What You Should Know About the Hoodia 60 Minutes and BBC Reports
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I’ve been researching and writing about hoodia supplements for over a year now and I can’t believe I haven’t written an article about hoodia, 60 minutes, and the BBC reports. What sparked my interest in finally writing this story was because I was fed up with all the bogus 60 minutes and BBC endorsements of specific hoodia diet pills.
There are a number of websites that promote or sell hoodia supplements that say “as seen on 60 minutes” or “endorsed by” followed by the logos of the BBC or the 60 minutes program. This is a misrepresentation because it leads many consumers to believe that the product being sold is endorsed by these two media giants. When, in all actuality, neither of them have endorsed or tested a hoodia diet supplement.
60 minutes reporter, Leslie Stahl, did do a story on the hoodia gordonii plant on November 21, 2004. She traveled to South Africa’s Kalahari Desert to see the native plant growing in the wild. She ate a small piece of it. She later reported that she wasn’t hungry all day and that the hoodia gordonii plan did work in suppressing her appetite.
That’s all she said about hoodia. 60 minutes did not endorse any specific hoodia supplement. The CBS program didn’t even feature a hoodia supplement to begin with! You would never know this unless you actually read the transcripts of the 60 minutes program yourself. Unfortunately, all too many hoodia sellers have capitalized on this story and have twisted it to their advantage to sell more of their products.
In regards to the BBC, they did a documentary on hoodia in 2003. BBC correspondent, Tom Mangold, also took a trip to the Kalahari Desert to test the hoodia gordonii plant on his own appetite. Mangold and his camera man both took a small piece of the hoodia plant and ate it. They both reported they, “did not even think about food” for the remainder of the day. What was even more amazing about their report was they said they weren’t hungry for breakfast the following day and their appetite at lunch was still virtually nonexistent.
Just like the hoodia 60 Minutes report, Mangold’s BBC report did not involve the testing of any hoodia products and it did not endorse a particular hoodia diet pill. The reports by Stahl and Mangold were on the plant itself, not supplements. Neither tried a hoodia product or mentioned a specific brand of hoodia supplement.
If you find yourself visiting a website that claims their product was featured on 60 minutes or the BBC, go to another site. Any company that would twist the hoodia 60 minutes or BBC reports to their own advantage is misrepresenting themselves and their product. They are not being honest. If they aren’t honest about something like this, how honest are they about the effectiveness and authenticity of their product?
