Everywhere I go lately, I run into some ad about Hoodia. It’s on television. It’s in my email. It’s in banner ads and it’s even showing up in my snail mailbox. What is hoodia? What does it have to do with weight loss? Can it really work? After all, isn’t it just another pill gimmick?
How Now Hoodia
Hoodia is actually a cactus. It’s found in the African Kalahari desert. The cactus itself is pretty ugly (yes there are pretty cacti out there). It takes years to mature, although it does thrive in the extreme heat of the desert. The hoodia is used by Bushmen in the Kalahari (a primitive tribe)for thousands of years. They discovered that it helped to stave off hunger when they needed to travel afar to perform hunting excursions.
Scientists studied the hoodia and discovered a molecule that they have named P 57. Yes, not a very romantic name. But this P 57 molecule affects the hypothalamus in your brain. This is the area of the brain that hosts nerve cells that target glucose.
These are the nerves that alert your brain to the sense that you have consumed enough glucose and you will begin to feel full. The molecule in hoodia actually activates those nerve cells and convinces the brain that you are full. You do not have to eat and you will not want to.
Not Always a Good Thing
Now, if that sounds too good to be true. There is a trick to it. First of all, the FDA doesn’t monitor Hoodia products. Different companies offer different versions of hoodia and the ingredients vary. Some pills may not have the same amount of the molecule as others. This can lead to varied reactions in individuals.
Also, eliminating hunger may sound like a great way to lose weight. While it’s true that when you don’t eat, you will lose weight – you are losing it through starvation. A starvation diet is not healthy nor is it wise. It can lead to vast nutritional deficiencies among other problems.
What About Scientific Studies?
There have been some human clinical trials using hoodia. Two groups of morbidly obese adults were selected. One group took hoodia. The other group took a placebo. They were placed into conditions where they were restricted to simply watching television, reading newspapers and eating.
At the end of the first two weeks, the hoodia group had actually reduced their calorie intake by over 1000 calories per day. The benefit of this is that hoodia could help individuals to stick to a diet plan. It’s hard enough to follow a diet when you are always hungry, but use of hoodia could attack that problem at the root by limiting hunger. By using dietary control measures, like hoodia, in conjunction with a healthy diet and exercise – you may improve your chances of losing weight.
But hoodia is still an uncontrolled substance and it can be very hard to make sure you are getting the right stuff in a market ripe with alternatives, fakes and varied ingredients. While there really isn’t a magic wand that can be waved to make the pounds melt away – hoodia in the right amounts may be an option worth exploring. Be advised, before adding anything untested to your nutritional or dietary measures, consulting a physician can help you avoid harming your own health.