Hoodia

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Independent investigation reveals trusted sources for buying hoodia gordonii pills for weight loss Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

More testing under way: We are now in the process of buying hoodia products from around the 'net and having them all subjected to rigorous lab analysis. This is a very expensive proposition (believe me), which will cost more than $6,000 to conduct. This is difficult because we don't actually sell any hoodia products, and so we have no way to recover those funds, but we're going to pursue it as a service to our readers nonetheless. The results will be shared here, and this list will be expanded to show the exact details of what we found. So stay tuned...

Consumer alert: con artists sell counterfeit hoodia gordonii as bogus weight loss pills Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

To make matters even more challenging, hoodia grown in South Africa under the San tribe's influence is required to be grown under organic conditions. That means they can't use pesticides. Entire crops have been known to vanish virtually overnight thanks to the ravages of various insects. All this means that if hoodia really catches on with the public -- and I think it will -- the supply will be even tighter for many years. Prices are going to go up, and eventually, only the wealthy may be able to afford the pills necessary to lose weight.

Hoodia gordonii is no miracle weight loss pill, health investigation reveals Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

Drink a lot of clean water, exercise regularly, lay off the refined carbs, and take hoodia in reasonable doses (I take around 30 drops of hoodia tincture each evening). And, as always, get some medical advice from a competent practitioner. If your goal is to lose weight, educate yourself about nutrition first. Do your homework. Be healthy, okay?

Consumer alert: con artists sell counterfeit hoodia gordonii as bogus weight loss pills Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

In all, this is a fairly high priced product, but then again, when you're selling real hoodia, the price has to be higher. With all the counterfeit products on the market out there, Hoodoba is one you can trust, and I've got the lab results to prove it. (Note: just to repeat, I have absolutely no financial involvement with this company, and I earn nothing from this recommendation.) More testing under way: We are now in the process of buying hoodia products from around the 'net and having them all subjected to rigorous lab analysis.

Google search box below to search for hoodia (which will bring up all the articles on hoodia available so far). Continue with part five.

Trim Spa weight loss supplement is formulated with effective ingredients Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

But, as much as hoodia can suppress your appetite, I've only found it to be effective in very large doses or when taken as a tincture. And the amount of hoodia in Trim Spa is relatively low -- it's only 150mg when you take two tablets. In my opinion, that's too low to have any effect at all. I was taking 1200 mg a day and still not seeing very much of an effect from the hoodia powder, and here in Trim Spa you're only getting a fraction of that. In my view, hoodia is listed here more for marketing purposes than as a highly effective appetite suppressant.

Independent investigation reveals trusted sources for buying hoodia gordonii pills for weight loss Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

In all, this is a fairly high priced product, but then again, when you're selling real hoodia, the price has to be higher. With all the counterfeit products on the market out there, Hoodoba is one you can trust, and I've got the lab results to prove it. (Note: just to repeat, I have absolutely no financial involvement with this company, and I earn nothing from this recommendation.) More testing under way: We are now in the process of buying hoodia products from around the 'net and having them all subjected to rigorous lab analysis.

Hoodia gordonii is no miracle weight loss pill, health investigation reveals Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

How I use hoodia With this said, it is notable that I still use hoodia, and here's how: I now use the tincture exclusively, and I use it in the evening to help control late-night cravings. Even though I'm skeptical about the safety of long-term use of this product, I consider it safe for occasional use -- but that's just my own opinion, and I know I have stronger liver function than most people. Your results may vary.

Hoodia Gordonii emerges as natural appetite suppressant with weight loss potential Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

In this part, we're exploring how hoodia works to control appetite and actually help people lose weight. Understanding hoodia is easier when you consider your own weight loss goals: how much easier do you think losing weight would be if you didn't have to battle hunger? For most people, that's the whole solution right there. Turn off the hunger and almost anybody can lose weight. If you have absolutely no craving for food, and your body isn't tricking you into eating another tub of ice cream by creating the illusion of hunger, then you've got the problem solved.

Hoodia gordonii update: Honest sellers, safety information and weight loss realities Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

Not from drug companies, nor from diet pill manufacturers, even if they're honest. hoodia will not magically cause you to become thin and athletic looking. Yes, it can take the edge off cravings and hunger, and thus it can be a helpful tool in conjunction with a serious weight loss program, but it's no magic pill. If you want a body that's fit, trim and healthy, it's going to take a whole lot more than swallowing some appetite suppressant pills. See my own pics if you're curious: I lost weight the hard way, the honest way.

Hoodia update: Counterfeit rate reaches 80 percent, but genuine hoodia is still available Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

There are companies that will post counterfeit CITES certificates -- Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, a document required to sell hoodia and verify that it has been obtained through legal channels. They can fake the lab tests by submitting a genuine batch for approval and then replacing it with adulterated material in the actual production run. They can steal CITES certificates from other companies and then use Photoshop to replace the company name.

I'm not going to name names, because there aren't enough lawyers in the world to defend me against the onslaught of legal claims that would be unleashed if I did; however, I can tell you I would only buy hoodia online through the sources that I've mentioned, or through any others that consistently pass the certification tests. How to know who to trust The problem is that it's really tough to know which companies to trust.

Hoodia fraud: Counterfeit hoodia gordonii weight loss pills dominate the market Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

It's not limited to the hoodia industry by any means. This sort of dishonesty is rampant in the pharmaceutical industry and in the insurance industry, which is now up for major criminal charges thanks to investigations done by Eliot Spitzer, attorney general of New York. There are also major problems in the construction industry, the energy industry and, of course, the financial industry. There are always people out there willing to cheat in order to make a buck.

Hoodia gordonii update: Honest sellers, safety information and weight loss realities Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

The campaign to discredit all herbs It doesn't mean hoodia won't find itself under fire by conventional medicine, of course. Remember ephedra? It was a perfectly safe Chinese herb that's now illegal to import, sell or prescribe to patients in the United States. It was used safely and effectively in Chinese Medicine for literally thousands of years, with no toxicity problems whatsoever. But when some American companies got their hands on it, they isolated the herb (which Chinese doctors never do), amplified its active chemicals, and sold them to consumers who started taking them by the handful.

Hoodia fraud: Counterfeit hoodia gordonii weight loss pills dominate the market Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

Just to repeat, the two companies that I absolutely DO trust, and who are selling genuine hoodia gordonii, are Hoodoba and Desert Burn. Other industries also suffer from fraud By the way, for some context here, this is not a unique problem for the nutritional supplement industry. In fact, if you look at the medical industry, the vast majority of money changing hands is fraudulent. California is suing 37 pharmaceutical companies.

I do know, at least with a high degree of certainty, that there are several legitimate hoodia gordonii products on the market. They include Desert Burn and Hoodoba. You can't go wrong buying these products. At the same time, I know the names of many other products that are absolutely counterfeit. I've spoken with some of the people at these companies, and I don't trust them. They sound like crooks, and they answer questions just like crooks would.

Well, the fact is, it costs me about $600 to run each test, and if there are 50 companies selling hoodia, that's $30,000 that I would have to spend on test results, while getting absolutely no return whatsoever. Frankly, I don't have $30,000 to spend on lab testing for a product that I don't even sell and that I make no commissions for. I have no way to even make back that $30,000, so that's simply not going to happen.

REPPED: This is an article about the market for hoodia gordonii, the diet pills used to suppress appetite and now being sold by a variety of companies. To begin this article, I have to tell you that I can't reveal everything I've discovered in this market.

There are always people out there willing to rip you off, and hopefully we can put some of those people behind bars and help clean up this hoodia industry so we can have honest products on the shelves. Do you want to know who the honest companies are? Keep reading this web site; I cover them all the time. I talk about honest companies like Amy's Kitchen, making organic frozen foods that are healthy and don't contain chemical additives, or Peaceful Planet, making wonderful rice protein energy shakes.

Hoodia gordonii update: Honest sellers, safety information and weight loss realities Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

These accusations against hoodia are completely out of touch with reality. When FDA-approved prescription drugs are killing 100,000 Americans each year (that's twenty times as many American soldiers who have died in Iraq), when over-the-counter painkillers kill another 16,500 Americans each year from gastrointestinal bleeding, and when routine medicines like statin drugs or blood pressure medications cause severe liver damage, brain damage and heart damage, it is obscenely disproportionate to suggest that a ground-up succulent is somehow the greater danger.

The Big Fat Health and Fitness Lie Craig Pepin-Donat See book keywords and concepts

The other problem is that, according to the hoodia story, the Bushmen remove the spine and peel off the outer skin of the plant before eating it, because the inside of the plant is where the appetite suppressing part of the plant is located. They also eat hoodia directly from the plant instead of processing it into a pill. Manufacturers desperate to profit from your desire to take advantage of this miracle succulent use just the skin and roots of the plant (which do not suppress appetite), and legally claim their product contains hoodia.

Diet Pill Supplement Scam: Two-Thirds of hoodia Gordonii Pills Sold In the United States Are Counterfeit Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

The laboratory tests, conducted by Alkemist Pharmaceuticals in Costa Mesa, CA, show that approximately two-thirds of the tested supplements contain no identifiable hoodia gordonii according to two plant authentication tests: High-Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Many samples were furthermore subjected to microscopy with digital photo documentation. For each specimen, an unopened, sealed plastic bottle was delivered to Alkemist Pharmaceuticals. The batch number and expiration date, if printed on the bottle, was photo-documented.

These tactics include: Counterfeiting lab results. Truth Publishing has learned that at least one laboratory exists in the United States that will generate an authentic-looking certificate of analysis on practically any sample as long as the "testing" is paid for. Bait-and-switch tactics. Many brokers will attain a genuine sample of hoodia gordonii, send that sample for testing, acquire a certificate of authenticity, and then fill their bulk orders with something entirely different. Cutting the real product with fillers.

In contrast, if you do take up a sensible exercise program, and you combine it with an effective appetite suppressant such as hoodia gordonii, your results are likely to be accelerated. Healthy weight loss should never exceed two pounds of body fat per week. Any weight loss beyond that is likely to include loss of lean body mass (muscle) and skeletal mass (bone density). Most nutritionists recommend sustained weight loss of no more than 1-2 pounds of body fat per week. Full hydration (drinking lots of water) during any weight loss effort is very important.

This proposal was accepted in January 2005 and it is now prohibited to trade in any parts and derivatives of any hoodia species without a permit. A permit can only be obtained from the relevant permitting authorities of each country and can only be issued for trade in cultivated plants or wild plants where the trade can be shown not to have a detrimental effect on wild populations (a CITES non-detriment finding).

Finally, it is important to realize that even when taking genuine hoodia gordonii supplements, no pill will cause you to lose weight, all by itself, unless you combine it with sensible changes in your lifestyle that include moderate exercise and avoidance of certain food ingredients such high glycemic ingredients (sugars, white flour, etc.) and artificial fats (hydrogenated oils and trans fats).

The listing of hoodia makes provision for exemption from CITES permits where traders participate in controlled harvesting and production systems in collaboration with the CITES Management Authorities of Botswana/Namibia/South Africa, but no such agreements are yet in place. Importing countries must ensure that a valid CITES export permit has been issued by the country of origin for any trade.

Hoodia gordonii update: Honest sellers, safety information and weight loss realities Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

If your company sells hoodia and you think you should be listed here, contact Alkemist Pharmaceuticals, "The Plant Authentication Experts," and start having your batches tested. I'll get word of your results and update this list as I learn more. I am no longer listing companies that fail the tests due to obvious legal ramifications. How to really lose weight My position on weight loss in general is simply this: There is no such thing as a magic weight loss pill. Not from drug companies, nor from diet pill manufacturers, even if they're honest.

Conditionally yes, for those who are serious about weight loss and are willing to radically alter their diets and engage in serious physical exercise at the same time. hoodia can help you, but it won't take over for you. If you want to look athletic, you have to be athletic.

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ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of this NaturalNews Naturalpedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.