I have written about this plant many months back, and since
then, it has become available in health supplement stores everywhere in a range
of concentrations and quality. It should
be possible to get it easily.
The plant itself is now been successfully cultivated and I
suspect supply has become ample.
Everyone understood immediately that the real market would be huge and
acted accordingly. In time it will be
cheaply available. It may end up been
freshly available like so many herbs.
The key of course is that it nicely suppresses
appetite. It actually does it very well
without any negative effects. It is one
of those few unique solutions that kills the category and which no one can actually patent. I was there once before in the introduction of shark cartilage that led the introduction of the use of the Glucosome - Condriten protocol for cartilage erosion.
The spiny, cactus-like plant grows very slowly, so I was surprised to
find a huge wall of it near the side of the road. Dr. Kizito told me it was at
least a hundred and maybe 200 years old.
“This is the first time I’ve
ever seen one.”
I was dwarfed by this giant
cactus stand.
“It’s an endangered plant, but
you wouldn’t know it from looking at this.”
I stood there, staring up at
the 20-foot-high wall of spiny, cactus-like arms. The clusters were huge. I
didn’t expect to see it growing right here by the side of the road.
When I jumped at the chance to
drive in Africa, Dr. Kizito didn’t expect me to keep pulling the car over to
see all of the interesting plants.
What I hadn’t noticed was that
his BMW was a stick shift. It made driving a little more tricky because the
steering wheel was on the opposite side of the car.
I’ve had the experience of
driving on that side of the road before, but this was the first time I’d ever
driven a stick. It was hard for me because I’m used to steering with either
hand, no problem. What got me was steering with my right hand and shifting with
my left.
Learning the pattern with the
other hand while driving on the wrong side of the road was tricky. It felt
surprisingly awkward and I didn’t feel like I had the coordination to shift
gears.
Plus, the turn signal is on
the wrong side and the light switch is on the wrong side... so every time I
tried to go around a corner, I’d turn on the windshield wipers.
It became easier to drive when
we got out of East London.
I had come to South Africa
from Uganda because an herbalist there whom I had met, Dr. Mawanda, told me
that the best herbalist in South Africa was a friend of his. He introduced me
to Dr. Kizito over the phone, who said, “Come see me, I have many things to
show you.”
This is where he brought me.
Dr. Kizito took my photo in the middle of the giant plant and I said to him,
“It’s very unfriendly looking.”
Even so, it’s one of the more
famous plants in Africa. The most popular is probably the banana. Almost every
African eats it every day. In fact, the word for “food” and “banana” in Uganda
is the same: matooké.
But one of the most well-known
is this prickly plant. It became probably the most famous appetite suppressant
supplement of all time over the last few years.
Because of that, I can’t
mention its name in this letter or the spam filters would send it right into
your junk email file.
You see, whenever a supplement
becomes very popular and many legitimate companies start selling it, there are
always illegitimate companies who want to flood your inbox with ads trying to
get in on the action. That’s what happened with this supplement, and now the
big internet service providers won’t let any email with the name of the plant
in it go through.
It’s sad because it’s a
completely natural product that could genuinely help you.
The San Bushmen of the
Kalahari Desert used it just the way you would. To take away the feeling of
hunger. For thousands of years, when the men of the tribe set out on long
hunting trips, they would eat a few bites of the plant – that’s also called
Bushman’s Hat because of them – instead of bringing food with them.
They broke open the spiny
stems, chewed some of the pulp and were on their way.
One animal study shed some
light on why this might work so well. There’s a compound in the plant that
seems to send more energy (known as ATP) to the energy-sensing part of the
brain. If your brain has enough ATP, it won’t be signaling you to eat. In the
study, the plant compound prompted the animals to eat 40%–60% less.1
When news of a natural
appetite suppressant hit media outlets like 60 Minutes, the plant became
very well-known. Everyone was trying to get a piece of it –pharmaceutical
companies included.
They wanted to try to make a
synthetic version of the active component called P57AS3, so they could patent
it as an anti-obesity drug. They eventually gave up trying to make a synthetic
copy.
You can get it in its natural
form in appetite-control supplements, like my Native Slim.
Bushman’s Hat is one of the
most important herbs I saw in Africa and I believe it could be helpful to
people who want to slim down.
If you’re buying it as a
supplement, you want to be sure you’re getting the right thing. There are 18
different species of the plant, and only the gordonii type was used for
appetite suppression. So look for that word on the label.
Also, you want it to use the
aerial parts of the plant – those are the parts that grow above ground, and not
mixed with the roots. The succulent, juicy part that grows above ground is what
the bushmen used.
No comments:
Post a Comment