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Weight Loss Inspiration or Diet Scam?If it seems like your weight loss inspiration gets killed every time a new diet program or pill comes out, you're not alone. Confusion among dieters about the options available to them is one reason diets fail so often. In one survey, confusion about diet options and not being able to resist favorite foods are two of the top ten reasons people don't stick to a diet. Along comes Hoodia and promises a solution to both of those problems. There are testimonials stating that people have lost, in some cases, enormous amounts of weight. Some brand name products got a ton of media hype from certain celebrity endorsements as well. All this media attention probably has sparked many people's weight loss inspiration. According to Dr. Al Sears, however, if you've purchased a Hoodia product, you may have been scammed. In a recent newsletter, Dr. Sears talked about Hoodia. "For an estimated 20,000 years, the native Bushmen have used Hoodia to kill their appetite on long hunting trips." He tells us that Hoodia is a plant from the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa which has made a name for itself as Nature's "diet herb." Researchers discovered that this particular succulent has a molecule previously unknown to science, which they named P57. P57 sends a signal to your brain telling you that you’re full. This full feeling usually lasts the whole day, which means that you consume fewer calories and can avoid eating the foods that make you fat. Weight loss can be dramatic using this plant. The CBS news program 60 Minutes featured a segment on Hoodia. In it, Lesley Stahl went to Africa with a team to see if it actually worked. After trying Hoodia, Stahl claimed she had no appetite all day. In fact, she had no desire to eat or drink during that time. In addition, not only did she say that Hoodia worked, she also said that unlike most diet pills, Hoodia produced no after effects - "no upset stomach, no funny taste, no heart palpitations." This is the claim of the Hoodia diet pill sellers... no side effects, and reduced appetite. So now I'm interested. In 2003, another team from the BBC went to the Kalahari and tried Hoodia, starting a media frenzy over the plant's supposed ability to suppress appetite. In their story Sampling the Kalahari Hoodia diet They reported that "partial then full appetite returned slowly after 24 hours." It's no wonder, then, that Dr. Sears tells us that Hoodia seems to be a dieter’s dream. So what's the problem? The problem, Dr. Sears says, is that it’s "unlikely that you will be able to benefit from a Hoodia supplement anytime soon." Why? Well, the drug company Pfizer was involved in the initial research, but they decided it would not be practical to create a synthetic version of P57. There's been only one clinical, human trial of Hoodia back in 2001. The study involved overweight, but otherwise healthy people. One group received a P57 extract from Hoodia and a second group received a placebo. Now listen to this... the P57 group consumed about 1,000 calories a day less than those in the control group! How's your weight loss inspiration now? Now here comes the problem. There's a problem exporting Hoodia out of South Africa, so finding a legitimate Hoodia product is not so easy. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of "bogus Internet companies" that have cropped up, claiming to have “the real thing.” The fact is when their products are tested, they typically either contain no Hoodia at all, or less than one tenth of one percent of the active ingredient. One review found that at least half of the products claiming to contain Hoodia did not. It's been estimated that up to 80 percent of Hoodia products are fraudulent. And so, our high hopes fade. Dr. Sears advises caution here, and he says that his "Wellness Research Foundation is currently looking for a reliable source of real Hoodia." When they find a legitimate source for a supplement with significant levels of the active ingredient, they will test it and publish the results. And now for the real dose of weight loss inspiration. If you have the motivation, dieting will work to lose weight in the short term for sure. Dr. Sears tells us, however, that the most effective strategy by far for losing weight over the long term is to boost your metabolism with exercise. Jump from Weight Loss Inspiration back to Inspiration Jump from Weight Loss Inspiration back to the home page of Inspirational Sayings in Action
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