Are you using Hoodia?
April 14th, 2006 by NancySouth African succulent Hoodia gordonii is a (supposed) apetite suppressant that first arrived on the dieting scene over a year ago,
when CBS’ 60 Minutes sent a correspondent to the Kalahari to try the plant herself. She reported that after chewing on the bitter leaf, she had no desire to eat for almost 24 hours. A BBC reporter soon followed, and he reported the same results.
…But this is just anecdotal. There’s still no concrete evidence that the herb works.
Even more notable is the fact that “little research has been done to confirm the assumption it has no side effects.” The only known Hoodia study tested it on rats — a far cry from the thorough testing most diet drugs go through before being put on the market.
“There have been no reports of health problems associated with hoodia” — but that isn’t very reassuring. There were no reports of health problems with fen-phen and ephedra at first, but both of those ended up causing serious health problems (including death!) in many people.
So, while there’s no conclusive evidence that Hoodia does or doesn’t work, it might be best to steer clear of it until science can tell us a little more about it…
Source: Miami Herald
