Is The Hoodia Diet Safe? Real Advice From A Skeptic

Is the Hoodia diet safe? This is a common question many face when they hear about Hoodia. Its heavily advertised and mentioned frequently on the television so naturally many are very skeptical over Hoodia, myself included. The first time I heard about it was on a CBS special on 60 minutes talking about the benefits of using it. I looked further into the supplement and found some interesting things out. I hope you enjoy!

Studies

From my research, I couldn't really find cases of any side effects users were experiencing when taking Hoodia. I found a ton of sources that showed that there was actually no negative effects of the supplement. Here are a few samples of the research I found...

The American Botanical Council, a non-profit research organization in Austin, Texas, conducted a study to examine the science behind Hoodia. Mark Blumenthal, the founder of the organization, stated that their organization has not received any reports from past consumers of safety problems with using Hoodia.

In the article "Sampling the Kalahari Hoodia diet" on the BBC news website, Tom Mangold stated that "It has no known side effects, and contains a molecule that fools your brain into believing you are full."

60 minutes did a report on Hoodia and also wrote an article called "African Plant May Help Fight Fat." Its correspondent Lesley Stahl stated "she had not after effects - no funny taste in her mouth, no queasy stomach, and no racing heart. She also wasn't hungry all day, even when she would normally have pang around mealtime. And, she had no desire to eat or drink the entire day."

What You Need To Understand:

From my research, it seems there are no known side effects of Hoodia, and that it actually works. The one important point that I kept reading in my research was that there is a scarce amount of Hoodia in South Africa. There are a ton of fake hoodia products that claim it is made of real hoodia. Since the plant is threatened of extinction, the South African government has put limits on its exports. This means that there are very few products that actually have real Hoodia. With the increasing worldwide demand of Hoodia, such a small supply, increasing limits being established by the South African government, currently available supplies of Hoodia aren't guaranteed. This is why authentic Hoodia products are heavily sought after, because the promise of their future availability is questionable.

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