If you've been shopping around for hoodia diet pills lately to help you with your weight loss efforts, you've probably noticed those free hoodia sample offers. Before you accept any of them, you'll want to read this article carefully. As the old saying goes, nothing in life is free ? and hoodia is no exception!

What most consumers don't realize is that none of those free hoodia trial offers are free at all. They all charge a fee of some kind usually under $10 and it's usually for shipping and handling. In return you get one bottle of hoodia or a small supply of hoodia patches. You may be thinking that even if you have to pay $10 for a hoodia product, you're still getting a good deal. That may be true, but the point is you are not getting free hoodia because it costs you something.

I'll agree I'm splitting hairs, but here's where I think you'll agree that these free hoodia trials are actually very costly. When you sign up to accept these free hoodia offers, they require a credit card to pay for the nominal shipping and handling fee. You usually have around 15 days to try the hoodia product they send you. If you don't cancel within 15 days, then you are automatically enrolled in a monthly auto ship program. Every month after that initial free hoodia trial, you will be sent a month's supply and your credit card will be charged the actual price of the product. I've seen the charges as low as $50 and as high as $80. That doesn't sound like free hoodia to me!

If that's not bad enough, most of these hoodia products that are being offered for free don't contain authentic hoodia gordonii! I have not been able to find one free hoodia offer that can provide proof that the product contains authentic hoodia gordonii. Even if some of them do, they contain so little of it that it would make no difference in your appetite.

There are two things you want to look for as you consider these free hoodia samples. You want to look for a CITES certificate clearly displayed on the website and independent lab test results. The CITES certificate is required by all companies that export hoodia gordonii from South Africa, where the plant is grown. If a company doesn't have a CITES certificate, then they can't legally export and sell authentic hoodia gordonii.

Independent lab tests provide scientific proof that the material used in the product contains authentic hoodia gordonii. Companies that sell real hoodia gordonii diet pills have these tests done on a regular basis and proudly display the results on their websites. The funny thing is, you will be hard pressed to find any of these tests on these free hoodia trial offers!

The other important point is that free hoodia doesn't even make smart business sense because of the price of the raw material itself. Hoodia gordonii is scarce right now because there is more demand than there is supply. As a result, it is very expensive. Supplement companies couldn't possibly afford to give away authentic hoodia gordonii for free or they'd go out of business very fast. The cheapest you'll find a bottle of authentic hoodia gordonii diet pills is around $32, with the average price hovering around $50 per bottle. There is no such thing as free authentic hoodia that I have been able to find.

The next time you see a free hoodia sample offer, do yourself a favor and keep on shopping! These offers are not only free, but the quality of the product you are getting will not help you achieve your weight loss goals.