Hoodia Gordonii

Hoodia has only recently been by the western world even though it has been used by South African bushman as an appetite suppressant for hundreds of years. The Hoodia plant is not related to cactus plants, although it does look like a cactus. Eating a cactus plant, however, will not cause you to lose weight or suppress your appetite. The Hoodia species which many people have become interested in is Hoodia Gordonii. There are other Hoodia species, some of which are grown in gardens, but the Gordonii is the one targeted as a weight loss method, and therefore of interest to drug companies and dieters everywhere.

Hoodia has begun to appear on the market as a nutritional supplement which contain small amounts of Hoodia. This is exciting for people who struggle with their weight as there have been a few studies done which have shown amazing results for users of Hoodia. In a set of clinical trials, obese people were given Hoodia, and instructed not to do anything but eat, read, or watch TV. They still lowered their calorie intake and lost weight. This has caused a great deal of excitement and prompted a number of companies to produce nutritional supplements which they say contain Hoodia.

Hoodia combined with a proper diet, exercise, and otherwise healthy lifestyle may help users see faster weight loss without feeling hungry. However, Hoodia itself is very expensive, because it is only found in one area of the world and, as a protected plant, it is difficult to import.

African Hoodia Cactus

Hoodia has been used by the San people of Southern Africa as an appetite suppressant and cure for indigestion for ages. The San were the original inhabitants of Southern Africa. They were hunters and gatherers, and while they did not have a system of writing, they developed a complex language that makes use of many click sounds. The San lived a nomadic lifestyle, with small hunting bands wandering the land in search of food. They used poison arrows to hunt game, and ostrich eggs as a means of carrying water. Their knowledge of local plants and animals, and of uses for them, remains unsurpassed to this day. Caves and rock shelters are used as dwellings. They possess only what they can carry. The San have a rich folklore and are known for the history of cave drawing.

What is the Hoodia Diet?

Hoodia acts as an appetite suppressant. However, unlike other appetite suppressants, it is not a stimulant. It actually seems to have no other effect than to suppress appetite. It does this because it contains a particular molecule which has a surprising effect on your brain. Within your brain, you have several distinct parts. Each part of your brain has a job. The hypothalamus of your brain is the part which, as one of its jobs, sends signals telling you whether you are hungry or not, and in which there are nerve cell receptors that sense your blood sugar level. When you eat, your blood sugar level rises, signals are sent to the hypothalamus, the nerve cells fire, and your hypothalamus tells the rest of your brain and body that you are full. This is why it is best to eat slowly - if you eat too fast, your body does not send the signals in time, and you over eat. Slow eating is also a good way to ensure you are only getting the amount of food you actually need to be full.

Hoodia seems to work best in its natural form, but drug companies are trying to make synthetic versions, and have not yet been successful. Pills are available which contain some natural Hoodia, but you should check where the Hoodia is coming from. It should be South African Hoodia. The pills contain a lower dosage of the natural ingredient which suppresses appetite than eating straight Hoodia contains, but will still work to suppress appetite, just for a shorter period of time. In some people, appetite is not suppressed as well because while the brain may think you are full, the body will still need calories. As a weight loss method, Hoodia works best when combined with a proper diet and some light exercise. The exercise will help your body use up even more calories, causing it to need to burn fat into sugars in order to give your body the necessary energy.

Some people have had success when combining Hoodia with the Atkins diet. It seems that combining small portions of healthy food with an appetite suppressant may be the most effective use of Hoodia. Other people, however, have reported little or no effect from the Hoodia supplement they were taking, and that they didn't lose any weight at all.

Hoodia Cactus Plant Diet

You can incorporate Hoodia into a healthy diet in order to help you to suppress your appetite. Many people have found success with Hoodia, as an appetite suppressant and thus as a weight loss method. However, many people have not had very good results, as well. It seems that Hoodia does not suppress appetite when you are working hard (physically), and many pills are too weak to work for the full day they are said to work for. If you are using a pill form, check the other ingredients in the pill. Do not use a pill that contains epinephrine, which is a dangerous stimulant.

You may be best off using Hoodia at certain times of the day when you know you start craving unnecessary food, such as before bed. Most of the diet pills recommend that you eat a healthy diet, including a low amount of carbohydrates or fat and a decent amount of protein and dairy, as well as 6-8 glasses of water per day, and possible more depending on your size. Be careful not to mix Hoodia with other nutritional supplements which are appetite suppressants, as you may end up forgetting to eat. Also, even with Hoodia helping you to eat less, you should still perform some exercise. A half hour walk every day or every second day is an easy way to get some light exercise and keep you metabolism boosted.

In any diet, you should be eating at least 2000 calories per day. Do not forget that you need to eat in order to stay healthy, and while losing weight can improve some people's health, losing weight too fast can be detrimental to your health. Losing 1 pound per day may be too much for some people, and you should talk to your doctor or nutritionist to determine the best way for you to lose weight and a safe rate at which to lose weight.

Is Hoodia a Scam?

The plant Hoodia gordonii has developed a reputation as a miracle appetite suppressant. This reputation has come from various media reports, including ones on CBS's 60 Minutes and the BBC. Many nutritional supplements claiming to contain Hoodia have flooded the market, being pitched on late-night commercials and on the internet. So the question is, does Hoodia deserve this reputation, or is it just a big scam?

Consumer Reports concluded that there was little or no evidence that Hoodia was safe or effective. They also noted that the nutritional supplement industry is virtually unregulated, leading to unsupported claims by such products as TrimSpa, which uses Anna Nicole Smith as a celebrity endorser. It has been found in some tests that many products claiming to contain Hoodia in fact contain so little of the active ingredient, P57, that they are actually completely ineffective. TrimSpa Hoodia pills used to contain Ephedra until this substance was banned in the US.

Experts say that almost all of the evidence for Hoodia is anecdotal, and that little research has been done to confirm the assumption it has no side effects. There is also some evidence that consumers who are buying the supplements over the Internet or at health-food stores may not be getting what they're paying for. Many supplements seem to contain little or none of the active ingredient in Hoodia. Some people have questioned whether or not products boasting of Hoodia actually contain Hoodia or its active ingredient. Some critics have pointed out that there hasn't been enough Hoodia plant cultivated or imported to supply all of the pills that supposedly contain it.

Many people have had mixed success with Hoodia pills. For some, there are no discernible effects if they also drink caffeinated beverages or work out hard. If you go onto a dieting message board, you can compare different people's experiences with different brands of Hoodia pills, and see which pills are just scams. Some pills are so weak or contain altered versions of Hoodia or might even contain no Hoodia at all. If you decide to purchase a batch of pills, be sure to choose ones that you have heard some people had success with, as well as, for your wallet's sake, has a money back guarantee.

Is Hoodia Effective?

Hoodia dietary supplements abound on the internet, promising safe, side effect free appetite suppression. Each has its own website where they extol the virtues of Hoodia gordonii in general and their product in particular. Here are some of the common techniques employed by these websites:

Most of the websites start by telling a simplified history of Hoodia and the San Bushmen who have used it for centuries. They often forget to mention that the San eat fresh Hoodia to suppress their appetite. They do stress the primitive and almost mythical powers of the San, however, as well as the great benefits they supposedly derive from eating Hoodia.

The websites will then tell you how their product is far superior to other products, as they are the only trustworthy source of real Hoodia. A nice touch is to explain how one can be scammed from unscrupulous Hoodia companies. They may then explain that only their product is grown by REAL SOUTH AFRICAN FARMERS (apparently it is important to stress this by using all capital letters).

Another common gimmick is the use of false comparison websites that purport to compare without bias a selection of Hoodia products. Check to see if you have ever heard of the organization doing the comparison, as some supplement distributors have been known to create fake organizations in order to direct business to their products.

Many websites seem to offer expert testimony on the effectiveness of their product. However, when examined carefully, either the experts are unnamed or they are quoted as to the effectiveness of Hoodia in general, and not the product being sold on the website.

Careful reading of one website found that the makers of that supplement recommended combining a reduced calorie diet and regular walking of several miles with Hoodia. Apparently their product works best if you also eat properly and exercise!

Most websites do offer a disclaimer, often in a very small font at the bottom of the page. A typical disclaimer will say things like Please Note: The statements contained on this site have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, mitigate or cure any disease. Your actual results may vary. Please check with your physician before taking any diet pills or starting any weight loss program. And finally, it is probably a good idea to be wary of outlandish claims, such as one website that claimed their Hoodia product would give you superhuman-like strength to make love all night long!

Hoodia Gordonii Side Effects

While Bushmen in South Africa have been using the Hoodia plant as an appetite suppressant for thousands of years, they have not been eating it every day. They use it sparingly, when they are going on long trips, etc. So scientists are unaware as of yet what the effects are of using Hoodia every day. While there are many natural medicines and herbs on the markets, most of the other herbs have been known by the rest of the world for longer, and tried by more people, before reaching the point where they are sold as nutritional supplements.

Right now it would appear that there are no side effects to eating Hoodia, but daily use may show differently. Side effects which have appeared through use of Ephedra and epinephrine also took time to appear, although Hoodia would have different side effects if it has any, because Hoodia is not a stimulant. However, many Hoodia pills have not been approved by the FDA as a weight loss or diet pill, and thus have not undergone testing as a safe way to lose weight. Nor does anyone know what the effect might be on pregnant women who take Hoodia before they know they are pregnant.

If you eat less than a certain amount of calories per day (it varies in people depending on their weight and metabolism), your body begins to go into starvation mode. Your metabolism will slow down, (which can have a long term effect on your metabolism) and if you don't eat enough in the following days, your body will begin to protect its fat storage (your brain, for example, is made out of fat cells), and instead break down your muscle proteins into the simple sugars it needs to run your heart and lungs. Since muscles use up a lot of energy, this will also lower your metabolism, although some people may think that they have lost fat, because they will lose weight from the breakdown of the muscle. Muscle actually weighs more than fat, so this can be a bit deceptive. So the people who think they can take a miracle plant cure and thus not have to eat actually can end up gaining weight in the long run.