We have been 'involved' in Hoodia Gordonii for nearly 5 years,
and have identified some of the scams, tricks, and mis-marketing
that the unwary Hoodia buyer may fall prey to ...
1. Products claiming
to use 100% of the Hoodia Gordonii plant
Are they saying that you are getting the 'whole' plant, including
the outer skin? There is absolutely no benefit in the outer skin,
though it does weigh allot!
All the benefits of Hoodia come from inside the plant. Some
companies process the whole plant including the normally thrown
away outer skin and save themselves a bucket-full of money, while
you only get 25% of what you though you paid for.
2. Is it Genuine Hoodia from South Africa?
If you've read our report on which
Hoodia laboratory test results to trust, you know what
we're going to say now.
There is only one guaranteed
way to be 100% sure that you are getting genuine Hoodia Gordonii
from Southern Africa. And that is to insist on independent test
results from Alkemists Pharmaceuticals or Chromodex.
Yes, other laboratories can identify
Hoodia, but they can't identify the active ingredient in Hoodia
(P57), or whether it's from Southern Africa (which is the only
Hoodia that has been tested and shown to have an effect).
You can see our Alkemists
test results here, guaranteeing you a genuine product.
3. Completely Ignore Hoodia
'Consumer Review' websites!
We know of many websites that
claim to offer 'independent reviews' of Hoodia products.
A small amount of research will
how that some are run by supplement manufacturers (with their
products coming top of the list). Other are run by 'affiliates'
(people who promote other peoples products for a commission on
the sales), who only list the products they will earn money from
- with the number one product their highest earner!
Even many forums have posters
who are paid to post positive comments on one product or another.
In fact there are various websites out there who recruit posters
and hire them out!
4. Hoodia Extracts ...
There is a lot of confusion about Hoodia extracts:
What is an extract?
An extract is a concentrated from of a herb, that is derived
after the crude herb has been mixed with water, alcohol,
or another solvent and distilled or evaporated.
Many supplements use extracts. There is nothing wrong with using
extracts.
The issue is that most of the public are unaware about extracts,
and how some unscrupulous companies 'play' with the extract 'numbers'.
When Hoodia is harvested and processed, all the supplying companies
sell it on to the manufacturers as 10:1, or 20:1 extract. That
simply means that for example 10 grams of unprocessed plant core
equals 1 gram of processed plant core.
Some Hoodia manufacturers then, play with the figures, putting
25mg of Hoodia in to their supplement and claiming that it is
in fact 500mg (which it is really, 500mg of the unprocessed plant).
Then there are the few 'top tier' Hoodia products which use
'whole powder'. So when they say their supplement has 400mg of
Hoodia - it actually does (which equals 8000mg of unprocessed
plant).
So when a Hoodia product seems very cheap ... it most probably
is 'playing' with the extract percentages (or isn't Southern
African, or perhaps not even Hoodia!) ...
