Hoodia. What is it?

Hoodia gordonii, "Whoo De AH", is the botanical name for a leafless, spiky succulent plant that grows throughout the semi-arid areas of Southern Africa primarily the Kalahari desert. The San (local inhabitants) have rationally used Hoodia stems to stave off hunger and thirst when on long journeys, as it acts as an appetite suppressant.

Hoodia Gordonii was discovered and used by the San tribe from the Kalahari, South Africa, since prehistoric times. They chewed the bitter Hoodia plant twice a day to suppress hunger and thirst during long hunting trips. This plant contains the miracle molecule p57 that was recently translated into a obesity cure.

Research realted to Hoodia

Scientists at the South African Center for Scientific and Industrial Research were the first to successfully prove that Hoodia contains a miracle molecule that suppresses the appetite. Later, a human clinical trial was conducted by scientists in Leicester England. A group of morbidly obese men and women participated. Half the group were given Hoodia and half were given a placebo. At the end of 15 days, the group on Hoodia had reduced their food intake by 1000 calories a day. Given the average daily diet is around 2200 calories, this was a stunning success.

Mass global interest has been shown for Hoodia since Pfizer, the international pharmaceutical giant, started to research Hoodia's potential to help people with obesity. Pfizer recently discovered Hoodia and decided to invest millions into researching the plants benefits as a new drug that would help with obesity. The research published by this company has catapulted Hoodia into the international spotlight.

Laboratory experiments show animals automatically restrict their food intake when taking hoodia orally. Rats, a species that will eat anything from meat and plants to indigestible fiber, lowered their dietary calorie intake to a degree that made them get thin when fed comparative amounts of hoodia.

How to use Hoodia to actually lose weight

It basically tricks the brain into thinking that you're full. The chemical constituents in Hoodia work within the satiety center by releasing a chemical compound similar to glucose but much stronger. The hypothalamus in the brain receives this signal as an indication that enough food has been consumed and this in turn stunts the appetite.

Hoodia enhances your mood therefore you will not become irritable or weak while you are on the program. The San Tribe could go without food for 24 hours after eating Hoodia, and in the same process hunt for food in the harsh Kalahari desert. It is therefore also known to maintain a high energy level.

Hoodia helps to curb your appetite, some has reported, suppressing appetite within 20-30 minutes after taking Hoodia, results may vary. Some may need a little more time than this before they begin to notice the effects like: A reduced interest in food and A delay in time after eating before hunger sets in.

One of the active ingredients in the herb is a chemical compound called P57, which is thought to be at least partly responsible for the appetite-suppressing effects of hoodia gordonii. But this is probably an oversimplification, since herbs typically work with an assortment of chemical compounds, not just one chemical.

When you eat hoodia, the saying goes, your hunger will simply be gone -- gone -- for around six hours. During those six hours, you won't crave anything. You really won't want to eat at all. The food still smells good, as usual, and they taste the same if you eat them, but you don't want to eat them! At least that's what the hoodia advocates claim will happen.

To understand how all this works, you have to understand what "hunger" really is in the first place. Hunger is just an illusion. It's a signal in your brain, a chemical message that causes you to feel certain feelings and, ultimately, act on them.

Consuming hoodia is surprisingly simple: slice off a piece of the succulent, peel off the thorns, and just start chewing on it. You don't even need to swallow it. The taste is rather bitter by most Americans' palettes, but after several minutes of chewing, you've already started absorbing the chemical. Guess what? Your hunger is vanishing with each passing moment.

The San Tribesmen, the original discovers of the plant, also say it makes you feel stronger, more energetic, and more focused. Nobody complains of any side effects whatsoever, and the plant has been chewed for literally thousand of years by various generations of the San, with no ill effects known whatsoever.

There are many Hoodia plants

There are 13 species of Hoodia which are native to Southern Africa but ONLY ONE variety - the "Gordonii" has the needed natural ingredients for weight loss. If you purchase the cheap imitation products sold by people out of their garage that you see on EBAY, and in the Google and Yahoo ads you will NOT have the results shown on the Personal Diet Results pages. Folks I have been through this over and over - read about the nineteen companies that have sent me Hoodia Gordonii Cactus products to test and how only a couple of them really work.

All over the world, people are trying to buy hoodia, and there just isn't enough supply to go around. The succulent growers have been wiped out. The seed providers have virtually no inventory left. And since hoodia takes more than six years to grow to harvesting height, there's going to continue to be a great hoodia shortage until at least 2010, maybe beyond.

So buying hoodia is very difficult. It's expensive. And, naturally, there are a lot of fakes on the market. Even now, there are only a few hundred acres of hoodia growing on commercial farms, and the plant is highly susceptible to being wiped out by rather mysterious conditions.

To make matters even more challenging, Hoodia grown in South Africa under the San tribe's influence is required to be grown under organic conditions. That means they can't use pesticides. Entire crops have been known to vanish virtually overnight thanks to the ravages of various insects.

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