Weightloss: The latest diet miracle from the african desert tricks your brain into thinking you're full

Researchers at Brown University Medical School performed studies in 2004. In these studies "Zucker Rats" were fed Hoodia. Zucker Rats are special rats that are bred to be obese and diabetic. Amazingly Zucker Rats that were fed Hoodia lost weight and even saw some reversal of their diabetes. Anything that can stop a rat from eating is very significant! (References Below)

The weight loss industry has a new rising star. It’s called hoodia gordonii. And it’s no wonder hoodia is getting so much attention. Apparently it’s a non-stimulant that induces weight loss by taking away the feeling of hunger without limiting food intake, changing the diet, or adding an exercise regimen. It tricks your brain into thinking you’re full so you eat less.

But it’s not just your brain that can be tricked when it comes to hoodia. In preparing this story, we learned that a number of hoodia products do not contain the only variety of the plant shown to suppress your appetite. Luckily, there are some sure-fire ways to know you’re getting the real thing. For a guaranteed hoodia gordonii product, try Hoodia Supreme, available for the first time in the UK.

Weightloss: Native food turned modern appetite suppressant

For thousands of years, hoodia gordonii has been a native food of the San tribesmen in the South African Kalahari Desert. In an interview with ABC News, Andries Steenkamp, a spokesman for the San people, said, “I learned how to eat it from my forefathers. It is my food, my water and also a medicine for me.” He also said, “We San use the plant during hunting to fight off the pain of hunger and thirst.”

The awareness of hoodia gordonii as a traditional food stems back to the 1930s when a Dutch anthropologist discovered the use of it during the San’s long hunting trips. But hoodia’s potential as an appetite suppressant didn’t become clear until the 1990s when South Africa’s National Laboratory tested it as part of a study of indigenous foods. As part of the screening process, extracts of plants were made and tested for toxic effects. The scientists isolated a molecule they called P57 and found that it caused a decrease in appetite and body weight in laboratory animals – and the decrease didn’t appear to be due to any sort of toxic effect.

Weightloss: Mind games

Typically, when you eat, your body produces glucose, which sends a signal to the hypothalamus indicating when you’re full. Hoodia appears to act the same way, but the P57 molecule is almost 10,000 times stronger than glucose. So even when you only eat small amounts of food, your body thinks it’s full.

Scientists at the Brown University Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island, conducted a series of experiments to discover how P57 worked in the brain to produce the feeling of fullness. They injected minuscule amounts of P57 directly into the brains of normal, healthy rats. In multiple trials with the injected rats, food intake was reduced by 50 to 60 per cent during the first 24 hours after the injections, and the effect lasted for about 24 to 48 hours.1

The researchers determined that P57 appears to increase ATP (energy-carrying molecule found in the cells of all living things) levels in the hypothalamus. In the rats that were fed a normal diet, they found that injecting the brain with P57 increased the hypothalamic ATP (energy) levels two-fold as compared with controls. Since ATP is created in the body by the metabolism of food, it would seem that less food should result in less ATP unless some other factor temporarily stimulates increased production of ATP. And apparently that’s what P57 does. When these underfed rats’ brains were injected with P57, their hypothalamic ATP levels rose to about normal. On the other hand, the ATP levels in the control rats remained low.2

In 2001, Phytopharm, the biopharmaceutical company that owned the license for the P57 extract, completed a very small double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study in 18 overweight but otherwise healthy volunteers, using an extract of hoodia gordonii. Large doses of extract caused a statistically significant reduction in the average daily calorie intake. In addition, researchers also observed a statistically significant reduction in body fat content as compared to the placebo group after two weeks.3

In 2003, BBC-2 news correspondent Tom Mangold reported on his own experience with hoodia during a trip to Africa. He said, “At about 6 p.m., I ate [a piece of hoodia] about half a banana size, and later so did my cameraman. Soon after, we began the drive back to Capetown. The plant is said to have a feel-good, almost aphrodisiac quality, and I have to say, we felt good. But more significantly, we did not even think about food. Our brains really were telling us we were full. It was a magnificent deception. Dinnertime came and went. We reached our hotel at about midnight and went to bed without food. And the next day, neither of us wanted nor ate breakfast. I ate lunch but without appetite and very little pleasure. Partial then full appetite returned slowly after 24 hours.”4

Weightloss: More than just a weight loss pill

Deb Vickery, a representative at Stella Labs, an established US supplier of hoodia gordonii, suggests that perhaps the biggest benefits will be seen in the morbidly obese, whose weight problem is compounded by depression. Many people experience a “feel-good” effect with the native plant in its natural form. Vickery says it gives you an overall sense of well-being.

And as if that’s not enough, imagine feeling good, controlling your weight, and reversing diabetes. Obesity and type 2 diabetes go hand-in-hand, and weight loss in obese individuals tends to reverse the symptoms of diabetes.

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