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Hoodia -
Is it safe?
Wednesday, November 30, 2009
Cinda Chima
Hoodia
enthusiasts point to its long history of use by the San people as
evidence of its safety. Others are more cautious.
"It has a history of traditional use, but
we are choosing to use it in a higher dose and in different ways, "
says Dr. Robert Bonakdar of the Scripps Center for Integrative
Medicine in LaJolla, Calif. "So many supplements have not panned out
or have been shown to be unsafe."
What kind of research would be convincing?
The gold standard is a randomized trial with follow-up to show
long-term efficacy and safety. But not many supplements have this
kind of research behind them.
Although Phytopharm has patented the use of
hoodia 20:1 extract
as a weight-loss supplement, natural plant material is not
patentable. Says Bonakdar, "It's hard to patent an herb and put it
in a product that's profitable enough to pay for the research. But
you can still do good pilot data to show safety at some level."
The FDA is unimpressed. In a
response to a New Dietary Ingredient Notification by Awareness
Corp., a dietary supplement manufacturer, the FDA said, "The
information in your submission does not provide an adequate basis to
conclude that your product containing
Hoodia gordonii
powder will reasonably be expected to be safe." FDA goes on to say
that products containing
hoodia
might be considered to be adulterated and prohibited in interstate
commerce.
Yet
hoodia is
everywhere. I asked FDA spokeswoman Kim Rawlings how that could be.
Says Rawlings, "We haven't found that [hoodia]
is unsafe for its intended use, but the applications haven't shown
that it is safe." The burden is on the FDA to prove that a product
is unsafe after it's on the market through reports of adverse
effects.
Is it really
hoodia?
Under current regulations, no
government agency oversees the accuracy of ingredient labeling on
dietary supplements. Hoodia is a slow-growing endangered desert
shrub that is difficult to propagate. Therefore, there's a real
question whether many of the
hoodia
supplements on the market contain any
hoodia
at all.
In its story, the BBC reported
that it tested the best-selling
hoodia
supplement and found it contained no
hoodia.
Unilever's Gorin says they have analyzed many of the
hoodia products
on the market and found they contained little, if any, plant
material. A class-action suit was filed Feb. 23, 2004, in the New
York Supreme Court against the makers of the dietary supplement,
Trimspa, asserting that it does not contain P57, the active appetite
suppressant ingredient.
"It's the Wild, Wild West out there," says
Grotto. "It's just not a very well-regulated industry."
Supplement manufacturers who act
responsibly might be at a disadvantage. Says Unilever's Gorin,
"Consumers are being misled by claims that offer help for weight
control which is not being delivered. If products like this are
found to be disappointing, it's that much harder to persuade people
when our product comes on the market."
Do you have questions?
This article launches a series in which
I'll discuss other popular weight-loss supplements and offer advice
on supplement safety. Is there a dietary supplement you are curious
about? Have you had an experience, positive or negative, with
weight-loss supplements? Write to me at Nutri-News via food@pd.com
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