[baddox]

Let's say we take every possible food (restaurant, home cooked, Soylent, etc.) and plot cost against benefit, where both of these data are an overall quantification of disutility and utility, so cost includes money and time spent, benefit includes health and pleasure, etc.

It's possible that, for some people, Soylent (and similar products) is the only place where benefit exceeds cost. Perhaps the only foods you enjoy are extremely unhealthy. Or perhaps you don't have the time or money to buy and prepare fresh food for yourself.

[platz]

Doesn't Ensure provide these same options? If so, is it fair to really call it a revolution, or it is just providing something like Ensure at a lower price point?

[baddox]

From what I can tell, Ensure is pretty much the same thing. I certainly don't consider Soylent to be a revolution, beyond perhaps a marketing revolution in the tech community.

[taylorwc]

Ensure does provide an option, but it's relatively expensive, lacking the full range of nutrients found in Soylent, and pretty high in sugar (though I think they have just reduced sugar slightly).

[gamblor956]

Ensure is cheaper, but it's not a full-fledged meal replacement product. It's intended to be a supplemental product to an otherwise normal diet.

[dragonwriter]

"Ensure" is a whole line of different products with different roles. Ensure Complete seems to be at least as much of a meal replacement as Soylent.

[cwzwarich]

I fed my brother Ensure through a tube in his nose for 2 months before an intestinal surgery. The doctors considered it as good of a meal replacement as any for that amount of time.