Brigitte Müller

The new recipe in the kingdom of miraculous remedies comes, of course, from America. It promises the loss of calories by consuming a soft drink. The Coca-Cola Company’s new product is called Enviga and promises the unbelievable: being slim, thanks to a soft drink. Whoever drinks a can of Enviga burns between 20 and 30 calories. The negative drink is conquering the market.

Enviga is a mixture of green tea, water, calcium, sweetener and huge quantities of caffeine, and it has been developed by Coca-Cola in a joint venture with Nestlé, the Swiss giant of the food industry. Currently, the test phase is being carried out in the North-West of the United States, and the international campaign in favour of Enviga is expected to start next year.

“Be positive – Drink negative” is the advertising slogan of the subtracting soft drink, and proof of it has been provided by a study entrusted to the Swiss university of Lausanne. Namely, 32 persons aged between 18 and 35, with no weight problem, took part in the test phase, and the whole campaign is based on this. The investigators established the consumption of energy by means of measuring apparatus which determine the effects on metabolism through the caloric input of the person. The control group were given a placebo drink, and only the “real” Enviga managed to burn between 60 and 100 calories per litre of Enviga. During the test phase, the persons moved around regularly, and otherwise ate healthily.

Whether the remedy really achieves what it promises or not is a question of the point of view one adopts. The Wall Street Journal has calculated that five cans of Enviga, costing a total of 5 euros, burn the calories of two Oreo biscuits. Fifteen minutes walking has the same effect. A Big Mac could only be neutralised with 28 cans of Enviga. The caffeine content of this carbonated drink is three times greater than that of Classic Coca-Cola, and almost equals the concentration of Red Bull.

Rhona Appelbaum, head of Coca-Cola’s scientific team, warns that one should not have over-high expectations: “It is not a miraculous remedy”, one should pay attention to one’s diet and to exercise. Observations of this kind get lost among the small print, the sales pitch is that of burning calories. And so, once again, there will be crowds of people full of hope, rushing to drink Enviga, and even if they don’t really get any thinner, at least they will have the pleasant sensation of having done something about their figure.