Every year, people spend billions of dollars on products designed to help them lose weight, by cutting down their daily calorie intake. However, the products available until now range from completely ineffective to downright dangerous. Stimulants

     Take stimulants for example. These include amphetamines, ephedrine, phentermine etc. These have the dual effect of suppressing appetite, so you eat less reducing your calorie intake, and they stimulate the body so you burn off calories at a quicker rate. However, these synthetic drugs have a number of serious side effects. One side effect is tolerance, so you need to keep on taking larger and larger doses for the drug to continue working. Another side effect is dependence (addiction). This happens when you cannot function at all until you have taken a dose (fix) of the drug. Stimulants have also been implicated in a dramatically increased risk of serious cardio-vascular problems such as increased risk of stroke.

     Recently, researchers have discovered a completely natural appetite suppressant, called Hoodia. This discovery has also been reported by both CBS, and the BBC. Hoodia has no stimulant effect at all, thus avoiding the side effects of stimulant drugs. But it will help dramatically to reduce your daily calorie intake. Scientists believe that Hoodia works by fooling the brain into making you think you're full, even when you've eaten very little or nothing at all! This is because Hoodia contains a previously unknown molecule, called P 57.

     Which has recently been isolated by Phytopharm, based in Cambridgeshire UK. P 57 fools the brain into thinking that the body's blood sugar has gone up. P 57 is about 10,000 times as effective as glucose in this respect. Hoodia Gordonii is a cactus like plant that occurs naturally only in the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa. The San people (bushmen) who live in the Kalahari have been using Hoodia for thousands of years to stave off hunger during long hunting trips.

     The first scientific study of Hoodia was conducted at the South African national laboratories in the 1960's. Researchers discovered that when Hoodia was fed to animals they lost weight. Rats fed on Hoodia stopped eating completely, whereas normally, rats will eat anything and everything that's available.

     Obese volunteers who were given Hoodia extract reduced their daily calorie intake by around 1,000 calories per day, compared with a control group. Volunteers reported no adverse side effects (apart from they sometimes forget to eat!)

     Reducing your calorie intake by 1000 calories per day is equivalent to more than 5 lbs (2.3kg) of body fat per week.