Soylent -- Beware of the Gas!

[moriah]

A friend of mine decided to try Soylent (no, no color after), and this is blog about the experience.

If you somehow wound up here without knowing any background on it, Soylent is an engineered food which is designed to provide 100% of the micro and macro nutrients that the human body needs. It comes as a pouch of powder and a bottle of oil. You mix the two with water and wind up with around 2 liters of something about the consistency of a milkshake, perhaps a little thinner. Packed into that 2 litres of fluid is a complete and balanced nutritional profile for one day’s existence.

<snip>

After 3 days of consuming 100% Soylent I can already tell that this is going to be easy to stick with. The flavor is very neutral. It tastes slightly sweet and a little bit like oats. While it’s actually surprisingly pleasant on its own, I do plan on playing around with flavoring it with fruits, cinnamon, cocoa, etc.

I have had no issues with hunger at all. It’s amazing how filling this stuff is.

Oh, one word of warning… the gas! If your gut flora aren’t accustomed to a high fiber, high protein diet you’re in for a flatulent start. For me the gas didn’t really hit hard until the end of the second day on it. It is more amusing than uncomfortable, but I do feel for anyone who enters my airspace. The experience of others indicates that the gas lasts somewhere between a couple weeks and a month. Note that I am going against the manufacturers recommendation of slowly transitioning your diet, so if you stick to the instructions you may not become a portable mustard gas generator.

https://www.hozed.net/?p=526

Maybe because I did too many attempts at two shakes and a sensible dinner, but this sounds utterly boring. I don't get the point, unless you're a survivalist in space, or trying to generate your own fuel supply.

[upaloopa]

1. Why would you want to eat drink the same thing three times

a day every day?
This sounds like the GMO apologists' dream.

[moriah]

2. I still wonder if it's made out of people, not GMOs.

Though apparently the oil is fish oil. Allegedly.

I really don't get it, either. But I did too many shake diets trying to lose weight. That two liters is 2000 calories -- not exactly low calorie for a woman.

[upaloopa]

4. If you want to lose weight visit your doctor

and nutritionist. Cut your carb intake to around 20 carbs a day. Replace missing nutrients with supplements.
You will lose weight easily while eating normal foods. Nuts, green vegetables, low carb yogurt, veggie meats like veggie burgers and veggie sausage along with 51% of your meals being raw such as sliced tomatoes.
It worked for me. After you get to your right weight modify your diet to maintain that weight.

[moriah]

5. I'm at a 22 BMI now, thanks. Did it without going that low-carb, which would have been torture.

I'm truly addicted to gluten and all of the things it's in, like bread, pasta, pastry... etc. I mainly just counted calories and increased exercise.

[Avalux]

3. Ummm....HORRIBLE name choice for this product, lol.

And geez...I want to eat real, fresh foods with different taste and textures. Not the same thing over and over. Guess it could come in handy in a food shortage though.

[MineralMan]

6. I can't imagine anything more boring than drinking

Last edited Thu Aug 14, 2014, 01:48 PM - Edit history (1)

that stuff three times a day. Yuck!

[moriah]

8. I'm right there with you.

I have some foods that I absolutely love, but I get sick of eating the same thing over and over again.

Unless there was some kind of medical reason, like having my jaws wired shut, I would never want to subsist merely on milkshakes.

[MineralMan]

9. There are apparently some food faddists who want to

"move away from food." This kind of bland, liquid diet apparently appeals to them. Unidentifiable with any known foodstuff, it has that artificiality and strangeness that makes them think they aren't bound to eating gross foodstuffs. There was a small surge in interest in manufactured foods during the early days of the astronauts, with their tubes of food, etc. Tang was about the only survivor, and I grew weary of its manufactured orange flavor very quickly. There were a few other similar foods, including food in toothpaste-like tubes, on the market in the 1960s. It never caught on, really, and I think this Soylent nonsense will end up in the same category.

Here are Pillsbury Space Food Sticks. Awful, but kids gobbled 'em up because of the astronaut connection:

[moriah]

11. Yeah, the sci-fi thing is a lot of why I think some are into it.

My boyfriend wants to get it. He's very much into that type of stuff.

I may avoid his house for a few weeks...

[MineralMan]

10. More: In Sweden, food in a tube is surprisingly common.

Mostly soft, flavored cheeses, but there are also others. Here's a small sampling:



Of course, there's always Cheez Whiz from the US:



Blech to all of them.

[MineralMan]

7. From the website:

Soylent 1.0 contains both conventional and GMO ingredients.

I haven't been able to find an ingredients list yet, though. Looks like it will be right out for the GMO-avoiding crowd, though.