Can Chewing Hoodia Gum Really Suppress Appetite?
April 30, 2009 by Reagan Miers
Filed under weight loss
Hoodia gum is one in a line of specialty hoodia products that have hit the market in the past couple years. Other products that have hit the market include hoodia chews and hoodia pops. What all of these specialty products have in common is that they all claim to have the ability to be highly effective and almost instant appetite suppressants. The idea behind these products is that if you can control your appetite, you’ll eat less and you’ll lose weight.
Now this may sound like a dream come true to many of you, but I certainly have my doubts. For a start I do not believe that any of these hoodia gum products actually contain genuine hoodia gordonii. Hoodia gordonii is a plant that is found only in South Africa, and contains a molecule called P57 which can actually trick the brain into thinking you are full. Even though there are many varieties of hoodia, only hoodia gordonii contains this molecule.
There is a worldwide shortage of hoodia gordonii at present because the supply simply cannot meet the demand. This means that genuine hoodia gordonii is very expensive. Hoodia supplements have been increasing in popularity over the past few years, with many manufacturers deciding to jump on the bandwagon offering everything from hoodia gum to hoodia tea. Many companies though have cut corners to increase their profit margins by either diluting the amount of hoodia gordonii their product contains, or by using a different form of hoodia, so they can still claim to be a hoodia product.
The reason these companies have been able to get away with this is because hoodia supplements are not regulated. It is up to the consumer to get educated on the facts about hoodia products such as hoodia gum to make sure they don’t get scammed. The majority of the hoodia supplements and products on the market today are fake - meaning they contain very little, if any, hoodia gordonii. One expert says that the percentage of fake hoodia supplements could be as high as 80%!
You can help protect yourself by looking for two important pieces of information to ensure that the product you are buying is really genuine. You should look for CITES certificates and independent lab test results. The companies selling hoodia products should display these documents on their websites. If you cannot find these, then the product on sale is highly likely to be a fake which does not contain authentic hoodia gordonii.
Even though I have researched several hoodia gum websites, I have yet to find a site that clearly displays these documents for their customers. This leads me to believe that the products they are marketing do not contain any hoodia gordonii, even though they are advertised as being an immediate and powerful suppressant for your appetite. And if the product does not contain hoodia gordonii, then it will have virtually no ability to suppress your hunger at all.
Just for a minute let’s suppose that these products did actually contain authentic hoodia gordonii. I still doubt they would be effective at reducing your appetite because they simply would not contain the amounts of hoodia needed. Hoodia gum products usually state that they contain between 20-150mg of hoodia per stick. That’s nowhere near enough to suppress appetite.
Experts and doctors agree that in most cases to be an effective appetite suppressant a product must deliver about 3,000mg of hoodia gordonii each day. It’s true that some people can get away with taking as little as 800-1,500mg of hoodia per day, and still experience appetite suppression, but even if this is the case with you, you would still need to get through a number of packs of hoodia gum before you reached this level.
The other thing that worries me about these hoodia products is that on the ingredients list, they mostly all claim to be made from concentrated hoodia gordonii extract. The thing is, there is only one company that actually has the legal authority to carry out this extraction process and that company is called Phytopharm.
Phytopharm is a British pharmaceutical company that was given the patent to extract P57 for use in weight loss products. They have spent several years and millions of dollars trying to figure out how to extract P57 to use in weight loss products on a mass scale. Despite the time and money spent, they still haven’t been able to do it. How then can a hoodia gum product claim to use a hoodia extract?
At the end of the day I am still sceptical about hoodia gum products. I doubt they will be effective at controlling appetite because the vast majority of them will not contain any hoodia gordonii, and those that do will only have a very tiny amount. If you are still wanting to try hoodia gordonii though I would highly recommend that you stick with the established hoodia diet tablets.
