Hoodia Gordonii
A way to loose weight without effort or dieting is Hoodia Gordonii, which is very popular in the United States and England.
Hoodia Gordonii is not a slimming pill but a natural appetite depressant, but we have included it in our diet list anyway.
Hoodia Gordonii is the weight loss hype in the United States and England at the moment!
A report from a BBC-correspondent, in which he and his cameraman both took Hoodia Gordonii, has promoted the product.
After taking Hoodia Gordonii, the BBC-correspondent did not get back his usual appetite for 24 hours. With some distaste, he ate a light lunch and than went to sleep. In the Netherlands the programmes Netwerk and Kassa discussed the effects of Hoodia Gordonii and the product is on sale everywhere in the Netherlands as well.
What is Hoodia Gordonii?
Hoodia Gordonii is a crassulaplant that looks like a cactus. This plant is being grown and dried in South-Africa under highly controlled circumstances. The plant can reach a height of 45 centimetres and has remarkable, dish like flowers. Hoodia Gordonii is available as a dried plant or as an extract.
The plant and the extract suppress the hunger in a natural way without causing nausea. Hoodia Gordonii has been used by Bushmen and the San-tribe for hundreds of years to avoid hunger and thirst during the hunting or food shortage. The men of the San-tribe say that Hoodia gives more energy and increases the concentration.
The basic principle of Hoodia Gordonii
The working of Hoodia Gordonii is very simple, but also very effective. The amount of glucose (the blood sugar level) in the blood rises. A part of the brain receives this increase of glucose and gives a signal to the eater.
People whose satisfaction centre in the brain functions well, receive a signal to stop eating when they have had enough. Many people with overweight have satisfaction centres that do not respond on time when they have eaten enough. The reason the brain does not give the signal on time, is that they are used to eating much food and/or peaks in the blood sugar level. That is why they keep eating after they have eaten enough.
This pattern gets stronger because it is a vicious circle. Hoodia Gordonii breaks the vicious circle by giving a satisfaction signal that is 10,000 times stronger than the glucose signal. This makes the brain respond quicker and stronger and as a result the hunger feeling is completely gone and the unhealthy appetite disappears. It is said that with Hoodia, people can do 6 hours without food and not feel it at all.
Research into Hoodia Gordonii
A so-called double blind placebo experiment in Leicester, England has shown that the plant causes a decrease in calories per day by 1000. The experiment was held with two groups of volunteers. One group got placebos and the other group got Hoodia Gordonii. None of the volunteers did any sports during the experiment.
After 15 days it showed that the volunteers who had taken Hoodia Gordonii lost 1000 calories per day without any form of sport. These volunteers were not even aware that they were effortlessly losing weight. To clarify these findings, it is important to know that one pound of fat contains 3,500 calories. If Hoodia Gordonii decreases the daily intake by 1,000, that means 7,000 calories per week. This means one kilo per week. This can amount to 50 kilos a year.
There has not been any clinical research into the health risks of Hoodia, however. The San-tribe has been taking Hoodia Gordonii for centuries without any side-effects, though.
What is the recommended dose?
Experts say the ideal dose to take away the hunger feeling is 3 times 400mg capsules. The capsules have to be taken an hour before every meal with a large glass of water. The taste is quite bitter and it will start having effect after a few minutes.
The shortage of Hoodia Gordonii
As can be expected from a products that helps you loose weight without effort, the demand for this products is large. The Hoodia Gordonii plants are rear, though, and it is uncertain if the demand can be met.
The plants are expensive: about $ 65 for a small plant. The microscopic Hoodia Gordonii seeds are sold for $15 for 15 pieces. This makes the seeds more expensive than gold. People all over the world want to buy Hoodia Gordonii and there is simply not enough for everybody. The sellers have sold everything they have and the seed sellers are almost out of stock.
It takes six years for a plant to be fully grown and that means there will be a shortage at least until the year 2010. Apart from that, the plants give off a terrible smell to attract flies and that is a reason for many people not to grow them in their gardens.
Look out!
Since hoodia Gordonii got much Attention on the big English and American networks such as the BBC and ABC News, there are many fake products on the market. Most available Hoodia Gordonii products contain no active ingredients from the Hoodia Gordonii plant. Some of these products even contain dangerous chemicals.