Hoodia & gymnema sylvestre supplements

slaughteress

Hi all

I went out today & bought some gymnema sylvestre & hoodia supplements today. The first is a source of gymnemic acid which temporarily blocks the sweet receptors on your tongue & GI tract causing sweets to taste pretty gross ( like melting sand).Brilliant hey? Hoodia on the other hand is the controversial Kalaharia desert plant used by tribesmen to suppress their appetite on long hunts. Its pretty much impossible to know whether one has purchased the real deal or not, however I would hope that going to a herbalist which I did would be a little more successful than say purchasing off the net. Who knows?

My dilema is this: Gymnema sylvestre is neither controversial, hard to obtain or endangered. It is commonly used in science demonstrations to explore the world of taste; often in conjunction with the 'miracle fruit' compound, miraculin which make EVERYTHING sour taste sweet.

Well I must be some kind of mutant because the gymnema has had absolutely ZERO effect on my ability to taste suger & the literature states the effect is instantaneous. i called the herbalist & she said that was very unusual but it may take time to build up in my system. She's perfectly happy to give me a full refund. Is there anyone out there who has tried gymnema & it didnt work? There may be a small percentage of the population whose sense of taste is different than normal & this could have implications for our weight & glucose metabolism. I also have anosmia ( no sense of smell). Sometimes profound, sometimes not. But boy I can still taste sugar. I'm so disappointed. I was hoping this would be like a naloxone for the sugar addict . The hoodia on the other hand seems to have curbed my appetite pretty fast & thats the one I had the least confidence in! Would love to hear of any anecdotes regarding these or any other weightloss herbs.

Lyadeia

I tried hoodia back in the day about 8 years ago. Complete waste of money just like most other weight loss pills.