NBC Today Show

It's the look everyone wants — a body to diet for. They're on the beaches, in magazines and all over Hollywood. How far will we go to get one? How about thousands of miles and deep into a distant culture? South Africa’s Kalahari Desert is home to what could be the answer to an appetite.

It's a cactus called hoodia. “You strip off the skin, you strip off the spines, and then you consume it,” says weight loss expert Madelyn Fernstrom.
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Oprah Winfrey’s “O” Magazine 
(Talking about Hoodia) “Deep in the heart of Southern Africa’s Kalahari Desert may lie the secret to weight loss.”

ABC-7 Los Angeles

"South African San Bushmen who live in the Kalahari dessert drink hoodia cactus juice to survive when food is not available. Now manufacturers are harvesting the cactus' appetite-suppressing properties.

Studies done by the manufacturer show hoodia pills don't cause the typical side effects of other diet drugs such as jitteriness."

ABOUT.COM (by Mary Shomon)

"Desert Plant is Promising Appetite Suppressant and Weight Loss Supplement. If you haven't heard about the supplement Hoodia gordonii, there's no doubt you will very soon. Hoodia, a natural appetite suppressant, is earning attention as a potentially powerful weapon in the war against obesity and the American focus on losing weight. Hoodia supplements were just introduced to the U.S. market in early 2004. " Read the Whole Story

WBAL TV
"Dr. Richard Goldfarb thinks it works. He is the medical director of research and development at Bucks County Clinical Research. He says Hoodia isn't a stimulant but it works on the brain.

Goldfarb: "The appetite suppressant effect -- after it accumulates in your system, after only a few days that we saw in our study has shown that people will cut their calories probably in less than half and their not desiring any additional food.""
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KOMO TV

"One San hunter says "I learned it from my forefathers. It is my food, my water, my medicine."

"It's medicine because a little Hoodia can kill severe hunger pains and quench the most powerful thirst. For the desert hunter it is a godsend. Now one man's cure for hunger is turning into another's diet drug." Read the whole story

Hoodia National Geographic Investigative Report (by Leon Marshall)

"Africa's Bushmen May Get Rich From Diet-Drug Secret... The drug named P57 is based on a substance scientists found in the desert plant Hoodia gordinii. The San call the cactus !khoba and have been chewing on it for thousands of years to stave off hunger and thirst during long hunting trips in their parched Kalahari desert home.. A deal has been signed between the South African San Council and the country's Scientific and Industrial Research Council (CSIR), which identified the appetite-suppressing ingredient in Hoodia during research into indigenous plants in 1996..."
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