Desert Diet....Ancient Tribal Remedy Could Be Next Big Drug to Fight Obesity

I was watching ABC. 'FOUR CORNERS' the other day on a miracle plant that curbs hunger for over 16 hrs or more...the Hoodia plant.

Quote////''I learned how to eat it from my forefathers," said one member of the San tribe, a people who live in the Kalahari Desert, as he prepared a piece of the cactus-like plant called hoodia by trimming off the prickly spikes. "It is my food, my water, and also a medicine for me."

According to San spokesman Andries Steenkamp, his people ate the hoodia plant for thousands of years in order to ward off hunger pains and to quench their thirst during lean times and when they were forced to survive during long hunting trips.

"Hoodia stops hunger and also treats sickness," Steenkamp told ABCNEWS. "We, San, use the plant during hunting to fight off the pain of hunger and thirst."


abcnews.go.com...






[Edited on 8/27/2003 by helen670]

Neat finding -- but the problem with these diets is that we aren't living that lifestyle any longer. Getting hungry at inappropriate times is a problem (as is overeating) and hopefully this will offer some remedy.

Thanks for the article citation!


(The caveman diet really works if you don't mind hanging out in caves, walking to work, and being occasionally chased by large carnivores.)

or maybe peopleshould stop eating and drinking all the bad for you crap get a littrle more exercise and show some restraint and self control.....

or people can continue to look to other things hoping an outside source will do the things the person needs to do on their own.

oh some thing i want to say about this plant.

it has a HUGE potential to be overused and could lead to a lot of problems.

if this plant can "numb" hunger and thirst away for 18 hours i see big problems for this. we need water every day. no way around it. if we cant tell when we are thirsty then we wont know when we are dehydrated and if cant figure out when to drink water or how much especially during the summer i think this is going to create a lot of problems because as we all know people HERE cant seemt o follow guidelines and directions and insist on over doing everything.

of course if everyone did things in moderation we probably wouldnt have a probably with obesity and we wouldnt be discussing this plant would we?

anyitme you use something that numbs you of any senses and you dont know when your body is in distress as a result you are hurting yourself. people should rethink their dietary habits and exercise routines first before looking to ANOTHER miracle diet product to cure their ills.

and since we do not live in lean times and most of us dont hunt i dont see the need for this. i really dont.

The prank monkey.......Fair enough one should eat healthy and learn to controll their hunger, but this plant has shown no side effects and it is natural .......and I do realize that all plants are natural and may cause harm....there are many 'drug' like medications so, why not the real thing!

Alot of our food is being 'genetically' engineered to live up to the quality of what we think is good to look at, and is doing more harm then they are allowing us to know....

I remember that an apple can come with a worm....if it was good enough for the worm, then it was good enough for a human to eat it.....just take out the worm...
Fruit does not taste like fruit anymore!
In fact, apples taste like ''wax'' and look all good ......but are they really good to eat , just because they look good on the out side?
Back to this plant ''hoodia'' it has been growing in the kalahari desert and has not been altered at all.......I beleive that it could be used to cure a variety of diseases eg....Diabetes
And yes, it should not be abused like any thing else!
helen.

Originally posted by helen670
The prank monkey.......Fair enough one should eat healthy and learn to controll their hunger, but this plant has shown no side effects and it is natural .......and I do realize that all plants are natural and may cause harm....there are many 'drug' like medications so, why not the real thing!

Alot of our food is being 'genetically' engineered to live up to the quality of what we think is good to look at, and is doing more harm then they are allowing us to know....

I remember that an apple can come with a worm....if it was good enough for the worm, then it was good enough for a human to eat it.....just take out the worm...
Fruit does not taste like fruit anymore!
In fact, apples taste like ''wax'' and look all good ......but are they really good to eat , just because they look good on the out side?
Back to this plant ''hoodia'' it has been growing in the kalahari desert and has not been altered at all.......I beleive that it could be used to cure a variety of diseases eg....Diabetes
And yes, it should not be abused like any thing else!
helen.

my concern is not over its "naturalness" of the plant my problem is if its used it could potentially be a big problem when people over use it because there is a big problem that when people do something like this to lose weight they use more's law (some is good, more is better, too much isnt enough) and could over use this not when they really need to eat or drink and could hurt them in the long term. also consider this, once it wears off they are going to feel all those hunger pangs and severe thirst....which could lead to over eating or drinking too much (there is such a thing).

the people there who have been using this plant do so in moderation, they've have had also had a need for it, they live in a desert!!!! most americans do not and even those who do have water piped in and about 99% of the american population is within range of a grocery store so there is no lean time here in the states at this moment. also think about this. they live in a different culture. their women are not view as sex object and displayed all over the TV as paper thin waifs so most of the compulsion to be thin doesnt exist there. they live more of a natural way of life than we do.

i dont disagree we genetically alter our food and in some ways it is wrong to do so but also consider that its also given us the ability to produce much more food and that food has left our borders to feed other people who dont have enough of their own. so there is a positive to go with the negative. there's a balance here and i think being able to feed more people is always a good thing even if the food is genetically altered. IF we could grow as much with all natural foods then i would be all for that.

the question isnt whether it should be abused (of course we all agree it shouldnt) but like all other products before it, it can be and probably will be abused and then you'll have another product to blame for not helping people instead of putting the blame where it squarely lies, with the people who abuse such products and look to a product to do the things for them they should be doing on their own to begin with.

but like i said....if everyone used more self control and ate sensably and told the fast food joints to get bent and got a little exercise everyday we wouldnt be disucssing using this plant wouyld we? no we wouldnt.


and please just call me TPM, its faster.

Originally posted by helen670
I was watching ABC. 'FOUR CORNERS' the other day on a miracle plant that curbs hunger for over 16 hrs or more...the Hoodia plant.

Quote////''I learned how to eat it from my forefathers," said one member of the San tribe, a people who live in the Kalahari Desert, as he prepared a piece of the cactus-like plant called hoodia by trimming off the prickly spikes. "It is my food, my water, and also a medicine for me."

[Edited on 8/27/2003 by helen670]

This plant sounds similar to the prickly pear cactus (Opuntia polycantha) that is used by native americans as a food and medicine source.

The following information is from E. Barrie Kavasch's book The Medicine Wheel Garden: "Throughout the Indian pueblos, both the pads and the sweet, delicious fruits of the prickly pear and many other native cacti were and continue to be eaten. The Zuni made a fine red dye from the prickly pear fruits and the bee plant, dried and ground together. The pads and fruits are best gathered with sharp shovels and gloved hands; then the spines may be roasted or burned off. The peeled pads are used in the mouth to ease inflamed gums and mouth sores, and can be applied as poultices to tumors and skin injuires. The dried flowers are also used in poultices, and are applied to skin as anit-inflammatory treatments. These dried-flower poultics can improve hair and scalp conditions as well. The mucilaginous juice is an anti-inflammatory diuretic, and the fruits are often mixed with cornmeal in various dishes. Native people also use the juice, pads and fruits of the prickly pear to treat diabetes. Pickled opuntia pads provide the nopales enjoyed in Mexican cuisine.

Prickly pears grow like a weed in many of the yards around here (zone 10 south Florida). Free food but you won't catch me picking or eating any of it. But I guess if I was trapped in the desert with nothing else to eat or drink it the hoodia plant would probably start to look like prime rib with a beer chaser!

Actually, prickly pear fruits are pretty good (juicy and slightly sour and slightly sweet.) I've had 'em. The only thing is you have to be careful picking them and you have to peel ALL the spines off them. There's a bazillion of them.

They make good jellies, too.

Ok, TPM is faster....




Just TPM ?

Ok!

Yes I do agree with you....then we would have the problem of many skeletol people walking around!
And the problem would still be there!
helen..

what i find to be the biggest problem is everyone is sucked into believing they should be skinny instead of just living some kind of normal lifestyle with some regular exercise and sensable dietary habits. i dont believe some people are born to be fat but some people just arent going to be thin or skinny no matter what they do. so if you exercise regularly and have at least half way decent deitary habits no matter how you look accept yourself for who you are. instead we're being taught that its WRONG to be ourselves and we have to fit in a certain mold society says he should fit in and many people pay a heavy price to fit that mold.

i certainly wont be one of them. of course i equate it to highschool BS. not everyone is going to be part of the cool clique, get use to it. live your life your way and stop trying to be a sheeple and try to keep up with the jones'. we'd all be better off if we did this.

Someone is marketing a cooler that contains prickly pear. I can't remember what the name of the cooler is but it's a hot selling item at the clubs.

L O N D O N, Aug. 7 A wild plant used by generations of native Bushmen in South Africa's Kalahari Desert to help them avoid starvation in the dry, hot sands could make them millionaires if it is successfully developed into a weight-loss drug for Westerners.

Regards,
Einfopedia

Here is a remedy for obesity...

Stop eating cereals, bread, cakes, biscuits and any dairy except a little cheese.

I just found this from wikipedia...
en.wikipedia.org...

Several species are grown as garden plants, and one species, Hoodia gordonii, is being investigated for use as an appetite suppressant.[2] However, in 2008 UK-based Unilever PLC, one of the largest packaged-food firms in the world, abandoned plans to use hoodia in a range of diet products. In a document on Unilever's website entitled "Sustainable Development 2008: An Overview," signed by Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever states: "During 2008, having invested 20 million [pounds] in R&D, Unilever abandoned plans to use the slimming extract hoodia in a range of diet products. We stopped the project because our clinical studies revealed that products using hoodia would not meet our strict standards of safety and efficacy." Hoodia is currently listed in Appendix II to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which includes species not currently considered endangered but are at risk if trade is not controlled.[3]

Seems like a failure to me?

And if you read the bottom paragraph of this text below, also believed to be a scam...
Department of Agriculture, WA, Australia

Background Hoodia gordonii is a natural succulent perennial plant from the southern parts of Africa. The Sans Bushman traditionally used the extract from the plant to ward off hunger during hunting trips. In 1977, the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) isolated the ingredient in hoodia (now known as P57) responsible for this appetite-suppressant. It appears the main constraint to commercializing is access to viable quantities at affordable prices as it takes significant time (5 years) to grow from seed. Attempts to propagate by using cuttings has also proved less than fruitful as to date there is a very low strike rate from this technique. Volume has been compounded by the fact that there is also very little indigenous plants left in its native environment as the plant continues to be "raided" for a growing black-market and scam industry offering the product as a wonder drug for dieting to a point the plant is now considered endangered under CITES.