You might disagree, but hear me out on this....

The so called hoodia diet patch is one product to avoid if you want to try hoodia, the amazing weight loss plant that is garnering a great deal of media attention for its ability to reduce the amount you eat and help you lose weight.

Why do we not like the hoodia patch?

For three simple reasons:

1. Most of the hoodia diet patch products we've seen claim their product will work more effectively than hoodia pills or capsules because it will enter your bloodstream quicker, bypassing your stomach and, therefore, give you faster and better results.

The hoodia patch is supposed to work by placing it directly on your skin and then the hoodia will be time-released from it, passing through your skin and into your bloodstream.

The end result is that you'll supposedly be less hungry throughout the day and lose weight as you consume less calories.

This is a great theory....but a speculative theory is all it is.

There is no proof whatsoever that the hoodia diet patch works, let alone works better than hoodia pills and capsules despite what some of these patch sellers try to claim.

We have yet to find one real, scientific, clinical study showing the hoodia patch works better than other hoodia products on the market.

It's rather unethical to suggest in an underlying way -- as some of these sellers try to do -- that the hoodia patch is going to be as effective as similar patches on the market, such as the famous nicotine patch or birth control patch.

What's important to know is that these other patches are prescription based (although nicotine patches can now by purchased OTC, but they started off prescription).

What this means is that they had to undergo rigorous scientific, clinical studies before they could hit the market and claim they are effective.

To the contrary, no hoodia patch on the market is prescription based, and none had to undergo efficacy studies....so there is just no way they can claim that they work better than hoodia pills and capsules.

2. The Sans Bushmen, the tribe in South Africa that has been using hoodia for thousands of years and first discovered its properties, do not use the hoodia diet patch. This may sound like I'm trying to be cute or sarcastic, but I'm actually making a very important point.

If you think about it, they cut off a piece of the plant, skin it, and eat the core to derive its appetite suppressing benefits.

Now, ask yourself the simple question: what would be more closer to what the Sans Bushmen do: stick a patch on the body allegedly transferring the hoodia benefits or swallow a capsule that is made up of whole hoodia plant that has been ground up and put into a pill? Exactly.

3. Phytopharm, the company that owns the patent rights to the active ingredient in hoodia gordonii, called P57 conducted a clinical double-blind, placebo-controlled study using the active ingredient (P57) that is a hoodia gordonii extract -- NOT some new fangled hoodia patch.

In fact, if you look at Phytopharm's website, you will see the statement: "Only Phytopharm's patented Hoodia gordonii product is botanically verified to contain pure Hoodia gordonii and has quantified levels of the chemical constituents that produce the anti-obesity effects."

Trust us, they would not be saying that if it weren't true since they would face serious legal consequences as an established pharmaceutical company.

So, what does that fact tell you? It tells you no seller of hoodia diet patch can even say their product conclusively works for weight loss, much less claim it works better than hoodia capsules or pills!

Now don't get me wrong...I'm not saying every hoodia pill or capsule product on the market is going to be good either. On the contrary, many of the products floating around have been found to be fraudulent -- that is, not even contain any real hoodia gordonii in it.

But, if given the choice to use a hoodia capsule made with genuine South African hoodia gordonii or a hoodia patch, we'd much rather opt for the capsules.

Perhaps there will come a day in the future where there will be a hoodia diet patch proven to work effectively in real, clinical studies...but until that day, we'll pass on the patch.