Can Herbs Aid Weight Loss? Live Leaner and Longer
(Page 8 of 9)
January/February 2007
By Linda B. White, M.D.
However, a 2005 study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that adding green tea extract (providing 1,125 mg tea catechins and 225 mg caffeine a day) to a low-calorie diet didn’t augment long-term weight loss in a group of women, though it did counteract the dip in energy expenditure that comes with restricting calories. At this point, there isn’t enough research to judge green tea’s weight-loss power.
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A plant-derived supplement called hydroxycitric acid (HCA) alters fat metabolism by both inhibiting fat production and promoting its breakdown; it also reduces appetite. HCA is extracted from the rind of a pumpkin-shaped fruit native to Indonesia known as garcinia (Garcinia cambogia), also called brindleberry or Malabar tamarind. In a review of herb safety, Pittler and Ernst found garcinia was one of the few supplements—with preliminary scientific support—that appeared to be safe. While one study failed to find benefit, three studies demonstrated weight loss, although one of them didn’t find that HCA curbed appetite. Another study failed to confirm that HCA significantly altered energy expenditure or fat metabolism.
Two of the positive trials used a product said to be more bioavailable called HCA-SX, providing 2,800 to 4,667 mg a day of HCA, divided into three doses and taken 30 minutes before mealtime. This product is marketed as Super CitriMax, with a manufacturer’s recommended dosage of 900 mg 30 to 60 minutes before breakfast, lunch and dinner. This supplement is not a ground-up herb but rather a chemical extracted from a plant.
Herbal Appetite Suppressants
Ephedrine from ephedra and synephrine from bitter orange both suppress appetite, but the new kid on the block is hoodia (Hoodia gordonii). Making a big media splash, this herb has been featured on Today, 60 Minutes and in Oprah’s O Magazine. This rare succulent from the Kalahari Desert of South Africa has helped the Bushmen endure lean times and contains steroidal glycosides that trick the brain into thinking the stomach’s full, thereby suppressing appetite—but without stimulating the cardiovascular and nervous systems. A substance isolated from hoodia called P57 has shown to suppress appetite and stimulate weight loss in laboratory animals.
In an unpublished study funded by the product’s manufacturer, PhytoPharm, 19 obese adults took either a placebo or a hoodia extract without changing diet or activity levels. After 15 days, the hoodia group had reduced their food intake by 1,000 calories a day—a big drop when you consider the average American needs around 2,200 calories per day.
According to the website www.ResearchHoodia.info, not all products that claim to contain hoodia really do. The website offers guidelines for making sure you have the real deal. Until the plant is mass cultivated, hoodia pills and liquid extracts will remain rare and expensive.
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