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Calorie Burning Coke Coming Soon

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the hope-it-tastes-better-than-coke-blak dept.

The Fun Guy writes "Coca-Cola and Nestle are getting together to introduce a new beverage "proven to burn calories". Enviga will be in the U.S. Northeast in November, nationwide in January 2007. How does it burn calories? With green tea extracts, calcium, and caffeine. No word on how many milligrams caffeine per can. "

10 of 383 comments (clear)

  1. Bogus... by BWJones · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Enviga increases calorie burning. It represents the perfect partnership of science and nature," said Dr. Rhona Applebaum, chief scientist, The Coca-Cola Company. "Enviga contains the optimum blend of green tea extracts (EGCG), caffeine and naturally active plant micronutrients designed to work with your body to increase calorie burning, thus creating a negative calorie effect.

    Oh man this is such a lie..... Did they perform metabolic chamber analysis? Where is the published paper? Why do people *always* seem to fall for marketing nonsense like this? Look, the only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you consume. It's calories in versus calories out and Enviga, metabolically will not let you magically burn more calories by consuming it unless it can somehow short circuit the electron transport chain or mitochondrial respiration and that is dangerous as hell. (Think poisons like dinitrophenol or proteins in brown fat like thermogenin).

    It's too bad, because I like Coca Cola products, but this claim that it will burn excess or extra calories is simply a marketing lie. And yes, I *do* have a PhD in physiology and am calling out Dr. Rhona Applebaum to back up her words with some scientific evidence that shows these claims are more than specious marketingspeak designed to increase the bottom line.

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    1. Re:Bogus... by BWJones · · Score: 3, Informative

      I know a tapeworm that says you are wrong.

      OK, true and in fact at some points in history, tapeworm eggs were used as a means to "diet", although I don't know anyone who would really want to be doing that as the negative health effects are significant. They don't call it parasitism for nothing. :-)

      Also dysentary (sic) is another solution to lose weight without exercize and reducing your calorie intake.

      True, but here we are talking dehydration or water weight, not fat loss and it should be noted that dysentery is one of the leading causes of death in the world.

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    2. Re:Bogus... by BWJones · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's quite simple, actually. It's like celery. It takes more energy for you to consume it and your body to subsequently break the food down than is actually contained within the food.

      You obviously missed my post here explaining this fallacy.

      And yes, though their methodology wasn't mentioned in this article, .....blah blah blah.... It specifically says that it burns a few extra calories if you drink xyz amount per day.

      Do you believe *all* press releases?

      P.S. I call shenanigans on your Ph.D. Either that, or you just didn't read the article. Either way.

      Feel free to check out my formal CV any time you would like and you should know earning it obtained reading a not insignificantly greater amount of material than a few press releases.

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    3. Re:Bogus... by BWJones · · Score: 3, Informative

      But here is the kicker: they had both groups also engage in moderate exercise too. Why is this significant? Because I will bet you dollars to donuts that the placebo was not caffeinated!

      You should also consider that caffeine inhibits the sodium reuptake pump in the kidney which leads to a net water loss (i.e. mild diuretic).

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  2. Interesting cans, but quite the scam... by VitrosChemistryAnaly · · Score: 5, Informative

    So here's a picture of the cans.

    On another note I can think of one beverage that is zero calories and makes you feel great. Just plain old water. I started drinking a couple liters of it a day about 2 years ago and I've never felt better. No more dehydration to make me feel sluggish and tired. That's way better than any caffiene buzz (which just exacerbates dehydration by the way). I love caffiene, but I think it's overused.

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  3. Re:Cancer by Zarniwoop_Editor · · Score: 5, Informative

    Already been called on this marketing lie..
    http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/soft-drinks/sh ocker-enviga-doesnt-actually-burn-calories-208357. php
    This product does not burn calories....

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  4. Sept of course everyone who reviewed their claims by falcon5768 · · Score: 4, Informative
    Already said a week ago it was bogus and they had faulty studies proving their claim.

    http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/enviga-fat- burning-tea-snake-oil-scam-just-as-you-predicted-2 08488.php

    Maybe if you got a few more editors there, you would have known that every other news site on the face of the internet reported AND debunked the claims over a week ago.

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  5. Just like the DHEA scam by smooth+wombat · · Score: 4, Informative

    Funny how, as others have mentioned, one can never get a copy of any of the supposed studies which 'prove' whatever it is the product claims. Like Kevn Trudeau and his scam or the now discredited DHEA claim, this too will be shown to be a false promise of getting something for nothing.

    --
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  6. Re:Cancer by hclyff · · Score: 5, Informative
    From the link you provided:
    The results actually showed that there was no difference in fat oxidation (fat burning) between those drinking Enviga versus a placebo. But it did show that "energy expenditure" was significantly higher for the Enviga drinkers.

    So it does make you "burn" energy, but doesn't cause any weight loss. It's the perfect product!
  7. Re:And the sweetener is? by reverseengineer · · Score: 3, Informative
    Aspartame is more than just phenylalanine. It gets its name from being aspartyl-phenylalanine-1-methyl ester. Aspartic acid and phenylalanine are both amino acids, and are both naturally found in the human body. Phenylalanine cannot be synthesized de novo by humans, however, so it must come from dietary sources. The major role it plays in the human body is conversion to the amino acid tyrosine, from which a very wide variety of biological substances are generated, particularly neurotransmitters like dopamine and adrenaline.

    Some people, however, have the condition phenylketonuria (PKU), an inability to convert phenylalanine into tyrosine. For them, tyrosine becomes essential in the diet, and consumption of phenylalanine becomes dangerous, because phenylalanine and its breakdown products will accumulate, which can damage the brain (hence the warning on diet soda cans).

    Also of interest in the aspartame molecule is the methyl ester on the end- in the presence of heat and acid or base, the ester bond breaks to form methanol. The enzyme that begins the process of alcohol metabolism, alcohol dehydrogenase, cannot distinguish between methanol and ethanol, and so it oxidizes methanol to methanal, better known as formaldehyde. Two things to keep in mind about this process: there are other natural human metabolic processes that also produce methanol, and aspartame is 180 times sweeter than sugar, so there is not very much at all in diet soda. For some people, the health effects of aspartame are certainly real, and they should avoid it- in my personal case, though, I consider sugar to be more dangerous in the long run.

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