The Story of BamBoom!
For years, anthropologists visiting the remote mountain bamboo forests of southern China returned with stories of a people who live long, strong, and healthy: villagers, hard working the fields and forest, physically and sexually active, strong and flexible into their late nineties – also who are lean and free from cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. They live in a region which the People’s Republic of China reports to have the highest number of people, per capita, living to be over 100 in the world!
When the villagers are asked why they are so strong, they say “It’s the bamboo. The more we eat and drink, the healthier we get, the longer we live!” When one 83 year old villager was asked if the bamboo was really the source, he responded: “Wait a minute, I’ll get my mother, and you can ask her what she thinks!” Unlike most of China’s people who eat solely the shoots of the bamboo, these villagers eat rice infused with bamboo leaf extract and drink beer infused with the same.
Michael Li, who grew up on a farm nearby the forest, from the time he was a teen had a vision of spreading this power of bamboo to the world. Like all great visionaries, dedicated to a mission, he focused all his time, energy, contacts, and learning on transforming the ancient wisdom of the villagers into a food supplement for the world.
He sought out and worked with highly trained molecular biologists, ethno-botanists, and nutritionists from Zheijiang, Shanghai and U.S.A universities to validate the power of the nutrients in bamboo. Medical anthropologists’ and ethno botanists’ stories of the power of bamboo extract were old and varied: some reported the extract was medicine, some – a fat reducer, some – an aphrodisiac, some – a protectant from flu and colds, some – an ensurer of strong bones and beautiful skin. Other uses also were known: when reduced to charcoal, the bamboo fertilizer increases the size and yield of fruits and vegetables – as well as repelling mosquitoes and termites; when used as fodder for animals – they grew bigger and less fat; when used in toothpaste, the bamboo protected against periodontal (gum) disease.
Michael Li tracked the research validated by the Health Bureau (the counterpart of the U.S. F.D.A.). He joined hands with the International Bamboo Society’s work. In seven years time, partnering still more with food technologists and manufacturing professionals, Mr. Li developed and received 9 patents for the extraction process and a range of products featuring a pure, natural, organic bamboo extract (BamBoom!) as well as its by-product anti-oxidant formula.
Much was learned along the way.
Safety: There are over 1500 species of bamboo. Most of the shoots of those species are safe; at the same time, most of the leaves and culm (stems and trunks) of those 1500 species contain a toxin called cyanide. His first learning was that the species from his forest (Moso Bamboo) was not toxic – it is free from cyanide and safe for all.
The Soil – a key nutritional factor: Mr. Li also learned that Moso bamboo is a plant form that differs from most others – it draws nutrients from the soil up through the culm and into the leaves. The leaves absorb vitamin D (from the sun) and other air/rain-borne nutrients to catalyze the development of nutritional synergies. The leaves then, unlike other plants, both retain the catalyzed nutrients and send them back down through the stems and culm into the soil. Thus, as the soil ages it becomes a rich source of the nutrients. The older and more untouched the forest – the better grade the nutritional content. This factor means that the source forest of the bamboo is ultimately related to the nutritional power!
Ecology & Economy: Considering the soil and nutritional dynamics, the Moso bamboo of southern, mountainous China, fertilizes its own growing medium. It is probably the reason that the Moso grows more than one meter per week. By the time the leaves and stems are gathered from the otherwise undisturbed forest, they replace themselves. No ecological harm is done to the forest and it can continue to thrive and sustain, organically, without chemicals. It is a perfect, sustainable food for the world!
Tree of Life & Nutritional Impacts: The Bamboo is truly this region’s tree of life. It supplies shelter, tools, mats to sleep on, chop sticks to eat with, and all life’s needs – including nutrition. The Chinese believe that a plant form’s physical attributes mirror its nutritional content. Imagine a bamboo tree: 70 feet tall, strong, growing fast, living long, flexible, slender and bending with the winds of a hurricane and never breaking, replicating quickly. . . Its rare combination of synergistic nutrients provide the same power. Consumers are better able to perform, realize health, be free from disease, lose fat, have an active mind, be even-tempered, and live long. Bamboo’s nutritional power and nature may be seen in terms of balance -- helping to: cleanse the intestines, reduce cholesterol, remove toxins such as heavy metals (mercury, cadmium, and led), metabolize sugars to better reduce fat and increase muscle, protect against bacteria and viral infections, and increase energy. When added to high temperature cooking foods, it inhibits the release of acrylamide (a substance that in a known cause of cancer and neural disorders.
Hidden Hunger: Childhood’s Enemy!
The changing diet of developed and developing countries, fluoridation, and the absence of sufficient protein and vegetation have assumed public health importance. According to the World Health Organization, even apparently healthy looking children have sub clinical deficiencies of vitamin A, vitamins B2, B6, folate and vitamin C. Double digit percentages of children evidence deficiency of iron, iodine and zinc. In developed worlds, children’s preference for media-promoted fast foods plus parents’ dual-career-track time priorities compromise their intake of micronutrients from dietary sources. In developing countries micronutrients are less economically available. The full potential of our children for physical growth, sensory acuity, and mental development may be compromised due to this sub clinical deficiency of micronutrients -- commonly referred to as "hidden hunger".
Micro-nutrients are required for the integrity and optimal functioning of immune system. Children with hidden hunger are thus vulnerable to common day-to-day infections. Some micronutrients are required for optimal physical growth and neuro-motor development. World over, children, even more than adults and seniors, need a balanced and nutritious diet. Vitamin pills do not provide recommended daily allowances – as well pill-taking predisposes children to accept drug taking behaviors as the norm. Although hidden hunger is recognized in medicine and academia, the correction in the marketplace has lagged considerably behind. BamBoom!, rich in micro-nutrients, is a cost-effective (and yummy) solution!
Scientific Validation: The PRC’s highest science body, the Health Bureau, has validated the nutritional impact of Moso Bamboo extract. Scientific anti-oxidant conferences have reported it to be an unmatched anti-oxidant. Molecular biologists at the University of Hawaii are currently finding that is has the ability to increase the rate at which the body metabolizes sugars and protect cells from the absorption of free fatty acids – both assists to protecting the body from developing diabetes – but also in converting fat to muscle when accompanied by exercise. Northern Korean scientists attest to its ability to protect against a variety of flu strains. They have also found it to be an agent to reduce cholesterol. Japanese researches have injected the extract into cancerous tumors followed by remarkable reduction of the tumors. Recent research in China has also reported that bamboo extract is an effective inhibitor of acrylamide. When sprayed onto carbohydrates (potatoes, donuts, cookies, etc.) before being cooked at high temperatures, the normal release of this dangerous toxin is inhibited by 20 -90%. This application alone is a major solution for companies producing any foods (snacks, French fires, donuts, etc.) that are produced with fats and high heat. It was also found that the extract increases the shelf life of protein sources and yeast products.
USA research has also found that the same micro-nutrients found in the Bamboo extract reduce the delinquent behaviors of incarcerated youth. (The University of Minnesota, Dept of Criminology, found that the same nutrients found in BamBoom!™ when ingested daily, reduced disruptive behaviors by 38%). A California study validated that impact with incarcerated men (see www.acfnewsource.org/science/crime_diet.html).
The Rockefeller Foundation developed a genetically engineered rice (golden rice), with similar micro-nutrient qualities, for the starving nations of the world (unfortunately most nations rejected the genetically engineered aspect and refused acceptance of the rice).
Commitment to the Environment
GB Companies are intent on enjoying a small environmental foot print – minimizing what we take from this earth. We strive to be environmentally responsible and steward sustainability – a reachable goal in that our bamboo supply is organic, plentiful, and fast growing/yielding. We envision no waste. Extra biomass will be used as animal food and fertilizer for our bamboo forest and farms.
To the extents above we have acquired a long term, committed resource of a bamboo, grown in the south central highland Bamboo Sea in China, where the virgin soil is mineral rich and the age old species, cyanide free.
Golden Basin Companies provides triple bottom line: a For Charity, Triple Bottom Line company. Beyond our philanthropic efforts to feed children living in poverty, we empower women farmers living near our factories, through micro-economic loans for the purchase of their equipment and storage facilities and business/agricultural training, to establish their own independent businesses as our suppliers.
Those who join us will share our mission, values and passion, particularly, for feeding the children of the world with the right kind of food for thriving -- not just surviving. We, the principals of the organization, are in it for the greater good.
GB Structure:
Golden Basin’s family of Companies is three entities strong:
● Golden Basin Tech (China), the manufacturing arm led by founder and product developer, Mr. Michael Li.
● Golden Basin International (Hawaii) the marketing and development arm, led by Linda Harris, Danny Kim, Bee Leng Chua and Les Ikscovitz. The team consists of successful business and social entrepreneurs, biomedical researchers, academics, attorneys, and food industry professionals