The Supposed Hoodia Oprah Connection Exposed
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When surfing the Internet for hoodia gordonii, you may have read there is a hoodia Oprah connection. You may have seen websites that claim Oprah uses hoodia, or that she has endorsed a particular hoodia product on her show. Would it surprise you to hear that these statements may not be true?
I’ve seen some claims that hoodia was “seen on Oprah” or that “Oprah uses hoodia,” but I haven’t seen any evidence to support these claims. I’ve never heard of hoodia being featured on her television show nor have I read anything that supports the claims that she has used it. In fact, if you go to her website and search for the term, “hoodia” or “hoodia Oprah” you don’t get any search results. Until I can find concrete evidence that she talked about it on her television show or that she uses it, I don’t believe there is any Oprah hoodia connection as far as her television show is concerned.
Many of the websites that are using Oprah’s name point to an article that ran in Oprah’s magazine July 2005 issue. The article they reference from O is titled, “Diet Pills: The Next Generation.” I wanted to read this article, but was unable to find an archive copy of it. So, I went on eBay and purchased the magazine. I wanted to read for myself what exactly Oprah “said” about the weight loss supplement. I was surprised at what I found.
The article features a picture of a San tribe member with a hoodia gordonii plant. My first thought was there probably is a hoodia Oprah, but after reading the article it was not connected to Oprah at all. In fact, the article was written by someone other than Oprah and there are no quotes from Oprah about hoodia in the entire piece.
The first two paragraphs of the article tell about the history of the plant and how popular hoodia diet pills have become in the marketplace. Personally, I felt the article didn’t discuss hoodia supplements favorably. A quote from the article reads, “So far, however, there’s little proof that the supplements are even mildly effective: Most contain only small, probably insignificant levels of Hoodia extract” Obviously, this statement portrays hoodia supplements in a negative way and it fails to mention any brands of hoodia by name.
The article goes on to inform the reader that pharmaceutical firms are still trying to come up with the latest and greatest weight loss supplement. Beyond the first two paragraphs, there is no mention of hoodia at all. As far as Oprah’s magazine is concerned, there is no hoodia Oprah connection.
It surprises me that Oprah hasn’t started legal proceedings against the websites that use her name, and the name of her magazine, to endorse their hoodia products. I’m sure it is only a matter of time before Oprah’s legal department takes action against these websites. The truth is Oprah has not endorsed hoodia, and there is no hoodia Oprah connection.
