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Weight Loss Forum / Low Carb / May 2006The Hoodia Scam
First off, I am not someone who needs to loose a lot of weight. I stumbled upon your forums while looking for ways to just loose 20 pounds on my gut before summer. So forgive me for barging in:) However, I've been reading about Hoodia for some time now, because I'm researching it as part of a 'scammer' marketing paper. Even though some of you have pointed this out in a few posts, I've noticed that it seems to go unnoticed. HOODIA is NOT on the MARKET!!! Whatever they are selling all over the place...internet, TV, Radio...etc... IS NOT THE REAL THING! It will not be available in pill, or any other form for years, if at all. Testing is still ongoing, and hasn't reached the marketting stage yet. So Please! I know it must be frustrating to want to believe something so bad that you'll almost pay anything for a "miracle" but try and refrain from sending these scumbags any more of your hard earned cash. If you are taking a pill that you thought was "hoodia cactus" stop. You have no idea what is in it. It could be sawdust for all you know. Or worse. >First off, I am not someone who needs to loose a lot of weight. I stumbled >upon your forums while looking for ways to just loose 20 pounds on my gut [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] >If you are taking a pill that you thought was "hoodia cactus" stop. You have >no idea what is in it. It could be sawdust for all you know. Or worse. I haven't been buying (or taking) any, but I've certainly seen the advertisements. As far as I know it's a plant. What's to keep someone from harvesting it and selling it? Is it that scarce? Have you identified that they are selling some particular other product in its place? In short, what is the =basis= for your claim that the item being sold is "not the real thing"? When selling agricultural products or food supplements there is very little in the way of regulations on whatever concentration of some supposed active ingredient might be, but there =are= some regulations from a "truth in advertising" point of view about what the product actually =is=. If you advertise it as a banana when it's really an apple, you get in trouble without anyone worrying about the potassium content. Now, it may be that only a =specific variety= of Hoodia is supposed to have those miracle properties and that they are selling a much more common (and non-miracle) variety. That wouldn't run afoul of "truth in advertising laws" as long as they weren't making the miracle claims. It's up to the buyer in a situation like that to know what product they want to buy. But selling sawdust (or anything else that isn't really some sort of Hoodia), that gets them in legal hot water. "Guy Matthew" <u20232@uwe> wrote in > If you are taking a pill that you thought was "hoodia cactus" stop. You > have > no idea what is in it. It could be sawdust for all you know. Or worse. All diet gimmicks is Snake Oil! > "Guy Matthew" <u20232@uwe> wrote in > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > All diet gimmicks is Snake Oil! I don't know if Guy is correct that all Hoodia being sold is fake. I do know that a few years ago 60 Minutes did a story about it. The plant grows in a very specific desert area of Africa which is under the control of bushmen that have been using it for centuries to reduce hunger. As I recall from the show, a major US drug company had reached an agreement with the bushmen to lock up the supply for the company to research and eventually turn into a commercial drug. So apparently they believed there was some merit in it and that it was not easy to just grow it somewhere else. So, unlike most weight loss wonders, there is basis to believe this stuff actually works. Now what companies are actually selling is an interesting question. I've seen US websites and companies that clearly claim what they are selling is from the real Hoodia grown by the bushmen. If that's a lie, then they are open to fraud charges. I too would be interested in what basis Guy has for his claim that all what's being sold is fake. >I too would be interested in what basis Guy has for his claim that all >what's being sold is fake. It would be a bit boring reading to paste my work here...even when its done, since it involves a whole lot of "psycho babble" regarding other diet scams. However, you can take a look at PHYTOPHARM's own website and get it from the horses mouth. Keep in mind that this is a very hard plant to grow, very expensive, and minimal amounts are able to be extracted and isolated per plant. Thus tons of plants are required for relitively small amounts of product. Synthetic product has proven to be out of reach. Also, this plant grows sparsely in one area of Africa, so it is being grown exclusively under license with Phytopharm on experimental plantations. Here is an excerpt from their currently updated Trials Info: "The CSIR has submitted patents in territories all over the world relating to Hoodia gordonii. Phytopharm has an exclusive licence for these patents." "The necessary clinical trials and other studies to ensure the safety of the extract will take a few years before a product will be available." And THAT'S where the spam comes in. Slick, but transparent. Buh-bye now Guy! |And THAT'S where the spam comes in. Slick, but transparent. Buh-bye |now Guy! It was obvious from the start. Posted from the WeightAdvisor forum. Classic. My guess was that his hand puppet was going to come along and say that ne, hew as wrong, there is in fact a website that sells the real Hoodia at a reasonable price, yada yada yada >And THAT'S where the spam comes in. Slick, but transparent. Buh-bye >now Guy! what the hell is WRONG with you people! I try and post something factual that might actually help someone from wasting their money, and you start this crap? What the hell have I tried to sell?! Man! what a couple of idiots. I cannot believe I am actually wasting my time responding, but GUY, please don't underestimate our intelligence. You do a search on your precious phytopharm site and it is all about buying THEIR brand of Hoodia. In other words, you are a spammer and all of us know that Hoodia needs to be taken in large quantities to work, if it works at all. So like the rest of the idiots coming here trying to look innocent but being a shill for their site that they get paid for "hits" or sales, we know better. Again Buh-bye!!! > I cannot believe I am actually wasting my time responding, but GUY, > please don't underestimate our intelligence. You do a search on your [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > innocent but being a shill for their site that they get paid for "hits" > or sales, we know better. Again Buh-bye!!! In all fairness to Guy, what the hell are you talking about? Phytopharm is not selling any Hoodia products to consumers. Phytopharm is a legitimate pharmaceutical research company, with partnerships with giants like Unilever and Pfizer, not some scam internet sales company. As I understand it, they had a partnership with Pfizer to develop a drug for weight control based on Hoodia. When it became obvious that the chemical compount could not be easily synthesized, Pfizer lost interest in it. Phytopharm is apparently continuing on, with the intent of making it into a legitimate commercial product at some point in the future. In other words, they have nothing to sell to any consumers. You seem to know a LOT about phytopharm.................................hmmmmmmmmm is your name Guy too? > You seem to know a LOT about > phytopharm.................................hmmmmmmmmm is your name Guy > too? No, I just take a few minutes to figure out what's going on instead of making an a.s of myself. >You seem to know a LOT about >phytopharm.................................hmmmmmmmmm is your name Guy >too? Well, I just got home and checked here out of curiosity. I can't believe I started this thread at all, and regret it completely. I'm not into "yelling" on line, but essentially you've called me a lier and I had to post that response calling you idiots. I really can't understand how that happened, but oh well.... Anyway, I have better things I should be doing, but I'll just state that I used my real name, (first and middle) as opposed some weird "handle", and am a graduate student of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. The reason I stopped by here, as stated in my initial post was to warn possibly gullible folks about a wide spread scam that I became aware of while researching weight loss and related psychological problems associated with obesity. I had no intention of getting into arguments. As the above poster stated, I only brought up that website so that you could see for yourselves that there are NO products with this ingredient yet on the open market. So, bye, bye yourself LIAR --- not "lier", which might be someone sleeping horizontally. Graduate students, I was one of those a couple of times. Thank you for the posting to be wary of internet sellers of wizard type diet products, and Hoodia especially. >>You seem to know a LOT about >>phytopharm.................................hmmmmmmmmm is your name Guy [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > > So, bye, bye yourself  Signature1) Eat Till SATISFIED, Not STUFFED... Atkins repeated 9 times in the book 2) Exercise: It's Non-Negotiable..... Chapter 22 title, Atkins book 3) Don't Diet Without Supplemental Nutrients... Chapter 23 title, Atkins book 4) A sensible eating plan, and follow it. (Atkins, Self Made or Other) Before the big publicity splash with Ephedra a couple of years ago, I 'd never heard of Hoodia. I take it Hoodia is an herb that does about the same sort of thing as Ephedra? If so then wait a few years and it will get its own publictiy splash. Hoodia is another one of those so called "miracle" herbs that sellers guarantee you'll lose 60 pounds a month without changing the way you eat and don't exercise. Then the little writing says "results not typical" which means it doesn't work. So yes, it will and is getting a lot of hype. > Hoodia is another one of those so called "miracle" herbs that sellers > guarantee you'll lose 60 pounds a month without changing the way you > eat and don't exercise. Then the little writing says "results not > typical" which means it doesn't work. So yes, it will and is getting a > lot of hype. You've already demonstrated that you know less than nothing about the history of Hoodia, yet you continue to spout off and make more of an a.s of yourself. Unlike most other "miracle herbs", real drug companies like Pfizer and Phytopharm have invested millions in investigating the potential of Hoodia. Many of the most successful drugs in history have been originally isolated from plants. And as Guy pointed out, if there is a scam going on, it's companies selling phoney Hoodia, not the real product, which is just in the early development stages. Oh, you mean you are still sore over this? Hmmm...I lost interest in this thread last week.. Get over it. If Hoodia really worked, it would only be available by prescription. Anyhoo... you notice how so few actually post here anymore? It is because of a.sholes like you. Toodles! > Oh, you mean you are still sore over this? Hmmm...I lost interest in > this thread last week.. Get over it. If Hoodia really worked, it > would only be available by prescription. Anyhoo... you notice how so > few actually post here anymore? It is because of a.sholes like you. > Toodles! You continue to shoot your mouth off, without knowing a damn thing about what you're talking about. You started by accusing Guy of trying to promote Hoodia from Phytopharm by spamming, which shows your total ignorance of the entire subject and your laziness to even try to figure it out. The simple fact is Phytopharm is a legitimate drug research company with no Hoodia to sell to consumers period. Yet, you persist in making an a.s of yourself. As for Hoodia being available by prescription, that is exactly what Pfizer and Phytopharm were interested in and why they are not selling anything yet. Phytopharm is continuing research, testing and operations to grow the plant, which takes time. Apparently you think drugs just show up in a bottle out of thin air. Many drugs, aspirin, digitalis, taxol, just to name a few, originated from plant discoveries. As to who posts here, I've been here for years and don't recall you showing up until recently. I'm sure I would have noticed you, as your ignorance is quite obvious. I'll still be here long after your feeble brain moves on to some new topic. Actually I have been here since 2001, research, stupid. You brag about researching, look up my name and you'll see I was a daily poster here until people like you kept dragging mundane things on and on and on and on and on. You must really have some emotional issues to keep this up. I don't post much here anymore because there are so few left and there are only like 10 posts a day when there were hundreds then. It gets boring. So unless you have something else to spaz out about I will now killfile you so I don't have to listen to you anymore. As to the rest stuck with readint this, I apologize for making this thread look interesting when it isn't. > Actually I have been here since 2001, research, stupid. You brag about > researching, look up my name and you'll see I was a daily poster here > until people like you kept dragging mundane things on and on and on and > on and on. You must really have some emotional issues to keep this up. No, I just have little patience for ignoramuses that attack other posters like Greg when they don't even know basic facts and then don't have the decency to appologize or admit they were wrong. > I don't post much here anymore because there are so few left and there > are only like 10 posts a day when there were hundreds then. And I'm sure no one will either remember your posts or miss them. It gets > boring. So unless you have something else to spaz out about I will now > killfile you so I don't have to listen to you anymore. As to the rest > stuck with readint this, I apologize for making this thread look > interesting when it isn't. Yeah, it does get boring when your exposed as a fool. Bye bye! Psychological issues making you need to have the last word? I am not exposed as a fool. If you look up phytopharm in any search engine, which most people would do in this case, it brings you to all kinds of product listings. I went to the phytopharm website directly and it is vague as to what they do aside from research. So I did my homework, unlike you who seems to have to find someone to fight with. Why exactly do you have to defend Guy? Psychological issues there? I think so. As to nobody missing my posts, few oldies post here anymore so it doesn't matter to me if I am missed or not, the usenet is not my life, unlike you. I remember you. Good to see you posting again. :-) -- Cheri gweebles wrote in message <1145037881.250668.184470@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>... >Psychological issues making you need to have the last word? I am not >exposed as a fool. If you look up phytopharm in any search engine, [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >so it doesn't matter to me if I am missed or not, the usenet is not my >life, unlike you. Hi, Cheri! Yup, it's been awhile. I still LC, but am awaiting a full knee replacement in a few months. I was doing good until I rammed into a wild boar and totalled the car and my leg. I don't see many oldbies here. I email Dr. Bill directly now rather than try to hunt him down in newsgroups. It's good to hear from you! Wow, I'm sorry to hear about your leg, and I hope the replacement goes well. That must have been a nasty wreck. Some of the oldbies do post occasionally, but not like they used to. I'm hoping it's because most of them have succeeded and have moved on to other areas, and not just because they got tired of us. ;-) -- Cheri gweebles wrote in message <1145052654.681067.93150@t31g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>... >Hi, Cheri! Yup, it's been awhile. I still LC, but am awaiting a full >knee replacement in a few months. I was doing good until I rammed into >a wild boar and totalled the car and my leg. I don't see many oldbies >here. I email Dr. Bill directly now rather than try to hunt him down >in newsgroups. It's good to hear from you! I don't know if Grizzly Jake ever got back on the wagon, Dr Bill is hanging in there Gaines Not was doing well last time I saw him online. I see Saffire and RZ still here too. HI GUYS!!. K in Kali sometimes lurks in other places. I do hope the best for the "old crowd" and like me they just got busy and drifted. Well, now that I see a familiar "face" I'll drop by occasionally!!! My knee doesn't hurt much, just sounds weird when I move it, the doc said if I hadn't braced my feet, it wouldn't have shattered. My bad, but oh well. I was more upset about the car than my leg at the time, I had just bought it! I do Oxycise right now because it is non impact and the doc says within a few days of the replacement, I will be walking whether I want to or not. Boooyyy does that not sound fun! :-) > Psychological issues making you need to have the last word? I am not > exposed as a fool. Well now you've proven that you don't know how to use the killfile, because if you did and used it as you claimed, you wouldn't be seeing my posts anymore. If you look up phytopharm in any search engine, > which most people would do in this case, it brings you to all kinds of > product listings. I went to the phytopharm website directly and it is > vague as to what they do aside from research. Did the Phytopharm website look like they were taking internet orders or selling anything to the public? Are you really that stupid that you can't tell? So I did my homework, > unlike you who seems to have to find someone to fight with. Why > exactly do you have to defend Guy? Psychological issues there? I > think so. I just don;t like fools like you that go off attacking someone for no reason, without any of the facts, which is what you did to Guy. And then when I simply pointed out that your claim that Phytopharm and Guy were out scamming people was without merit, you accused me of knowing too much about Phytopharm and suggesting I was in on it too. If you can read and have been here as long as you claim, then you should damn well know that I haven't been spamming or promoting anything. As to nobody missing my posts, few oldies post here anymore > so it doesn't matter to me if I am missed or not, the usenet is not my > life, unlike you. Bye bye fool And sadly enough you just proved my point about you being obsessed with the last word. Interesting. I saw hoodia for sale in the supermarket the other day, in the vitamin section. A bottle of pills in a box. It was VERY expensive; a little 35-40 tablet bottle was $38. I do know it is used by some aboriginal Africans to suppress hunger when travelling over long distances (some of those people will run across the veldt for days at a time without eating), and know for a fact that Pfizer has been researching it. With good reason, too: it would be the biggest thing since Viagra. The effect is not that it "causes you to lose weight." That's misleading. The effect is that it suppresses your appetite, to help with the enormous will power challenges all dieters face. Anyway, I did see that. I can't remember what brand it was: I'll look next time. The little box it came in was mostly black, I recall. Ron M. Yes, there are many spurious products out there but Hoodia is definitely on the market. See Hoodia questions and answers: http://hoodia.abacus-es.net/ It give a link sources and an analysis of the contents of a number of products claiming to be hoodia, at least two of which are leginitmate. > Yes, there are many spurious products out there but Hoodia is > definitely on the market. See Hoodia questions and answers: > http://hoodia.abacus-es.net/ > > It give a link sources and an analysis of the contents of a number of > products claiming to be hoodia, at least two of which are leginitmate. Yes, wow, I'm impressed! A real credible and authoratative source! And the fact that they are selling Hoodia means there's is the one that works, right? |
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