Hoodia Gordonii is a very interesting ancient plant, that has been used for thousands of years but just beginning to catch on to the Western world Hoodia for weight loss. The huge media coverage has led to a flourishing industry in Hoodia Gordonii based products, whether they be “Pure Hoodia” or Hoodia as just one of the ingredients of an already existing weight loss supplement product.
But before you rush off to buy a Hoodia supplement you should understand a bit about what studies have shown so far with respect to Hoodia Gordonii as weight loss solution. Knowing these facts will help you navigate through Hoodia products and buy the best product to avoid the fake ones.
Main Facts About Hoodia:
1) There are a variety of Hoodia plants. Only the Hoodia Gordonii class contains an active element that helps suppress your appetite. As the demand for Hoodia Gordonii is far surpassing the supply, some Hoodia sellers are using unreliable but advertising their products as Pure Hoodia even though it might have been made from a different Hoodia plant than the Hoodia Gordonii.
2) Of course many companies claim their Hoodia extract can slim you down, the only thing that has been proven so far is the “P57 molecule“. P57 is the active ingredient in Hoodia Gordonii that was isolated. It was licensed to a company named Phytopharm that conducted a study using it. It was found that morbidly obese people using P57 ate on average of 1k less calories per day. Obviously this is the reason why so many people think Hoodia for weight loss management is the new rescuer for the obese and people looking to slim down.
3) What is most important to keep in mind is that as long as the Hoodia products are extracted from real Hoodia Gordonii, it should also contain some of the active ingredient in it. Study shows that only the core of the plant has the active ingredient.
So can Hoodia slim you down? And the answer is a big Yes! But only if you buy a real product and avoid the false ones. The image on the right shows the original Hoodia bottle.
By Tom Mangold - BBC Two’s Correspondent
Imagine this: an organic pill that kills the appetite and attacks obesity. It has no known side-effects, and contains a molecule that fools your brain into believing you are full.
Deep inside the African Kalahari desert, grows an ugly cactus called the Hoodia. It thrives in extremely high temperatures, and takes years to mature. The San Bushmen of the Kalahari, one of the world’s oldest and most primitive tribes, had been eating the Hoodia for thousands of years, to stave off hunger during long hunting trips.
When South African scientists were routinely testing it, they discovered the plant contained a previously unknown molecule, which has since been christened P 57. The license was sold to a Cambridgeshire bio-pharmaceutical company, Phytopharm, who in turn sold the development and marketing rights to the giant Pfizer Corporation.
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A lot of research and development programs were undertaken before launching the finished Hoodia Gordonii weight–loss miracle product in the market. It has been established that Hoodia Gordonii can safely reduce your appetite so you can restrict your caloric intake up to 1 (!) kilo calories per day.
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(CBS) Each year, people spend more than $40 billion on products designed to help them slim down. None of them seem to be working very well.
Now along comes hoodia. Never heard of it? Soon it’ll be tripping off your tongue, because hoodia is a natural substance that literally takes your appetite away.
It’s very different from diet stimulants like Ephedra and Phenfen that are now banned because of dangerous side effects. Hoodia doesn’t stimulate at all. Scientists say it fools the brain by making you think you’re full, even if you’ve eaten just a morsel.
Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports:
“Hoodia, a plant that tricks the brain by making the stomach feel full, has been in the diet of South Africa’s Bushmen for thousands of years.”
Because the only place in the world where hoodia grows wild is in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa.
Nigel Crawhall, a linguist and interpreter, hired an experienced tracker named Toppies Kruiper, a local aboriginal Bushman, to help find it. The Bushmen were featured in the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy.”
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Hoodia is a genus of succulent plants in the family Apocynaceae that is widely used traditionally by the San people of southern Africa as an appetite suppressant, thirst quencher and as a cure for severe abdominal cramps, haemorrhoids, tuberculosis, indigestion, hypertension and diabetes.
Various uses have been recorded among Anikhwe (Northern Botswana), Hai om (northern Namibia ), Khomani (north western South Africa ), and the Xun and Khwe (originally from Angola ) communities.
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