Hoodia - Get The Facts Before You Buy

First off, let's get the particulars straight. When it comes to buying hoodia, there's no getting around these two essential facts: 

• Hoodia is a cactus plant that grows only in South Africa . Like any plant, there are many variations of hoodia. However, only the hoodia gordonii contains the appetite suppressing qualities that have made it so popular. There are a lot of products that are made with other varieties of the hoodia plant. Unfortunately, when you buy any product that is not hoodia gordonii the only thing guaranteed to get thinner is your wallet.
• Because hoodia gordonii is such a highly regulated plant product, international trade laws require a special certificate to ship the product out of South Africa . Suppliers of genuine hoodia gordonii will post this certificate on their websites. This will actually help you differentiate suppliers of genuine hoodia gordonii from the fakes.

Secondly, you need to understand what you're reading on the label.

A lot of products advertise that they utilize the entire hoodia plant to make their product. That's too bad because naturally occurring ingredient that makes hoodia effective is found in only a small portion of the plant. Do you get orange juice by biting into an unpeeled orange? Of course not. It's the same way with hoodia.

Other companies offer a concentrated form of hoodia. The concentration process removes unnecessary parts of the plant and produces a higher quality product.

When you apply this knowledge to the amount of milligrams that come in a pill or capsule, it's easy to ascertain why a 500mg product of made from concentrated hoodia gordonii is better than a 1000mg product made from the entire plant.

Finally, as you read the product label or review, be mindful of what other ingredients might be in the product.

Hoodia gordonii is different from other weight loss supplements in that it's not a stimulant. However, some supplement manufacturers will include stimulants such as caffeine, MaHuang, or ginseng in their hoodia products. These stimulants are thought to increase metabolism and give you an energy boost, which make them attractive as added ingredients to a weight loss product. However, keep in mind that these stimulants have been known to cause harmful side effects.

For peace of mind, you might want to stay with a hoodia gordonii product that does not contain these stimulants, and will not produce any harmful side effects.