"enviga" news and stories

Last fall, we mentioned Enviga, the new energy drink from Coca Cola and Nestea. The drink isn't just a "diet drink," because it is low in calories, but it touts an ability to burn calories with ingredients like caffeine, calcium and most importantly, "naturally active plant micronutrients that allegedly increase the body's rate of calorie burning." Not low calorie. Not even zero calories. Negative calories!

It sounded way too good to be true -- could someone just sit around on the couch all day drinking Enviga and lose 10 pounds? To be quite honest, I am not as concerned about the true ability for Enviga to burn calories, but relying more and more on energy drinks these days to get through a mountain of work, I was curious about how the "energy" part of the drink and its taste stacked up to my current favorite, Tab Energy. Would Enviga unseat the incumbent? I bought a case of the drinks the other day because they were on sale.

Hm, on sale already? That's interesting.

You had to know it was only a matter of time before this happened. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola and Nestlé for weight-loss claims and labeling of their latest product, Enviga. As Sarah wrote back in October, the sparkling green tea has been marketed as having "negative calories" and is labeled as "the calorie burner".

CSPI's mission is to protect consumers by stopping deceptive advertising and labeling of products. The non-profit organization had their team of scientists review the claims made by Enviga and responded by saying the product is a "highly caffeinated and over-priced diet soda, and is exactly the kind of faddy, phony diet aid it claims not to be."

Have any of you tried Enviga? Would this news cause you to stop drinking it, or do you believe in (or have seen results of) the product's ability to actually burn calories?

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Food Business Review Online had an interesting piece on 10 trends to watch for in 2007. I was glad to read that healthful food for kids and local sourcing of ingredients made the list. On a separate note, I was especially happy to learn that nutraceutical beer is in the offing.

Here's the full list:

• Calorie burning beverages: Look for more products like Celsius and Enviga that purport to help shed pounds without exercise.
• Satiety-enhancing foods and drinks: Products that increase the feeling of fullness are just starting to hit the market. Among them is LightFull Satiety Smoothie, which is high in fiber and protein, but has only 70 calories per serving.

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