My goal is to equip you with the knowledge to become a more informed consumer and dramatically increase your chances of buying a quality hoodia product rather than one of the many fraudulent ones floating around the Internet, or even found in retail stores.

Before we discuss product labeling, let’s talk first about why there are so many hoodia scam products.

Here are the biggest reasons you’re hard pressed to find pure hoodia gordonii products:

1. Hoodia gordonii is a rare plant that grows natively only in Southern Africa. The plant takes many years (6 to 7) before reaching maturity….the state at which it can be harvested and used for its anti-obesity effects. This limits the supply.
2. Hoodia is a protected plant and its trade is governed by International law. Something called a Hoodia CITES certificate is needed to export it legally out of South Africa. This selectively granted permit limits the supply even further for us in the Western world.
3. Media attention from some of the biggest print sources and TV shows — including the BBC, CBS, The Today Show, Oprah, and more — have all covered the appetite suppressing effects of pure hoodia gordonii, which has lead to a huge surge in demand.And whenever there is a huge demand for a product with a naturally limited supply, fraudulent products will inevitably flood the market. Let’s face it, fast buck artists have been around from the beginning to time and will probably be around till the end of time too.
4. There are many kinds of hoodia plant, but only the hoodia gordonii species contains the weight loss active ingredient everybody is looking for.
5. Hoodia is not regulated by the FDA and, therefore, no testing is required for the products to hit the shelves or be sold online.

We also want to emphasize that your concern for finding a quality hoodia product should not just be focussed on the Internet. In fact, Whole Foods Market, a large high end grocery store chain has pulled some hoodia products off its shelves on concerns about quality.

So caution about finding pure hoodia gordonii should extend to retail outlets as well, such as health food stores, supplement sellers like GNC, and others. In short, just because it’s sold in a store doesn’t mean it’s going to be better quality.

Now, let’s talk about one of the most deceptive claims made by some hoodia product sellers.

As we mentioned above, there are many kinds of hoodia plant. Since only the hoodia gordonii species has the anti-obesity effects, and is expensive and hard to get, some unscrupulous companies will use any hoodia plant they can get their hands on, and claim their product contain “pure hoodia.”

And, yes, it may contain pure hoodia….it’s just not pure hoodia gordonii and, therefore, absolutely worthless to you if you are looking to lose weight.

Another thing to be aware of is buying products that are made from the “whole hoodia gordonii plant.”

This is because approximately 40% of the plant contains no active ingredient….such as the skin, fibrous material, flowers, pulpy leaves, etc. To reduce the cost of making the product (and therefore reducing any potential effectiveness for you as a weight loss aid) they make their products from the whole plant.

However, we wouldn’t call this a scam if they are advertising pure hoodia gordonii made from whole plant, but it’s something to be aware of since we wouldn’t want to pay for 40% fillers ourselves.

By contrast, some companies will produce hoodia concentrates, which, in our opinion, are better.

A concentrate can be produced by taking the hoodia gordonii plant and placing it into an alcohol solution. When the alcohol is removed, it removes a great deal of the fillers with it, leaving a higher amount of the core of the plant, which is where the active ingredient is.

This concentrate is then used to make the product.

When you see a 10:1 on a hoodia product label, this means 10 grams of the whole hoodia plant was used to make 1 gram of what goes into the product.

Another thing to be aware of is that some companies will advertise their products to contains pure hoodia gordonii, but if you look at the label, you will see other ingredients in there….usually stimulants that are used to increase your body’s metabolism.

Again, this is not a scam because some people do want to buy a hoodia product that uses caffeine stimulants that may increase the potential weight loss benefits of the product.

On the other hand, a lot of people are looking strictly for pure hoodia gordonii without any stimulants because they don’t react well to these stimulants — they can cause you to feel nervous, jittery, give you elevated heart rates, and more.

Lastly, because a Hoodia CITES certificate is needed for export of the hoodia gordonii plant, you should try to stick to vendors that display a copy of a Hoodia CITES certificate on their website to increase the chances of you buying a quality pure hoodia gordonii product.

This is not foolproof, however, since the more clever and unethical companies could conceivably counterfeit the CITES certificate.

With the aforementioned facts and points to keep in mind, you’ll increase your chances of buying a real pure hoodia gordonii product.

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Nigel Crawhall, a linguist and interpreter, hired an experienced tracker who was a local aboriginal San, to help find the succulent plant. His name was Toppies Kruiper.

Kruiper led the 60 Minutes crews out into a hoodia-growing area of the Kalahari. When Stahl asked him if he ate hoodia, Kruiper (through the interpreter) replied, “I really like to eat them when the new rains have come. Then they’re really quite delicious.”

When the crew and journalists located a plant, Kruiper sliced off a stalk looking like some kind of small cucumber. He took off the sharp spines. Leslie Stahl, the brave one, ate it. She described the taste as “a little cucumbery in texture, but not bad.”

Stahl suffered no “side effects”; that is, no funny taste in her mouth, no queasy stomach, no heart palpitations, no nuthin’. And, she felt no hunger throughout the day, not even at the times of her usual eating hours. She also felt no need or desire to drink anything throughout the day in the desert. “I’d have to say it did work,” said Stahl.

Hoodia might be new to modern Western civilization, but the San, indigenous to southern Africa, have been chewing the succulent stems and leaves for possibly more than 100,000 years. They know what’s good and what’s not in their region of the planet. Some of them still live in old traditional huts, and still cook “Bush food” gathered from the desert the old-fashioned way.

The first Western scientific investigation of the plant was conducted at South Africa’s national laboratory. Because the San were known to eat hoodia, it was included in a study of indigenous foods.

“What they found was when they fed it to animals, the animals ate it and lost weight,” says Dr. Richard Dixey, the head of an English pharmaceutical company called Phytopharm that is now researching and developing weight-loss products based on hoodia. Hoodia’s potential application as an appetite suppressant was not immediately obvious, however. “It took them a long time. In fact, the original research was done in the mid 1960s,” says Dixey.

60 Minutes visited one of Phytopharm’s hoodia plantations in South Africa, one of the many that the company will need if it’s to meet the expected demand for its product. Plantation agronomist Simon MacWilliam is charged with growing a billion portions a year of hoodia, within just a couple of years. He acknowledges that beginning the plantation has been quite a challenge. “The problem is we’re dealing with a novel crop. It’s a plant we’ve taken out of the wild and we’re starting to grow it, says MacWilliam. “So we have no experience. So it’s different? diseases and pests which we have to deal with.” However, “We’re very confident of [growing enough to meet demand],” he says. “We have got an expansion program which is going to be 100s of acres. And we’ll be able ? ready to meet the demand.”

This could be huge due to the fact of civilization’s obesity epidemic. Phytopharm’s current objective is to get meal-replacement hoodia products on supermarket shelves by 2008.

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Fact -1: There are several species of Hoodia. Hoodia Gordonii in particular, is a rare plant that grows in South Africa.

Fact -2: Hoodia Gordonii is difficult to grow and only grows under certain climatic conditions that the South African region offers.

Fact -3: Hoodia Gordonii is on the Red List of endangered species–meaning–it may become extinct in the near future.

Fact -4: Only Hoodia Gordonii has the molecule that effectively suppresses one’s appetite.

Fact -5: Because of its scarcity, authentic Hoodia is expensive; so if you see Hoodia in ads advertised for $20-30.00 per bottle, close your wallet and run!

Fact -6: The current supply of pure Hoodia is quickly diminishing; thus, it’s growing tougher to find 100% pure Hoodia any where.

Fact -7: Because of the rising demand for Hoodia and the fast depleting supply of the real stuff, many dishonest vendors are brazenly lying in their promotional ads and selling either fake or inferior Hoodia Gordonii under popular brand names. Be extremely careful which Hoodia product you consider ordering.

Fact -8: The FDA does not regulate the supply of real Hoodia which means that you can easily end up buying fake Hoodia at your local health store or online.

Fact -9: There exists an overabundance of counterfeit Hoodia in comparison to the 100% pure stuff available through a few honest vendors.

Your absolute best bet to avoid buying fake or inferior Hoodia is simply to properly educate yourself about this amazing plant before you place your first or next order.

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Reason: There is no known side effect and it has been used for a long time by the indigenous populations of Southern Africa, who infrequently use these plants for treating indigestion and small infections.

2- I love Hoodia Gordonii as a secret weapon in the war against obesity and fat accumulation.

Reason: If hunger stops, you don?t feel you need to eat so you might as well succeed where every diet fail.

3- I love Hoodia Gordonii for the business opportunity for people who like to work from home or make money online helping others achieving their dreams.

Reason: As per seen on many TV shows and magazine, Hoodia diet pills are easy to sell, very affordable and of a great help for people health and weight problems. It is what I call a fair exchange. It feels great when you get testimonials from successful dieters. It?s not only a matter of big bucks!

4- I love Hoodia Gordonii for its low price.

Reason: If you look anywhere on the web, you?ll find great offer from different companies and they all are selling their products to an advantageous price compare to other weight loss programs.

5- I love Hoodia Gordonii when it comes in lollypops or pills.

Reason: It is so easy to take! Forget about the drink you have to make, the hunger you have to get over and all the products you need to ingest. Take a couple of pills a day and it suppresses appetite. Try it for 30 days and see how many pounds you lost.

6- I love Hoodia Gordonii because it sends a signal to your brain that says “you’ve had enough to eat”.

Reason: This emotional trigger allowed test subjects to eat an average of 1,500 calories less per day without trying to diet. They stopped eating because they were satisfied.

7- I love Hoodia Gordonii when you have everything to lose?

Reason: Being overweight is not what we would call a perfect life. The San Bushmen of the Kalahari, one of the world’s oldest and most primitive tribes, had been eating the Hoodia for thousands of years, to stave off hunger during long hunting trips. Now, you can use it to hunt your new look as it helps reducing calorie intake by 1/3 and making you feel content.

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Reason: There is no known side effect and it has been used for a long time by the indigenous populations of Southern Africa, who infrequently use these plants for treating indigestion and small infections.

2.   I love Hoodia Gordonii as a secret weapon in the war against obesity and fat accumulation.

Reason: If hunger stops, you don?t feel you need to eat so you might as well succeed where every diet fail.

3.   I love Hoodia Gordonii for the business opportunity for people who like to work from home or make money online helping others achieving their dreams.

Reason: As per seen on many TV shows and magazine, Hoodia diet pills are easy to sell, very affordable and of a great help for people health and weight problems. It is what I call a fair exchange. It feels great when you get testimonials from successful dieters. It?s not only a matter of big bucks!

4.   I love Hoodia Gordonii for its low price.

Reason: If you look anywhere on the web, you?ll find great offer from different companies and they all are selling their products to an advantageous price compare to other weight loss programs.

5- I love Hoodia Gordonii when it comes in lollypops or pills.

Reason: It is so easy to take! Forget about the drink you have to make, the hunger you have to get over and all the products you need to ingest. Take a couple of pills a day and it suppresses appetite. Try it for 30 days and see how many pounds you lost.

6.   I love Hoodia Gordonii because it sends a signal to your brain that says “you’ve had enough to eat”.

Reason: This emotional trigger allowed test subjects to eat an average of 1,500 calories less per day without trying to diet. They stopped eating because they were satisfied.

7.   I love Hoodia Gordonii when you have everything to lose?

Reason: Being overweight is not what we would call a perfect life. The San Bushmen of the Kalahari, one of the world’s oldest and most primitive tribes, had been eating the Hoodia for thousands of years, to stave off hunger during long hunting trips. Now, you can use it to hunt your new look as it helps reducing calorie intake by 1/3 and making you feel content.

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