Pepsi Launches New "Weight-Loss Soda"

[AllardChardon]

What will they think of next?

Pepsi Launches New "Weight-Loss Soda"
By Lisa Collier Cool

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the so-called soft drink czar who has banned sweetened beverages larger than 16 ounces in New York City, probably didn’t expect this development. Pepsi Tuesday launched a version of its popular cola in Japan that claims to block the absorption of fat. Could this new version of Pepsi solve Americans’ neck-and-neck desires for weight loss and sugary, super-sized beverages?

Simply called Pepsi Special, the caffeinated soft drink has the added ingredient dextrin, a natural water-soluble dietary fiber derived from potatoes. Japanese commercials touting the product’s effectiveness for weight loss even go as far as to ask, “Why choose between a hamburger and a slice of pizza? If you choose Pepsi Special, you can have both!” But does it work? Pepsi claims that dextrin slows the absorption of fat in the body by binding with it and eliminating it as waste, not reserving it as empty calories.

Dextrin's Dubious Weight-Loss History

Pepsi is basing its claims on a Japanese study published in 2006 that showed that rats fed dextrin actually absorbed less fat than those that were not. And while some of the science behind dextrin is solid, chances are your stools won’t be if you overindulge. That’s right—just like the promises made in the late 1990s when U.S. snack food companies added olestra to salty snacks like potato chips, that fat-blocking ingredient also destroyed a substantial amount of valuable nutrients and gave junk-food junkies more than they bargained for in terms of eliminating the additive.

Americans who enjoyed foods with olestra experienced bloating, cramping, diarrhea, and frequently had loose bowel movements. Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defends olestra, even though its use is banned in the United Kingdom and in Canada. As it turns out, dextrin produces the same results, and has already been given the less-than-cheeky nickname “Pepsi Poop.”

A Closer Look at Dextrin

Several U.S.-based research studies have examined the health benefits of dextrin and the reviews are mixed.

While the natural additive did help reduce levels of fat in the body, its overall effect is considered modest. In order for dextrin to really absorb enough fat to cause a considerate weight loss, chances are its adverse effects—like frequent diarrhea, gas, and bloating—would be overwhelming.

However, dextrin did offer other health benefits, described in a study published in the Journal of Endocrinology that claims it “improved glucose tolerance in lab mice [and therefore prevented their obesity].”

Another U.S. study published in a 2006 issue of Nutrition claimed dextrin “shows promise is reducing the negative effects of a diet high in cholesterol.”

Those claims were echoed in an earlier 2004 study conducted by the Japan Functional Food Research Association, a non-profit organization. In that report, dextrin’s beneficial uses “promoted blood sugar regulation and suppressed the adverse affects of [high] serum cholesterol.”

The Final Word

While Pepsi’s claims that its new and improved cola beverage is smooth and mimics the popular non-diet version of its soft drink, let the buyer beware. If the claims seem too good to be true, then they most likely are.

While a little dextrin won’t send you rushing to the nearest washroom, chances are a diet punctuated by more than one daily serving of Pepsi Special may be much more than you bargained for—and it still contains high levels of sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup.

If you genuinely want to lose weight or increase your intake of fiber, it’s better to do so by eating more fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains. And believe it or not, the best method to successful weight loss remains diet and exercise, not by gulping a popular soft drink with a secret ingredient.

[Handley_Page]

Elegant and informative.
I particularly liked the last couple of sentences.
Many thanks.

[lovecraft68]

My wife runs a dietary program out of several local doctors offices. Tow of them special in Bariatrics which is everything to do with weight loss, from diets to surgery.

Dextrin, according to her is not something that works to begin with and sticking it in a soda is only going to continue a persons bad dietary habits because they will continue to drink soda, albeit this "special soda"

This is a gimmick and what the idiot in New York should be doing is instead of banning sodas and sugar that as kids we all grew up drinking is implement some rule where lazy parents make their lazy kids get off the phone and the internet and burn off the sugar.

Everyone around my age remembers Jolt Cola "Twice the sugar and caffeine" we drank it like fiends and our generation did not have the weight issues they do now because WE PLAYED AND EXERCISED

This is another attempt at a quick fix in the laziest instant gratification society this world has ever seen.

And you know where you'll see these sodas? In the hands of someone who just ordered two whoppers, but the soda is going to help

[Exquisition]

S

Originally Posted by AllardChardon

What will they think of next?

Pepsi Launches New "Weight-Loss Soda"
By Lisa Collier Cool

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the so-called soft drink czar who has banned sweetened beverages larger than 16 ounces in New York City, probably didn’t expect this development. Pepsi Tuesday launched a version of its popular cola in Japan that claims to block the absorption of fat. Could this new version of Pepsi solve Americans’ neck-and-neck desires for weight loss and sugary, super-sized beverages?

Simply called Pepsi Special, the caffeinated soft drink has the added ingredient dextrin, a natural water-soluble dietary fiber derived from potatoes. Japanese commercials touting the product’s effectiveness for weight loss even go as far as to ask, “Why choose between a hamburger and a slice of pizza? If you choose Pepsi Special, you can have both!” But does it work? Pepsi claims that dextrin slows the absorption of fat in the body by binding with it and eliminating it as waste, not reserving it as empty calories.

Dextrin's Dubious Weight-Loss History

Pepsi is basing its claims on a Japanese study published in 2006 that showed that rats fed dextrin actually absorbed less fat than those that were not. And while some of the science behind dextrin is solid, chances are your stools won’t be if you overindulge. That’s right—just like the promises made in the late 1990s when U.S. snack food companies added olestra to salty snacks like potato chips, that fat-blocking ingredient also destroyed a substantial amount of valuable nutrients and gave junk-food junkies more than they bargained for in terms of eliminating the additive.

Americans who enjoyed foods with olestra experienced bloating, cramping, diarrhea, and frequently had loose bowel movements. Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defends olestra, even though its use is banned in the United Kingdom and in Canada. As it turns out, dextrin produces the same results, and has already been given the less-than-cheeky nickname “Pepsi Poop.”

A Closer Look at Dextrin

Several U.S.-based research studies have examined the health benefits of dextrin and the reviews are mixed.

While the natural additive did help reduce levels of fat in the body, its overall effect is considered modest. In order for dextrin to really absorb enough fat to cause a considerate weight loss, chances are its adverse effects—like frequent diarrhea, gas, and bloating—would be overwhelming.

However, dextrin did offer other health benefits, described in a study published in the Journal of Endocrinology that claims it “improved glucose tolerance in lab mice [and therefore prevented their obesity].”

Another U.S. study published in a 2006 issue of Nutrition claimed dextrin “shows promise is reducing the negative effects of a diet high in cholesterol.”

Those claims were echoed in an earlier 2004 study conducted by the Japan Functional Food Research Association, a non-profit organization. In that report, dextrin’s beneficial uses “promoted blood sugar regulation and suppressed the adverse affects of [high] serum cholesterol.”

The Final Word

While Pepsi’s claims that its new and improved cola beverage is smooth and mimics the popular non-diet version of its soft drink, let the buyer beware. If the claims seem too good to be true, then they most likely are.

While a little dextrin won’t send you rushing to the nearest washroom, chances are a diet punctuated by more than one daily serving of Pepsi Special may be much more than you bargained for—and it still contains high levels of sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup.

If you genuinely want to lose weight or increase your intake of fiber, it’s better to do so by eating more fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains. And believe it or not, the best method to successful weight loss remains diet and exercise, not by gulping a popular soft drink with a secret ingredient.

Sounds like a marketing, PR, headline-grabbing load of codswallop to me. But....Pepsi get a nice visibility boost and no publicity is bad publicity as they say

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I started a diet back in August. I've lost 50 pounds so far.

I invented the diet. Its pretty simple. I eat sensible amounts of food. Generally 1500 calories per day. A typical meal is 4 ounces of meat, a baked potato, veggie, and salad. 500 calories. Breakfast is 2 eggs, 2 toast, and 2 packets of grits or oatmeal; 500 calories with 10 calorie no sugar jelly.

If I wanna eat out, I eat out, but skip a meal to get back the calories.

Im not hungry, feel no discomfort, and the weight falls off my ass.

[Exquisition]

Originally Posted by JAMESBJOHNSON

I started a diet back in August. I've lost 50 pounds so far.

I invented the diet. Its pretty simple. I eat sensible amounts of food. Generally 1500 calories per day. A typical meal is 4 ounces of meat, a baked potato, veggie, and salad. 500 calories. Breakfast is 2 eggs, 2 toast, and 2 packets of grits or oatmeal; 500 calories with 10 calorie no sugar jelly.

If I wanna eat out, I eat out, but skip a meal to get back the calories.

Im not hungry, feel no discomfort, and the weight falls off my ass.

50 pounds? That's a seriously good effort.

[Handley_Page]

I'm told that to loose too much too fast is not a good thing.
It cost me a pretty penny in clothes when I did it.

[PennLady]

Originally Posted by Handley_Page

I'm told that to loose too much too fast is not a good thing.
It cost me a pretty penny in clothes when I did it.

I did Weight Watchers some years ago; lost 70lbs, and Mr Penn lost enough and kept it off long enough to become a lifetime member. Anyway, they advise a loss of something like .5-1.5lbs a week. You might drop 5lbs the first week, but after that it's supposed to slow down.

I'm not much of a shopper, but buying new and smaller clothes is a nice encouragement.

[loquere]

Who here watched I am Legend. Everyone turned into zombies or something. When scientists claimed they cured cancer.

Pepsi Special could be (2012) it could be the thing that ends everything.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Originally Posted by Exquisition

50 pounds? That's a seriously good effort.

Actually it was no effort at all. I thought about it and realized that the problem with diets is most of them keep you hungry and uncomfortable. So I thought about what might keep you a happy camper, and built my diet around it. Plus I tossed high calorie salad dressing overboard, started using low cal jams & jellies, and generally stay away from rice and oils and fats.

The trick is making your stomach believe its eating real food.

[AllardChardon]

I also had weight issues, after birthing four children, and a friend took me to Weight Watchers. Once I learned how to monitor what and how much went into my mouth, I was able to gain control and have not had any trouble that way since.

Last year, a family problem gave me so much grief, I lost my appetite and weight. I actually had to gain some to feel better and stronger. First time for that.

But, never in all of this, did I drink any sodas of any kind and have not for over 20 years. I don't miss them at all. In fact, I sipped a coke on a dare the other day and found it to be rather nasty-tasting.

[topace]

I need to gain weight, not lose it.

I'm way underweight - 125 lbs on a 5'9" frame.

[Handley_Page]

While a little dextrin won’t send you rushing to the nearest washroom, chances are a diet punctuated by more than one daily serving of Pepsi Special may be much more than you bargained for—and it still contains high levels of sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup.


I can think of some real uses for this stuff.
It might keep some youngsters off the streets; and in the toilet!

[autoplot]

Personal responsibility derp derp in my day derp derp derp.

[MSTarot]

Originally Posted by topace

I need to gain weight, not lose it.

I'm way underweight - 125 lbs on a 5'9" frame.

Slimfast. Add about three per day to what you normally eat. You should start to put on about two pounds a week.

Information gained from trying their diet, getting hooked on the damn things, then going back to what I normally ate for a month. Can we say plus ten pounds. it dropped off when I stopped drinking them.

At the moment a fairly muscular 277. I'm down from a slightly chubby 338. I'm 6'1'' and I started watching what I eat a little better last April.

M.S.Tarot

[AllardChardon]

There are many more ways to gain healthy weight than the steadfast SlimFast. At my local healthfood stores there are several whey protein powders for men and soy-based powders for women that work very well. The exercise part makes the muscles gain that weight and gives you a better reading on the scale overall, even though you might not have changed an entire size or two. Muscle is heavy, man.

[topace]

Don't remind me about muscle, I can barely lift 60 lbs. with both arms as it is!

[AllardChardon]

The sudden weight loss also made me weak, but a little exercise every day (I am an avid gardener with lots of land to clear) brought back my strength to a much better level. I still need to keep up with it and not let the winter make me too sedentary. It is an ongoing process to stay physically fit, that is for sure.

[R. Richard]

If you want to lose weight or just keep on a maintenance diet, try Metabolol II. It's a workout food and contains all of the daily recommended. It also give you the fat that you ned to digest food, but in the form of medium chain triglycerides, fat molecules too large to pass through intestine walls, into your system.

[TE999]

A bunch of people may want to avoid drinking too much Pepsi Special; their heads may shrink.

[voluptuary_manque]

I cut my breakfast in half, my lunch is fruit and cheese, for dinner I eat normally except for a single serving of carbs (complex and the only ones all day) but without dessert and only one glass of wine. I'm walking eleven hours a week, with or without the terrorier who is aging, and so far I've lost fourteen pounds @ 2 lbs./week. Let's see how far I can go but once I hit 180, that's it. No sexiness in being gaunt! Of course, if I do get that low, I'll probably need another hat and some new dungarees!

[AllardChardon]

No one seems interested in Pepsi Special aiding their diet regimen. Must be because we are all too smart for that. LOL

[topace]

I'm not what you call sedentary. I have to walk 2 km each way when I work (up to 5 times a week), and on top of that, my job is physically demanding. So when I am at home, I'm merely resting for the next bout of exercise called working and traveling to/from work.