By SHARON JOHNSON

for the Mail Tribune

Negative calories. Now there's a novel concept. Have you heard about food products that are "calorie-deficient?" They contain a blend of green-tea extract touted as boosting metabolism. Apparently some have been on grocery shelves for a while. None have jumped out at me when I shop, but it sounds like that might change.

These New Age beverages encourage our bodies to burn calories. The newest negative-calorie product coming onto the market, and the one with the strongest consumer research behind it, is called "Enviga." It will arrive in a shiny-sparkly little can with "no more caffeine than the average cup of coffee" and a notable amount of calcium.

When it appears in the stores (arriving early next year, market tested on the East Coast first), it will cost $1.29 for a 12-ounce container. It will reach out to us in individual servings or six-pack cartons in flavors like berry, peach and citrus. Three cans a day will reportedly burn 60-100 calories (hence the importance of the six-pack, I guess).

Advertisement

Let's see. We have endless varieties of bottled waters, many of them flavored and vitaminized. We have low and no-calorie beverages in carbonated and non-carbonated forms. And here comes the newest option, a negative-calorie drink and loads of hype. It would appear there is absolutely no longer any excuse for not staying well-hydrated.

Enviga was created by Beverage Partners Worldwide, which is a joint venture between Nestle and Coca-Cola. As I understand all this, through a dietician friend of mine, this newest beverage will be marketed as a "calorie burner" with a little flame over the dot above the "i" in Enviga. (see what I mean about hype). There will be an embedded health message, probably several.

There are other calorie-burning beverages out there, marketed under names like "Celsius," "Fuze" and "Skinny Water." But Enviga (think invigorating and inviting) has twice the EGCG, the green-tea extract felt to be responsible for boosting metabolism.

This whole marketing approach sounds enchanting and, who knows, negative-calorie products might give someone just the boost needed to becoming more sparkly-slim.

A little caution seems in order though. Did you know this? Research supports that foods that begin with "G," have the capacity to adversely affect certain medications. For example, most health providers recommend avoiding grapefruit or grapefruit juice if you are on statin drugs (the kind you take for high cholesterol).

If you're on hypertensive medications (for high blood pressure) you need to be vigilant about supplementing with ginseng or ginger.

Once again, we're in charge. Every time we ingest food or beverages we make a choice. As we age, some of those choices get more complicated. Maybe these new green-tea products are just the thing for your slightly chubby granddaughter and her calorie-conscious friends. But maybe we (you and me) need to stick to a glass of everyday, plain-old, no-additive water, especially when it comes to taking medications.

Here's a novel concept, maybe we could retrieve that water from our kitchen faucets, rather than our grocery store shelves. Just a thought.

Postscript

One more thought: Correcting myself; I erred in last week's column, when I said that Omacor (prescription fish oil) has not been approved by the FDA. It has been. That's a good thing. More in-depth about fish and fish oil in a future column.

Sharon Johnson is as associate professor in the College of Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University and on the faculty of the OSU Extension Service. She can be reached at s.johnson@oregonstate.edu.