Enviga
| The official Coca-Cola logo | |
| Type | Canned sparkling green tea |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Beverage Partners Worldwide (North America) |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Introduced | 2006 |
Enviga is a Nestea carbonated canned green-tea drink being jointly marketed by the Coca-Cola Company and Nestle Switzerland. It is available in 3 flavors: Green tea, peach and berry.[1]. According to Coca-Cola, Enviga burns 60 to 100 calories per three 12-oz.(330 ml) cans due to its high EGCG and caffeine content.
Nutritional facts
| serving size | 1 can |
| calories | 5 |
| total fat | 0 |
| sodium | 35mg / 1% daily value |
| total carb | 0 |
| protein | 0 |
| calcium | 20% daily value[2] |
Percent values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Contains aspartame, and significant quantity of caffeine.
Lawsuits over health claims
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has filed a lawsuit over company claims that Enviga acts as a calorie-burning and weight-loss product. The group claims that if Coca-Cola and Nestle stop marketing the product as a calorie-burner, they would drop possible litigation. The beverage makers responded that they have deliberately avoided claims that Enviga is a weight-loss product, and that there exists independent research to substantiate the effects of the product.
The State of Connecticut is investigating the calorie-burning qualities of the drink. The State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has demanded [1] all scientific research associated with its calorie-burning qualities [2].
Criticism of health claims
 |
Upon inspection by a Ph.D. in biochemistry, the study conducted in Switzerland used to support the claims made by Nestle and the Coca Cola Corporation has proven to be a dramatically overrepresented. The double blind placebo controlled study investigated 31 people consuming Enviga over a period of 3 days. The study claimed that the high caffeine (and caffeine like substance) content in Enviga sped up the metabolism and caused the participants to burn more calories from fat rather than carbohydrates, up to 60-100 extra calories per day. However, it has been extensively researched and proven that pure caffeine as a supplement will have the same effect over that time period, thus rendering the content of Enviga (aside from the caffeine) to be mostly irrelevant to the "negative calorie" claim. Furthermore, research has shown that caffeine sensitivity drops exponentially over time. Like with all stimulatory drugs and agents, the same dose of caffeine is no longer equally effective over time, requiring higher and higher doses in order to provide the same effect. The 100 calories burned per day will drop to 0 in a period of a few weeks, unless dramatically more caffeine is utilized. The net conclusion of these observations is that the extrapolation from a 3 day time period onto a permanent 60-100 calorie weight loss per day is completely unjustified...
Sales
As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, flavoured bottled water, sports drinks and teas, are increasing sales with the decline in sales of sugary soft drinks - with cold tea the fastest growing non-carbonated beverage category in the U.S. during the first half of 2006. Prior to launch, Coke had been trailing and losing market share[3] in this sector to Pepsi, AriZona and Snapple.
References
- ^ Coca Cola Company Press Release: http://www2.coca-cola.com/presscenter/pdfs/enviga.pdf
- ^ BBC News audio interview: http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_6040000/newsid_6043700/bb_rm_6043792.stm