Hoodia Gordonii: Scam Or Weight Loss Phenomenon?

You’ve probably seen it around in the supermarkets, on TV, or just heard about it from a friend. Hoodia gordonii is supposed to be one of the next big products in the weight loss industry, or is it? Hoodia claims to be able to curb your appetite by being able to mimic the effects that food has on your hypothalamus – therefore, making you feel full. Hoodia has a special compound in it known as P57 that mimics the effects of glucose on the nerve cells in the brain therefore reducing appetite.

Hoodia gordonii is a plant resembling a cactus found in the Kalahari Desert in Africa. The San Bushmen living within this desert have used Hoodia for thousands of years in order to prevent themselves from becoming hungry during long hunting expeditions. It has been anecdotally reported that they can curb their appetites for about a period of 24 hours by chewing on hoodia.

In sometime around the middle of 2004, the media began to delve into hoodia. It mostly started when a correspondent to CBS known as Lesley Stahl actually went to the Kalahari Desert to find an authentic version of this special plant. According to the story on the CBS website, Stahl reports that “She had no after effects – no funny taste in her mouth, no queasy stomach, and no racing heart. She also wasn't hungry all day, even when she would normally have a pang around mealtime. And, she also had no desire to eat or drink the entire day. ‘I'd have to say it did work,’ says Stahl.”

In a paper titled “Increased ATP content/production in the hypothalamus may be a signal for energy-sensing of satiety: studies of the anorectic mechanism of a plant steroidal glycoside,” the authors of the paper found that in the animals tested, injected P57 (the active compound in hoodia) reduced subsequent 24 hour food intake by about 40-60%.

In addition to this, at Phytopharm’s website (Phytopharm is the original developer of the hoodia product) Phytopharm states, “In 2001 Phytopharm completed a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study in overweight, but otherwise healthy volunteers using an extract of Hoodia gordonii. The large doses of extract caused a statistically significant reduction in the average daily calorie intake. In addition, a statistically significant reduction in body fat content was also observed compared to the placebo group after two weeks.”

So, it’s quite clear that from the fact that the San Bushman have been using Hoodia for centuries, an anecdotal report from Lesley Stahl that says that hoodia curbed her appetite, a scientifically controlled study done with P57 in animals, and a statement form Phytopharm that hoodia really does work to reduce appetite.

However, another problem arises: The authenticity of hoodia. Since hoodia is very rare – the only known place to get the correct species of the plant is in the Kalahari Desert - and is in high demand, sellers are coming up with sneaky ways to trick customers into thinking that they actually get hoodia. The problem is it is quite difficult to tell who is selling genuine hoodia. Although a CITES certificate is required for a seller to sell hoodia, this does not mean that their hoodia is authentic. Mike Adams at newstarget.com believes that up to 80% of hoodia sold is counterfeit. In addition to that, he notes that many sellers can photoshop a competitor’s CITES, simply counterfeit a CITES, or send in a real batch of hoodia in order to get an authentic CITES and then sell customers fake hoodia. You can get more information about the authenticity of hoodia by going to newstarget.com and doing a search for “hoodia”.

Well now, it’s fine and dandy that hoodia, assuming you find an authentic product, can reduce your appetite, but is that really that helpful? Among the people informed about weight loss (we actually call it “fat loss,” not “weight loss”), it’s known that simply starving yourself won’t accomplish your goals, which is what hoodia would do. You must increase your calorie expenditure by doing some sort of aerobics in addition to increasing your muscle mass by incorporating weight lifting to actually achieve your goals and keep them. Hoodia may be slightly useful in causing an additional calorie deficit since about half of the calorie deficit you obtain should be through decreased calories and the other half through increased physical activity. Nonetheless, you can easily control your appetite by drinking water or eating foods with a high satiety and a low amount of calories. A stomach full of Jello has less calories than a stomach full of peanut butter. You can find more information on this at http://www.weight-loss-resources.com.

Hopefully this article has provided some insight for you into the confusing realm of hoodia. You can find even more in depth information about this topic at http://www.hoodia-gordonii-facts.com.