Recently, I began an experiment in personal nutrition. I’m still in the midst of it, but I wanted to write down my thoughts here in the early going.
For the better part of two months now, I’ve been experimenting with various alternatives to traditional food that look to break ground where products like ‘Ensure’ and ‘Slim-Fast’ have failed to innovate.
Primary among these is ‘Soylent’; a darling of Silicon Valley focused on the scalability and sustainability of the existing food supply. Although I’ve dabbled with a few others, Soylent is definitely the ‘big dog’ in the space and seems to have a pretty significant following. Let’s begin with what it actually is...
Food in powder form. Easily measured, easily transported, easily stored, and easily prepared (“just add water”). Soylent and other companies like 100% Food, Schmilk, Joylent, Manna, HolFood, and a host of others are basically trying to deliver this concept to the masses. Each one has different promises, different flavors, and a different approach to nutrition, but all of them promise that you can essentially get all your necessary daily nutrients from their products in lieu of “actual” food.
Setting Off
I decided to try Soylent for myself. After hearing about them while working for a Silicon Valley tech startup (the ‘patient zero’ demographic for Soylent), I re-visited them wondering if they had solved their early production supply issues from a few years ago. Sure enough, they had a mature product with reliable supply for anyone looking to buy or “subscribe” for recurring purchases. They proudly advertise a product that is neutral and bland, readily mixed with other flavors. They also promise complete nutrition, with full servings of all recommended daily vitamins and minerals, along with various gut-fortifying probiotics all blended into balanced percentages of fats, carbs, and proteins.
I’ll admit, my first encounter with the product was… as advertised. It tasted bland, like drinking an old book about tax law. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good. The flavor was distinct and the texture was a bit chalky, but not much else can be said about it. Not sweet, not savory, just… beige.
However, I felt full and satisfied, as though I had just eaten a decent-sized meal. Mind you, I weighed 325lbs (I’ve since given up membership in the ‘300 club’) when I started, so right away, that was a big deal. I also didn’t go hungry again a few minutes afterwards, like one does with those old ‘meal replacement’ options that have been around for decades now. It digested like food.
I should mention right away that this is not a ‘meal replacement plan’. There isn’t a set of guidelines that have to be followed or a regiment that must be adhered to. It’s food, and it’s an option like any other food. You can still eat traditional food whenever you like. I thought of it as a ‘default’. In other words, “unless I desire another option, my next meal will consist of Soylent”.
The Numbers
The original plan was to replace breakfast and lunch during the day. This was mostly for the purposes of saving money. Soylent has definitely delivered on that front. I eat a 2,000 calorie diet each day consisting of four servings of Soylent. At just below $2 per meal, I have a nutritionally balanced diet for a total of under $8 per day. It used to be I would spend more than that on a single lunch at some restaurant where the food is often unhealthy, over-portioned, and usually unimpressive. Now, I have a perfectly predictable food cost that allows freedom in my budget for things like travel, investments, and yes, the occasional meal at a proper restaurant.
I also can’t understate the convenience factor of it all. No longer would I have to devote precious brain power to decide what I wanted for breakfast. Gone was the marital minefield of the shared shopping list. No more fighting for parking at the grocery store. Never again would I be forced to stand over the stove for 25 minutes preparing a mediocre pasta dish because I needed caloric fuel. In other words, food as a chore was now a thing of the past. If I cooked, it was out of desire, not necessity.
I never realized the sheer amount of time one devotes to food preparation, and purchasing, and storage, and re-preparation, and flavoring, and waste... the countless hours spent in the kitchen in drudgery. The convenience of these products was too much to pass up. Soon, just about all my meals started off in powder form.
The Thrill Isn’t Gone
I’m sure many of you are horrified by now. “The same bland, flavorless space powder, Jacques? That sounds downright Kafkaesque (look it up). Where is the variety? Where is the visceral joy that comes with biting into something delicious or trying something new?”
It’s still there, I assure you. I flavor my Soylent with all kinds of goodies. Frozen berries, green vegetables, chai tea, instant coffee, cacao powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, mango, banana, peanut butter, nutella, granola, the list goes on. “Raw” Soylent is just a platform on which to innovate and play around. Some attempts are better than others, but the variety is indeed there if I want it.
Also, I would argue that I now enjoy regular food all the more because of Soylent. I get to look forward to solid meals with a whole new appreciation for their texture and variety. A few weeks ago, I had a grass-fed, bone-in ribeye steak that I lovingly massaged with salt and spices, then marinated in an award-winning IPA and grilled to juicy perfection. If you think that sounds good now, it will sound that much better if you’ve been drinking blandness for the past week.
The External Considerations
Speaking of the occasional grass-fed slab of bovine glory, there is an environmental factor that should be considered here. I know this is where some in my evangelical community check out and dismiss this as some environmentalist sales pitch, but I for one believe that it glorifies the Lord and opens the door for testimony when the world sees us caring humbly for God’s creation and doing our best to fight back the entropy of the Fall rather than mean-spiritedly inflicting further decay just to prove we can.
Soylent is more focused than most of the others on this goal of scalability and sustainability. They use algal (made from algae) oils grown in bioreactors and high-yield soybeans to extract their protein isolates. They have a scientific approach to things rather than a naturalistic approach like some of their competitors have. They are not shy about using GMO’s where they see scientific consensus that no harm is being done and they welcome research. They also update their product in software-like iterations, publicizing what changes were made and why (Currently, I’m on version 1.6 of their powder product).
In my entirely irrelevant opinion, it’s a very privileged and oblivious mindset that advocates for a switch to an all-organic, non-GMO, niche-scale, farm-to-table food supply. According to Feeding America, 42.2 million Americans lived in food insecure households in 2015, including 29.1 million adults and 13.1 million children. These people need food, and most of them don’t care how it was grown or raised. When you’re hungry, you just want the hunger pangs to stop. These people need a food supply that scales, that is affordable, and that will provide them with all the nutrients they need. For less than $8 per day (based on a 2,000 calorie diet), Soylent will feed one of them and do so in a morally and environmentally responsible fashion.
The simple fact is that most of us will have no choice but to cut down on our meat consumption in the near future. Now, meat is still wonderful and I’m certainly not arguing that everyone go vegan, that’s blasphemy and I’ll have no part in it. But the simple laws of supply & demand, human nutrition, and geography are clear here: It’s better for our planet, for our economy, for our waistlines, for our children, and for our wallets if we eat less meat.
Health and Wellness
Finally, I would be remiss if I did not touch on the health benefits I’ve experienced. Aside from losing weight, I find I have more stamina and energy. I’m less groggy in the mornings and sleep better through the night. For the more exercise-minded, the folks at 100% Food have different nutritional profiles like Low-Carb, Double Protein, and High Glucose as well as options like whey protein or raw plant protein rather than soy protein. They don’t quite lend themselves to other flavors as much as Soylent, but they’re not bad at all (except for their ‘Ultra Low Carb’ blend, that just tastes awful).
I also have freedom to occasionally “cheat”. I feel less guilty about enjoying an unhealthy meal if I know that’s the only one of those I’ll have for a week. I can also occasionally still enjoy a good craft beer with less fretting over my waistline. Obviously, it’s not good to eat crap at any time, but I’m still only human. Although to be honest, when you feel satisfied and healthy, you start to not crave that stuff nearly as much.
I don’t want to be one-sided though. Like anything else, there are downsides to this approach. For instance, Soylent themselves actually had a few people who became ill on the 1.6 version of their powder (indications are it was a result of rare food allergies rather than tainted batches), but this led to them halting shipments for the time-being and offering discounts on their pre-mixed “2.0” drink bottles instead. I was honestly rattled for a bit when I heard about that. After all, that’s my main food supply. But other companies pounced like good capitalists and offered steep discounts to lure Soylent customers their way while Soylent works on their version 1.7 iteration of the powder.
There is also the fact that we don’t really know the long-term effects of these products. Although just about every ingredient in them is already in the food supply. Still, I’m hesitant to only drink “raw” Soylent to the exclusion of everything else. New discoveries continue to be made constantly in the field of health and nutrition, but that kind of uncertainty exists in most diets.
Still, getting a Fedex box delivered once or twice a month, with all my “groceries” seems worth it. My wife doesn’t have to worry about having dinner ready for when I get home, although she’s still free to lovingly prepare something if she has the time and inclination. She also will fix herself a quick serving of Soylent if she’s pressed for time (although she still relies mostly on a traditional diet).
There are just so many ‘plusses’ it’s hard for me to see a viable case against the concept of these products and their approach to food and nutrition in general. My relationship with food is completely changed and, at least for now, it seems to be for the better.
Thoughts?