District attorneys from Santa Cruz and eight other counties have launched a lawsuit against three companies claiming that their products contained hoodia supplements as a weight-loss aid.
District attorneys from Santa Cruz and eight other counties have launched a lawsuit against three companies claiming that their products contained hoodia supplements as a weight-loss aid. The case, which will be filed in Solano County, claims that the manufacturers engaged in false advertising, and demands restitution for customers who purchased their goods, believing that they would help them lose weight. In fact, the three companies—Delmar Labs, Breakthrough Engineered Nutrition and Geopharma—mislabeled their products, which contained little or no hoodia.
Hoodia is a leafless succulent plant indigenous to South Africa and Namibia. In 2004, a segment on 60 Minutes described how local San tribesmen use the plant to suppress hunger on long hunting trips, prompting interest in its use as a weight-loss product. In fact, there is no published scientific evidence as yet that hoodia can act to suppress appetites among humans, and the FTC has warned about products such as hoodia that “claims like that are almost always false.” Read more at the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
