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?

When surfing the net looking for hoodia, you may run across sites that say “as seen on Oprah” or “Oprah uses hoodia.” Truthfully, I can find no record that hoodia has ever been featured on the Oprah show. I also haven’t found any documentation that claims Oprah uses hoodia gordonii. I went to Oprah’s website and did a search for “hoodia” and a search for “hoodia Oprah” and got zero search results. Until I find evidence to the contrary, it is safe to say there is no connection between hoodia and Oprah Winfrey.

There is a minor hoodia connection, however, in Oprah’s magazine, O, that many websites reference as proof that Oprah endorses it. The article all these websites refer to was published in the July 2005 issue of her magazine titled, “Diet Pills: The Next Generation.” I wasn’t able to find an archive copy of the article anywhere online so I purchased the issue on eBay to find out what exactly Oprah Winfrey supposedly said about hoodia. I was very surprised what I found out.

When I turned to the article I saw a large picture of a San tribe member holding a piece of the hoodia gordonii plant. I immediately thought there was probably a significant connection after all. However, after reading the entire article there was absolutely no hoodia Oprah connection. The article wasn’t even written by her and there were no quotes from Oprah about hoodia.

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 rest of the article goes on to talk about how pharmaceutical firms are racing to come out with the next miracle weight loss supplement. There is no mention of hoodia at all beyond the first two paragraphs. As you can see, there is no hoodia Oprah connection at all - at least not through her magazine.

With so many websites using Oprah’s name to make consumers believe there is a hoodia Oprah connection, there is bound to be some legal actions taken in the future. Oprah’s legal department will no doubt come down on these people. They are twisting a small mention of hoodia in an article in Oprah’s magazine to make it appear that Oprah herself endorses their brand of hoodia, when in all honesty, that is just not true.

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