Dr. Mercola December 29 2007 45,661 views
The San people of the Kalahari desert, also known as Bushmen, have long relied on a plant called hoodia to survive. Now, drug companies are betting millions that the knowledge of these bushmen can help the most advanced societies on earth.
A little hoodia can end hunger pains and quench thirst. Pfizer has invested $21 million dollars to turn hoodia into an appetite suppressant.
The active compound in the plant is called P57; it works by mimicking the effect glucose has on the nerve cells in the brain. It tells you that you’re full, even when you’re not.
The first company to patent P57 tried to do so without paying the bushmen any money. After a court challenge, the San now help cultivate the plant, and if the resulting diet aids are a market success, they stand to prosper.
The Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert have been eating the hoodia plant for centuries. Not to lose weight, but to stave off hunger pains when food was scarce. It was first researched by a South African laboratory in the 1960s as part of a study about indigenous foods, which revealed that when the plant was fed to animals they lost weight. Hoodia does, in fact, seem to naturally take away your desire to eat, without any detrimental after effects. However, as with most herbs and supplements that actually do work, making sure you’re buying the real thing makes all the difference.
Unfortunately, due to its newfound fame, fraudulent hoodia products that contain counterfeit ingredients, artificial sweeteners, and fillers have flooded the market. When you consider that weight loss products are a $40-billion a year market in the United States, you can imagine why.
Therefore, if you decide to give hoodia a try, do your homework, and make sure you’re actually getting the real deal.
Then again, you can still lose weight and keep it off simply by adopting healthy eating habits based on your nutritional type, combined with an exercise regimen. Because once your body has all the nutrients it needs your physical hunger will automatically be reduced, even without the use of additional appetite suppressants.
Protein is actually the most satiating food type, beating out carbohydrates and even fat. The amount, and type, of protein that you need, however, varies dramatically according to your gender, height, weight, exercise levels, and, most importantly, by your nutritional type.
For example, a strong carb type can feel absolutely stuffed for many hours on a meatless salad with a no fat dressing, while the same meal would have a strong protein type craving for food in twenty minutes or so. So knowing what type of fuel your body needs for optimal performance is essential when it comes to losing weight.My tried-and-true tips to normalize your weight and optimize your health, with side effects of increased energy and vitality, include:
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-Python
EQ-
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Islander, I have given up on correcting spelling errors of others. Its a loooooosing proposition!
I'm a former educator. Love you!
If they had excess to a dictionary, they might use it to good affect. :)
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?
I hear muchies aren't about being hungry :)