What You Should Know About the Hoodia 60 Minutes and BBC Reports

July 2, 2008 by Reagan Miers

After researching and writing on hoodia gordonii and hoodia supplements for years, I felt it was important to write an article about the hoodia 60 Minutes and BBC reports that are supposedly endorsing specific hoodia diet pills. The BBC and 60 Minutes never endorsed a specific hoodia diet pill. Any website that claims they did is lying.

Visit almost any website that is selling or promoting hoodia supplements and you’ll likely see the words prominently displayed, “As featured on” or “Endorsed by,” followed by the CBS 60 Minutes logo and the BBC logo. What you are led to believe is that the hoodia diet pill being promoted was featured or endorsed by these two media programs. Not only was a specific hoodia supplement not featured or endorsed by 60 minutes or the BBC, but no hoodia diet pill was tested or endorsed at all!

Leslie Stahl, a 60 Minutes reporter, featured a story on hoodia on November 21, 2004. Ms. Stahl traveled to the Kalahari Desert, where the hoodia gordonii plant is grown in the wild, and actually ate a small piece of the plant. She said after eating the plant she noticed a marked appetite suppressant quality. She said she wasn’t hungry all day. Ms. Stahl concluded that natural hoodia probably worked as an appetite suppressant.

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.

Another example of how shady marketers are trying to get you to believe a lie is they have used the same tactics with the hoodia BBC report. Tom Mangold, BBC correspondent, did a show on hoodia in 2003. He, too, went to the Kalahari Desert to see for himself if the hoodia gordonii plant would affect his appetite. Not only did Mangold eat a small piece of the plant, but his camera man also ate a small piece of the hoodia gordonii plant. Afterwards they said they, “did not even think about food” that day. They went on to say they weren’t hungry for breakfast the following morning and their appetites for lunch were almost 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?

About the Author:

The authentic story about hoodia, 60 minutes, and the BBC reports may surprise you but did you also know that most hoodia diet pills are fake? Make sure your diet pills are authentic before you buy!