60 Minutes Report on Hoodia(CBS) Each year, people spend more than $40 billion on products designed to help them slim down. None of them seem to be working very well.Now along comes hoodia. Never heard of it? Soon it'll be tripping off your tongue, because hoodia is a natural substance that literally takes your appetite away. It's very different from diet stimulants like Ephedra and Phenfen that are now banned because of dangerous side effects. Hoodia doesn't stimulate at all. Scientists say it fools the brain by making you think you're full, even if you've eaten just a morsel. Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports. "Hoodia, a plant that tricks the brain by making the stomach feel full, has been in the diet of South Africa's Bushmen for thousands of years." Because the only place in the world where hoodia grows wild is in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa. Nigel Crawhall, a linguist and interpreter, hired an experienced tracker named Toppies Kruiper, a local aboriginal Bushman, to help find it. The Bushmen were featured in the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy." Kruiper led 60 Minutes crews out into the desert. Stahl asked him if he ate hoodia. "I really like to eat them when the new rains have come," says Kruiper, speaking through the interpreter. "Then they're really quite delicious." When we located the plant, Kruiper cut off a stalk that looked like a small spiky pickle, and removed the sharp spines. In the interest of science, Stahl ate it. She described the taste as "a little cucumbery in texture, but not bad." So how did it work? Stahl says she had no after effects - no funny taste in her mouth, no queasy stomach, and no racing heart. She also wasn't hungry all day, even when she would normally have a pang around mealtime. And, she also had no desire to eat or drink the entire day. "I'd have to say it did work," says Stahl. Although the West is just discovering hoodia, the Bushmen of the Kalahari have been eating it for a very long time. After all, they have been living off the land in southern Africa for more than 100,000 years. Some of the Bushmen, like Anna Swartz, still live in old traditional huts, and cook so-called Bush food gathered from the desert the old-fashioned way. The first scientific investigation of the plant was conducted at South Africa's national laboratory. Because Bushmen were known to eat hoodia, it was included in a study of indigenous foods. "What they found was when they fed it to animals, the animals ate it and lost weight," says Dr. Richard Dixey, who heads an English pharmaceutical company called Phytopharm that is trying to develop weight-loss products based on hoodia. Was hoodia's potential application as an appetite suppressant immediately obvious? "No, it took them a long time. In fact, the original research was done in the mid 1960s," says Dixey. It took the South African national laboratory 30 years to isolate and identify the specific appetite-suppressing ingredient in hoodia. When they found it, they applied for a patent and licensed it to Phytopharm. Phytopharm has spent more than $20 million so far on research, including clinical trials with obese volunteers that have yielded promising results. Subjects given hoodia ended up eating about 1,000 calories a day less than those in the control group. To put that in perspective, the average American man consumes about 2,600 calories a day; a woman about 1,900. "If you take this compound every day, your wish to eat goes down. And we've seen that very, very dramatically," says Dixey. But why do you need a patent for a plant? "The patent is on the application of the plant as a weight-loss material. And, of course, the active compounds within the plant. It's not on the plant itself," says Dixey. So no one else can use hoodia for weight loss? "As a weight-management product without infringing the patent, that's correct," says Dixey. But what does that say about all these weight-loss products that claim to have hoodia in it? Trimspa says its X32 pills contain 75 mg of hoodia. The company is pushing its product with an ad campaign featuring Anna Nicole Smith, even though the FDA has notified Trimspa that it hasn't demonstrated that the product is safe. Some companies have even used the results of Phytopharm's clinical tests to market their products. "This is just straightforward theft. That's what it is. People are stealing data, which they haven't done, they've got no proper understanding of, and sticking on the bottle," says Dixey. "When we have assayed these materials, they contain between 0.1 and 0.01 percent of the active ingredient claimed. But they use the term hoodia on the bottle, of course, so they -- does nothing at all." But Dixey isn't the only one who's felt ripped off. The Bushmen first heard the news about the patent when Phytopharm put out a press release. Roger Chennells, a lawyer in South Africa who represents the Bushmen, who are also called "the San," was appalled. "The San did not even know about it," says Chennells. "They had given the information that led directly toward the patent." The taking of traditional knowledge without compensation is called "bio-piracy." "You have said, and I'm going to quote you, 'that the San felt as if someone had stolen the family silver,'" says Stahl to Chennells. "So what did you do?" "I wouldn't want to go into some of the details as to what kind of letters were written or what kind of threats were made," says Chennells. "We engaged them. They had done something wrong, and we wanted them to acknowledge it." Chennells was determined to help the Bushmen who, he says, have been exploited for centuries. First they were pushed aside by black tribes. Then, when white colonists arrived, they were nearly annihilated. "About the turn of the century, there were still hunting parties in Namibia and in South Africa that allowed farmers to go and kill Bushmen," says Chennells. "It's well documented." The Bushmen are still stigmatized in South Africa, and plagued with high unemployment, little education, and lots of alcoholism. And now, it seemed they were about to be cut out of a potential windfall from hoodia. So Chennells threatened to sue the national lab on their behalf. "We knew that if it was successful, many, many millions of dollars would be coming towards the San," says Chennells. "Many, many millions. They've talked about the market being hundreds and hundreds of millions in America." In the end, a settlement was reached. The Bushmen will get a percentage of the profits -- if there are profits. But that's a big if. The future of hoodia is not yet a sure thing. The project hit a major snag last year. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which had teamed up with Phytopharm, and funded much of the research, dropped out when making a pill out of the active ingredient seemed beyond reach. Dixey says it can be made synthetically: "We've made milligrams of it. But it's very expensive. It's not possible to make it synthetically in what's called a scaleable process. So we couldn't make a metric ton of it or something that is the sort of quantity you'd need to actually start doing something about obesity in thousands of people." Phytopharm decided to market hoodia in its natural form, in diet shakes and bars. That meant it needed the hoodia plant itself. But given the obesity epidemic in the United States, it became obvious that what was needed was a lot of hoodia - much more than was growing in the wild in the Kalahari. And so they came here. 60 Minutes visited one of Phytopharm's hoodia plantations in South Africa. They'll need a lot of these plantations to meet the expected demand. Agronomist Simon MacWilliam has a tall order: grow a billion portions a year of hoodia, within just a couple of years. He admitted that starting up the plantation has been quite a challenge. "The problem is we're dealing with a novel crop. It's a plant we've taken out of the wild and we're starting to grow it,' says MacWilliam. "So we have no experience. So it's different? diseases and pests which we have to deal with." How confident are they that they will be able to grow enough? "We're very confident of that," he says. "We've got an expansion program which is going to be 100s of acres. And we'll be able - ready to meet the demand. This could be huge, given the obesity epidemic. Phytopharm says it's about to announce marketing plans that will have meal-replacement hoodia products on supermarket shelves by 2008. MacWilliam says these products are a slightly different species from the hoodia Stahl tasted in the Kalahari Desert. "It's actually a lot more bitter than the plant that you tasted," says MacWilliam. The advantage is this species of hoodia will grow a lot faster. But more bitter? How bad could it be? Stahl decided to find out. "Not good," she says. Phytopharm says that when its product gets to market, it will be certified safe and effective. They also promise that it'll taste good. |
|
All the links and descriptions on this page are taken from public sources such as engines (Google.com, MSN.com, Yahoo.com). However, if you think any information on this page violates copyright, please send an email to info@breastactivesplus.com and the links and descriptions will be removed. how to lose chest weight |
| Lose chest fat reduce weight losing fat from chest | |
| To lose chest fat is one question I am asked often. It would be great to lower the fat and tone up so the chest looks lean and firm however, losing fat from | |
| How To Lose Chest Fat | |
| For some people losing chest fat is not easy. No matter how much weight is lost For people such as the above, and for anyone wanting to lose chest fat, | |
| How To Lose Chest Fat By Using This Exercise Program | |
| And when a man is overweight, the excess weight in the chest looks like he has Follow these five steps in how to lose chest fat and turn that excess fat | |
| Loosing weight in chest area | |
| I've been trying to lose weight since January, and have successfully dropped around 16 lbs. My boobs, however, have yet to shrink. *sigh* My chest has lost | |
| Your Best Body - Lose Weight | |
| Lose fat, gain muscle and get your best body with cardio and weight training from your Total Body - Beg/Int · Your Best Shoulders · Your Best Chest | |
| How to burn more calories; To lose weight and get in better shape | |
| How often should I measure myself when I'm trying to lose weight and inches? certain exercises--such as the chest press--can in fact change the shape of | |
| Lose weight and shape your entire body in just minutes a day with | |
| Build and shape your biceps, triceps, forearms, chest, lats, lower back, and deltoids -- front, side, and rear! Burn fat, lose weight, and shed inches with | |
| Yahoo! Answers - How can I lose weight off my chest? | |
| 12 answers - Yahoo! Answers - How can I lose weight off my chest? | |
| Burn fat build muscles fast-Transform body 12 weeks | |
| How to lose weight, burn fat quickly and build well toned muscles fast by Your bulging beer belly fat, droopy chest, flabby arms and flappy thighs will | |
| How to lose chest fat using dust rags | |
| How To Lose Chest Fat Using Dust Rags. This exercise will help you get rid of your chest fat by toning up your chest and Once you start to add weight to | |
| Fast weight loss tips & Body sculpting exercises that work | |
| I got stuff that'll help you lose your man boobs and make your chest muscles bigger and Whenever you need any help - there's lots of fast weight loss | |
| How can i lose chest fat when i'm already skinny? FunAdvice.com | |
| I can't afford to lose any more weight without looking sickly, and I do pushups everyday (I'm up to nearly 300 a day). My chest has gotten a lot stronger, | |
| How do you lose chest fat? FunAdvice.com | |
| FunAdvice How do you lose chest fat? I want to lose the fat on my chest. Does anyone have great diet tips to lose weight fast but healthy? | |
| MYNIPPON.com: Saggy chest after weight loss | |
| I want to lose weight overall and tone up my pectorals so that I not only lose weight in the chest but also keep them firm. THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT TO ME! | |
| How To Lose Fat | |
| Lose Man Boobs?! Lose Belly Fat?! Get Abs Instead of the Fat Tire? You'll be doing chest weight training as part of any good weighttraining program, | |
| » Lose Chest Fat | |
| This is because the individual has to burn 500 calories each day just to lose one pound per week. People who are really serious of losing weight should | |
| best ways to lose chest fat? World Fitness.com - workout | |
| Just do enough cardio and eventually you'll lose your chest fat. Lose my fatty chest and stomach. HELP! FrkALeek, Weight Training, 3, Oct. 21/04 09:48 | |
| 50 Weight Loss Tips ~ Chris Pirillo | |
| Video games helped me lose weight. I can keep my balance on the Gazelle (which some might find difficult to do). As such, I plugged an Xbox 360 into the TV | |
| Amazon.com: Kathy Smith's Lift Weights to Lose Weight: Books | |
| Kathy Smith - Lift Weights to Lose Weight, Vol. 2 DVD ~ Kathy Smith (III) Chest Press, Hip Lift, Low Back Extension, High Elbow Row, One-Legged Heel | |
| Amazon.com: Kathy Smith TimeSaver - Lift Weights to Lose Weight | |
| In this follow-up to Lift Weights to Lose Weight, Kathy Smith s taken the best of weight . after that you start doing a section for the chest muscles! | |
| Question: How do you get rid of man-boobs; male chest fat? | |
| Doing the weight exercises won't cause him to lose fat in the chest area but they will help build and strengthen the muscle in the chest area. | |
| Free fat loss tips!: How to lose chest fat! | |
| Sometimes its is very difficult to burn chest fat and it can cause lots of frustration if you spend Lose Tummy Fat With Exercise And Good Weight Loss . | |
| Yahoo! Canada Answers - How can i lose 5 kg weight in one month? | |
| So if you want the safest way to lose weight do it gradually. bicep, waist, chest, weight etc), l had lost 1.5 kg in body weight and 6.5cm in girth | |
| Weight Loss FAQ, Indiadiets: Your guide to Health, Nutrition | |
| WHAT IF I AM NOT ABLE TO LOSE WEIGHT IMMEDIATELY ? .. And your chest would go down to the extent , that it was at that particular weight. | |
| Total Fitness Bodybuilding Weight Training Program | |
| How to lose weight. Information about fat loss diets and cardio. Since using them my bench has gone up and my chest is bigger and more ripped then ever. | |
| Lose Weight Forever | |
| Lose Weight Forever 50 Habits of ??Naturally Thin?? People . and your feet on the floor, squeeze knees together and gently bring them toward your chest. | |
| BlueSuitMom.com: Health: Exercise - Losing weight in the chest area | |
| You did not mention if you were of ideal weight or not, which would be an important part of this equation. If you do have some weight to lose, | |
| Weight Training & Muscle Building Tips, Exercises,Workouts, Programs | |
| Learn the best Exercises to build Muscle, lose weight and get 6 pack Abdominals. Best Chest Exercises and Workouts that build a deep, well shaped chest. | |
| Weight reduction - slimming | |
| The problem is that the throat and chest collapses under the pressure from the Systematics Slimming Lose Weight loss Length · Hypnosis Chess Problems | |