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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. "

25 of 383 comments (clear)

  1. Cancer by otacon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Otherwise known as cancer

    --
    In a world of acronyms, the words are the real victims.
    1. 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....

      --
      - F1 NEWS
    2. 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!
  2. 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 Lumpy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Look, the only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you consume.
      I know a tapeworm that says you are wrong.
      Also dysentary is another solution to lose weight without exercize and reducing your calorie intake.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    2. Re:Bogus... by BWJones · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Have you considered that perhaps it's digestion/metabolization ends up burning more calories than it can provide?

      Yes, it's called the thermic effect of food or TEF and can be simplified to the following: TEF = total kcals consumed x 10% which of course means that 10% of anything you consume *might* be burned off leaving you with net positive calories. Think of it this way.... organisms eat to survive, not to lose weight.

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    3. Re:Bogus... by SamSim · · Score: 5, Funny

      No no no. You have to eat the can as well. That burns more than enough calories in chewing energy. Strengthens your teeth, too.

      --
      qntm.org
    4. 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.

      --
      Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
    5. Re:Bogus... by mgv · · Score: 4, Funny

      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.

      There is a much more simple way to lose weight - the cold water method

      Remember that a calorie is the energy used to heat one ml of water by one degree celcius. No the calories mentioned with weight loss are actually kilocalories, so 1 Kcal is the energy needed to heat 1 litre of water one degree celcius.

      So far, so good. So to lose a Kg in weight, you need to burn about 7000 calories; so you could raise 1 litre of water to a very hot temperature, or 7000 litres of water just 1 degree.

      Just as dieting is balanced, I would reccommend taking a balanced approach here. You could raise about 200 litres of water 35 degrees and that gets you over the "magic" 7000 figure here.

      How? Easy. Just take one large bath tub. Fill with water. Add ice and straw. Drink.

      Voila! An easy Kg of weight loss, no exercise required.

      Your bodies natural regulatory mechanisms will maintain your temperature at 37 degrees, and the ice will keep the water at 0 degrees, easily maintaining a >35 degree differential.

      And it doesn't get any more natural than water; no nasty chemicals involved.

      Remember who told it to you first .....

      Michael

      --
      There is no cryptographic solution to the problem where the intended receiver and the attacker are the same entity.
    6. Re:Bogus... by Fozzyuw · · Score: 5, Funny
      What about celery, then?

      That's why I eat celery all the time. Celery with Ranch dressing, Celery with peanut butter, etc. It works great!

      cheer,
      fozzy

      --
      "The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
    7. Re:Bogus... by slidersv · · Score: 5, Funny

      In fact, forget the celery!

      --
      there is no issue with my network
    8. Re:Bogus... by Dog-Cow · · Score: 4, Funny

      "It means exactly what I intended it to say..."

      In other words, you intended to say nothing, since that is what that sentence means.

      "...and you should know earning it obtained reading..."

      That does not mean anything in English. Obtain means to acquire, not require.

      Also, trying to use a double-negative is probably not what the other poster was talking about. Good job on sounding like a pretentious asshole, though.

  3. Just Ask a Scientician by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "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. It makes this product stand out as unique. Enviga brings the benefits of green tea to the forefront in a convenient and accessible, great tasting beverage."
    Ok, so "Dr." Rhona Applebaum (a chief scientist, mind you) is quoted as saying the above. What part of that has even an ounce of scientific data in it? I didn't realize a job of a chief scientist is to relay selling points to the public.

    "Optimum blend of green tea extracts (EGCG)" ... how do you define optimum? Optimum taste? Optimum health benefits? Or have you magically optimized both of those qualities? And what the hell does Epigallocatechin do for us? Wait, don't tell me, the Chinese used it for thousands of years so it must be good. Yep, the Chinese lived forever and it was all in the green tea. Not the fact that they ate low fat diets with rice. Not the fact that I got my fudd rucked last night (1 lb. red meat burger) and then drank myself stupid. Nope, no other factors hinting at why they lived longer than I will.

    Nearly every single word on here is marketing buzz speak. Boo.

    I don't know what University Dr. Applebaum threw money at to call herself a doctor but I certainly hope I never attend it. Call me a hardass but Applebaum just lost any respect from me that 'doctor' & 'chief scientist' could have given her.

    Did anyone else notice that this sounded like a 3 am infomercial for Bowflex?
    --
    My work here is dung.
  4. Who came up with this name?! by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Enviga + Viagra = Senior Citizen Health Plan

  5. 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.

    --
    "It's a tarp!" -- Dyslexic Admiral Ackbar
  6. Old news by not+already+in+use · · Score: 5, Funny

    We've had calorie burning coke for a while. Apparently this new product isn't as hard on the nose.

    --
    Similes are like metaphors
  7. 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.

    --

    "Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."

  8. 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.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  9. Coca-Cola already offers a burn calories drink by gurps_npc · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It is called ice cold Dasani (Dasani is Coca-Cola's bottled water).

    If it is ice cold then your body must burn calories to warm it up to 98.2 F / or 36.8 C (the REAL average human body temperature - 98.6 is what you get when you round 36.8C upto 37C then convert Farenhiet).

    One calorie (phyics) will raise one gram of water one degree. 454 grams = 16 ounces. So to raise 16 ounces of ice cold water from 0.8 C to 36.8 takes 36*454= 16,344 calories. But please note when talking about food, what we call a calorie is actually what a physicist calls a KILOcalorie, so we do the conversion and:

    Drinking one nearly ice cold water 16 ounce bottle of water will burn about 16 calories.

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
  10. Or even better - Diet Pepsi Slurpee by alispguru · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Diet Pepsi Slurpees have been out for about three years now. A 32-ounce drink has essentially zero calories, and since it's mostly ice, it should take about 100 calories to drink one:

    900 grams of Slurpee * 80 cal/g (to melt the ice to 0 celsius) = 72000

    900 grams of Slurpee * 1 cal/g/degree * 37 degrees (to raise the fluid to body heat) = 33596

    total 105596 calories or 105 Kcal (the food calorie)

    --

    To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
  11. Wrong, numerous medical studies confirm this by Frangible · · Score: 4, Insightful
    If you're going to debunk someone on medical grounds, can't you at least search PubMed first?

    There have been many, many studies about green tea (which contains a lot of EGCG) and obesity. This data is years old too... EGCG being useful in obesity isn't even news. Magic? Not hardly. Yes, 2,4-DNP is still the king of obesity drugs, but it hasn't been legal since 1930 in humans for a reason.

    There are many ways to fight obesity, upregulating the metabolism is one of them. Decreasing the effeciency of processing/storing food, which results in more calories excreted in feces, is another. (think leptin signalling, hypothalamic setpoint, PPARalpha agonists, Xenical/chitosan... oh and EGCG does this with carbs) Changing behavior underlying emotional eating (low serotonin), food compulsions (neuropeptide Y), or lack of energy/desire to exercise is another. (antidepressants, stimulants) Changing hunger/fed signalling by improving leptin sensitivity/transport, insulin sensitivity, etc makes a difference too. (omega-3 fatty acids, oh and EGCG improves insulin sensitivity...)

    EGCG:
    1. Inhibits fatty acid synthase
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=p ubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=164 04708&query_hl=165&itool=pubmed_DocSum
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=p ubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=166 11078&query_hl=165&itool=pubmed_docsum

    2. Upgrades hypothalamic AMPK to suppress adipogenesis and induce apoptosis of adipocytes
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=p ubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=162 36247&query_hl=165&itool=pubmed_DocSum
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=p ubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=159 76140&query_hl=165&itool=pubmed_DocSum
    3. Increases fat oxidation, metabolism (likely through COMT inhibition and indirect gene expression)
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itoo l=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstrac tplus&list_uids=10584049
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itoo l=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstrac tplus&list_uids=10702779
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=p ubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=157 38931&query_hl=165&itool=pubmed_DocSum
    http://ww

  12. Re:Ive seen this before...... by IcyNeko · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is a violation of the Starfleet Temporal Prime Directive. You aren't supposed to be talking about future artifacts.

  13. Re:tapeworms by BWJones · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since nobody has these parasites nowadays, these diseases are now more common.

    Tapeworms are *very* common in some areas of the world. For instance, just last week I saw the MRI of a patient with trichinosis. Parasites in the brain are a baaaad thing and not as uncommon as you might think.

    --
    Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
  14. What does it do to the bones? by AxelBoldt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Drinking coke is associated with lower bone density in women. So if you don't like the prosprect of brittle bones in old age (osteoporosis), you may want to drink something else.

  15. Well, aren't you a walking argument against.... by chaboud · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...post-graduate work?

    First off, your sentence is broken because you inserted "obtained" recklessly. Secondly, your position disagrees with Snopes.

    Thirdly, your use of the thermic effect of food is a bit wonky. 10% is, first off, an average estimate. Protein can cost you as much as 30%. Fat costs you very little. Secondly, TEF describes how many calories you will spend consuming the food in question. Conversely, it can be used to calculate how many calories of a given type of food one would need to recover from expenditure. What a bomb calorimeter gets from food is clearly not the same as what a human body gets from it. There are plenty of things that humans can eat that cannot sustain them calorically. Just ask Metamucil...

    Fourthly (never had to go that far before), just think about it:

    Even drinking cold water causes you to burn calories. Your body ends up doing the work to bring the water up to body temperature. How would digesting a highly fibrous water-stalk not take effort?

    Yes, celery has a few digestible kcals per stalk, but you more than outstrip that in digestion. Will those extra burned calories make a marked difference? God no, but you're still on the wrong side of the argument. Whipping out your PhD just shows how much trouble you are having defending your position. I certainly hope I never need any of your work. To be considered right in an argument, it helps to actually be right. I don't have a PhD, but if the point of getting one is to have something to wave around when you're clearly wrong, I think I'll pass.