Herbal hoodia products are generally health or diet supplements with a hoodia base that have been augmented with other natural elements or derivatives that complement the hoodia appetite suppressant effect. Some of the standard natural additions include psyllium, a source of fiber; green tea extract for its antioxidant properties and as a source of caffeine; and chromium, which is an essential mineral for metabolic activity.
There are also some herbal hoodia products on the market that include nutrients meant to provide the vitamins that can be important in a weight loss aid. Calcium and Vitamin D are included in some variations of herbal hoodia, and some experts recommend the use of multivitamins with hoodia as well.
The use of caffeine in herbal hoodia products is meant to provide an accelerant to the metabolic process, so that the body burns more fat more efficiently. Hoodia’s active ingredient is a molecule that gives the brain a message of false satiation. In other words, your body’s nutritional meter thinks you don’t need food even when you’ve eaten nothing for a long period. Fooling the biological mechanisms this way could slow the metabolic rate, when the goal is to burn fat off. That’s why green tea and other caffeine sources are often among the additional herbs in hoodia products.
Some of the herbal hoodia products also emphasize production methods. The extraction methods for hoodia sometimes include using methanol or ethanol to catalyze the process. Products such as Hoodia Diet 57 state that no chemicals, alcohol, or organic solvents are used during hoodia production. The finished product is free of: yeast, wheat, milk or milk derivatives, lactose, sugar, preservatives, artificial color, and artificial flavor. Less that five mg of sodium is included for preservative purposes.
In a market that’s flooded with fake hoodia products you might be inclined to trust a company that has been in the health supplements and nutrients business for a long time more than an organization with just a web page. Often established companies will put out herbal hoodia products with natural additives, because that’s the nature of their business. It’s one way to weed out the bogus products among the flood of hoodia supplements now being peddled on the internet.