Can I Lose Weight With Hoodia?

Hoodia is a cactus-like plant that's causing a stir for its ability to suppress appetite and promote weight loss. It is also used hoodia for severe abdominal cramps, hemorrhoids, tuberculosis, indigestion, hypertension and diabetes.

Government researchers in South Africa have focused on compounds called sterol glycosides which is present in Hoodia gordonii. The Hoodia gordonii whole powder contains fiber, organic material, antioxidants, and biologically active substances. The pharmaceutical companies has been so impressed by research findings with Hoodia gordonii that there have been multi-million dollar deals to try to make drugs or food additives from constituents of Hoodia gordonii. Making a drug from the Hoodia plant is not consistent with its traditional use as an appetite suppressant by the native South Africans.

The consumption of Hoodia gordonii over thousands of years by the San bushmen of the Kalahari tribe creates a great precedent for the safety of the Hoodia plant, but it does not create precedence for the safety or effectiveness of a "drug derivative". Hoodia gordonii does not contain dangerous stimulant molecules, but it does contain substances that may mimic the effects of glucose on nerve cells in the brain.

The controlled clinical and laboratory experiments show much promise of Hoodia for weight control. Some experiments have shown that obese people who are taking Hoodia have reduced their calorie intake by an amazing amount of one thousand calories per day.

Pure Hoodia gordonii is composed of variable amounts of fiber, organic material, antioxidants and biologically active substances called sterol glycosides.