Hoodia Appetite Suppressant Review: Do Hoodia Product Like HoodiaLife, Desert Burn And Hoodoba Work?
 Hoodia Gordonii is one of the most hyped diet products on the Net. Containing a miracle ingredient (labeled P57 by scientists), Hoodia has been presented to consumers as the ultimate appetite suppressant, and the end to obesity.
Advertisers and retailers are quick to point out Hoodia's "celebrity" status, citing appearances on the Oprah Winfrey show, ABC, the BBC, and 60 Minutes. Apparently the status and publicity accorded to Hoodia makes up for the complete lack of clinical evidence validating any of the miraculous claims attributed to this plant.
Let's begin this review by taking a closer look at Hoodia...
First of all, what the heck is Hoodia?
Hoodia Gordonii is a succulent (a cactus of the aloe family) found in the Kalahari desert of South Africa. Stories are spreading about how the native Kalahari bushmen would use this cactus to stave off hunger on long trips through the desert.
Many Hoodia retailers are correlating the Kalahari bushmen's nonexistent obesity rate with the consumption of this cactus. In fact, it has more to do with being dirt poor, and living in a harsh desert environment with nary a McDonald's or Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in sight. Put simply, the Kalahari bushmen are slim because they consume few calories, not because they consume Hoodia. |
In South Africa, Hoodia is on the list of endangered plant species, and believe it or not, it's not actually supposed to be exported. It's also a fairly difficult plant to cultivate, as it takes several years to grow to maturity and to the point where it can be harvested.
And frankly, given the dramatic and explosive increase in demand due to its introduction into the United States, there's simply not enough real Hoodia to go around. It's been surmised that the vast majority of "Hoodia products" on the market contain very little, if any, active Hoodia. According to ConsumerLab.com (an online company that tests product label claims)...
"It has been speculated that there is more Hoodia being sold today than could possibly be made from all the Hoodia gordonii plants in existence."
This demonstrates one of the biggest problems with experimenting with Hoodia as an appetite suppressant -- are you actually using a product that contains Hoodia?
Sure, each of the companies selling the stuff claims it is they and only they that are selling the real, authentic, 100% South African Hoodia and they claim to have the documentation to prove it. But all this stuff can be faked in the online environment. Short of buying the stuff and sending it to the lab yourself, you really don't know.
Additionally, Hoodia has only demonstrated effectiveness in fresh, raw pieces of the plant. The effectiveness of powdered Hoodia has yet to be established.
According to Mike Adams of NewsTarget.com, up to 80% of the Hoodia sold on the market is counterfeit, with 60% of the products sold in the U.S. failing laboratory verification. According to Mr Adams, who conducted a thorough investigation into Hoodia...
"The supplements that are consistently verified as being genuine Hoodia gordonii include the Desert Burn brand, the Hoodoba brand from Strictly Health Corp., and the Hoodia Hoodia brand from Millennium Health. "
We put our product tester Amie Gantt to work experimenting with the Hoodoba brand Hoodia... more on that in a moment. |
OK, but supposing you manage to get your hands on some real, authentic Hoodia. Does it work?
Despite the outrageous hype and unsubstantiated claims. Hoodia does show some promise. As I mentioned earlier, scientists have isolated the molecule apparently responsible for Hoodia's appetite suppressing characteristics.
This molecule, called P57, is now under development by a company called PhytoPharm (at one time P57 was licensed to U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for development. Pfizer bailed on Hoodia though, and discontinued clinical development of P57 in 2003 -- hardly promising, I'd say!).
Much has been made of PhytoPharm's "clinical study", which apparently validated the amazing appetite suppressing effects of Hoodia's P57 molecule (click here for PhytoPharm's press release). Unfortunately, this study has never been published, so it can't be critiqued by professionals and scientists who could question the conclusions and the methodology of the study.
That's a serious blow to the credibility of PhytoPharm's study, and to the "proven" effectiveness of Hoodia.
In December 2004, PhytoPharm teamed up with Unilever (who owns SlimFast, Knorr, and Hellman's, among other things), and committed to bringing the active P57 molecule to the market within 3 years.
At the end of 2008 (as announced in this document) Unilever terminated its relationship with PhytoPharm and the devlopment of a hoodia-based weight loss product—making it even more difficult to believe that's there's any real merit to hoodia for weight loss. Apparently...
"Unilever abandoned the deal because Hoodia metabolised too quickly in a liquid-based product." (see here for more details!).
Ooops! Loosely translated, that means it doesn't work. |
Of course, none of this really helps you. I'm sure all you want to know is...
Will Hoodia suppress my appetite? If I take it, will I stop eating and will I lose weight?
These are questions that plagued us too. Frankly, there has been so much interest in Hoodia that we figured we'd better give the genuine article a try ourselves. So I put UltimateFatBurner.com's intrepid product tester Amie to work with a trial of Strictly Health Corporation's Hoodoba Hoodia (one of the brands Mike Adams of NewsTarget recommended as most consistently testing positively for Hoodia).
You can read about Amie's experiences with the Hoodoba brand Hoodia here!
If you'd like to read what other visitors have had to say about Hoodia and how it worked for them, click here!
Hoodia is sold under a zillion different brand names... Desert Burn, HoodiaLife, Mega Hoodia, HoodiaSpa, Slim Cactus, Afrigetics, Hoodia Slim and Hoodoba, amongst others. |
Have you used Hoodia?
Tell us all about it!
Looking for a fat burner recommendation?
Read my review of Lean System Seven!
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