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Hoodia may be a new weight loss phenomenon to those of us outside of Africa, but to the native Bushmen of South
Africa, the natural appetite-suppressing abilities of the Hoodia plant, or more specifically the Hoodia Gordonii
species, come as nothing new.

Hoodia has been used for ages by those African natives while out in the bush to stave off hunger. By 1977, it was recognized that that same effect could be highly useful as a diet aid or dietary supplement for weight loss and appetite control. In 1977, the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) isolated the key ingredient in Hoodia and patented it for use in diet aides.

The CSIR's ingredient, dubbed P57 and licensed to pharmaceutical companies for mainstream development, has been studied ever since to maximize delivery; hoodia has been incorporated into a variety of forms, from snack bars to shakes and easy-to-use hoodia weight loss pills. But since the big pharmaceutical companies have had difficulty producing large quantities of the synthetic form of the active ingredient in Hoodia, the most successful Hoodia products are those that directly use the plant's extract. A natural botanical extract with natural weight-loss abilities.

How Hoodia Diet Pills Work

Hoodia offers such promise as a weight loss supplement because it has been proven for thousands of years in the African bush to control hunger and therefore, weight associated with overeating; of course, overeating is much less of a problem for indigenous African tribes – they use it more to stop feeling hungry while they hunt for more food or travel over long distances. But for indulgent Western cultures, Hoodia can help stop a growing health epidemic – obesity.

Hoodia has one elemental difference from other mainstream appetite suppressants; Hoodia is not a stimulant. The stimulant effect of conventional weight loss supplements is what causes the many harmful and potentially dangerous side-effects of using diet pills. Stimulants like Phenfen and Ephedra have been anned because of their dangerous side-effects.

Hoodia acts simply as a kind of messaging system in the brain, not by increasing heart rates and the like to decrease hunger. The active ingredient in the Hoodia extract works similarly to glucose. It tells the brain that you are full – regardless of how much, or more importantly how little, you have eaten. And when the brain is satisfied, so, too, is your body.

Hoodia continues to show promise within the weight-loss community. Until now, no reliable, long-term diet solution has been found. And with obesity rates doubling over the last twenty or thirty years, the modern world really needs a new diet aid. Hoodia looks to be that aid. The simple cactus-like plant that native Africans have used for thousands of years is set to be the weight-control miracle of the present and future.