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Hoodia For Natural Weight Loss?

By: Chris Chew You have tried many ways to lose weight and have probably read about many types of weight loss products and weight loss diet plans. Maybe you are even a self styled expert of anything to do with losing weight.

Then all of a sudden, you are reading advertisements after advertisements in the print media and the internet about a new herbal weight loss product. This natural herbal weight loss product, touted to be very effective for losing weight quickly is something that you have not heard until very recently. It even has a very weird and strange name. This product is called Hoodia. Just what is Hoodia you must have wondered? Why is this herbal weight loss product becoming so popular?

Well, when consumed, the Hoodia plant tricks the brain by making the stomach feel full even if you have only eaten a tiny weenie morsel. This herb has already been in the diet of Africa's Bushmen for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Hoodia is a very bitter tasting cactus like plant. This herbal weight loss plant can only be found in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa and nowhere else in the world. Is it any wonder why no one knows about this weight loss herb until very recently?

Although the civilized world is just trying to understand Hoodia better now, the African bush men in the Kalahari Desert have been eating it for probably thousands of years. The first scientific investigation of the herb was researched at South Africa's national laboratory. They found that when Hoodia were fed to animals, all the animals lost weight without any exception.

It took the South African national laboratory about 30 years to isolate and identify the specific appetite suppressing active ingredient in the Hoodia plant. When they found it, they applied for a patent and licensed it to Phytopharm, a pharmaceutical company.

Clinical trials were then conducted on obese volunteers with excellent results. Subjects given Hoodia supplement ended up eating about 1,000 calories a day effortlessly.

If the Hoodia plant is indeed the fast weight loss magical herb, then this humble herb may be the savior of the developed world where obesity is the main threat to many people's lives.

There is one glaring problem though. If the Hoodia plant can only be found in the African desert which is already quite barren with vegetation, then will it be very expensive owing to its scarcity? Will there be enough Hoodia to supply and meet demand? Or will there be large commercial farming to cater to the demand fast enough?