Is Caralluma the Next Anti-Hunger Wonder Supplement?
By Joel Greene, VEEP Nutrition
It may be time for hoodia and phentermine to stand aside.
A new study out of India looks at the extract of an edible cactus named Caralluma Fimbriata and it’s apparent ability to suppress appetite.
Similar to Hoodia, Caralluma is an edible plant that is commonly consumed as a vegetable in certain parts of India.
In fact, the Indian Health Ministry regards it as a ‘famine food’ because of it’s generally recognized ability to curb hunger.
Caralluma is of particular interest due to the large body of what amounts to anecdotal evidence from Indian culture. Like Hoodia and Ma Huang, Caralluma may be another case of an herb that is widely accepted within a given culture for its affects that western science finally gets around to validating.
The study was conducted by Gencor Pacific, a company out of Texas with one of the only Caralluma extract products available, a product called Slimuluma. First, kudos to these guys for actually laying down the coin to do a placebo controlled double bind study. That being said, one study doesn’t prove anything, but given the cultural acceptance within India of Caralluma for hunger control, we should consider Caralluma may actually do what Gencor claims.
The study examined 50 adult men and women aged 25 to 60 over a 60 day period. According to the study data, Caralluma appeared to suppress hunger and waist circumference over a placebo.
What is not clear in the study is how was hunger assessed? Was it subjective or did they go so far as to asses the impact on any of major hunger related hormones.
Still, a reduction in waist circumference vs. a placebo is hard to argue so Caralluma looks promising in terms of weight loss.
Since we are longevity based, it’s worth mentioning that I’m not a fan of the current trend of attempting to stifle hunger through hunger control supplementation. It's not something you should be trying to do over the long haul.
Controlling Hunger Naturally
In many cases, you can address hunger simply by doing the following
-zero out your carbs for two days. I mean none. Instead consume protein and essential fats. Try EssentialLipids that we have in our store or Udo’s oil.
-Following the 2 days of zero carbs, the key is to change the ratio of super sugars to essential fats. Eat more essential fats like Essential Lipids and Udo’s and cut out as much processed sugar as you can.
Doing these two things normally has a dramatic effect on controlling hunger. You can do the two day carb fast once or twice a month for regular hunger control. Try this and you will be astounded at how hunger disappears.
|
|
Print Article
Email to a friend
