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The real truth about hoodia and weight loss...

Losing weight requires burning more calories than you consume on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, the drive to eat is very powerful. If you've spent more than a few days on a diet, you're probably familiar with that intense sense of hunger that just won't go away.

If we're to believe the hype, a small cactus-like plant in the South African Kalahari Desert called Hoodia gordonii could hold the key. The San Bushmen of the Kalahari have been eating hoodia (pronounced HOO-dee-uh) for thousands of years to stave off hunger during long hunting trips.

Known to the Bushmen as ghaap, hoodia grows to seven feet tall in the arid and inhospitable environment of the Kalahari. The fleshy, finger-like stems are peeled and chewed by the Bushmen as they prepare to spend days without food in the desert.

They cut a piece of the plant, which is about the size of a cucumber, and eat it. It takes a piece of fresh hoodia, about 2 or 3 inches long, to get the appetite suppressing benefit.

So, why should you care about a plant in the Kalahari Desert?

Supplements that supposedly contain hoodia are now widely available on the Internet. Their manufacturers claim they'll help you lose weight by taking away your desire to eat.

Do they work? We'll come to that in a moment. First, let's take a closer look at the reasons why hoodia has generated so much interest.

P57

In the 1990s, South African scientists isolated the active ingredient in Hoodia gordonii responsible for the appetite reducing effect, which has become known as P57. In 1997, this was licensed exclusively to British pharmaceutical company Phytopharm by the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

Research carried out by Phytopharm shows that a group of 18 morbidly obese volunteers cut the number of calories they consumed by as much as 1000 calories per day after taking the...

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