Doing a report on magician Harry Houdini when I was 10 years old did two things: excited me about magic and made me realize it was all an illusion. As a consequence, I’ve spent much of my life being an optimist and opportunist…tempered with a healthy skepticism.

Like hundreds of millions around the world who struggle with their weight,  I was intrigued by a 60 Minutes program in November of 2004 that highlighted a seemingly magic way for people to manage hunger and eat up to 1,000 calories less per day. The magic? A somewhat rare and native South African “succulent” (that looks like a cactus) called Hoodia Gordonii.

Seems that the San people of the Kalahari desert (a tribe of hunter-gatherers with a culture and history going back thousands of years using native plants for medicinal purposes) have been using the plant for centuries to help ward off pain, hunger and thirst when the Bushmen made long trips in the desert.

So what happened when 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl ate some?

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