What's in your Hoodia Diet Pills?

Yes, it's true that the majority of the hoodia diet pills sold today are fake, but that's not what this article is about. Consumers have always had to be careful about buying hoodia supplements to avoid being scammed, but now there may be another issue they need to think about – the potency of the supplements they're buying.

Up until recently, supplements that contained authentic hoodia gordonii contained the wild grown variety. Today, however, most authentic hoodia supplements contain cultivated hoodia gordonii. The obvious question is what's the difference between the two? They're the same exact plant but one grows in the wild and the other one is commercially farmed like any other crop. The biggest difference between the two, however, may be the potency.

According to one of the largest raw hoodia importers in the world, wild grown hoodia has higher levels of the active ingredient, P57, the ingredient responsible for hoodia's appetite suppressant benefits. The reason wild hoodia supposedly has more P57 is because it has been left to grow longer than cultivated hoodia. The hoodia gordonii plant must be left to grow for at least 5-6 years before it reaches maximum potency. The wild grown hoodia that has been used the past few years in supplements was at least five years old before it was harvested.

The cultivated hoodia that is now predominantly used in supplements is being harvested too soon, according to this hoodia importer. They claim it is being harvested after only two or three years – about three years before it reaches maximum potency. What you get in the end is a supplement that isn't as effective as it should be.

Not all agree with this assessment, however. There are other hoodia insiders that claim the wild hoodia gordonii stock hasn't been exhausted. Yet, other insiders I've spoken to say wild hoodia is indeed completely gone right now and the only hoodia available is the cultivated variety. Furthermore, these same insiders claim that the cultivated hoodia is equally as potent as wild hoodia gordonii so consumers don't need to worry.

Who do you believe? Unfortunately, there isn't standard testing done with hoodia diet pills to test for potency. There are tests that are done all the time by independent labs to determine if a given supplement contains authentic hoodia gordonii, but they don't test the levels of P57. I doubt that such testing is even feasible. After all, how much would it cost to have every bottle tested for the specific levels of P57?

Regardless of who you believe in this debate there is one thing for certain – if the wild hoodia gordonii isn't already depleted, it probably will be soon. If the majority of the supplements today don't contain cultivated hoodia they probably will in the near future. That leads us back to the potency question. Are the hoodia supplements made today as effective as they used to be?

It appears we won't have a conclusive answer anytime soon. I guess the only thing a consumer can do is monitor their own response to the hoodia diet pills they're taking. If the pills don't work as well as they used to at the same dosage, then more hoodia gordonii may need to be taken as today's hoodia supplements may indeed be less potent than those in the past.