Natural Weight Loss Secrets - Hoodia
Weight Control….An African SECRET...
By Gary Scott
Hoodia Gordini is a bitter-tasting cactus that has become
known as an effective weight loss food supplement that will hear much more
about in the years ahead. There are several factors you should know now to
gain benefits that Hoodia offers. You’ll also want
to avoid the fraud that so often comes with the introduction of something
new and good.
The full name of the plant is Hoodia Gordonii and it is a genus of succulent
plants in the family Apocynaceae. Hoodia is becoming popular as a weight
control food supplement because it is very different from diet stimulants
like Ephedra and Phenfen that have been banned because of dangerous side
effects. Hoodia doesn't stimulate at all. Active ingredients in Hoodia trick
the brain and make the stomach feel full.
Yet Hoodia is very effective.
The first scientific investigation of the plant was conducted at South Africa’s
national laboratory. Because Bushmen were known to eat Hoodia, it was included
in a study of indigenous foods.
"When it was first tested on animals, the animals that ate it lost
weight. When the first human tests were conducted, a morbidly obese group
of people were placed in a situation where all they could do was read papers,
watch television, and eat.
Half were given Hoodia. The other half were given a placebo. In two weeks
the Hoodia group had reduced their calorie intake by 1000 a day.
Hoodia is not new. This plant has been in the diet of South Africa's Bushmen
for thousands of years and has been used for these millennia by the San people
of southern Africa as an appetite suppressant, thirst quencher and as a cure
for many health problems including abdominal cramps, hemorrhoids, indigestion,
high blood pressure and diabetes. Various uses of Hoodia have been recorded
among communities in Northern Botswana), Northern Namibia, Northwestern South
Africa), and Angola.
Yet modern science did not start research on Hoodia until the mid 1960s
and then it took the South African national laboratory 30 years to isolate
and identify the specific appetite-suppressing ingredient in Hoodia.
Now big business is taking this produce seriously. When the laboratory found
the specific “eat less” factor called p.57
they applied for a patent and then licensed it to the UK-based pharmaceutical
company Phytopharm.
Phytopharm developed the appetite-suppressing compound and then sold exclusive
global rights to Unilever, a huge Dutch based multinational
firm that owns Slimfast. The first new Hoodia products under the Slimfast
brand are planned reach the market in three years.
Hoodia offers a great solution to a huge global health problem.
According to the British Heart Foundation 17% of men and 21% of women are
obese, while 46% of men and 32% of women are overweight. The problem is even
greater in the US.
SlimFast holds 25 per cent of the US three billion dollar weight loss market
and will want to reinforce its position in a booming weight loss sector that
is composed of more than one billion overweight adults around the world.
Hoodia’s market potential speaks for itself.
What makes this such an attractive product is that the active ingredient
in Hoodia (called P.57) works on the hypothalamus where there are nerve cells
that sense glucose sugar.
These nerve cells react when blood sugar goes up and says “you are
full.“ Hoodia contains a molecule that is 10,000 times as active as
glucose in affecting these nerve cells. P.57 goes to the hypothalamus and
actually makes those nerve cells fire as if a person is full even when they
have not eaten. Better still with Hoodia they do not want to eat. Hoodia’s
potency has been well documented.
CBS
news wrote at cbsnews.com/
“New Plant May Fight Obesity
“The hoodia plant in the Kalahari Desert could become the newest weapon
in the war against obesity.
“Hoodia, a plant that tricks the brain by making the stomach feel
full, has been in the diet of South Africa's Bushmen for thousands of years.
“Lesley Stahl tries just a few bites of the plant, which is already
listed as an ingredient in several weight-loss products on the market now.
“Each year, people spend more than $40 billion on products designed
to help them slim down. None of them seem to be working very well.
“Now along comes hoodia. Never heard of it? Soon it'll be tripping
off your tongue, because hoodia is a natural substance that literally takes
your appetite away.
“It's very different from diet stimulants like Ephedra and Phenfen
that are now banned because of dangerous side effects. Hoodia doesn't stimulate
at all. Scientists say it fools the brain by making you think you’re
full, even if you've eaten just a morsel.
Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports. Hoodia is a bitter-tasting cactus-like
plant. 60 Minutes was told that if it wanted to try hoodia, it would have
to go to Africa. Why? Because the only place in the world where hoodia grows
wild is in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa.
“Nigel Crawhall, a linguist and interpreter, hired an experienced
tracker named Toppies Kruiper, a local aboriginal Bushman, to help find it.
The Bushmen were featured in the movie “The Gods Must Be
Crazy.”
“Kruiper led 60 Minutes crews out into the desert. Stahl asked him
if he ate hoodia. "I really like to eat them when the new rains have
come," says
Kruiper, speaking through the interpreter. "Then they're
really quite delicious."
“When we located the plant, Kruiper cut off a stalk that looked like
a small spiky pickle, and removed the sharp spines. In the interest of science,
Stahl ate it. She described the taste as "a little cucumbery
in texture, but not bad."
“So how did it work? Stahl says 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.
“Although the West is just discovering hoodia, the Bushmen of the
Kalahari have been eating it for a very long time. After all, they have been
living off the land in southern Africa for more than 100,000 years.
“Some of the Bushmen, like Anna Swartz, still live in old traditional
huts, and cook so-called Bush food gathered from the desert the old-fashioned
way.
“The first scientific investigation of the plant was conducted at
South Africa’s national laboratory. Because Bushmen were known to
eat hoodia, it was included in a study of indigenous foods.
"What they found was when they fed it to animals, the animals ate it
and lost weight," says Dr. Richard Dixey, who heads an English pharmaceutical
company called Phytopharm that is trying to develop weight-loss products
based on hoodia.
“Was hoodia's potential application as an appetite suppressant immediately
obvious?
"No, it took them a long time. In fact, the original research was done
in the mid 1960s," says Dixey.
“It took the South African national laboratory 30 years to isolate
and identify the specific appetite-suppressing ingredient in hoodia. When
they found it, they applied for a patent and licensed it to Phytopharm.
“Phytopharm has spent more than $20 million so far on research, including
clinical trials with obese volunteers that have yielded promising results.
Subjects given hoodia ended up eating about 1,000 calories a day less than
those in the control group. To put that in perspective, the average American
man consumes about 2,600 calories a day; a woman about 1,900.
"If you take this compound every day, your wish to eat goes down.
And we've seen that very, very dramatically," says Dixey.”
The British BBC says at: http://news.bbc.co.uk
“By Tom Mangold
BBC Two's Correspondent
Imagine this: an organic pill that kills the appetite and attacks obesity.
“It has no known side-effects, and contains a molecule that fools
your brain into believing you are full.
“Deep inside the African Kalahari desert, grows an ugly cactus called
the Hoodia. It thrives in extremely high temperatures, and takes years to
mature.
“The San Bushmen of the Kalahari, one of the world's oldest and most
primitive tribes, had been eating the Hoodia for thousands of years, to stave
off hunger during long hunting trips.
“When South African scientists were routinely testing it, they discovered
the plant contained a previously unknown molecule, which has since been christened
P 57.
“The license was sold to a Cambridgeshire bio-pharmaceutical company,
Phytopharm, who in turn sold the development and marketing rights to the
giant Pfizer Corporation.
“Fortune cactus
“A molecule in the cactus makes you feel full.”
“The truth is no-one has fully grasped what the magic molecule means
for their counterparts in the developed world.
“According to the British Heart Foundation 17% of men and 21% of women
are obese, while 46% of men and 32% of women are overweight.
“So the drug's marketing potential speaks for itself.
Phytopharm's Dr Richard Dixey explained how P.57 actually works:
"There is a part of your brain, the hypothalamus. Within that midbrain
there are nerve cells that sense glucose sugar.
"When you eat, blood sugar goes up because of the food, these cells
start firing and now you are full.
"What the Hoodia seems to contain is a molecule that is about 10,000
times as active as glucose.
"It goes to the mid-brain and actually makes those nerve cells fire
as if you were full. But you have not eaten. Nor do you want to."
“Dixey organised the first animal trials for Hoodia. Rats, a species
that will eat literally anything, stopped eating completely.
“When the first human clinical trial was conducted, a morbidly obese
group of people were placed in a "phase 1 unit", a place
as close to prison as it gets. All the volunteers could do all day was read
papers, watch television, and eat. Half were given Hoodia, half placebo.
Fifteen days later, the Hoodia group had reduced their calorie intake by
1000 a day. It was a stunning success
“In order to see for ourselves, we drove into the desert, four hours
north of Capetown in search of the cactus.
“Once there, we found an unattractive plant which sprouts about 10
tentacles, and is the size of a long cucumber.
“Each tentacle is covered in spikes which need to be carefully peeled. “Inside
is a slightly unpleasant-tasting, fleshy plant. “At
about 1800hrs I ate about half a banana size - 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 “Unfortunately for
the overweight, Hoodia will not be around for several years, the clinical
trials still have several years to run. “Do
not travel to the Kalahari to steal the cactus as it is hard to find and
illegal to export.
“And beware internet sites offering Hoodia "pills" from
the US as we tested the leading brand and discovered it has no discernible
Hoodia in it.
“So just be patient. Help is at hand.”
However one must take care when looking at the Hoodia help that is already
here as there are already many fraudulent products on the market.
There are plenty of Hoodia products already being offered such as this bottle
at www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/pure_hoodia.html
But as you can see below the buyer must be cautious. There are warnings
about this. Hoodia Factor says at www.thehoodiafactor.com/
which says:
“Below is a list of the most popular companies that offer Hoodia Gordonii
Diet Pills over the internet. They have been rated by those who offer the
most Hoodia Gordonii for the money on a monthly basis. Feel free to compare
and save.
“WARNING: con artists sell counterfeit hoodia gordonii as bogus weight
loss pills.
“Hoodia Factor is here to encourage consumers to educate themselves
before making any Hoodia purchase over the internet.
Here are some of the questions answered at Hoodia factor.
“Q: How do I know if the Hoodia Gordonii that I am buying is real
or not?
“A: Remember the old saying "If it sounds to good to be true
it probably is!" Real Hoodia Gordonii Succulent is expensive and it
is currently costing over $250.00 a pound. We have tested many of these cheap
so called Hoodia products on the internet and most of them have little if
any Hoodia Gordonii Succulent in them.
The average person would become sick if they consumed more than 800 mgs
of real Hoodia Gordonii Succulent at any one time. Those that say their Hoodia
pills contain large amounts of Hoodia Gordonii Succulent are either lying
or they have diluted down the actual amount of Hoodia in their capsule with
some sort of filler.
“Q: How can people sell Hoodia over the internet when I heard that
Pfizer bought the exclusive rights to market the Hoodia Cactus?
“A: First, let's clear up that Hoodia Gordonii is a Succulent and
not a cactus.
“Second, Pfizer agreed to purchase (for Twenty One Million Dollars)
the rights from the UK pharmaceutical company "Phytopharm" to
develop and market the P57 molecule into a drug and not the rights to the
Hoodia Gordonii Succulent. (I think God still has the rights to make the
plant.)
“The P57 molecule is the key ingredient that happens to be found in
the Hoodia Gordonii Succulent and is responsible for appetite suppression.
If you see a Hoodia product advertising that their product contains P57 they
are infringing on Phytopharm's trademark and patent right's. In other words
they are breaking the law!
“Q: How long will it be until Pfizer comes out with their diet drug?
“A: Last we heard Pfizer chose to back out of the agreement with Phytopharm.
Phytopharm has not released any information as to the direction that they
will be taking in regards to the development of the P57 molecule.
“Q: Which companies offer Real Hoodia Gordonii Succulent?
“A: If you are wanting to use Hoodia Gordonii Succulent as an appetite
suppressant we recommend that you don't buy from recent start up companies
who are just getting on the Hoodia bandwagon.
These companies will be here today but gone the first time there is any
trouble.
“Purchase from a company that only uses 100% Hoodia Gordonii
Succulent in a refined powder form. The main reason for this is that you
have a better chance of it being genuine Hoodia Gordonii.
Succulent because the refined powder is easier to authenticate. Plus the
refined powder is the closest to the Hoodia Gordonii. Succulent in it's natural
state. (Only the water is removed from the plant before it is ground into
a fine powder.) Once you start adding other dietary ingredients with the
Hoodia Gordonii refined powder the identification process gets more difficult
but not impossible.
“When surfing the internet looking for pure Hoodia Gordonii succulent
products we recommend that you stay away from any websites that try's to
switch you from pure Hoodia Gordonii succulent diet products to another one
of their other products that they offer. There are many companies out there
that are putting the words "Pure
Hoodia Gordonii Succulent" on their websites hoping
that the search engines will pick them up and you will stumble across them
accidentally and buy their product thinking that it has Hoodia Gordonii succulent
in it. When in doubt look at the list of ingredients.”
There are also numerous social and ecological questions concerning Hoodia.
Numerous complaints have been made about the patent given on this product
as well as the ecological dangers that come from over harvesting the plant.
Bushmen shown at news.bbc.co.uk
Will they benefit?
“CBS wrote at http://www.cbsnews.com/ also
says:
“But why do you need a patent for a plant? "The patent is on
the application of the plant as a weight-loss material. And, of course, the
active compounds within the plant. It’s not on the plant itself," says
Dixey.
“So no one else can use hoodia for weight loss? "As a weight
management product without infringing the patent, that’s correct," says
Dixey.
“But what does that say about all these weight-loss products that
claim to have hoodia in it? Trimspa says its X32 pills contain 75 mg of hoodia.
The company is pushing its product with an ad campaign featuring Anna Nicole
Smith, even though the FDA has notified Trimspa that it hasn’t
demonstrated that the product is safe.
“Some companies have even used the results of Phytopharm’s clinical
tests to market their products.
"This is just straightforward theft. That’s what it is. People
are stealing data, which they haven’t done, they’ve got no proper
understanding of, and sticking on the bottle," says Dixey. "When
we have assayed these materials, they contain between 0.1 and 0.01 percent
of the active ingredient claimed. But they use the term hoodia on the bottle,
of course, so they -- does nothing at all."
“But Dixey isn’t the only one who’s felt ripped off. The
Bushmen first heard the news about the patent when Phytopharm put out a press
release. Roger Chennells, a lawyer in South Africa who represents the Bushmen,
who are also called “the San,” was appalled.
"The San did not even know about it," says Chennells. "They
had given the information that led directly toward the patent."
“The taking of traditional knowledge without compensation is called ‘bio-piracy.’
"You have said, and I'm going to quote you, 'that the San felt as if
someone had stolen the family silver,'" says Stahl to Chennells. "So
what did you do?"
"I wouldn't want to go into some of the details as to what kind of
letters were written or what kind of threats were made," says Chennells. "We
engaged them. They had done something wrong, and we wanted them to acknowledge
it."
“Chennells was determined to help the Bushmen who, he says, have been
exploited for centuries. First they were pushed aside by black tribes. Then,
when white colonists arrived, they were nearly annihilated.
"About the turn of the century, there were still hunting parties in
Namibia and in South Africa that allowed farmers to go and kill Bushmen," says
Chennells. "It's well documented."
“The Bushmen are still stigmatized in South Africa, and plagued with
high unemployment, little education, and lots of alcoholism.
And now, it seemed they were about to be cut out of a potential windfall
from hoodia. So Chennells threatened to sue the national lab on their behalf.
"We knew that if it was successful, many, many millions of dollars
would be coming towards the San," says Chennells. "Many, many
millions. They've talked about the market being hundreds and hundreds of
millions in America."
“In the end, a settlement was reached. The Bushmen will get a percentage
of the profits -- if there are profits. But that’s a big
if.
“The future of hoodia is not yet a sure thing. The project hit a major
snag last year. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which had teamed up with Phytopharm,
and funded much of the research, dropped out when making a pill out of the
active ingredient seemed beyond reach.
“Dixey says it can be made synthetically: "We've made milligrams
of it. But it's very expensive. It's not possible to make it synthetically
in what’s called a scaleable process. So we couldn’t make a metric
ton of it or something that is the sort of quantity you’d need to actually
start doing something about obesity in thousands of people."
“Phytopharm decided to market hoodia in its natural form, in diet
shakes and bars. That meant it needed the hoodia plant itself.
“But given the obesity epidemic in the United States, it became obvious
that what was needed was a lot of hoodia - much more than was growing in
the wild in the Kalahari. And so they came here.
“60 Minutes visited one of Phytopharm’s hoodia plantations in
South Africa. They’ll need a lot of these plantations to meet the
expected demand.
“Agronomist Simon MacWilliam has a tall order: grow a billion portions
a year of hoodia, within just a couple of years. He admitted that starting
up the plantation has been quite a challenge.
"The problem is we’re dealing with a novel crop. It’s a
plant we’ve taken out of the wild and we’re starting to grow
it,' says MacWilliam.
"So we have no experience. So it’s different— diseases
and pests which we have to deal with."
“How confident are they that they will be able to grow enough?
"We're very confident of that," he says. "We've got an expansion
program which is going to be 100s of acres. And we'll be able – ready
to meet the demand.
“This could be huge, given the obesity epidemic. Phytopharm says it’s
about to announce marketing plans that will have meal replacement
hoodia products on supermarket shelves by 2008.
“MacWilliam says these products are a slightly different species from
the hoodia Stahl tasted in the Kalahari Desert. "It's actually
a lot more bitter than the plant that you tasted," says MacWilliam.
“The advantage is this species of hoodia will grow a lot faster. But
more bitter? How bad could it be? Stahl decided to find out. "Not good," she
says.
“Phytopharm says that when its product gets to market, it will be
certified safe and effective. They also promise that it’ll taste good.
The BBC also pointed out some positive social benefits at news.bbc.co.uk which
said:
“Mr Chennells is ecstatic:
"The San will finally throw off thousands of years of oppression, poverty,
social isolation and discrimination.
"We will create trust funds with their Hoodia royalties and the children
will join South Africa's middle classes in our lifetime.
"I envisage Hoodia cafes in London and New York, salads will be served
and the Hoodia cut like cucumber on to the salad.
"It will need flavouring to counter its unpleasant taste, but if it
has no side effects and no cumulative side-effects."
There are warnings about the environmental dangers at http://www.plantzafrica.com/planthij/hoodia.htm
Which says:
“This note has been compiled to promote the sustainable use of Hoodia
in South Africa and to ensure that the indigenous people of South Africa
benefit from the commercial development of products based on their traditional
knowledge.
“Hoodia is a genus of succulent plants in the family Apocynaceae that
is widely used traditionally by the San people of southern Africa as an appetite
suppressant, thirst quencher and as a cure for severe abdominal cramps, haemorrhoids,
tuberculosis, indigestion, hypertension and diabetes. Various uses have been
recorded among Anikhwe (Northern Botswana), Hai om (northern Namibia), Khomani
(north western South Africa), and the !Xun and Khwe (originally from Angola)
communities. Less is known about the use of this group of plants by other
indigenous people, but some records show limited use of Hoodia parts as food
items, albeit not as preferred food items. Hoodias are known to be used for
cultural purposes in some areas (Hargreaves and Turner, 2002). Although relatively
difficult to cultivate, hoodias are attractive plants and are also used for
horticultural purposes.
“The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South
Africa isolated an active compound (P57) for appetite suppression from H.
gordonii. The CSIR licensed the rights for further development of P57 and
the setting up of a sustainable production system to Phytopharm in the UK.
Phytopharm in turn sub licensed the rights to Pfizer for the development
and global commercialization. Pfizer has recently returned the clinical developmental
rights.
“In terms of a benefit sharing agreement with the CSIR, all the San
communities in the range States will benefit from the development of P57.
“Hoodia is being widely marketed as a commercial appetite suppressant.
Some of the trade in Hoodia is illegal in terms of regulations in southern
African countries and may also infringe on patent rights and benefit sharing
agreements. This document provides information on Hoodia to promote sustainable
and fair trade in Hoodia products.
“DISTRIBUTION OF HOODIA
Hoodia species occur in summer rainfall areas in Angola, Botswana, Namibia,
and South Africa as well as winter rainfall areas in Namibia (MET 2002).
Only one species if found east of 26 degrees longitude, i.e H. currorii subsp.
lugardii, which occurs in Botswana and the Limpopo province of South Africa.
The centres of diversity for Hoodia are in Namibia (11 taxa) and South Africa
(9 taxa).
“Although the genus Hoodia is widespread in southern Africa, herbarium
records indicate that Hoodia gordonii only occurs in South Africa and Namibia.
Any claims about other areas of distribution should be verified by a competent
taxonomist.
“CULTIVATION
“Cultivation trials are currently underway in South Africa (under
the auspices of the CSIR) and on a small scale in Namibia (National Botanical
Research Institute). At present, only a small quantity of material has been
harvested from cultivated material.
“CONSERVATION STATUS
“Some species of Hoodia occur in very large populations over large
areas. This includes H. gordonii, which is the species most sought after
for trade. There are, however, other closely related species that are less
abundant, occurring in isolated patches with an overall low density, and
a relatively small distribution range. A relatively common feature is that
most species have patchy distributions. The threatened status for some Hoodia
species has been assessed recently (see Table) and ten of the 16 taxa have
been classified as threatened in these assessments.
Hoodia is now with us and it more than fair to assume that its use in the
Western world will grow. This can be a powerful tool for improved heath for
both individuals and society as a whole.
But let the consumer beware. If you consume Hoodia products make sure they
contain real Hoodia and that it has come from fair trade and environmentally
sensitive sources.
Gary
P.S.
R & R at El Meson. The week includes
a tour of sacred indigenous places such as Peguche Waterfall where
there is a sedate park and enormous stands of eucalyptus. Unwind
in the evening with fresh made juice and a roaring, pungent eucalyptus
fire. After specially prepared dinners enjoy an hour long full
body massage. If you prefer, you can roam the numerous
lakes for fishing and adventure sports. There is a pleasant
nine hole golf course to enjoy. The climate is dry
and averages 68 degrees F so you can also just soak in the sun. This
five day, six night therapy includes travel to and from Quito airport,
six nights stay at El Meson, de las Flores, the Shmanic healing session,
visits to Chachimbiro spa, Cuicocha Lake, the world famous Otavalan,
Cotacachi and San Antonio de Ibarra markets plus 11 specially prepared
Andean health meals and exercise lessons and four full hour long
massages. DETAILS
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