Healthy Lifestyle Blog

Hoodia gordonii is an herb found in the Kalahari Desert. Though reported to be used by the San Bushmen of Southern Africa for a variety of uses as a medicinal plant, its use as an appetite suppressant became popular in recent years. Hoodia is able to make you feel that you are not hungry by imitating the effect of glucose on the nerve cells in the brain. It makes you feel that you are full. You lose your urge to eat. In fact, the hoodia effect is much more powerful than glucose. The San Bushmen removes the stem of hoodia, the flowers, roots and spines, and peel away the outer skin before consuming hoodia when they went for a hunt which last for about a week. This is to stifle the urge to eat and drink.

The national research laboratory of South Africa, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), was able to identify the bioactive compound. They isolated the compound along with the scientists of Phytopharm, a British firm. They called the molecule p57. Further studies and clinical trial confirmed its appetite suppressing feature, something that the San Bushmen knew and used for generations. These studies also reported that there were no side effects. This corroborated also with the fact that the Bushmen have been using hoodia for thousands of years without any problems. Obesity is a rapidly increasing problem in many countries with a higher standard of affluence. Lifestyle and food practices were the major causes for obesity. The market for products for tackling the looming obesity problem is very large. Hoodia seemed to be just the right thing for the problem. Interest in p57 suddenly skyrocketed.

Hoodia gordonii was marketed as an appetite suppressant as capsule and liquid. Combined with the extracts of green tea with its natural caffeine, niacin in the form of nicotinic acid, chromium and coca extract, hoodia is promoted as tru hoodia diet. The major hitch in meeting the demand was that hoodia gordonii was found only in the wild in Southern Africa. This was not sufficient to meet the demand of the market. With limited availability, the cost was very high. Its supply too was limited and diminishing.

There were attempts to produce p57 synthetically in the lab so that this can be produced sufficiently and cheaply. This did not succeed. Hoodia had to be from the naturally collection or cultivated. This led to over exploitation that led CITES to list it as a plant that will soon have to be declared as a threatened species. With this, hoodia became a plant that came under control and restriction with regard to its trade.

Health is an important aspect of human life. Thus, you should take care of your health.

I used to think that I knew exactly what I was eating and why I was eating it. Now, I realize that there’s a whole lot more to the psychology of eating than I was aware of. Turns out hunger may not usually even be in the top three reasons why people eat and when they eat. This is the concept sometimes called “Mindful Eating”.

The obvious reason that people gain weight is because they eat more calories than they burn. The equally obvious solution to weight loss sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Just eat less than you burn and you’ll lose weight. Many times, though, we eat without thinking - without being mindful.

Mindful eating is knowing what you’re eating and exactly why you’re eating it. This means that we become aware of the physical and emotional cues that lead to eating in the absence of hunger. For example, I’ve noticed that I eat twice as much when the TV is on and later on I sometimes don’t even remember eating. You could call that mindless. Eating because it’s lunchtime is another example. You might be hungry but if you’re not, do you eat anyway just because that’s what time it is? Any reason for eating besides hunger needs to be thought about a little more.

I think for most people one of the biggest causes of mindless eating is boredom. Nothing to do, nowhere to go often leads to a quick binge of eating for some stimulation. Eating is always there as a fallback when we can’t think of anything else to do or maybe when we’re trying to avoid doing something unpleasant. Opening a bag of potato chips has a lot more immediate gratification than balancing a checkbook or doing the laundry.

Another reason people sometimes eat when they’re not hungry is to make someone else feel good. Sounds strange, but it happens a lot. Have you ever eaten seconds when you’re not hungry just to assure your spouse that you approve of the meal that they cooked? Or eaten when you’re not hungry because you know the cook will experience feelings of rejection if you don’t? If so, you’re listening to someone else and not your own body when it comes to decisions about food.

Mindful eating can be a complicated subject. What seems like a simple everyday action can have some deep rooted motivations. If you can identify the situations and the triggers that cause you to overeat, that will go a long way to getting your weight under control and keeping it that way.