[tom_usher]

Can someone explain to me the appeal of this product? Why would anyone choose to drink a nondescript sludge over the plentiful ways we can get good, enjoyable & healthy food?

I can certainly appreciate the science behind it - this would be a great boon to helping feed those that are less fortunate, but from what I can see that doesn't appear to be the aim of the company.

[fizzbatter]

I feel like i'm in the opposite camp. Every time i see a Soylent post in any non-Soylent corner of the web (HN, non-Soylent Subreddits, etc), there's always 1 (x100) posts of:

"Why would you do this!?"

I feel like i need someone to describe this to me. Why is it so hard to grasp? "Fast food" makes its living off of ease and price. You could argue taste, but many (most?) people feel that a good homecooked meal tastes a lot better than a McBurger - so i'm going to ignore taste.

We have isles and isles of meal replacements and frozen foods. All with the purpose of giving you food on the Go, and food on the quick.

We also have people constantly skipping meals, for reasons other than diet. I myself often skip breakfast or lunch because i'm busy, and eventually 9am turns into 10am turns into 11am turns into "Welp, i may as well just eat lunch".

So it seems blatantly obvious that meal speed, ease and even price is an issue for many, many, many people. So why is it so confusing to see a liquid form of this that aims to be an even healthier meal replacement than existing meal replacements?

We already have meal replacements. We have had them for ages. They're just incredibly unhealthy. .. I just guess i can't fathom why so many people (not you specifically) are so confused at Soylents existence.

</rant>

[orangecat]

There's a weird psuedo-religious aspect to it too. It's right to spend an hour cooking, and wrong to have a convenient pre-made meal, even if it's nutritionally as good or better.

[fizzbatter]

Couldn't agree more.

I completely admit that Soylent is not perfect, and i am also a little worried of the (many?) aspects of nutrition that we're unaware of. But many people live on Fast Food, which scares me far far more than Soylent does.

But just because something is not perfect, does not warrant the very odd zealotry that i see for "normal" food and against Soylent (and like products).

It's honestly, flat out bizarre to me. They act like "normal" food is their favorite sports team, or a company that they have vested interest in. As if their profits will take a hit, if this new fangled Soylent thing catches on.

And i can't imagine it is for our potential health that these people are fanatical. I don't see them being so religious about many other non-healthy life habits that people have. Yet, throw in liquid food and it's a slug fest.

I just don't understand.

[nsxwolf]

It's because you're deleting an entire dimension of human experience and saying it's normal. People who don't like food seem abnormal. It's like asexuality. It takes people aback to hear that a person has no sexual interest of any kind.

[fizzbatter]

If you're simply explaining why you think that people have that reaction, then that's a very good assertion - appreciate the input.

If you're posing an argument, then imo, you're largely mistaken. Most (needs citation) people don't use Soylent-like products to remove a positive human experience. They remove the "human experiences" that they already struggled with, and don't want.

For example, I'm not skipping out on meals with my family and loved ones. Those are social interactions, the food is just something to prompt the social interaction.

However, when i'm alone in my house getting ready for work - I don't think these are part of this "human experience" you refer to.

I suppose you could say removing a bad human experience is still removing a human experience, but then.. why are we arguing in favor of those bad experiences?

[tom_usher]

I wouldn't call it zealotry, but probably resistance to change.

As with anything new and interesting, it's easy to insert a fictional future scenario that takes away what makes our personal lives rich and enjoyable.

I love to cook but it's all a bit sci-fi and uncomfortable to think that we'll all have our government mandated NutriSludge dispensed twice a day so we can all stop worrying about cooking and work harder.

[yazaddaruvala]

I'm sure you do understand, but it just doesn't come across from your answer. From the perspective of people not quite as fortunate as yourself:

The quote wouldn't be "we'll all have our government mandated NutriSludge dispensed twice a day so we can all stop worrying about cooking and work harder".

It'll be, "before the government started helping, we lived off food stamps and food banks, but it was never enough. You always see those ads on TV, how growing children need their milk, and it would make me cry. My children deserved better, but I just wasn't able to provide it for them. They were always cold and getting sick. There was one winter my son couldn't go to school because it was too cold for him to leave his bed. Now that we get NutriSludge all three of them are looking healthier, I can't believe my youngest is good at sports. I've even been able to spend more time on myself, and I can work harder! I've actually been able to hold down this job. My kids even have the energy to look into part time jobs. I'm so happy the government is finally helping. I don't even like thinking about those times anymore."

[grandalf]

for me the issue is cost, why does the 12 pack cost more than $6 + shipping? Seems like tremendous markup.

[ZeroFries]

Skipping breakfast and keeping your insulin levels low for a couple more hours is probably preferable to ingesting a bunch of cheap oils and flours (soylent is only a slight upgrade to breakfast cereal, imo)

[tom_usher]

Thanks for the answer (and to everyone else that replied) - it's always good to hear the other side of the debate.

I could never imagine myself in a situation where I'd consider it so important to be constantly busy that I wouldn't be able to find the time to throw a few vegetables in a pan - but I understand different people have different priorities (and demanding jobs).

It just seems to me like this is an odd way to solve the problem, maybe because I'm extrapolating a bit and seeing it as trying to replace one of the things that makes us human; the ability to prepare and cook food.

I'd be interested to see if any research comes up as to the long term psychological effects of this sort of product. Do people who replace the varied textures and tastes of different foods (if only partially) with a liquid supplement notice any adverse effects or cravings?

Out of interest, is Soylent more interesting than offerings from companies like Graze/Naturebox?

[fizzbatter]

> Out of interest, is Soylent more interesting than offerings from companies like Graze/Naturebox?

I don't have an answer for that exactly - but other healthy meal replacement products on the market that i've seen tend to be too expensive. To me, even Soylent is a bit expensive.

Because of the price, i have mostly just stuck to my own DIY Soylent. It's vastly less convenient, but in an hours worth of work, i can make a weeks worth of food - so still very convenient. Far far cheaper too (under a third the price).

I also don't feel comfortable with Soylents use of maltodextrin. This isn't an educated opinion, i just don't know enough about it - and worry about the glycemic index, since i have problems with blood sugar levels. My DIY version uses 2/3 Oats an 1/3 Masa, and i've always heard amazing things about Oats, so it makes me (emotionally) feel really good - vs concerned about Soylent. Plus, the Oats make me feel very very stable, blood sugar wise.. but who knows with placebos, i've never measured any of it.

Plus, my DIY smells like "food" to me, where as Soylent smells very foreign. I still love Soylent for road trips though - it's amazing road food.

> I'd be interested to see if any research comes up as to the long term psychological effects of this sort of product. Do people who replace the varied textures and tastes of different foods (if only partially) with a liquid supplement notice any adverse effects or cravings?

For what it's worth, on heavy (2-3 meals/day of my DIY Soylent) for a time span ranging of about 6 months (my consumption has been down recently, GF has been cooking a lot heh), my experience is:

1. A massive boost in stable thinking/reasoning. I can't recall feeling mid-day dead zones, which i often fall into without my DIY. This is partially due to Coffee consumption levels i'm sure, but DIY seemingly helped to make my mind (and body) more consistent.

2. Boredom. Without food breaks, i felt a lot of listlessness throughout the day. I felt i should be snacking, or doing something other than working - but i had no hunger to guide a snacking expedition. While i was still very productive, far more than usual, i would often stop typing for moments and go "Man.. i just feel like i should be doing something".

I imagine it had to do with missing a ritual (meal times) in my life. This was by far the weirdest thing to get used to for me.

3. I would eventually crave flavor, often salt. I'm blaming this on a lack of proper balance in my DIY mix - but i didn't adjust my mix at all. The cravings were mild, and only over a longer period of time, so by the time they hit i was usually having a normal dinner meal regardless.

4. I would often get an odd sense of needing to chew. This could have been a craving, i don't know - but my jaw/mouth would get very... unused feeling. I could potentially spend 8 hours working without really chewing once. I tried gum sometimes, but it didn't really seem to help. Hard to say what this one was about, but i put it on it's own bullet-number because it was quite regular.. although not bad enough to stop, by any means.

Overall it was very positive experience. The hardest part, by a large margin, was spending an hour a week creating the DIY powder, and then another ~15m every day preparing the next days liquid meals from the powder. Purely laziness of course - but clearly if i'm doing this, i dislike meal/food preparation ;)

Hope this was somewhat insightful.

[tom_usher]

Really interesting to hear your experiences - thanks for sharing.

[easytiger]

Fast food makes its living off having predictable product available everywhere you go.

[moistgorilla]

Every person in this thread who is "shocked" why anyone would want soylent is using this whole "good healthy REAL food" bs and it's honestly nauseating. It reminds me of advertising for "artisanal" products and it also reminds me of people complaining about how the world is too fast paced and you need to slow down and get some fresh air. No, I don't.

Anyway, your post in particular made me pull the trigger on buying this.

[ConceptJunkie]

I've been using Soylent for breakfast for about a year now. I really like it, and it's nice not to have to worry about breakfast which occurs at a time of day I am not interested in food preparation. I save that for the weekend when I enjoy cooking.

The rest of the time, I eat "regular food".

[tom_usher]

Sorry for the nausea - it's only after posting that I realised I could have been less antagonising. It's good to hear your opinions though.

[untog]

It's for people that are too busy to cook. Sadly, usually people who are busy working on a startup that will have failed within the next year, hopefully leaving them with time to think about life priorities.

I know this makes me sound excessively negative but food is so many things - not just the flavours, but the skill of cooking, the social experience of sharing a meal... Soylent just screams "misplaced priorities" at me.

[sneak]

Drinking Soylent from time to time does not prevent one from cooking or sharing meals, any more than any other new type of food does.

[gabemart]

> Can someone explain to me the appeal of this product? Why would anyone choose to drink a nondescript sludge over the plentiful ways we can get good, enjoyable & healthy food?

Perhaps this is something you would never consider using yourself, but I find it hard to believe you can't imagine why it appeals to some people. Lots of people - huge numbers of people - find it very inconvenient to source healthy, palatable food twice or three times per day, every day. Even lots of people who really enjoy eating or cooking find it inconvenient or limiting to have to eat as often as is necessary.

[EarthLaunch]

If it's done right: Time saver. Digestive problem avoidance. The right nutrient ratios.

Time saver can be more important that it seems. If you have to eat quick a lot, or just hate food prep, it can come down to unhealthy fast/restaurant food vs this.

[thomnottom]

Personally I'm interested in it because I feel like we (as in my family) often waste too much time simply thinking about food. When are we going to eat? What are we going to make? Do we need to pick some things up? Should we go out? We've gone out too much this month and it's getting expensive... It sure would be nice to cut that out for a few meals each week.

Friends of mine who do a really good job prepping meals for the week tend to sacrifice the better part of a day just for that process. On top of that we're dealing with more and more restrictions on our diets due to health issues (cutting back on dairy and gluten).

[Zikes]

I've been using Soylent as an occasional meal replacement, not a complete food replacement. In a decent thermos it works well to replace my breakfast, lunch, or dinner with minimal fuss, and is cheaper than eating out when I don't feel like cooking.

[nightcracker]

Price and laziness.

It's a lot cheaper than eating out, and (often) a bit cheaper than cooking yourself. On top of that, it's a lot easier to just shake a bottle and eat than to cook.

[normloman]

It may be faster than cooking for yourself, but not always cheaper.

http://www.watchusthrive.org/Libraries/Resources_Documents/B...

[Renevith]

Soylent actually competes pretty well on price too! The calories on those recipes range from 140 to 386 per $1 serving. That's $5-14 for 2000 calories, while the new Soylent formula is $12. (Slightly more if you don't subscribe, slightly less if you get the powder formula instead of pre-mixed.)

Plus, the recipe cost assumptions must be pretty generous to get to $1. One of the recipes calls for 1 pound of ground beef and makes 6 servings. The flyer for my local discount grocery has the ground beef at $4.50, but the nicer grocery nearer to me is already over $6 just for the meat, let alone two cans of tomato sauce, some pasta, some carrots, shredded cheese... I'll bet in a real-world test of those recipes, Soylent would beat the average cost.

[coherentpony]

Lifestyle? IIRC, the creator of Soylent had a busy lifestyle and as a result barely had time to cook or eat and that's why he created Soylent.

[mahouse]

If your lifestyle does not give you time to cook, you should try to change it, instead of inventing that mud.

[Igglyboo]

Why should you waste time cooking if you don't want to and can exist without it?

[brainburn]

^ is your opinion.

Some people prefer not to spend time on cooking.

[mahouse]

Of course it's my opinion. That is an Internet comment, not a research paper.

[coherentpony]

My lifestyle does give me time to cook. I was merely providing a potential answer to OP's question.

[normloman]

Right! Even if you don't like to cook, not having the time to is symptomatic of overwork.

[joeriel]

I work about 9 hours a day and spend my remaining time with my family, volunteering, going to the gym, learning guitar, etc.

There are many times where I just don't have time, desire or energy to cook a healthy meal. A healthy meal replacement is a lot better than ordering pizza.

Don't assume that a busy lifestyle means 'overwork' - I just have different priorities.

[normloman]

I was talking about people who didn't have time to cook. You have time to cook, you'd just rather spend it doing things you enjoy more (and that's fine.) It's the people who can't cook, even if they wanted to, because they're trapped at the office, who I'm worried about.

[easytiger]

Or a desire to feel like you are overworking like a superhero

[mahouse]

Just grind some nootropics into your Soylent to turn it into a Smart Soylent 3000™

[nattaggart]

I eat it because it's cheaper, faster, and I trust Rob when he says it's healthier than any other meal I could make. The flavor/texture is something that I got used to almost immediately and I actually crave the stuff now ;)

An added bonus is that I can completely eliminate over-eating from my lifestyle (without feeling hungry all the time), which has allowed me to lose weight.

[aeze]

It's convenient and relatively healthy to my knowledge. Blended with some peanut butter or fruit it's pretty tasty too.

[Igglyboo]

Some people only care about eating as far as subsistence goes, soylent saves you time and money in this regard.