Fifty years ago a young Swiss man started to produce an immune-boosting herbal yeast tonic in Zurich. Today, Bio-Strath is exported to more than 50 countries and millions of people around the world have already experienced the health-promoting benefits. Here’s the full story.

Yeasts have been part of our lives for as long as we can remember and we have all benefited from them at some point in time: it’s yeasts that cause dough to rise for bread and it’s yeasts that ferment grape juice, fruit juice and grains to make wine, ciders and beer. In fact, yeasts can be found everywhere in nature: on fruit, vegetables, flowers, cereal, in the air, on human skin and also in the stomach and intestines. And now, yeast also forms an important ingredient of a food supplement that has transformed the health of millions of people around the world over the last half century.

Fifty years ago, a young Swiss man, Fred Pestalozzi (left) started a company called Bio-Strath AG, which manufactures an immune-boosting, health-strengthening herbal yeast product.

A 100% natural health tonic, Bio-Strath helps to bring order and balance in the body and has been found to be advantageous in pregnancy, for children with poor immune systems or learning problems, athletes, people recuperating after operations or spending a long time on a sickbed, for cancer patients who receive chemotherapy and radiation, as well as for older persons with memory problems.

Success story triggered by illness

It all started when the young Pestalozzi fell ill and searched for an effective treatment. Pestalozzi was diagnosed with the debilitating Menière’s syndrome – a disease accompanied by attacks of dizziness, complete loss of balance and ringing in the ears – which would have prevented him from following a normal life and fulfilling his full potential.

“At that time I heard for the first time of the German bio-chemist Dr Walter Strathmeyer’s newly developed all natural and concentrated food supplement made from herbal yeast,” recounts Pestalozzi. “I felt confident and got a good supply of the supplement and then started to consume it every hour, without taking any other remedies.”

After trying it every day for three months, his illness disappeared. (He has continued to consume the product for the last 50 years and has never had a relapse.) “Certainly, the herbal yeast food supplement is not a therapeutic product against Menière, yet in my case the body received those natural, vital substances which allowed it to regain optimal health,” Pestalozzi says today.

Excited about his return to health and the positive reports of other consumers of the product the young Pestalozzi made it his business to distribute the precious liquid further.

In 1961, after Dr Strathmeyer had entrusted him with the formula and the licence to manufacture the product himself, Pestalozzi set up Bio-Strath AG in a small two-room apartment in Zurich. Today, this business has grown into a full-blown construction facility in Herrliberg on Lake Zurich, headed by his son David Pestalozzi (right). Some 50 million units of the herbal yeast product have been produced over the past 50 years.

“Since the company was set up in 1961 by my father, it has been our aim to contribute to maintaining health in both humans and animals with our herbal yeast products,” says David Pestalozzi. ”Today, Bio-Strath AG supplies more than 50 marketing partners throughout the world with South Africa moving up to top spot as the largest export customer three years ago.”

Plasmolysis

Bio-Strath is produced over a two-month period by feeding yeast cells with a mixture of herbs. (The yeast that is used is called Saccharomyces Cerevisiae MEYEN – a “friendly” nutritional yeast harvested from fresh fruit – whereas the herbs have been chosen specifically by Dr Strathmeyer to serve each organ and body system.) After absorbing all these herbs, the yeast undergoes a special process called plasmolysis during which the yeast cells are broken down and liquefied in order for the nutrients to be released. This process is of cardinal importance for the body’s ability to absorb the yeast as it cannot digest the cell membrane. The plasmolysis process also stops the yeast’s ability to duplicate itself and as such negates any fears of Bio-Strath promoting yeast overgrowth in individuals suffering from Candida albicans.

Source: Culinarymanager.ch

Antony Rak