I thought I would share with you the story behind our CAA-Multi capsules and how CAA-Multi came to be our top selling product. If you’re not familiar with CAA, it’s a once-a-day, multi-mineral-vitamin capsule formulated by myself, for my family and for the health of all New Zealanders.
I’m aware of the minerals we lack in New Zealand because of the years of nutritional research undertaken for my book Stay healthy by supplying what’s lacking in your diet. New Zealand’s top-selling health book.
So here’s the CAA story:
How publishing my ‘Stay Healthy’ book led to CAA
In 1982, my Dad, had a serious heart attack, aged 66. He survived this (in fact he lived to be 96) but it was a wake up call for me, I was leading a similar lifestyle and eating the same foods as he was.
During the next five years I voraciously researched all aspects of health, at the same time began experimenting with my own health. This research sparked a life-long passion for natural health. Six years later in 1988 I wrote and published a do-it-yourself book on practical nutrition called “New Zealand Nutrition and Your Health”.
To my pleasant surprise this book immediately sold very well, perhaps because it was timely and easy to use. Ideas for improving the book flowed in from readers and when the first print run sold out I published an improved second edition. The third edition was retitled as “Stay healthy by supplying what’s lacking in your diet”. The book has continued to sell strongly (over 88,000 copies to-date).
Percy Weston
In 2002 I read the great book “Cancer: Cause and Cure” by 97 year old Australian farmer Percy Weston and immediately identified with the importance of his findings regarding common health disorders and depleted soil minerals. After 50 years of experimenting with his animals’ and his family health problems, he identified the minerals required for good health.
When the Stay Healthy book was first published readers would often contact me and ask where they could buy supplements to provide the minerals they lacked. I too was concerned that a multi-mineral-vitamin supplement for our unique New Zealand nutritional needs was not available in health shops.
A company in Australia was making bottles of tablets that contained magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc, manganese and a few vitamins, so I began importing these for my customers and myself. However, no reports of effectiveness were coming back from my customers, nor did I feel that much different myself. Later that same year, the Australian Pan Pharmaceuticals scandal hit the industry and the factory making the tablets in Australia closed down and my supply stopped.
A blessing in disguise
I was disappointed, but in fact this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I had long been concerned that these imported tablets lacked the most critical minerals we were lacking here in New Zealand, especially selenium, boron, iodine and copper. I thought, “Why not make them here in New Zealand and include these missing minerals?”
I then arranged for a New Zealand company to manufacture my formula in capsule form. Capsules are superior to tablets as they do not require fillers/binders and you don’t need to mask unpleasant tastes. As planned, I included the minerals lacking in our New Zealand soils. I also added sulphur and the full range of B and other vitamins, including B12 and D. To make it more complete I included bioflavonoids and antioxidants and included New Zealand sea kelp, which contains numerous trace minerals (including iodine) from the sea. I specified that all ingredients were to be the finest and most absorbable available. I genuinely wanted these capsules to work as well as possible, for my own health as well as for the health of my book readers.
Effectiveness of CAA exceeds all my expectations
I was in for a pleasant shock. The effectiveness of CAA exceeded all my expectations. Positive reports began to flood in from customers with joint issues and other health conditions. They mentioned increased energy, improved sleep and better overall health.
Later on I added organic silica from bamboo leaves and a newly developed form of vitamin B12 that is better absorbed by our digestive system than the common form of B12. It was extremely costly but above all I wanted CAA to work effectively, regardless of cost.
I believe we could half empty our New Zealand hospitals if we provided correct nutrition to our entire nation. Whenever someone expresses doubt that we need to supplement our diet with minerals, I suggest they ask any farmer whether they could farm properly without providing supplementary minerals to their stock.
I largely put down the success of CAA to our immune system being able to work as nature intended, by having access to the minerals previously lacking in our diet.
CAA continuous improvements through the years
We have made many improvements to CAA over the years, the latest is the addition of vitamin A (beta carotene). We had not included vitamin A previously as it was synthetic and seemed easy enough to obtain from our diet. Despite this, recent health studies show many New Zealanders still have a deficiency. We have now managed to source a completely natural vitamin A, so we have included it in CAA. As our regular customers are aware, we make CAA (and nearly all our other products) in our own state-of-the-art factory here in Tauranga.