Dieta Hoodia

by Daniel Avaro
Manager, Hoodia Latina

The world is certainly a curious place with amazing and incredible circumstances happening every day. The hoodia story is one of them.

In the developed and industrialized nations actually we find one of the largest battles the man has embraced to: the fight against obesity. There are about 300 million people worldwide rated as overweight or obese. And the fight is going on, but the final victory is some years ahead.

By the other side, in the developing world, we find the other largest battle, and is against the hunger. Accordingly to UN agencies, some 852 million accross the globe are hungry. Here also the battle is going on and the victory is still far away. Largest population with hunger problems is in the Sub Saharan countries in Africa.

But is in Africa where a simple plant, the hoodia gordonii, is starting to emerge as a solution for both sides. It is what I call the Hoodia irony.

The hoodia goordonii is a succulent which originally grows wild in the Kalahari and Namib deserts in Southern Africa, having a molecule wich suppress appetite. The hoodia pills made a revolution in the weight loss market in just 3 years, being today at the top of the consumer demand. Why?: because it works!!

When we started the hoodia business at Hoodia Latina, there were just a dozen shops selling hoodia, be either on line or in physical shops. Google searchs showed not more than a few thousands results for Hoodia. Today we find thousands stores worldwide and Google results are close to 12 million when you search for hoodia in the box.

Originally the plant was wild harvested from deserts in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Some quantities were legally exported from South Africa, while other small quantities were smuggled. Today, a large base of commercial plantations are starting to supply hoodia to the growing worldwide market.

As a consequence of such situation, new hoodia development projects are implemented frequently, helping entrepreneurs and small communities in those African countries to take advantage from a product with high demand, pooring money in poorer regions. New hoodia plantation and hoodia industries are being developed in those countries.

As the hoodia price is one of the highest into the herbal industry, the hoodia business is helping poor and hungry countries with money. It is an irony, because the poor and hunger countries are receiving money to feed their populations, from a product which is aimed to lower the obesity in other rich parts of the world.

It is a rare situation. Because the hungry communities are helping the obese communities, but also the obese countries are helping the hungry populations too.

The hoodia business is good news not only for the obese but for the hungry people. It is a good example on how the trade helps the poorest countries. And the best news is that hoodia diet pills market is growing and growing. Thanks to hoodia, poor and hungry people will improve their life and obese and overweight people will improve their health.