Calorie Burning Coke Coming Soon

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. "

Cancer

[otacon]

Otherwise known as cancer

Re:Cancer

[Zarniwoop_Editor]

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

Ive seen this before......

[stfvon007]

Every month in wired there's an "found: artifacts from the future" picture. a few months ago it featured a soft drink product with negative calories.

Also there is a food already available that for all intents and purposes contains negative calories: Celery

Re:Ive seen this before......

[IcyNeko]

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

Re:Celery...

[AndyChrist]

I'm pretty sure the negative calories comes from the energy required to break it down so you can metabolize what energy it DOES contain. Squeezing all the juice out kind of defeats the purpose.

Re:Cancer

[hclyff]

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!

No it does NOT make you burn energy.

[Chas]

What it's doing is exactly what Caffiene already does taken in large quantities.

It gets you wired. If you actually get up and move around to work off that sensation, yeah, you'll burn fat. DUH.

But if you don't, and you just sit around being wired, you won't burn a damn thing. Because the drink is not altering your metabolism.

Homemade Enviga

[CustomDesigned]

I make my own drink: plain, unsweetened green tea with black pepper. I drink it on my 7-mile bike ride to work while fasting. My body has no choice but to burn fat - my wife loves the result. I suspect the sugar in Enviga is the problem. Also, the proven energy burning benefits of green tea require exercise - swigging Enviga while sitting in a chair is certainly not going to help.

Re:

[MightyYar]

Don't find it too hilarious :) Professional grade drain cleaners are often mostly sulfuric acid. You need the acid to attack paper - the base type won't attack toilet paper or maxi-pad clogs. Google it if you must...

Flatulence

[Brown Eggs]

I don't know about the rest of you, but my farts already smell like bakery fresh cinnamon rolls

Re:

[Frangible]

Still, there's a good reason to believe that Coke's new Enviga drink, advertised as "The Calorie Burner," is a total scam, and Mouseprint has finely combed the small print to showcase the absurdity. For one thing, the study that 'proved' that Enviga burned calories was only 32 people of normal weight. No one actually burned any fat, even when they were on placebos, but heck... "energy expenditure" was higher for Enviga drinkers. Whatever the hell that means. Yes, I wonder what "energy expenditure" in huma

Re:

[justin12345]

Drink enough diet coke and you'll at least be running to the pisser every five minutes.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course there's an element of danger in this approach, but it seems managable. Lot safer than being fat.

The most serious of these dangers would be a runaway infection of the deep fatty tissues.

If you are constricting blood flow to the area you are slowing the arrival of neutrophils, as well as providing a smorgasbord for bacteria. The worst of these would be Staph. aureus which is easy to introduce into fatty tissues through small skin wounds. When S. aureus is introduced into another subdermal tissue

Re:

[Cr33pybusguy]

There's also a coke that burns calories. It energizes, maximizes, and all around kicks ass. You don't drink it and it's not a suppository. (Any one know some fat cokeheads??)

Bogus...

[BWJones]

"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.

Re:

[slidersv]

Hey! Their words are enough for me. Off to McDonalds to tripple my Big Mac input, and then drink myself stupid when this product comes out, all while lying on the couch.
It's one can of the drink for every Big Mac I eat to balance calories out.

Re:

[IAmTheDave]

Not to mention the heart palpitations that this caffeine/"natural caffeine" cause me. Let's make your heart pump faster! Now there's a good idea!

Re:Bogus...

[Lumpy]

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.

Re:Bogus...

[BWJones]

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.

Re:tapeworms

[BWJones]

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.

Re:tapeworms

[Swanktastic]

Parasites in the brain are a baaaad thing and not as uncommon as you might think.

Around 90% of French have been infected by Toxoplasma gondii, a nasty little parasite that infects the brain and is suspected to cause changes to the host's personality.

This explains a lot.

(Disclaimer: some facts may have been omitted to make a joke about the French)

Re:

[Rob T Firefly]

Why do people *always* seem to fall for marketing nonsense like this?

Because the company has spent over a century building an empire based around the fact that they can convince people regular intake of fizzy caffeinated sugar water is a fine idea.

Re:

[Vancorps]

Then you have the likes of 7UP another coke product I believe saying it's all natural and yet it still contains corn-syrup which is highly processed. It's amazing the outright lies they get away with.

With that said, it sounds like they are advertising that their product is hard to digest and portraying it in a good light like it's not a bad thing. It reminds of an episode of the Simpsons when Homer starts drug testing to pick up extra cash. They spray him with perfume that burns and marketing comes up wit

Re:

[Arcane_Rhino]

make 7

UP YOURS...

Best commercial ever...

I hate 7UP but enjoyed this commercial so much, I learned how to drink it to support them...

With vodka and orange juice was the best solution ;o)

Re:

[nelsonal]

7 up is a product of Cadburry Scheppes, not Coke. It seems to be distributed by Coke bottlers in portions of the country and Pepsi bottlers in other parts leading to some of the confusion. Natural just means it comes from a plant or animal rather than typically oil. An interesting piece of this is that the chemical that gives almonds their flavor (benzaldehyde) can be extracted from nuts or created through a reaction. In either case it's the same flavoring compound, but if it's made in the lab it's pure

And the sweetener is?

[rs79]

I take it there's no sugar in this crap. I assume it's got Aspartame in it. This meands migraine sufferes and epileptics cant drink it.

When diet coke came out I drank a bunch. And had a seizure. "But I'm not epileptic" says I. "You are now" says the doctor. "Aspartame is well known to aggrivate epilepsy and migrains but they wat they pushed Aspartame through the FDA was unsusual and we didn't find out till later. There will be no warning labels".

It used to be you could look for the pink Nutra-Sweet (sic) sw

Re:

[Aero]

You may not see the NutraSweet logo anymore, but look for the PHENYLKETONURICS: CONTAINS PHENYLALANINE warning in fairly bold letters near the ingredients list. It's required (in the US) to be hard to miss, and it's a sure indicator of aspartame, provided that you take the five seconds to pick up the package and turn it over. But that's better than the 30 seconds it may take to squint your way through the ingredients list.

Re:

[Wdomburg]

Not quite. Phenylalanine is an essential amino acid that happens to be one component of aspartame. Almost all protein rich foods contain a fair amount of it. People with PKU typically need to cut out meat, fish, poulty, milk, eggs, cheese, legumes, nuts and so forth - not just aspartame.

And no, phenylanine does not break down to methanol. Aspartame is a methyl ester of two amino acids (phenylalanine and aspartic acid). This can hydrolize to methanol, which is then metabolized into a trace amount of met

Re:

[reverseengineer]

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 dop

does not have to be bogus...

[Vario]

Even without a PhD in physiology I would agree that it burns extra calories. This is however not so hard to achieve, so why should it be a marketing lie?
You are certainly right that you have to burn more calories than you consume but why should there be no "magic" thing that increases the amount of burned calories without having so much calories itself? I think this is exactly what is happening here. Lets say the drink contains 50 calories, increases your metabolism to burn 20 extra calories per hour throug

20 calories per hour?

[Petersko]

Lets say the drink contains 50 calories, increases your metabolism to burn 20 extra calories per hour through caffeine, green tea or something else."

I'm assuming that you threw 20 calories per hour out there without really thinking through the implication. That would be 480 calories per day, or the equivalent of 45 minutes of cardio for many people... all by drinking a can of pop.

Even heart-hammering, ephedrine-based monsters used by bodybuilders can't claim that kind of result. All you'd do is sit ar

Re:

[CastrTroy]

However, if the Coke has 0 calories, as current Coke Zero has, and it jacks you up on caffeine, making your body go into overdrive, doesn't that make your body use up calories?

Re:

[Maxo-Texas]

Thank god for Coke Zero. (Original coke formula + artificial sweetener vs "new coke" formula with artificial sweetener for Diet Coke).

FYI: Barq's Diet Rootbeer is great too. Esp. with rum.

I'm glad I'm not a "bitter taster" because these taste the same to me but two of my friends act like they taste like bitter melon.

---
I january I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. I dropped sugar, bread (including pasta), and potatoes from my diet. Kept *every* thing else. Added heavy cream, xylitol (birch sugar), stevia.

Re:Bogus...

[SamSim]

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

Re:

[hey!]

Bogus? For a given value of "bogosity".

I think it is quite possible that they have a formulation that increases metabolic rate somewhat. But the implied promise is that it will help you lose weight. Unless they've developed something like antabuse for calories, it probably won't happen. The problem is that it's very easy to sit down to a meal with 2000 or even 3000 calories; you'd have to rev your metabolism up to inhuman levels in order to absorb that without offsetting exercise. Probably if you wa

Re:

[patrixmyth]

This is a slightly better article discussing more of the substance of the claim. [newstarget.com]

Re:

[slughead]

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 po

Re:

[bmongar]

Calories aren't bogus just over simplified. Thermodynamics still hold true even in your body. Energy in = Energy Stored + energy out. Calories are the measure of energy.

Changing the types of food you eat changes the way your body decides to pass/store/or burn energy. That's what all the ketonic diets are about.

Also even after you stopped exercising and following your diet, all that time you spent exercising increased your muscle mass and therefore your base

Re:

[m0rph3us0]

That isn't true. I've lost weight while consuming between 3000-4000 (estimated) calories a day on no excersize at all. I dropped 85 lbs in about 4 months doing that. A typical breakfast for me was three eggs, a quarter pound of bacon with about 50 grams of cheese. I'd have 3 or 4 lattes per day with the heaviest cream I could buy. Lunch was usually hamburger and cheese and for dinner chicken breast wrapped in bacon and cheese. Or meatballs and sourcream. The funny this is my cholesterol actually dropped on

Re:

[nasor]

The company seems to be making a medical claim here. Can't the FDA nail them for lying about this? Or is it considered acceptable to lie about fake positive effects as long as the product is safe?

Re:Bogus...

[mgv]

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

Energy used in digestion?

[bigtrike]

Doesn't food take energy to digest? If the food takes more energy to digest then it provides you, isn't that a net loss? I'm assuming that humans could not function if digesting anything took a couple hundred calories, which would be the only way you could even have much of an impact by drinking this.

Wrong, numerous medical studies confirm this

[Frangible]

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 [nih.gov]
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 [nih.gov]

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 [nih.gov]
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 [nih.gov]
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 [nih.gov]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itoo l=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstrac tplus&list_uids=10702779 [nih.gov]
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 [nih.gov]
http://ww [nih.gov]

Re:

[BWJones]

Good on you for searching Pubmed and for your mad physiology skills. However, the claim is that this product will help people to burn calories by consuming the beverage. There are lots of studies that can be made looking at hormonal modifications, protein interactions, endocrine signaling and psychological motivations. However, the fundamental argument is that by consuming this drink, you will somehow upregulate metabolism to a point where you will burn more calories than you consume. Where compounds in

Re:

[Frangible]

This drink has 0 calories, and provides modest thermogenesis (and perhaps other effects not immediately measurable) of 33 calories per drink in the Coke funded study. Other studies have shown about a 10% increase in metabolism for moderate consumption of "real" green tea.

It well fits within thermodynamics. Caffeine causes lipolysis of adipose tissue, and increased cAMP levels within cells via adenosine antagonism and phosphordiatese inhibition. EGCG, among other things, is also a COMT inhibitor, prevent

Re:Bogus...

[BWJones]

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.

Re:

[Zenaku]

It's a perfectly valid claim, it just doens't mean that much. ANYTHING you put in your body requires calories to process. Even distilled water will cause your body to move the substance through your system and adjust the hormones that regulate hydration, and everything the body does requires energy to do. We have dozens and dozens of 0 calorie beverages which provide no nutrional value and no energy input whatsoever. In a sense, these drinks could already be marketed as "calorie burning". Consuming the

Re:

[mrchaotica]

What about celery, then?

Re:Bogus...

[Fozzyuw]

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

Re:Bogus...

[slidersv]

In fact, forget the celery!

Re:

[Compholio]

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.

From reading the article it actually looks a little scarrier than "has practically no calories", it looks like the drink is a drug cocktail designed to trick your body into working harder when it does

Re:Bogus...

[BWJones]

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 [slashdot.org] 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 [utah.edu] 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.

Re:Bogus...

[Dog-Cow]

"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.

Well, aren't you a walking argument against....

[chaboud]

...post-graduate work?

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

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.

Re:Well, aren't you a walking argument against....

[BWJones]

...post-graduate work?

Two post-docs and a current appointment as a research assistant professor. Is that good enough for you?

First off, your sentence is broken because you inserted "obtained" recklessly.

Typo, so sue me. This is Slashdot after all.... But the sentiment of the statement and overall construction stands.

Secondly, your position disagrees with Snopes.

And Snopes is the end all be all? Seriously though, there are other things like celery that we *could* eat, that will be indigestible and will cause you some effort to pass. Think dirt. To be fair, you get this though from your point on Metamucil.

Thirdly, your use of the thermic effect of food is a bit wonky. 10% is, first off, an average estimate.

Thus my utilization of "*might*" in the original post. One always wonders how much effort to put into a post on Slashdot for fear of going beyond many readers.

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?

Who is saying that it is not possible to alter basic metabolism? If you cause a system to perform work without putting energy back into it, there will be a net loss, but the original point of the Coca Cola beverage being touted as "burning calories" is pretty easy to get through the system. There is no fiber to digest, right?

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.

You appear to be arguing with somebody else here as again, there is no fiber or cellulose in Energia to digest. What they are claiming is that their drink upregulates metabolism and causes one to burn more calories because you consume Energia.

I certainly hope I never need any of your work.

I hope that you do not either as I study the effects of retinal degenerations and how to intervene to save vision loss. If you needed my primary work, then you'd be in trouble. That said, we are developing technologies in the metabolomic space that can be applied to many other applications from cancer research to heart disease, drug development, agaronomics and defense, so perhaps you *might* need them someday? You would likely not know it, but you very well may benefit from our work.

To be considered right in an argument, it helps to actually be right.

Don't be an ass. You have said nothing here that is really of substance other than arguing loose points that appear to be aimed at other people statements.

Re:

[dantheman82]

Perhaps you could take it at face value that your parent has a Ph.D. (see his publications on his linked page on his /. profile): http://prometheus.med.utah.edu/~marclab/pubx_pubx _ bwj.html [utah.edu]

However, it is germane to mention that his focus is not on calorie burning and related stuff but rather the eye (and some sleep studies)...and so his ideas should be taken with a grain of salt nonetheless.

Re:

[elrous0]

No, after looking at the study as described in the Wall Street Journal article [aol.com] I think I see how they pulled off this con. They put subjects in a metabolic chamber, gave some this overpriced garbage and some a placebo. 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!

Hence, the group with the caffeine in their system from the Enviga shit likely worked out just a little h

Re:Bogus...

[BWJones]

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).

Duretics don't burn calories.

[Petersko]

"There has to be some calories lost with its caffeine and diuretic qualities"

Diuretics do not lead to increased calorie use. Diuretics lead to weight loss through water loss. Caffeine happens to do both.

Re:

[WhiplashII]

Since I have seen this a few times, let me clarify that a "large" calorie (the ones used in food labeling) is the amount of energy needed to raise a kilogram of water 1 degree C. So, assuming you drink a liter of water at 0 C, you burn 37 calories as your body raises the temperature of the water up to body temperature.

So, roughly speaking, for every 100 liters of ice water you drink you lose a pound of body fat...

Just Ask a Scientician

[eldavojohn]

"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?

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[lawpoop]

Low fat diets? Have you ever been to a Dim Sum? Or a Chinese carry-out place?

Sulferic Acid

[rknop]

Drink enough acid, it will melt off the calories (so long as you have somewhere to excrete out the sludge).

Who came up with this name?!

[__aaclcg7560]

Enviga + Viagra = Senior Citizen Health Plan

I've discovered a calorie burning beverage!

[purpledinoz]

It's called water. If this works, this will be coca-cola's greated scam.

Re:I've discovered a calorie burning beverage!

[Rob T Firefly]

It already is their greatest scam. [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[millwall]

It's called water. If this works, this will be coca-cola's greated scam.

If it is, it's not the first time Coca Cola tries to pull the water scam [bbc.co.uk].

Re:

[smbarbour]

They already tried that (and it actually worked).

The realized that they could take the water they were using to make Coca-Cola, don't carbonate it or add anything to it, put it in 20 oz bottles, call it Dasani and charge the people more for it than Coca-Cola.

To be drunk with

[Silver Sloth]

The wagon wheel sized pizza and six candy bars.

Coke will never be part of a healthy diet and should stop pretending.

Unfortunte name

[PateraSilk]

It looks to be a spoonerism away from "vagina".

Doesn't diet coke already do this?

[192939495969798999]

Diet Coke already has zero calories and a "safe" amount of caffeine. If you're not immune or allergic to the effects, it should provide a temporary stimulation that encourages you to get up and move, thus burning calories... right? I think this one burns more calories because they intend to only sell it at stores that are uphill from you, so you have to walk uphill and burn more calories...

Or even better - Diet Pepsi Slurpee

[alispguru]

Diet Pepsi Slurpees [siegler.net] 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)

Re:

[gurps_npc]

Your numbers assume someone eats the ice whole and exert the energy to melt the ice as well as to heat the ice. That seems a bit wierd to me. I bet most of the conversion from ice to melted water happens outside the body.

When drinking cold water, it takes approximately 1 nutritional calorie to heat 1 ounce of water from just above the melting point of ice to body temperature.

1 calorie per gram per degree, moveing from 0.8C to 36.8C takes 36 degrees, about 28 grams/ounce = 36*28 = 1008, /1000 to get the

Ride the snake?

[Ingolfke]

Does anyone remember that SNL skit w/ Jim Carrie... he was doing some infomercial about some weightloss product and catch phrase was "ride the snake". I have a vauge recollection of Will Ferrel, the devil, and bleeding from the eyes. Anyways... this product reminds of that... bleeding from the eyes.

Re:

[Ingolfke]

Some AC below was kind enough to post a link [jt.org]... absolutely wonderful.

Re:

[Ingolfke]

Oh YouTube how I love thee... ride the snake [youtube.com].

Wired

[krell]

I see. The John Belushi and Robin Williams diet?

Interesting cans, but quite the scam...

[VitrosChemistryAnaly]

So here's a picture of the cans [coca-cola.com].

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.

Old news

[not already in use]

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

No Pain No Gain

[decipher_saint]

The can weighs over 50 lbs and periodically yells slogans at you.

"Feel the burn!"

"Go for it!"

And soforth.

Who would want to drink Richard Simmons?

[krell]

"The can weighs over 50 lbs and periodically yells slogans at you. "Feel the burn!" "Go for it!" And soforth."

ugh.

Hmm, A Negative Energy Drink?

[blueZhift]

As a fan of green tea, I'll certainly give this a shot. But they'd probably better lay off of the calorie burning claims lest they run afoul of the FDA in the US at least. So if Red Bull gives you wings, will this drink burn your handles, (love handles that is)?

Lean to normal weight range?

[devnullkac]

healthy subjects in the lean to normal weight range can experience an average increase in calorie burning by 60 - 100 calories.

Looks like the only thing they know it does is cause people who are already too thin to get thinner.

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[account_deleted]

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Um..

[bigattichouse]

I drink green tea - sometimes with milk! Much cheaper.

Just like the DHEA scam

[smooth wombat]

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 [infomercialwatch.org] and his [salon.com] scam [skepdic.com] or the now discredited DHEA claim [reuters.com], this too will be shown to be a false promise of getting something for nothing.

Coca-Cola already offers a burn calories drink

[gurps_npc]

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.

The REAL Question

[Goblez]

Does it taste right when mixed (with liqour)? If so, I think I have my new workout plan!

Such a farce

[Solr_Flare]

Basically, they say if you drink 3 of these a day and get some mild exercise you will burn x number of calories. When, in truth, drinking a current zero calorie beverage and getting the same amount of exercise will give you an almost equivilant result, and it will be $1 cheaper per can.

lacquer

[Jeremi]

The secret ingredient is furniture varnish. When you drink it, the varnish coats your intestines with an impermeable layer of lacquer that prevents any nutrients from entering your bloodstream for the next 72 hours. The result: eat anything you like, everything will have "zero calories"! (Side effects may include projectile diarrhea and starvation)

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Too bad

[tommasz]

Too bad it's bogus. You probably can burn calories while drinking this, provided you're running a marathon at the time, but even when the Coke PR flack was on NBC's Today, she was careful not to say definitively that it did.

But wouldn't it be cool if it did?

With a title like that, I expected...

[dpbsmith]

...an article on coal gasification or something like that. By the way, how many calories do you get by burning coke? [wikipedia.org]

Celsius has cola

[kherr]

Celsius [bevnet.com] (warning, PR link) is the same idea, is already on the market and has a cola flavor. I've yet to locate some, but I do get tired of berry-flavored drinks. No idea how good Celsius is or Enviga will be, but that's what taste tests are for.

The REAL reason it burns calories.

[shoolz]

The Coke site says that you'll need to drink three cans in order to burn between 60 and 100 calories.

A male weighing about 180 pounds burns off about 60 calories with 15 minutes of mild walking activity.

Hmm... that sounds like about the time it takes to make 3 trips to the drink machine, doesn't it?

Oh... "Extracts"

[The-Bus]

I thought the cans had a little speaker inside and when you crack it open it says "Run a mile, fatass!"

What does it do to the bones?

[AxelBoldt]

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

Re:

[Ingolfke]

Oh bless you... bless you! I couldn't think of the name of this skit... maybe it's the vibrating heat bead suit I'm wearing. Anyway, because of you I was able to find ride the snake [slashdot.org].">this on YouTube and laugh so hard (silently since I'm at work) that I wept. Sweet sweet tears.

17:1 Water to Coke ratio required

[Kadin2048]

Just for reference, in the linked article they estimate that drinking an ice-cold (0 deg C), 16-oz glass of water "burns" about 17 Calories due to the energy required to heat it up to body temperature.

So as long as you wash down that 200 Calorie can of Coke with twelve glasses of ice water (and it really has to be borderline freezing -- no cheating!), you'll be running a net energy deficit.

I'm waiting for someone to recommend just turning the temperature in your house down and walking around naked as a form