Dear Reader,
Today, I have something for you about a cactus from southern Africa that has made news as Nature’s “diet herb.”
If you’ve been watching the news, you’ve probably heard of it. It’s been featured on 60 Minutes, the Today show, ABC and Oprah. Many claim it works wonders. Others say it doesn’t work at all. I’m talking about the Hoodia.
Hoodia comes from the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. For an estimated 20,000 years, the native Bushmen have used Hoodia to kill their appetite on long hunting trips.
Recently, researchers discovered that the plant has a molecule previously unknown to science. They named it P57. This molecule sends a message to your brain telling you that you’re full. The absence of hunger – usually lasting the whole day – means that you can more easily avoid the foods that make you fat. For some, the weight loss is dramatic.
Hoodia was featured on the CBS news program 60 Minutes. Lesley Stahl and a team of reporters went to remote locations in Africa to see if it really worked. After trying Hoodia, Stahl claimed she had no desire to eat or drink the entire day. Her verdict? “I’d have to say it did work.”1 Stahl went on to report that unlike most diet pills, Hoodia produced no after effects – no upset stomach, no funny taste, no heart palpitations.
Another team from the BBC traveled to the Kalahari for a first hand look. Reporter Tom Mangold tells his story:2
“At about 6pm, I ate about half a banana size (piece of hoodia) – and later so did my cameraman. Soon after, we began the four-hour drive back to Capetown. The plant is said to have a feel-good almost aphrodisiac quality, and I have to say, we felt good. But more significantly, we did not even think about food. Our brains really were telling us we were full. It was a magnificent deception. Dinner time came and went. We reached our hotel at about midnight and went to bed without food. And the next day, neither of us wanted nor ate breakfast. I ate lunch but without appetite and very little pleasure. Partial then full appetite returned slowly after 24 hours.”
Hoodia seems to be a dieter’s dream. Yet, it’s unlikely that you will be able to benefit from a Hoodia supplement anytime soon. Drug giant Pfizer was involved in the initial research. They withdrew after deciding that it would not be practical to create a synthetic version of P57.
But the only clinical, human trial of Hoodia was promising. In 2001, researchers studied overweight, but otherwise healthy people. One group received a P57 extract from Hoodia and a second group received a placebo.
When comparing to the placebo group, the P57 group had:
• a statistically significant reduction in body fat
• a statistically significant reduction in caloric intake
• no adverse side effects
On average, the P57 group ate about 1,000 calories a day less than those in the control group did. To put that in perspective, the average American man consumes about 2,600 calories a day; a woman about 1,900.
Currently, it’s very difficult to get Hoodia out of South Africa. Smuggling and illegal trade is rampant. As a result, dozens of bogus Internet companies have sprung up, claiming to have “the real thing.”
But when their products are tested, they usually turn up with no Hoodia at all – or less than a tenth of a percent of the active ingredient. By some estimates, up to 80 percent of Hoodia products are fraudulent.
I advise you to use caution here. My Wellness Research Foundation is currently looking for a reliable source of real Hoodia. If my research team turns up a legitimate source for a supplement with a significant amount of Hoodia, we’ll test it and let you know the results.
In the meantime, I have not found a source that I can recommend to you. But remember, to lose weight over the long term, boosting your metabolism with exercise is still the most effective strategy by far. PACE® works very well to make that approach more effective.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
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1 African Plant May Help Fight Fat. www.cbsnews.com. Nov 21, 2004.
2 Tom Mangold. Sampling the Kalahari Hoodia Diet. BBC News. May 30, 2003