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Hoodia As An Aid To Weight Loss
By Roy Thomsitt
What Is Hoodia?
It is more than 2 years now since
hoodia became well known in the public domain. Television programmes
on both sides of the Atlantic in 2003/4 saw to that.
If you have not heard of hoodia
before, or have but do not really know what it is, let me explain.
Hoodia is a cactus-like succulent. I have seen it described as an
ugly cactus, but as cacti go, I would say it is about average in the
looks department. Not that its looks really matter; you will not be
going up to it and giving it a loving hug. You might, however, want
to give it a little bite, whether out of curiosity, or because you
have heard it can help you lose weight.
I should be a little more precise
before I continue. The hoodia plant that has recently been
associated with weight loss potential is hoodia gordonii, one of a
large group of succulent plants called Asclepiadaceae.
How Can
Hoodia Help You
Lose Weight?
Hoodia Gordonii grows in
the Kalahari desert in Africa, and has done for thousands of years.
It clearly thrives in very high temperatures, but it also takes many
years to mature. Also living in the same region are the San
Tribesmen, or Bushmen. The San are amongst the world’s oldest and
most primitive tribes.
The San have been eating hoodia
plants for thousands of years. Now, I am sure your vision of an
African desert tribe would not be anything like obese Americans or
Europeans, for whom
hoodia has been mooted as
a possible weight loss aid. In fact, you probably imagine quite the
opposite, a lithe and slender people struggling to survive on desert
morsels. You would be right.
How, then, can the San's inclusion
of hoodia in their diet have anything to do with weight loss aids?
The answer is in the reason they
have, for all those generations, been eating the hoodia cactus.
Their quest for food in the shifting sands of the
Kalahari Desert has always meant going on long hunting
expeditions. Instant gratification for hunger pangs was not usually
on the menu, so with their hunting trips lasting for days, they ate
hoodia gordonii because it suppressed those hunger pangs for long
periods. No hunger pangs meant no overwhelming desire to eat. That
made the whole hunting process that much more bearable.
You are probably now beginning to
see how hoodia might come to the aid of the obese and overweight.
Those who have trouble controlling their eating urges may have a
close ally in
Hoodia Gordonii. If a dose
of the plant can suppress their desire to eat, to stop them feeling
hungry at meal times, then surely they will find it easier to cut
back on calorie intake?
That was the theory that sparked
scientific studies of
Hoodia Gordonii.
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