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Dr. Tei-Fu Chen, founder and chairman of Sunrider International, was interviewed by Business Today, a popular magazine published in Taiwan. The article was released in print in June 2019 and featured in the magazine’s website and social media.

The following content is based on translation of the original article (今周刊採訪原文)

WITNESS THE ART OF HERBAL SCIENCE DR. CHEN’S SECRET

“Very few companies in direct selling and retail business manufacture their own products. And those who conduct their own R&D are even fewer.” But Sunrider is a rare exception: It conducts R&D on and manufactures all of its products. Dr. Tei-Fu Chen, the founder of Sunrider International, believes quality should be the highest priority. “We carefully select each one of our products; if we [the Chen family] don’t use or consume the products ourselves, we don’t sell them.” Sunrider currently has more than 400 products, ranging from nutritional supplements, skincare, and cosmetics to household products. All-time favorites include SunBreeze® Oil, which was developed by Dr. Chen in 1970 and is still very popular after nearly 50 years.

The secret to why Sunrider International has been an industry leader for so many decades can be found in Dr. Chen’s life story.

Dr. Tei-Fu Chen was born in a poor village in Taiwan. Because of humble circumstances, rice and sweet potatoes were the main dishes on the dining table, and meat dishes were rarely seen. Tei-Fu was a weak, sickly child because he lacked proper nutrition. The family didn’t have enough money for him to see a doctor, so his grandfather cared for him with Chinese herbal remedies. The medicine was bitter but the medicinal properties of these plants were so powerful that Tei-Fu gradually got stronger and stronger. He eventually realized that if the herbs could treat him, they could also benefit the health of others. After studying pharmacology at Kaohsiung Medical College, he combined the best of Eastern and Western medicines and developed his core philosophy: Nourish + Cleanse = Balance.

When yin and yang are in harmony, the human body can enjoy balanced health.

Dr. Chen’s philosophy [the Philosophy of Regeneration®], Nourish + Cleanse = Balance, sounds deep, but it’s easy to understand once he explains it. The systems and functions of the human body are almost perfect. When treated with proper nutrition and cleansing, the body can reach harmony and balance, and thus, good health.

Dr. Chen explained how too much yin or yang leads to an unbalanced body, and he provided this example: Consider five horses pulling a chariot. The five horses represent the body’s five major systems: the endocrine (fire), digestive (earth), respiratory (metal), circulatory (water), and immune (wood) systems. The chariot runs smoothly when the five horses run in harmony. But if one horse runs too fast or too slowly, it will upset the balance of the chariot. Similarly, our body maintains its health when all five systems run in balance. Yin represents proper nutrition and yang represents the removal of undesired waste. When our body is in balance with sufficient nutrition and proper cleansing, it forms the equation: Nourish + Cleanse = Balance.

Not consuming chemicals is the first step toward better health.

To obtain nutrition, many people turn in the wrong direction, consuming huge amounts of vitamins and tonics, which results in the opposite of the desired effect. Dr. Chen said our body is designed to recognize food or concentrated nutritional supplements as nourishment, not chemicals. To obtain vitamin C, we are meant to eat oranges or concentrated herbal foods, not vitamin C pills. Chemicals lack the intact life structures of real food, which are required by our body to maintain health. To build more muscle, there are other options than soy protein, such as pea protein and rice protein. Dr. Chen’s products are designed to fill nutrition gaps with herbal concentrated foods instead of chemical concoctions.

Dr. Chen also pointed out that some people have food preferences but forget that all foods have their “pros and cons.” Too much of anything can unbalance the body. Every so often, different kinds of “superfoods” are marketed that claim to have big health benefits and cure diseases. Dr. Chen emphasized that Sunrider doesn’t follow such trends for profits. He only develops and manufactures products that he would eat and use himself. “We are connected to the database of a university lab; if the ingredient is questionable in any way, we won’t use it. This is why Sunrider doesn’t sell certain types of products, even though they may be very popular in the market.”

Since no food is perfect, Dr. Chen’s expertise comes into play in selecting ingredients that complement each other and that are beneficial to people. He combines Eastern herbal wisdom with Western innovative technology to formulate, extract, and concentrate the beneficial parts of plants for optimal nutrition.

Dr. Chen has been formulating herbal ingredients for about 50 years. He explained that the research and development process for creating the products is like a chef preparing fine cuisine in restaurants. Even though Sunrider uses only natural ingredients, it takes expertise and countless experiments to finalize the amounts, preparation methods, and time needed to distill the formula into a highly effective finished product. This is the profound side of Nourish + Cleanse = Balance.

Helping others to succeed is the greatest success.

Dr. Chen has led Sunrider International to its place as one of the top companies in the industry. And when we talked about success, he gave his own definition: “To me, success is not decided by how much money I make or how many products I sell. Instead, it’s about whether or not I can stand up again by myself when I fail.” He likes to share his insights with younger generations, letting them know there will always be ups and downs in life. We don’t see one’s character when things are going well, but rather it’s revealed when someone needs to pick themselves up when they fall down. He believes that “helping others succeed is the greatest success.” He strives to lead by example so as to inspire more young people, as well as Sunrider IBOs and ABOs, to help enable them to pave their own path to success.