|
|
 |
Phentermine
featured on 60 minutes
- (CBS) Each
year, people spend more than $40
billion on products designed to
help them slim down. None of them
seem to be working very well. Now
along comes hoodia. Never heard
of it? Soon it'll be tripping off
your tongue, because hoodia is a
natural substance that literally
takes your appetite away. It's
very different from diet
stimulants like Ephedra and
Phenfen that are now banned
because of dangerous
side effects. Hoodia doesn't
stimulate at all. Scientists say
it fools the brain by making you
think you're full, even if you've
eaten just a morsel.
As
reported by Lesley Stahl.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Hoodia is a bitter-tasting
cactus-like plant. 60 Minutes was
told that if it wanted to try
hoodia, it would have to go to
Africa. Why? Because the only
place in the world where hoodia
grows wild is in the Kalahari
Desert of South Africa. Nigel
Crawhall, a linguist and
interpreter, hired an experienced
tracker named Toppies Kruiper, a
local aboriginal Bushman, to help
find it. The Bushmen were
featured in the movie 'The Gods
Must Be Crazy." Kruiper led
60 Minutes crews out into the
desert. Stahl asked him if he ate
hoodia. "I really like to
eat them when the new rains have
come," says Kruiper,
speaking through the interpreter.
"Then they're really quite
delicious." When we located
the plant, Kruiper cut off a
stalk that looked like a small
spiky pickle, and removed the
sharp spines. In the interest of
science, Stahl ate it. She
described the taste as "a
little cucumbery in texture, but
not bad." So how did it
work? Stahl says she had no after
effects – no funny taste in her
mouth, no queasy stomach, and no
racing heart. She also wasn't
hungry all day, even when she
would normally have a pang
around mealtime. And, she also
had no desire to eat or drink the
entire day.
"I'd
have to say it did
work,"says Stahl.
|
| |
| |
|
