Thursday, October 12, 2006

Negative.

I don't know that I'm particularly well versed in science. I think I have a passing understanding of some of the ideas. So I'm really dubious of this product. The product, Enviga is marketed by Coke and billed as being not low calorie, not no calorie, but negative calorie. The implication being that drinking this soda increases metabolic action and so three cans a day will burn between 60-100 calories.

I have a couple of problems with this. My first concern is scientific/semantic.
The claim that this beverage has negative calories, suggests that this product unlike any other concept I know of can possess the absence of something. Bread doesn't have negative cholesterol, rather it doesn't have cholesterol. You cannot state it affirmatively. It's the absence of a real thing, not the presence of a fake one.

Secondly, the name Enviga is just misleading. I assume it's supposed to be pronounced like envigorate, but as a friend of Silberman points out, that's exactly wrong, because given that calories are energy, this product will “help you lose energy!”

That's right, it's the opposite of RedBull. It's a Lethargic Drink. It's Lazy-ade.

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