Enviga | Nutrition and Diet

There is a new soft drink hitting the market that does what no other soft drink has ever claimed to do: you drink it, and you’ll burn calories. Is it truly possible? Please say it’s so. You know, there’s a lot to be said for a brownie and a diet coke; i mean, why add insult to injury. At least the diet coke isn'’t pouring on more calories. But what if--just if--there was something that could go one better, and negate the effects of that brownie? From the folks who bring you nestle crunch bars and coca cola…. Comes… Drum roll please….. Enviga! This puppy is being called the the calorie burner! Don’t' believe it?

"Well, believe it, because coke and nestle did the clinical research to prove it, on top of basic science already laying the ground road to the claim. The evidence shows an interaction between a chemical in green tea called egcg and caffeine, both of which are in Enviga. Dr. Rhona Applebaum, Vice-President for Global Scientific and Regulatory Affairs for Coca Cola, says, “There has been a number of studies, but the study that has been conducted on Enviga beverage demonstrated that on average a hundred and six calories were burned after three serving.”

And that data has just been presented at the international meeting of obesity and is going to be published in a major medical journal in Januar…. Wait a second. How many calories are burned? Rewind that tape for a moment please. “On average a hundred and six calories were burned after three servings,” said Dr. Applebaum. Hmmmmm.. That means, let’s see, 106 divided by three--around 35, 36 calories burned a can.

Just a tiny Hershey’s kiss--sorry nestle--is 30 calories. An apple is around 50. “With three serving per day you would be able to take that positive step to achieve that healthy lifestyle,” says Dr. Applebaum. No doubt, you won'’t gain weight from the stuff; so in that respect, it certainly goes with that lifestyle. But is it the fat burner? Will you lose weight?

Tina Fuchs, a registered dietician at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, says, “In order to lose one pound you have to have a deficit of thirty-five hundred calories, so you clearly have to go beyond one hundred calorie burning of calories to see any effect on your weight.” Dr. Donald Smith, a lipid (cholesterol) expert at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, says, "if you're watching your scale, you're not going to see anything for about a month. And it’s just going to be a one pound loss."

At 1.29 to 1.49 a can? And three cans a day? There are less expensive ways to lose weight--like, simply cutting calories by just a bit! "100 calories is simply a slice of bread, " states Dr. Smith. And according to Ms. Fuchs, fat burning does not necessarily imply weight loss in any given person. "If you have a saving of a hundred calories by an invigorated metabolism you might compensate by eating two hundred extra calories, so at the end of the day is what matters, not just this one hundred burning calorie effect, " says Ms. Fuchs.

Dr. Smith adds, "For people who love to drink sort of pleasant drinks, to switch over to this might be helpful. But in terms of weight loss, which most people are looking for, I wouldn't expect miracles at all from this, and in fact people will be very disappointed." Now there is one truly laudable addition to this product and that is, calcium, in the form of calcium lactate. Enviga provides roughly a fifth of the rda.

Why put calcium in? Coke didn't tell us this, but studies have shown that carbonated beverages with caffeine, like Coke or Pepsi, cause the body to lose calcium in the urine. This calcium lactate is countering that. So you might argue the real value of this product is in the calcium, not in the fat burning. It provides a bone protection that you don't get from, say, drinking a plain diet coke. By the way, a carbonated beverage like sprite, without caffeine, has not been shown to be deleterious to the bone.