Soylent (the food substitute)

[shiznitz]

So, I am doing this.

www.soylent.me

The short version is a guy sick of the cost and time to prepare food created a powder with everything a good body needs to live and got it crowdfunded.

I consider myself the perfect candidate because I pretty much dislike all healthy food, and while I am not significantly overweight at 6'3" 210lbs, I understand that my diet of pizza, Stouffer's, Chef Boy R Dee, Wendy's, Chipoltle, etc. is not a long term menu for health.

So I bought the starter kit and just re-ordered 21 meals worth. I have replaced my breakfast of one bowl of cereal and my lunch of various fast food options with 12oz of soylent.  I still have my dinners but they have always been somewhat hurried since I get home after the wife and kids have eaten. I am not being completely strict about it.  If I have a business lunch (happens a few times a month) then I go with the flow and have a real meal.

I have not lost any weight yet (after two weeks) but I did not expect to so soon.  I am not having cravings for real food, which I find surprising. The "shakes" actually quell hunger well and for longer than what I was used to eating.  That bowl of cereal every morning left me hungry before 11:30am.  The fast food for lunch left me fighting grogginess in the afternoon which I usually fought with snacking.  I still snack on pretzels here or there but it is much less.

What about the taste? I do not have a refined palate as one might surmise from my diet, but I am also considered a very picky eater.  I have to say that the taste is neutral.  The texture is similar in chalkiness to a protein powder shake - not pleasant but not unpleasant either.

What about prep time? The directions say that it is best served cold. This is VERY true. The directions also say that the water should be room temperature for mixing. This means one has to plan ahead a bit.  I make my breakfast shake before I go to bed (3 minutes of measure, pour and shake) and my lunch shake when I get into the office.  I have a dedicated water bottle for each meal.

So, any questions?

[01101010]

Read about this like 2 months ago and it did have me curious; not about anything in particular but a real life 'diary' of how well the body has received it would be welcomed.

The only thing I read about after effects is this can have a habit of creating a lot of gas. Any truth to that? And are you eventually going to go the full-on route with this?

[shiznitz]

I was gassy to before and have actually experienced a reduction in farts per day.

I have no intention of replacing all meals.  If I don't experience positive health results from giving up fast food for lunch, then I will go back to eating fast food for lunch.

[tazelbain]

You looking for something beside weight loss?

[NowhereMan]

From everything I've seen about this it's probably not going to do you any damage as a meal replacement for a random fast food meal per day. They've got the basic macro-nutrient thing worked out and a few micro-nutrients in there. It's not giving you a lot of stuff like fibre that would probably be pretty good to have if you want to keep living, etc. but if it's one meal a day and it's replacing something pretty crappy then it's almost definitely not making things worse. I'd just like to point out in this thread that replacing regular meals with this stuff is a pretty terrible idea. Stuff like protein powder (or stuff similiar to this) can work as a supplement if you've taken care of basic metabolic needs with real foods but highly processed foods really can't take the place of stuff that has largely been cultivated over a few tens of thousands of years to best satisfy our metabolic needs. At least currently.

Basically if you've got some dietary shortfalls and are lazy then this kind of thing can help. The avowed goal of this project (to provide something that can replace actual food for people) is total bullshit based on the actual product being produced. The avowed goal is also a special kind of unappealing laziness. Do people really hate food so much that preparing a basic meal is worth gulping down something called Soylent as a diet replacement?

[tazelbain]

Just shh! and let natural selection take care of things.

[shiznitz]

I need to be clear that I never eat vegetables or fruit. Ever.  I haven't for pretty much all 46 years I have been alive. Not surprisingly, I had very high chloresterol in my early 20s even though I was 165lbs and strong from rowing at college.  I have been taking 10mg of Lipitor a day for 20 years and even with that my triglycerides are high, although not really high. I have supplemented my horrible diet with a daily multivitamin for most of my adult life.

So I do expect at some level to experience improved health at some level beyond simple weight loss. If this stuff can shrink my middle-aged, desk job paunch, then I will be happy.  

[HaemishM]

IT'S PEOPLE!!!! SOLYENT IS PEOPLE!!!!!!

Sorry, had to be done. Saw this on Colbert and thought it was a somewhat interesting idea but not sure I could ever do it. Especially not for the prices charged.

[Goreschach]

Sorry, had to be done. Saw this on Colbert and thought it was a somewhat interesting idea but not sure I could ever do it. Especially not for the prices charged.

Yeah, for the prices they charge, it seems like it would be more practical to just buy a really nice blender and make your own food paste.

[NowhereMan]

The best part is apparently the creators of this didn't even realise that only Soylent Green was people. Naming themselves after Soylent wasn't some clever nod to nerds, they genuinely thought they were just naming themselves after some basement bottom priced cannibal product form a movie.

That said tazle I really think you'd find a way, way, way, way better improvement in your diet by replacing that shake with a load of microwaved frozen veggies with some grilled/fried chicken breast. That is pretty much one of the lowest effort meals you can make (especially if you precook the chicken and just heat it later or have it cold) and I guarantee will be healthier. It may also be cheaper in terms of $ per calorie/nutrient.

I mean based on what you've said it might genuinely be an improvement, so I don't want to totally discourage you from changing your diet/lifestyle but it seems like there are way more efficient ways to do it.

[01101010]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oEnJfZ9joY

 

[Nebu]

My advice as someone that teaches nutritional biochemistry: While this will meet your nutritional needs, you should also consider that the bacteria in your digestive tract also have needs.  Food diversity aids in health and should not be overlooked when considering a diet plan.  Eating a wide variety of foods that are high in nutrients and low in fat/processed carbs in the ideal way to go.  While this kind of a plan will certainly sustain life, I don't think it will provide the quality that you're after. 

[Fabricated]

Please don't do this. The creator is a blithering retard and you're better off just eating proper food or if you're trying to lose weight exercise and maybe use like a single meal replacement a day or something.

[shiznitz]

Please don't do this. The creator is a blithering retard and you're better off just eating proper food or if you're trying to lose weight exercise and maybe use like a single meal replacement a day or something.

I am effectively only replacing about 1 1/2 meals a day.  I do not intend to go 100% soylent.

[NowhereMan]

Seriously though there are options that are not much more effort that are way healthier if that's your concern. Soylent is genuinely a terrible product if you have more than 30 minutes a week to do food prep, and that's just because you can make not terribly nice but nutritionally beneficial food in that time while Soylent is literally a 'we've got what basic nutritional science says you bottom line need' package. And probably costs more.

[MrHat]

My advice as someone that teaches nutritional biochemistry: While this will meet your nutritional needs, you should also consider that the bacteria in your digestive tract also have needs.  Food diversity aids in health and should not be overlooked when considering a diet plan.  Eating a wide variety of foods that are high in nutrients and low in fat/processed carbs in the ideal way to go.  While this kind of a plan will certainly sustain life, I don't think it will provide the quality that you're after. 

Actually curious about your opinion regarding the new high fat diets that are everywhere.

[Nebu]

Actually curious about your opinion regarding the new high fat diets that are everywhere.

Diet fads.  Nothing new. 

[Malakili]

Ahem.  Eat Food.  Not too much.  Mostly Plants.

[Samwise]

I'm not sure whether to envy or pity people who have so little regard for the taste of good food (or even average food) that this sort of thing is appealing.  Especially if it's not saving you any money.

I'd also like to pre-emptively request that we not turn this thread into yet another "here's how you cook red beans and rice and freeze a month's worth of leftovers" survivalist cooking thread.

[Evildrider]

[Viin]

Those aren't bad (though they get old fast), but are a bit pricey.

[Brofellos]

not gonna lie I'm really intrigued by this, especially since I've moved farther and farther away from 'tasty' breakfasts to 'effective' breakfasts as I've become more health-conscious

[Chimpy]

I enjoyed the ArsTechnica "week of eating only soylent" feature story.

I can't say that I am interested in buying the stuff though.

[lamaros]

Soylent is indicative of many of the things wrong with the world. Reactionary, lazy, ignorant, exploitive and (ultimately) harmful.

Whatever happened to teaching people how to fish?

[Brofellos]

How will I have time to fish when I'll be billing 2300 hours/year and living in one of the most densely populated places in the country?

[Kail]

...living in one of the most densely populated places in the country?

I think Soylent Green is supposed to be the solution in that case.

[Shatter]

I had actually ordered this and the wait to get it was like 3 months.  I eventually forgot I had ordered it and got an email that said there was going to be a further delay so I just canceled.  Due to this I made the decision to get into juicing, got a decent juicer and now 2-3 times a week I make a decent juice with carrots, spinach, Kale, oranges, apples, etc.  Even with cleaning the juicer it takes all of 10 minutes.  This is far more nutrients in my system then I've ever had as an adult since i don't eat salads or have time to cook nice meals regularly.  Also, it allows me to get the health benefits of foods I don't like because I can bury the taste with fruit. 

[shiznitz]

There are lots of good points about how I am just a lazy ass who doesn't want to prepare food properly. This is exactly right.  I have no interest whatsoever in preparing food. I find the quick, pre-made stuff more tasty and easier to get.  I would rather buy a sausage egg and cheese on a croissant from Dunkin' than buy the parts and make one myself.  I get no enjoyment from preparation, hate cleaning up and prefer the taste of stuff prepared for me.  I also don't care what food costs.  

I just want to see if cutting out fast food at lunch will make me look and feel better. Eating a plain chicken breast every day has no appeal whatsoever. Trying a new fangled powdered food at least brings some novelty to the endeavor.

As far as the cost of soylent goes, $75 for 21 "meals" seems like a good deal to me, even though I don't really care about it being a good deal. My weekly Five Guys was $12. My weekly Chipolte was $9. My weekly Wendy's was $8 and my weekly pizza was $7.50.  

[Morat20]

Ahem.  Eat Food.  Not too much.  Mostly Plants.

Watch what you eat. Avoid really fatty foods. Try to avoid too much fried food. Eat your goddamn vegetables. Try not to go back for seconds, or at least wait 20 minutes and see if you're still hungry.

Try not to snack, and if you do, find something healthy.

You won't get thin on that advice, but you won't get worse and you'll feel better.

Fads are fads. In the end, you don't want too much of anything -- don't want to much carbs, don't want too much fat, don't want too much sugar. How much is 'too much' depends on your actual life. I'd be like 500 pounds on Michael Phelp's diet, because I don't have a body that needs like 5000 calories a day for muscle maintenance alone, before you get into energy from his actual exercise.

I have heard that a good quick and dirty "lost 20 pounds, or at least look like it" plan is just to add some pushups and situps to your life. Build a little more muscle, which takes a little more energy to maintain. Not actually tried it (my exercise plan is for cardiovascular health. I get on an effin treadmill and do 2.5 miles or so. Half at a jog, half at a fast walk).

[schild]

There is no such thing as a good anything with Kale in it.

Fucking awful vegetable.

[lamaros]

The best way to lose weight is to eat less. But don't take this advice too seriously or you may develop a different kind of eating disorder.

You wont get healthier and happier from crap like this.

[Morat20]

The best way to lose weight is to eat less. But don't take this advice too seriously or you may develop a different kind of eating disorder.

You wont get healthier and happier from crap like this.

Want to get rich quick? Figure out a way to convince the human body to destroy empty fat cells. As I understand it, you make a fat cell. Then you diet or exercise a lot and suck all the fat out. But the cell STAYS there, all empty. Ready to be filled up -- your body's eager to fill it back up, and will shuffle any extra calorie to it that it can.

The whole gain/loss cycle is because it's so much easier to put weight back ON than it was to gain it in the first place. Figure out a biochemical pathway that tells the body "Yep, let's recycle that empty sucker" would make a mint.

Gotta do lipo to get rid of them now. Surgically remove the empty dang things. Evolutionary speaking, it's a great adaptation. Fat's awesome. Carry anywhere super-dense energy source. You want empty cells to stick around, easy to refill with any spare calorie.

In a world of abundant food, it's a PITA and killing us.

[ezrast]

You have to compare it to the diet people have, not the diet they should have. There's not an overweight man, woman, or child alive in the developed world who doesn't know that they'd lose weight if they'd put down the bag of chips and eat a fucking salad every once in a while. We don't care. We're a people intent on shoveling processed sludge into our mouths one way or another so it might as well be the sludge that has some modicum of nutritional content, and not the sludge filled with ammonia, growth hormones, and artificial coloring, fried in grease, and served on a bleached, sugary bun.

As I believe the saying goes, perfect is the enemy of not-entirely-godawful.

[lamaros]

Eh, not sure I agree in general. The human body does work in certain ways, yes, but I know a lot of people who don't have issues with weight  and lots that do, and it has little to do with food abundance or genetics, and a lot to do with culture, lifestyle, and etc.

I also know people who've lost weight without it being a problem of not being able to stop putting it back on. I know a couple who have lost far too much and have issues being healthy because they don't eat enough. I know people who are always talking about losing weight and not able to find or recognise the right advice that will help them to do that.

'Dieting' (as opposed to permanently changing ones diet) and fads like this don't help anyone. They feed from and in to the issues that get people caught and stop them escaping from situations in the first place.

The relationships people have with food, and the habits, attitudes, and upbringing are far more significant in my view than access to food.

You have to compare it to the diet people have, not the diet they should have. There's not an overweight man, woman, or child alive in the developed world who doesn't know that they'd lose weight if they'd put down the bag of chips and eat a fucking salad every once in a while. We don't care. We're a people intent on shoveling processed sludge into our mouths one way or another so it might as well be the sludge that has some modicum of nutritional content, and not the sludge filled with ammonia, growth hormones, and artificial coloring, fried in grease, and served on a bleached, sugary bun.

As I believe the saying goes, perfect is the enemy of not-entirely-godawful.

Yes, but if that sludge tastes crap and doesn't actually do enough to make you feel better and be healthier then what is the point of it? It's just another unsustainably useless fad that feeds in to the idea that feeding yourself is this thing you fuck about with and can find an easy fix for, rather than something you respect and care about.

[Signe]

I love Kale.  My mother made bitter greens a lot.  Mustard greens, collards, dandelion... all that stuff.  I have bitter greens at least two or three times a week.  Kale is one of the least bitter, actually.  My sister makes a yummy kale, leek and potato soup.  My sister, however, also does something very nasty with Kale.  She juices it.  I can't look at her while she drinks it.  Bleh.