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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.

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 did do a hoodia story on November 21, 2004. Reporter, Leslie Stahl, went to the Kalahari Desert in South Africa to see the hoodia gordonii plant growing in the wild. She wanted to eat a small piece of it herself to see if it affected her appetite. After eating the plant, Stahl reported the hoodia gordonii plant worked to suppress her appetite and she wasn’t hungry the entire day.

Leslie Stahl said nothing else about hoodia. She, and 60 Minutes, did not mention any specific brands of hoodia supplements, let alone endorse one. However, unless you read the show’s transcripts or watched it yourself when it aired on CBS, you wouldn’t know this. Hoodia sellers have taken the 60 Minutes show and twisted the facts around in an attempt to sell more of their hoodia supplements.

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.

The next time you visit a website promoting or selling a hoodia supplement that claims their product was featured or endorsed by 60 Minutes and the BBC, immediately click to another website. Any company that is willing to misrepresent a media story so that it works to their advantage so they can sell more of their products obviously isn’t honest. If they aren’t willing to be honest about something as simple as the media coverage of hoodia on 60 Minutes and the BBC, how honest do you really think they are about the quality and authenticity of the product they are selling?

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