The Problems With Hoodia Gordonii - the "Miracle Weight Loss Supplement"

Hoodia Gordonii is one of the new weight loss fads that has been sweeping the nation lately. Some question if it really works, but that is the least of hoodia's worries. It's been proven time and time again through biochemical theory, lab controlled studies, anecdotal reports, and the fact that the San Bushman, the original users of hoodia, have already been using the plant for centuries that this plant does, indeed, work to reduce appetite.

However, a problem arises: The authenticity of the hoodia you are buying. Since hoodia is quite rare - the only known place to get the correct species of the plant is in the Kalahari Desert - and is in high demand, sellers are coming up with sneaky ways to trick customers into thinking that they actually get authentic hoodia.

The problem is it is quite difficult to tell who is selling genuine hoodia. Although a CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) certificate is required for a seller to sell hoodia, this does not mean that their hoodia is authentic, and buyers have no way of telling if their hoodia is authentic until they find out that it doesn't work. Mike Adams at newstarget.com believes that up to 80% of hoodia sold is counterfeit.

In addition to that, he notes that many sellers can photoshop a competitor's CITES, simply counterfeit a CITES, or send in a real batch of hoodia in order to get an authentic CITES and then sell customers fake hoodia. You can get more information about the authenticity of hoodia by going to newstarget.com and doing a search for "hoodia". My advice, however, is to look for anecdotal reports of hoodia suppliers on the internet. You can do this by looking at the reviews of certain products on websites like amazon.com or by simply doing a search for "hoodia experience" in a search engine and looking for message boards/forums with people who have already tried certain hoodia products.

Well now, it's fine and dandy that hoodia, assuming you find an authentic product, can reduce your appetite, but is that really that helpful? Among the people informed about weight loss (we actually call it "fat loss," not "weight loss"), it's known that simply starving yourself won't accomplish your goals, which is what hoodia would do.

You must increase your calorie expenditure by doing some sort of aerobics in addition to increasing your muscle mass by incorporating weight lifting to actually achieve your goals and keep them. Hoodia may be slightly useful in causing an additional calorie deficit since about half of the calorie deficit you obtain should be through decreased calories and the other half through increased physical activity.

In contrast, however, you can easily control your appetite by drinking water or eating foods with a high satiety and a low amount of calories. A stomach full of gelatin has fewer calories than a stomach full of peanut butter.