Hoodia - Weight Loss Scam?

If you own a computer, you probably get a few spam e-mails everyday trying to sell you something to do with Hoodia, the latest and greatest weight loss wonder drug.

Hoodia appeals to our desire to lose weight with no diet or exercise.

You eat it once a day, and it supresses your appetie. You are not hungry, so you drastically reduce the food you eat, and you lose weight effortlessly, with no hunger! Even better, Hoodia has no known side effects. What's not to like?

Here's what you need to know:

Hoodia suppresses the appetite, because it contains a molecule that fools your brain into believing you are full. Best of all: it has no known side effects. Hoodia comes from a cactus-like plant, called the Hoodia, that grows deep inside the African Kalahari desert.

It thrives in extremely high temperatures, and takes years to mature. (The most common variety is the Hoodia gordonii; it is from the plant family Apocynaeae, a stem succulent, referred to as "Cactiform" because of their remarkable similarity to the unrelated Cactus family). The San Bushmen of the Kalahari, one of the world's oldest and most primitive tribes, have been eating the Hoodia for thousands of years, to stave off hunger during long hunting trips.

Hoodia has been used by the indigenous populations of Southern Africa to stave off hunger, and to treat indigestion and small infections. The Western world discovered it a few years ago, and since then mega drug companies like Pfizer and Phytopharm have been attempting to synthesize extracts to create a pill to be used as an appetite suppressant, to aid in weight loss. Pfizer had difficulty synthesizing P57, the and is believed to have stopped working on the project.

That's the good news; here's the bad news:

As Iof now there are no scientific tests that have been conducted on humans to prove the safety or effectiveness of Hoodia gordonii in pill form as a nutritional supplement.

In other words, if you can go to Africa and eat the plant directly, Hoodia will suppress your appetite. However, there is no scientific evidence, yet, to prove that Hoodia in a synthesized form, or as an extract, will suppress your appetite.

Of course scientific trials take time, so it is possible that some pills on the market today will suppress your appetite. Ultimately there is only one way to find out, and that is to try them for yourself. Further information will be posted on the Hoodia blog category as it becomes available.