Desert Lab’s Introduces Hoodia Ice Cubes
I was contacted by a rep to review an “Ice Cube” diet. Hey, its hot out and I like ice. Without much thought I said ok, and was sent a box full of dry ice and what appeared to be 2 disposable ice cube trays packed with what can only be described as grainy green ice cubes (the ice cubes are smooth, but they look grainy).
As a breastfeeding (and proud) momma I decided to research Hoodia a little further. My only experience with Hoodia prior to this point has been when Brittany Spears post baby numero uno was caught driving her car sucking a Hoodia lollipop. Since that particular pop princess isn’t known for good ideas, I thought I better look into this further.
A quick trip to Wikipedia dug up some very interesting information, especially for those of us out there who are eco-friendly and want to save the planet and plants. “On January 18, 2008, the Botanic Gardens Conservation International (representing botanic gardens in 120 countries) stated that "400 medicinal plants are at risk of extinction, from over-collection and deforestation, threatening the discovery of future cures for disease." These included Yew trees (the bark was used for cancer drugs, paclitaxel, although current licensed syntheses do not); Hoodia (from Namibia, source of weight loss drugs); half of Magnolias (used as Chinese medicine for 5,000 years to fight cancer, dementia and heart disease); and Autumn crocus (for gout). The group was said to have found that five billion people rely upon traditional plant-based medicine for health care.[3]
Fascinating right? Well, Hoodia looks to be part of a holistic plan to lose weight – but supplements, herbs and plants are not regulated by the FDA in this country so I looked a little further.
Drugs.com had mentions that there are no standards around production and known cases exists where supplements have contained toxic metals or other drugs. Furthermore individuals below should proceed with caution:
Who should not take Hoodia?
- Do not take Hoodia without first talking to your doctor if you have
- diabetes,
- heart disease or high blood pressure,
- a bleeding or blood clotting disorder,
- anorexia, bulimia or any other eating disorder.
- Talk to your doctor before taking Hoodia if you have any other medical conditions, allergies (especially to plants), or if you take other medicines or herbal/ health supplements.
- Do not take Hoodia without first talking to your doctor if you are pregnant or could become pregnant.
- Do not take Hoodia without first talking to your doctor if you are breast-feeding a baby.
- There is no information available regarding the use of Hoodia by children. Do not give any herbal/ health supplement to a child without first talking to the child’s doctor.
What’s with all the information you ask? Well as you may know I am not an advocate for drugs – whether natural or man made. If pushed to choose I would choose holistic, plant based medicines. I also take a more realistic approach to weight loss. Surgeries, supplements and pills provide only a quick fix to a deeper lying issue. I believe many illnesses, obesity included, have emotional and psychological roots. Masking these does not serve to fix the larger issue. But we are all adults and need to make our own choices, so I present to you a review of a plant based alternative to appetite suppression.
Again, I had to remove myself from the actual review – though I did lick and ice cube to taste test and check the validity of my reviewers’ opinions – because I fall under a few of those fields above.
Subject one is a 21 year old student, female friend of mine who has been steadily losing weight while staying with me. I have educated her on food choice – moving towards whole grains, away from processed foods and High Fructose Corn Syrup, with this alone she has lost a substantial amount of weight.
Subject two is a 32 year old male friend of mine who is a vegan, office worker and overall sedentary. His weight does not fluctuate much.
Both individuals are not “Cravers”. They don’t compulsively eat and they have a healthy relationship with food – eating when they need to. Subject two probably could do with eating more and getting away from the computer.
Neither experienced a large amount of appetite suppression. Again, they aren’t people who overeat or race to the fridge for snacks. They both had similar views of the taste, which seems reasonable since Hoodia is from the cactus family. It tastes like “Cactus”, earthy, a little bitter (this could be the lemon juice) and has a dry chalky aftertaste – commonly found in sucralose (which is probably more dangerous than Hoodia is). I am surprised that Desert Labs doesn’t keep with the desert theme and use Agave – a natural, sugar free medicinal plant to sweeten its product.
So can it work for you? Well lets look at some facts:
How does Hoodia work?
- The appetite suppressant effects of Hoodia were first observed in 1937 by a Dutch anthropologist studying the primitive San Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert.
- It was noticed that the nomadic Bushmen, (who call it Xhoba) ate the stem of the Hoodia plant to stave off hunger during long hunting trips in the sparsely vegetated area.
- The active ingredient in Hoodia is the appetite-suppressing molecule, P57, which is licensed to the British pharmaceutical company Phytopharm who are researching its potential as an anti-obesity drug.
- Scientists from Phytopharm say P57 acts on the brain in a manner similar to glucose. It tricks the brain into thinking you are full even when you have not eaten, reduces interest in food and delays the time before hunger sets in.
You can watch fun videos of the taste test on MomTv.com
