Posted by kathryn in Labels & advertising

I can’t say I was thrilled this week to read that Enviga will be on sale in Australia from July this year. Enviga is a carbonated green tea soft drink, manufactured by Coca-Cola and Nestle, which they say has “negative calories”. They claim that drinking three cans of Enviga will slightly raise your metabolism, making the average person burn between 60 – 100 calories. Very little is known about how it works and this claim has not been independently tested. According to Nestle researcher Dr Hilary Green:

The accumulated body of scientific research shows the ability of green tea’s powerful antioxidant EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) to speed up metabolism and increase energy use, especially when combined with caffeine”

Coca-Cola / Nestle are careful on their website and in public statements to say all the right things about it not being a miracle product and just one part of a healthy lifestyle, blah, blah, blah. However, in reality the thrust of the marketing is that it’s a weight loss product, for example the byline on the can is “Enviga: Calorie Burner”. From The Times, Professor Andrew Prentice, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine states that:

“The implicit claim to the consumer is that [Enviga] will make them lose weight”.

Even if the claims are true, you have to drink three cans to burn 100 calories. That’s about 420 kilojoules, which is not a lot. It’s the equivalent of:

• one Caramello Koala
• half a cheese and tomato sandwich
• half a glass of wine
• one-third of a danish pastry
• one Tim Tam
• one-fifth of a packet of Kettle chips
• less than half a small McDonald’s fries
• two and a half Kentucky nuggets (individual nuggets, not portions)

It’s not enough to make up for a pig-out, it’s not enough to make up for a poor diet. In fact, in terms of weight loss, it’s only going to help if you’re eating healthily and watching your kilojoule intake anyway. It’s an expensive way to lose 420kJ and you’d be better off to eat slightly less, or go for a 30 minute walk.

Moreover three cans of Enviga contains the same amount of caffeine as three cups of coffee, that alone is going to make some people a bit edgy and jumpy. If you then start drinking more, trying to burn off more calories, you’re ingesting a heck of a lot of caffeine (palpitations anyone?).

I first read about this product on Accidental Hedonist . I don’t think Enviga is a useful product, I don’t think we need it. I wouldn’t recommend it for use in any weight loss plan and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to my clients.

12 January, 2007