Hoodia Diet Lollipops: Do They Work?

Hoodia Power pops are a diet candy and its advertiser claims that it is Hollywood's latest secreted to losing weight. The company pushing the new product claims that licking the hoodia lollipops in this fashion is a far superior form of delivery for loosing weight than other forms currently available. A diet lollipop. The other advantages the diet lollipop manufacturer claims that using their product as an in-between meal snack and give you a boost of energy and help control cravings.

According to Wikipedia, Hoodia is represented by thirteen different species of flowering plants that resemble the cactus although they are not actually related to the plant. Hoodia plants can reach up to one meter in height. Diet lollipops may be a new application for the cactifom plant, but the theory behind its use as weightloss tool derives from stories of the bushmen in the deserts were it was founding cutting off and eating the bitter plant to ward off thirst and hunger. Although the plant has become increasingly popular as a weight loss control supplement, no peer-reviewed studies or trials have been conducted to prove that the supplement is safe for humans in pill form. One study that was not subject to peer review conducted on humans found it reduced their caloric intake by about one thousand calories per day over the placebo group.

Scientific studies have been conducted on rats and found that the levels of adenosine triphosphate, a chemical found in all animal cells that may influence hunger were affected, but rats are not humans. They would probably find the Hoodia diet lollipop just as tasty as many of their dieting human counterparts do if not more so.

Even the hoodia diet lollipops, like Hoodia itself does have some side effects, although this mostly stems from people selling a less than pure product. Many sites tout the benefits of the cactiform plant derivative drugs, but many of them are secretly selling hoodia and one may even be responsible for the hoodia diet lollipop.

Given that the product has been eaten for centuries in the deserts where it is found, it is unlikely that its effects on humans are too great, but whether or not hoodia or the hoodia diet lollipops themselves help humans to control cravings needs to be the subject of further studies. Perhaps Berke Breathed gave the best diet advice in his cartoon strip, Bloom County, which was to "eat less and exercise."

Sources:

http://www.clearlyslim.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoodia

http://altmedicine.about.com/od/popularhealthdiets/a/hoodia1.htm