Have you heard about ? It’s marketed as an “amazing” new ingredient that will help you lose, diet tips, without feeling hungry. The many advertisements, diet tips, hyping the product claim that contains a “miracle molecule called that tricks, diet tips, the brain into thinking you’ve eaten, and makes you feel full.” The claims do not stop there; in addition to losing , the ads claim you will feel better, diet tips, while taking this super ingredient, because has “a feel-good, aphrodisiac quality.” What exactly is and does it really work? Let us take a closer look at this “miracle .”
What is ?
is a succulent that looks like a cactus. It has been described as a somewhat bitter-tasting cucumber that thrives in extremely hot, dry weather and takes 5-7 years to reach maturity. grows in the Kalahari Desert region of , as well as the countries of Botswana, Namibia and Angola. It is said that for generations the San Bushmen, tribesmen native to the regions grows, have removed the skin and spines, diet tips, of prior to consumption as a way to curb their hunger and thirst during nomadic hunting, diet tips, trips.
In 1995 scientists, diet tips, isolated that one molecule in, diet tips, the plant that is responsible for the appetite reducing effect. The molecule was named . The process to isolate the was patented and the rights were sold to a British company called Phytopharm. In 1998 Phytopharm signed a licensing agreement with the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Together, these two companies set the goal to isolate in order to market and, diet tips, sell it for commercial purposes in the form of diet pills and capsules. In 2003, after many years of research, and no marketable diet product, Pfizer elected to end its contract with Phytopharm. Why? The process of, diet tips, isolating the was way too costly to produce as a commercial product.
Research
Phytopharm conducted one proprietary in 2001. The results of this study, diet tips, were never submitted to a peer-reviewed, diet tips, journal; however,, diet tips, nearly every marketer promotes the study in announcing the legitimacy of their product as a “magical” ingredient. The small study included only (18) eighteen subjects and they were all obese. The subjects took either the or a placebo twice a day for 15 days. What Phytopharm concluded from their study was that the obese people who took reduced their daily calorie intake by 1,000 and suffered no adverse effects. Phytopharm was so encouraged by their own study that they invested millions of dollars to determine how effectively farm and cultivate .
In December of 2004 Phytopharm and Unilever, diet tips,, diet tips, (which owns, diet tips, commercially popular SlimFast amongst other business holdings) announced a deal which they claim will put on the market within 3 years. Unilever paid $21 million to help fund additional clinical trials and expansion of the cultivation program in and Namibia. Their goal is to include in food products such as breakfast bars and meal replacement shakes and other diet related products.
What Does The Future, diet tips, Hold For ?
To date there has, not been any controlled that shows statistically significant results for . However, this does not mean that will not offer potential as an in the future. If additional research indicates that works as well as Phytopharm suggests it does, then it may in fact turn out to be a useful way, diet tips, to control . Until then, Phytopharm needs to conduct more clinical research with so that broader conclusions may be reached. In the meantime, consumers should be aware of the unscrupulous product peddlers attempting to dupe the public by offering for sale dried, powdered versions of that are not regulated or inspected, and the exact contents of which are unknown. In addition, it should be stated that the appetite suppressing ability of has only been shown effective in large fresh pieces of the plant, about 2 or 3 inches long. The dried powder that many peddlers are hawking these days contains such a small amount of that it cannot produce any true, desired effect. This clearly demonstrates that many of these eddlers are attempting to make a quick, diet tips, buck off the unsuspecting consumer. If the manufacturing process was as easy as drying and grinding the plant don’t you think Pfizer and Phytopharm would, diet tips, have been selling as a product back in 1998?
Someday we may learn that does promote by effectively, diet tips, suppressing appetite,, diet tips, but until we do, we should all be careful how we spend our money on products claiming to contain or its active ingredient .