digestYakult Newsletter Spring/Summer 2016

Cast your mind back for a moment to 1996 - what were you doing? It was the year that saw the launch of the first successful Mars Rover, David Beckham’s debut appearance for England and a gold medal victory for the British rowing team at the Summer Olympics – whilst on supermarket shelves across the country, a new brand of bacteria started to make an appearance, as Yakult arrived in the UK!

Our little bottle had already been on quite a journey by that point: following its introduction to Japan by the scientist Dr Shirota in 1935, it had travelled to Brazil, Thailand, Australia and the Netherlands, before reaching the UK in March 1996.

At the time, of course, the concept of consuming a product based around bacteria was an unfamiliar

one to most people in the UK, and so the new team of Yakult employees enthusiastically set about familiarising the nation with the science behind the product. Many of those initial employees remain with Yakult to this day, and have watched with pride over the last two decades as our bottle has grown in popularity (if not in size!), to the point where it now forms a little part of life for thousands of people across the UK every day.

But whilst many things have changed, Yakult’s core product has remained very much the same: the same unique strain of bacteria, in the same iconic bottles. And it’s those little bottles that have formed a big part of our celebrations so far in the UK, with our competition challenging the nation to find new and inventive uses for

their Yakult ‘empties’. We have received hundreds of entries from creative Yakult drinkers who have transformed their empty containers into skittles, vases, dolls – and even fairy lights!

The competition was won by Colette Mellor, who created the colourful wind chime below, featuring a range of Yakult characters – find out more and take a look at other entrants’ creations on the dedicated competition page, www.yakult.co.uk/everyday. And if you’re feeling inspired, why not create your own ‘mini masterpiece’?

Simply tell us how you have transformed your empty bottles, for the chance to win a Yakult sports bag full of craft materials. Send your entries to info@yakult.co.uk or write to the address on the back page.

We’ll be celebrating all year, so look out for more exclusive anniversary events and activities coming soon – keep an eye on the website at www.yakult.co.uk for details. And of course if you have any stories to share about Yakult, whether in recent years or as far back as 1996, we’d love to hear them – please do get in touch using the details on the

back page. Thank you for being a part of our journey in the UK so far – we hope you’ll join us in raising a bottle of Yakult to the next 20 years!

Contents02: Sports round-up 03: The Yakult Gallery 04: Upcoming events 05: Science update 06: Charity overviews

Yakult UK supports a range of digestive health charities, and in each issue we invite them to tell us about their work.

Celebrating 20 years

of Yakult in the UK!

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Yakult has a long-standing association with a range of sports, perhaps most notably baseball, with the company having supported the Tokyo Yakult Swallows team for the past 46 years! More recent partnerships include the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), with Yakult having been an official sponsor of the World Swimming Championships since 2005. The next FINA World Championships are set to take place in Canada in December, and will be televised worldwide – so keep an eye out for our giant Yakult bottle spectating from the poolside!Closer to home in Europe, the Yakult product is supplied regularly to a number of professional athletes: from ski jumpers in Germany, to rowers in Austria, to footballers in the Netherlands. Last year, more than 220,000 bottles were delivered to athletes in the Netherlands alone!In the UK, we supply Yakult to a range of sports clubs, as well as to individual athletes – such as triathlete Nikki Bartlett. Supported by Yakult since 2013, Nikki last year made the transition from amateur to professional triathlete. Chatting about plans for this year, she told us: “My aims and goals for 2016 are to qualify for the World IRONMAN 70.3 Championships in Australia, and end my season on a full IRONMAN.” You can follow Nikki on her journey at www.nikkibartlett.com.And as you can see, our giant bottle has been off on a journey of its own – up to the north of the country, to meet the players from Warrington Wolves Rugby League Club. We will be providing the team with a regular supply of Yakult Light for the forthcoming

season, as part of the nutritional strategy for the players and performance staff. We spoke to the team’s nutritionist James Morehen, who told us: “Performance nutrition is now an integral part of the professional athletes’ daily routine and here at Warrington Wolves rugby, the players take this on board. Rugby League not only places stress on the mind and muscles, but huge contacts and physical collisions can really take their toll. Yakult Light is now a regular part of our morning supplement regime and the boys are really enjoying it!”

And in an exciting new development, we are delighted to announce that we will be supporting British, European and Commonwealth swimming champion Jazz Carlin throughout 2016!

British swimming sensation Jazz won double Gold at the European Championships in 2015 and made history at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, winning Wales’ first Gold medal in the pool for 40 years.With a very busy year ahead, Jazz told us: “I was really pleased with my performance last season. Becoming British and double European Champion was fantastic, but it was even more amazing to pick up another World Championship medal. This is a really important year for me and I’m focussed on building on last year’s success, starting with the British Championships in April.” We would like to wish all of our sporting teams and individuals the best of luck for 2016!

Team Yakult! An update on support

for sports around the globe When Yakult arrived in the UK in 1996, the company was set up, as all Yakult companies before it had been, in accordance with Dr Shirota’s founding philosophy. Keen to help improve the quality of life within his community, Dr Shirota pledged that Yakult should offer support to social and cultural initiatives in his local area – and beyond. And so it is that Yakult companies around the world today support a wide range of academic, charitable and sporting activities. In this issue, we focus on sports, taking a look at Yakult’s involvement with a range of teams and individuals around the world.

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The Yakult Gallery

This issue, our cup (well – our little bottle!) really is overflowing with readers’ creative talents! In addition to our anniversary competition, we have heard from two very inventive readers who have found ingenious ways to give their empty bottles a whole new life!

What could YOU make?What could YOU make? If you have an artistic flair, don’t ‘bottle up’ your talent! Grab a pack of Yakult today and start creating; send your photos to us and the best will win an exclusive Yakult goody bag. See back page for contact details.

We were thrilled when these super bottles flew into our post box! Created by Marco Moreira from Brazil, these superheroes are just the latest in a series of intricate characters based around Yakult bottles. Marco has also created

Flintstones, Minions and Star Wars characters, to name but a few! We asked Marco how he went about designing these tiny works of art, and he told us: “I joined two things that I really like: Yakult and art! Basically what I do is think of groups of known

characters and search for image references that are the basis for the creation of the bottles. I make the painting with a special pen all around the Yakult bottles, even at the back of the characters”.

Scouting out a new use: bottle as woggle!In the last issue of Yakult Digest, we shared the tale of Yakult’s trip to the 23rd World Scout Jamboree in Yamaguchi, Japan. And so we were delighted to hear from two people that had attended that same

event: Gary Naisbett-Jones, the leader of Devon Scouts and Southwest Guides, and Lucy Kavanagh, a member of Bealtine Scout Patrol from Dublin. Gary told us: “I am a Scout leader that was lucky enough to attend the World Scout Jamboree in Japan last summer with my Unit. Every day was certainly a Yakult day for us: it became a Unit ritual every morning to have our Yakult with our breakfast!”Meanwhile, Lucy made our day by sending in this picture of what

is, without doubt, one of the most inventive uses for a Yakult bottle we’ve ever seen: a woggle for a Scout neckerchief! Lucy had been inspired to reinvent her Yakult bottle during her trip to the Jamboree – she is pictured

(far left) with fellow

members of her troop, befriending the Japanese version of our giant Yakult bottle!

As a small token of appreciation, we sent a range of Yakult goodies out to both Gary and Lucy: pictured here are the exclusive ‘Yakult hoodies’ created by Lucy’s group using their Yakult patches. It seems there really is no end to these Scouts’ creative talents!

Superior bacteria!

Over the past 20 years in the UK, we have been out and about to events all over the country, sharing our knowledge – and of course our bottles of Yakult! In fact, since 1996, we have given away over six million bottles of Yakult at events around the UK and Ireland.

And we’re set to do it all over again this year! We’ll be heading out with our giant Yakult bottle (and thousands of smaller ones!) to a wide range of events – from Grand Designs Live and The Ideal Home Show Scotland in May, to the BBC Good Food Show in June and the 50+ Show in July. Take a look at the News & Events page of www.yakult.co.uk – and if there is an event near you, please come and see us for your free bottle and a chat about all things Yakult!

As well as getting out and about ourselves, we also lend our support to events coordinated by charities and voluntary organisations across the UK. And once again

this year, we are delighted to announce that we will be supporting GrandFest, Royal Voluntary Service’s ‘mini-festival’ designed to celebrate the skills and talents of older people.

Now in its second year, GrandFest will play host to a range of masterclasses, all held by the ‘GrandMakers’ – each of whom is over 70 years of age. Classes will be available in wood-turning, bread-making, crochet and preserve-making, to name but a few – and all will be free for the public to enjoy. And of course, we will be present again, so please come along and say hello! GrandFest 2016 will take place on Sunday 5th June in London; for more details and to book your place on a free masterclass, please visit https://grandfest.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk.

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This year, we are also privileged to be part of a unique and ground-breaking event: the Noh Reimagined festival. Dating from 14th-century Japan, Noh is a total art form, combining music, dance and drama. Noh is performed only very rarely in the UK, and it is believed that the forthcoming festival will be the first of its type to be staged in this country. The festival, taking place on 13th and 14th May at London’s Kings Place, will feature a number of Japan’s finest Noh artists, bringing this classical art form to life with a contemporary twist.

We were fortunate enough to be granted an exclusive audience with two of the key performers, flautist Yukihiro Isso and lead actor Yoshimasa Kanze. Yukihiro Isso told us: “Noh was the first music I ever connected with. It is a traditional, beautiful and theatrical art form. As a Noh musician, I love sharing this with the

Out and about: where to find

us over the next few months!

audience; when I am performing, it feels like a very special experience.”

Yoshimasa Kanze agreed: “The power of the expression which comes out from the repeated performing

‘form’ means a great deal to me. I was born into a Noh family in Tokyo, and made my first appearance on the stage at the age of two and a half. My experience of Noh has changed and evolved over my

lifetime. Now, I feel a sense of responsibility to take the traditional entertainment and

particularity of the Noh from my predecessors, and use these to inform the next generation.”

Noh Reimagined, curated by Akiko Yanagisawa of the mu:arts

collective, will take place on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th May 2016 at Kings Place in London; for more details, see http://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on.

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BULLETIN

Yakult has supported a wide range of academic and professional awards nationwide over the past 20 years. We are proud to have supported the General Practice Awards last year, sponsoring the category for the Clinical Team of the Year in Nutrition. Held annually, the General Practice Awards serve to highlight the hard work and achievements of GP surgery staff across the UK. The awards ceremony, which was held at Mayfair’s Lancaster Hotel, brought together over 600 front line nurses, GPs, practice managers and commissioners for what

was a glamorous and inspirational evening. We would like to share a story from one of the finalists with you:

Dr Gabriel Hendow became the first GP in the UK to set up a food-based clinic in his surgery, with the aim of educating patients on nutrition and healthy eating. The ‘Food Clinic’, based at Bransholme Health Centre in Hull, offers a free fortnightly service, including cookery lessons showing patients how to prepare healthy meals on a budget and an educational forum for patients to learn about healthy eating. The Food Clinic has been a great

success since opening in January of last year, with patients experiencing a range of physiological and psychological benefits, including

The latest big headlines from a microscopic world...

Dr Linda Thomas

ªBacteria

weight loss, improved blood pressure and reduced cholesterol levels.

We asked Dr Hendow what inspired him to set up the unique clinic:

“I knew that, in order to make a difference, I had to motivate my patients – so I created the Food Clinic. The clinic was so successful that I decided to introduce the exercise element into my management, creating the ‘ExcerDance Clinic’. Both services are free of charge for my patients, and both are very well attended. My vision is to

see these clinics as an essential part of a holistic approach to health management; I am certain they will have an impact on the overall healthy wellbeing of our patients.”

Yakult would like to congratulate all of the winners and finalists at the General Practice Awards. For information on the Yakult’s scientific awards, events and publications, healthcare professionals can visit the dedicated website at www.yakult.co.uk/hcp.

In our regular feature, we hand over to the Yakult UK science team, led by Dr Linda Thomas. This issue,

science officer Jessica Sheppard shares details of Yakult’s support for a nationwide awards scheme:

1Reference: Moeller AH, Foerster S, Wilson ML, Pusey AE, Hahn BH, Ochman H. Social behavior shapes the chimpanzee pan-microbiome. Science Advances. 2016 Jan 1;2(1):e1500997.

A recent study found that chimpanzees had 25% more bacterial species in their guts when they spent more time together in the rainy season, than when they spent more time apart in the dry season, indicating that social interaction may be able to preserve the gut’s microbial diversity. So, could spending more time with our friends have positive effects on our health?

And in other news...

Social behaviour shapes the chimpanzee pan-microbiome.

1

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I have been involved with Bowel & Cancer Research for nearly seven years, and the reason is simple: eight years ago I was diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer – nearly as bad as it can get. I am one of the lucky ones and today, the only sign remaining of my experience of the disease is a small scar on my abdomen. That I am here today is because of research and the generous people who have funded it in the past. I am – not surprisingly – a passionate advocate for more research and for raising money to fund it.

Why Bowel & Cancer Research? The charity has a clear vision – that no-one should die of bowel cancer, have to live with chronic bowel disease or face life with a permanent stoma. Through research we want to deliver real solutions for people diagnosed with digestive diseases. I love the fact that the focus is on the whole digestive system – increasingly it is realised just how the whole “machine” works together, from mouth to anus. I am also

impressed that the funding is focussed very much on the best new ideas and to nurture our future experts by supporting young PhDs.Important to me too, is the fact that patients, and those living with digestive conditions, are seen as central to good research. The charity has worked hard to develop effective ways for people to be involved with ground-breaking projects in partnership with academics.

In 2012 this commitment to excellent research saw the charity fund the first National Bowel Research Centre. This brings together all partners – scientists, clinicians, patients and companies – to deliver real progress. And it’s happening now. Major UK-wide clinical trials and world-class laboratory based work has all been made possible because of the centre.

If you’d like to find out more about the research, how you can be involved in it, or make a donation visit www.bowelcancerresearch.org.

Registered charity number 1119105

1Reference: Moeller AH, Foerster S, Wilson ML, Pusey AE, Hahn BH, Ochman H. Social behavior shapes the chimpanzee pan-microbiome. Science Advances. 2016 Jan 1;2(1):e1500997.

Terms and conditions (for Yakult bottle decorating competition as detailed on pages 1 and 3): 1. Competition open to all UK and Ireland residents excluding employees

of Yakult UK Ltd and Yakult Ireland; 2. No purchase necessary; 3. There is one main prize, consisting of a Yakult sports bag filled with craft materials to the value of

£100, and five prizes of a Yakult sports bag; 4. The closing date for receipt of entries is 28th October 2016; 5. Entries will be judged by the editor of Yakult Digest and

the winners will be notified by 31st October 2016; 6. The promoter reserves the right to withdraw this offer at any time and without notice; 7. Prizes are non-transferable,

non-negotiable and no cash alternatives will be offered; 8. The promoter’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into; 9. By entering, entrants agree that

they are willing to participate in publicity and that Yakult UK Limited shall be entitled to use entrants’ names, competition entry photographs, ages and

regional locations (though not full addresses) in publicity throughout all media, in perpetuity and free of charge; 10. By entering, competitors agree to be

bound by these terms and conditions. Promoter: Yakult UK Ltd., Anteros, Odyssey Business Park, West End Road, South Ruislip, Middlesex HA4 6QQ.

Michael Sobell Hospice is the specialist palliative (end of life) care unit at Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, Middlesex and will celebrate its 40th anniversary of “Sharing the Caring” in 2017. It is the only specialist palliative care in-patient unit in the London Borough of Hillingdon. All care is provided free of charge. The hospice costs over £6,000 per day to run, of which £2,500 per day has to be raised from fundraising and charitable sources.

Registered charity number 1079638

Please can you help? For further details, visit our websitewww.michaelsobellhospice.co.uk or contact Geraint Hughes on020 3826 2354, or gvhughes@michaelsobellhospice.co.uk

We also share an appeal from the Michael Sobell Hospice in Middlesex:

Yakult UK supports a range of digestive health charities, and in each issue we invite them to tell us about their work.

This issue, we hear from Paul Reynolds, the

Chairman of Trustees for Bowel & Cancer Research:

Paul combined his love of cycling with his commitment to fundraising and cycled both Cape Argus (S. Africa) and Ride London to Surrey to raise money for Bowel & Cancer Research in 2015.