplements that you probably take every day. But that's where scientists have discovered a problem.

"As soon as you take them into the gut, they begin fighting and the mineral always wins and the antioxidant loses and is destroyed," said Garry Buettner, Ph.D. of the University of Iowa.

The antioxidants are destroyed in the small intestine before being absorbed into your bloodstream. That leaves cells in your vital organs unprotected from millions of free radicals. Free radicals are tiny molecules that attack cells and anti-oxidants fight them off.

"We think that that's pretty important to the scientific world," said Vandersloot.

Melaleuca plans to publish its findings and go head to head with competitors. The company claims Oligofructose Complex is the best mineral supplement ever for absorbing antioxidants into the bloodstream and a patent is pending on the product.

It's a finding Frank Vandersloot says will change the industry and make people healthier.

"It will make a lot of difference in people's lives if they can get the right protection rather than the kind that they think they're getting," said Vandersloot.

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