The New Diet Pill – Coming Soon To A Little Shop Of Horrors Near You

Posted December 31st, 2006 at 1:18 pm in Low Carb

I found this interesting article in the December 29th issue of the Arizona Republic Newspaper; Kalahari's hoodia a darling of world dieting industry written by Robyn Dixon of the LA Times. It motivated me to add my comments in rebuttal to the ridiculous amount of buzz that this supposed new "diet wonder drug" is causing.

MARIENTAL, Namibia -

In the article Ms. Dixon describes a plant that she claims resembles something from the Day of the Triffids or some other science-fiction creation: a squat succulent with thick, spiky arms, purple fleshy petals and seedpods like rhino horns. But I liken it to Audrey II, the blood drinking monster plant from outer space that gave Rick Moranis so much grief in the hit movie; Little Shop of Horrors. FEED ME!

Hoodia Gordonii is no beauty, but this humble plant is Africa's latest cash crop, priced almost like a narcotic at $40. an ounce. The plant which grows wild in the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa, was once used by indigenous tribes to suppress hunger and thirst when hunting. Now, as Dixon points out, it's the darling of the international dieting industry and a search for the word nets about 14 million responses! Once again it seems that the overweight among us have discovered a new miracle pill that takes the place of balanced nutrition, self-control and exercise.

The "get rich quick at the expense of the fat and desperate" folks have found a new way to drink our blood just like Audrey II, a metaphor used to illustrate the money that people will spend in the hopes of finding that miracle pill, the one that you take right before bedtime so that you get thin while you sleep. The demand for hoodia is so great that supplies of the plant have been severely compromised, smuggling is rife and farmers in southern Africa are trying to cash in on the trend. One hoodia farmer, Dougal Bassingthwaighte calls it "an impossible phenomenon that is too good to be true." International giant Unilever is licensed to commercialize hoodia but world-wide demand is far outstripping supply and there is a mad race on to get plants to the market. Does anyone remember the old adage; if it's too good to be true, it usually is? But in the hopes that maybe this time there is a pill that really does what it claims, for some, all common sense goes out the window. Unfortunately for farmer Doug the plants that he is currently cultivating as of this writing (some 130,000 seedlings) will take two years before they can be harvested. By that time the "hoodia" being peddled on the internet will have caused a heart attack or stroke, the FDA will have issued a ban and the the entire South Afican agricultural industry will be shut down by a class-action law suit. Use of Hoodia will taper off as all fads do and the impatient dieters of world will move on to the next great get-thin-by-taking-a-pill miracle drug, leaving farmer Doug stuck with a million pounds of Audrey II look-alikes. FEED ME!

This explosion of interest has not only put enormous pressure on the rare plant, already listed as an endangered species by international treaty, it has also put intense pressure on an embyonic market that could be a boon for Africans if allowed to grow at a natural and sustainable pace. However, we all know that when the potential exists for obtaining great riches for no work; scammers, theives and assorted others will allow NOTHING to grow at a natural and sustainable pace. I guess when all else fails they will have to revert back to the tried and true African method of making money; the Nigerian letter.

The craze seems to bring out the worst in people. The industry is rife with fierce competitive secrecy, quack products and illegal harvesting. A situation similar to the powder made from crushed rhino horn, supposedly an aphrodisiac and which has resulted in the tragic deaths of millions of rhinos whose hornless carcasses litter the African landscape. Next, authorities in South Africa fear, comes the inevitable interest of organized gangsters. Sorry guys, this has already happened. You know those spammers that clog up your email with anatrim and hoodia (as seen on Oprah!) spam where they promise you guaranteed results or your money back? Just what type of individuals do you think are behind this? And it's only a matter of time before hoodia farmers will have to hide and guard their crops like pot cultivators. Shipments of the plant will be hi-jacked by fellow Africans who are so poor that they will jump at the easy money offered by gangsters. It's going to get ugly out there and I would respectfully request that anyone receiving this type of email would be wise enough to know that there are no "quick fixes" for sustained and healthy weight loss and that they are only risking their health and their financial well being by supporting these people with purchases of this garbage. They should consign these offers to the trashcan where they belong. Our African friends have enough problems.

All of this fuss over a plant which has not yet been proven as a diet aid by scientific methods and that is still classified as one of grandma's home remedies. Pills and capsules claiming to contain hoodia are widely available in the United States online and at stores that sell herbal supplements and appear to be selling like hotcakes. Such products are exempt from U.S. Government regulations that require drugs to be tested for safety and effectiveness before being sold. Now I ask you, why anyone would want to ingest something that is untested and unproved is beyond me. I like to think that there are good reasons for testing the safety and effectiveness of our drugs before they are put on the shelves of our drugstores and pharmacies. If it isn't approved, it shouldn't be sold, period! It's bad enough when we have an approved drug that is accused of causing harmful side-effects like heart attacks and strokes. I could weigh 500 pounds and wouldn't try this stuff. Remember Phen Phen?

Our African farmer, Mr. Bassingthwaighte claims it works because as a kid he would take it while traveling to and from other farms and people told him to "eat this, it will take away your hunger and thirst." I remember as a kid that my Dad would blow smoke in my ear to ease the pain of an earache…and it worked! But how much the power of suggestion had to do with this I can only guess. It may well have worked for Doug but these days you never know what's in a capsule offered on the internet, why take the chance?

Ms Dixon has done her homework on this piece; there are three types of hoodia that contain the active ingredient P57: hoodia gordonii, the most common, which has a bitter taste; the similar-looking hoodia currorii; and hoodia officianalis, a smaller and rarer plant, preferred by indigenous Namibian tribes because it tastes sweeter. Farmer Bassingthwaighte sees the last as having potential as an organically farmed salad vegetable. I can see it now, pre-washed bags of hoodia salad in my favorite produce department or health food store! But wouldn't they be cutting their own throats by offering this item, nobody would buy any other food! When will people wake up and find that hunger suppression is unhealthy? It's one thing for an African traveling by water buffalo to visit a cousin in a neighboring tribe due to having insufficient supplies of food and water and totally another for a person that lives in the land of plenty to take it because they can't control their urge to gorge on fast food.

South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research isolated and identified P57 and patented it in 1996, later licensing British firm Phytofarm to develop and commercialize it. The council argues that anyone who sells hoodia as a weight-reduction product outside their license would be infringing on their patent. Do you think that internet scammers give a hoot about patent infringement? Ha! All this means is that theoretically, those that buy this stuff can be busted.

In 1998, Pfizer signed a deal to develop the product but withdrew in 2003; a year later Unilever entered a licensing deal with Phytofarm. Under legal pressure from lawyers representing the San tribesman, Phytofarm later signed a royalty deal with them. Once again I must emphasize that scammers interested in the fast buck could care less about infringing on a royalty agreement or any other deal.

South Africa is the only African country exporting hoodia legally. Paul Gildenhuys of the Western Cape Conservation Authority said that the amount of hoodia exported to Europe and the U.S. under permit from that province more than doubled in the past year from 22 tons to 49 tons, raising suspicions that significant smuggling was going on. Duh! He said that there were reports of hoodia flowing through Western Cape province from other parts of South Africa or other countries. "The problem with the industry is that people are all trying to get their piece of the (hoodia) cake," he said.

The moral of this story is that there are no "miracle pills" out there that can take the place of nutritional alternatives to losing weight healthfully without the need to revert to unproven stuff like hoodia and anatrim while enriching the pockets of scammers. Our preferred method of sustained and healthy weight loss is the low carbohydrate nutritional approach. Programs like the South Beach and Atkins diets have been clinically proven to be safe and effective and more importantly; legal. $40. an ounce will buy a lot of healthy and great tasting low carb foods that will help you lose weight and satisfy your hunger – why would anyone waste this kind of money on an unproven and potentially dangerous shortcut? Check out the resources available to you via this website and others that support the low carb lifestyle.