I've been sitting on my fingers, trying not to say anything, but sorry, I just can't stand it any more. LOOSE is the opposite of TIGHT. Folks who LOSE weight find their clothing is now LOOSE. I can't help it. I'm an educator. It's in my DNA. Thanks for listening.

I have had spam emails wanting me to by the "amazing weight loss discovery" as Seen on Oprah and 60 minutes for over 1 year.  It might help control hunger and thirst pangs when in the desert, but that does not mean it will work when separated into its component parts, and out of its natural environment.

Mary

60 minutes has done two segments on hoodia.  According to the show, bushman in a small area cultivate the plant.  It is now being farmed by these bushman for commercial use and they are under contract to one company.  Maybe this

company sold its rights to Pfizer because I thought it was a British firm.  In any event, the real thing will not be available

until sometime in 2008, according to comments made on 60 minutes.  That means that everything currently on the

market calling itself hoodia is likely something else.  I believe the plans are to put this product out in prescription form at

least initially.  And that makes sense, because anorexics could have a field day with it.

Around 2PM I took one Hoodia capsule and one high fiber tablet and sat down in front of the TV with a large glass of iced Rooibos tea. Within about 10 minutes I felt a slight tingle in my stomach which lasted maybe 2 seconds. Next thing I know it is 8PM and I am wanting to taste something. Instead of a big full meal I ate two olives and one cracker with some avocado spread on it. That night I dreamed of eating food, lots of food. The next morning I fixed and consumed about the same amount of breakfast as usual, same with lunch. On this second day I waited until I started to get hungry for dinner [around 5PM] before I took another Hoodia capsule and high fiber tablet. I did not crave any food and went to bed with out any suffering or hunger and with out eating anything. I have to mention I did not have any acid reflux either. The next morning I could see that I had lost some fat when I looked at myself in the mirror. In just two days of using Hoodia my clothes were not as tight fitting. It was truely amazing. The thrid day I didn't take any and I ate what I would normally eat for dinner.  I have been using it two times a week to help skip dinner and I continue to loose unwanted fat.

When I wait to take it until I get hungry there is a struggle because something wants to eat instead of taking the Hoodia. And I find if I take it when I first get up before breakfast I eat more dinner. So, for me it is 4PM, before I start to get hungry that works perfectly.

The real test would be to take a capsule and smoke a huge amount of marijuana and see if it can stop the munchies. Has anyone tried that?  

Hello? Where have you been? Hoodia has been all over TV, the popular press and the Internet for months and months. "As seen on '60 Minutes'!" It's the latest weight loss sensation, and the mail order stuff available may or may not have any actual hoodia in it.

More to the point: most obese people did not get that way because they were hungry and thirsty. Thus a drug, or the active principle from a plant, is not the magic bullet that they hope will change their life.

On another note, I do hope the San people benefit. Now that we have pushed them from the Stone Age into the 21st century, we owe them something in the way of compensation.

Please be aware. If you try to lose weight by reducing food intake, especially fasting, your body will begin to break down bone and tissue in order to feed itself. When this happens, the breakdown in bone especially will result in release of toxins into your system. This will cause sickness/not feeling good. Adding water to your fast will hasten this breakdown process intensifying the detoxification. The best way to lose weight or loosen the fit of your clothing is with exersize and eating nutrient dense clean food. Fasting is not good on a long term basis unless you wish to endure not good feelings. Look up the information at the Weston A. Price foundation (www.westonaprice.org), they have the best advice for proper diet for either beginners or advanced learners.  Yes there is a place for fasting as in the case of sickness but you need to know what you are doing, read books by Juliette De Bairacli Levy or Hanna Kroeger.

And..........the world continues to look the other way while they continually cut down the Amazon forest.

I wonder what remedies we have all lost to date by this madness ?

I have been taking hoodia few times and it constipates me :0. It is as if it slowed the entire digestive system. Being constipated when  you want to loose weight is not the most desirable effect.....

Hunger 'pangs' dissipate only after 2-3 days of no food.  Why would you ever need this?  Therapeutic fasting (water only) is an age old way to cleanse the body, heal rapidly (and safely), and lose excess fat (with stored toxins released, and is even known to return hearing, sight and shrink tumors to nothing (tumors are just protein build up that the body uses for energy while fasting).

Just wait 2-3 days and the hunger is no longer present- why buy this?

I think coca leaves were also chewed at least in part to stop hunger pains, weren't they? Then white men came and extracted the "active ingredient" and called it cocaine. Sold it as soda pop for awhile. Later it became outlawed, which only served to increase the profits for the sellers. And destroy many inner-city neighborhoods. Will the same thing happen with hoodia?