Post: #1

Quote: You know what's a complete waste of time, money, and effort? Eating. I mean, wouldn't you rather just ingest a tasteless form of sustenance for the rest of your life and never have to go through that tedious rigmarole of opening and eating a premade sandwich or feasting on a pile of fried delicacies ever again? Rob Rhinehart—a 24-year-old software engineer from Atlanta and, presumably, an impossibly busy man—thinks so.

Rob found himself resenting the inordinate amount time it takes to fry an egg in the morning and decided something had to be done. Simplifying food as "nutrients required by the body to function" (which sounds totally bulimic, I know, but I promise it's not), Rob has come up with an odorless beige cocktail that he's named Soylent.

I wasn't sure if he was trolling at first because that's the name of a wafer made out of human flesh and fed to the masses in the seminal 1973 sci-fi film Soylent Green, but then I read the extensive post on Rob's blog about how he came to make the stuff, and I started to believe he was serious. Soylent contains all the nutritive components of a balanced diet but just a third of the calories and none of the toxins or cancer-causing stuff you'd usually find in your lunch of processed foods. Despite the fact that it looks a bit like vomit, Soylent supposedly has the potential to change the entire world's relationship with food...

Source including interview: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

The guys blog post: How I Stopped Eating Food
And the follow up with the ingredients: What’s In Soylent

I'm still undecided whether this is a hoax or not. But it sure sounds interesting!

Hint: I see a huge business opportunity.

Post: #2

He's got all the nutirents covered. Even added ginseng which is a must for men. Pretty cool.

Post: #3

Eating can be a pleasure, stimulating your sense of taste, sight and smell.

I for one would hate to lose that.

Post: #4

The only thing I could say against it would be the effects on the liver and kidneys, getting all your requirements at the same time could be "harmful".

When in nature, does any organism get all of it's requirements at the same time?
I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Post: #5

Definitely seems legit - http://robrhinehart.com/?p=298

It would be interesting to try. There's definitely days I only eat because I'm hungry and there's definitely days I eat something because I really want something good. I think this would be good for the former.

Post: #6

I agree with T and A Man.

Post: #7

(03-14-2013 10:48 AM)T and A Man Wrote:  Eating can be a pleasure, stimulating your sense of taste, sight and smell.

I for one would hate to lose that.

Nobody has to lose that.

But many times I feel hungry and don't have any healthy and tasty food available, be it b/c I'm too busy (read: lazy) to cook or b/c I don't have the time to go to a restaurant.

Rather than getting some junk food I'd prefer to have a healthy solution on hand to give my body what it needs and I'd eat real food for my eating pleasure whenever I have the time.

Post: #8

Interesting. I've been making green smoothies and "bulletproof coffee" so I like this kind of thing. But I'm not going to replace all regular food.

These quotes stuck out to me:

"It's like finding a new partner you really care about. When all your needs are met, you don't have a desire to stray. "

Thanks but I crave variety in food and women.

"How wasteful society has been with its women! The endless hours spent cooking and cleaning in the kitchen could be replaced with socializing, study, or creative endeavors."

Men already solved these problems by inventing technology for women. Now they spend their time on FB, getting womyns studies degrees, and vlogging about misogyny in video games. Mission accomplished.

http://robrhinehart.com/?p=298

Post: #9

Not all that far-fetched. Think about dry pet-food that many people feed their dog's or cats more or less exclusively.

I don't see it catching on in a big way outside of the autistic savant community (who I imagine the creator is a member of), since food is such a big part of peoples social lives and psychology.

Post: #10

Let's not shit on this guy. He's an innovator and a problem solver. Obviously we as humans have a very deep relationship with food, which can be both bad and good depending on how that relationship is carried out. He's transcended that by choice.

Alpha of the month? Not quite, but definitely a very manly endeavor to undertake. 'I think I can do better by mixing my nutrition in a lab than by relying on a deeply ingrained American food culture for my sustenance.' If that's not ballsy, I don't know what is.

Post: #11

(03-14-2013 01:32 PM)aphelion Wrote:  Let's not shit on this guy. He's an innovator and a problem solver. Obviously we as humans have a very deep relationship with food, which can be both bad and good depending on how that relationship is carried out. He's transcended that by choice.

Alpha of the month? Not quite, but definitely a very manly endeavor to undertake. 'I think I can do better by mixing my nutrition in a lab than by relying on a deeply ingrained American food culture for my sustenance.' If that's not ballsy, I don't know what is.

I'm not sure we're shitting on him so much as saying we don't think that style of eating will catch on "in the market". Even my "autistic savant" comment really wan't intended as an insult. Just trying to point out that it would take someone with a very specific, and rare, kind of mind to adopt this sort of eating long term.

It's very logical, and you're right that this is a manly trait, but he takes it further than most will go.

Post: #12

I signed up to be a beta tester.

...was that beta?

EDIT: I agree with you, this probably won't catch on over here. But I do think he needs a kickstarter for it since there's certainly enough of a market for it even over here.

Post: #13

Read some of the site, I'm pretty sure it has a lot of potential and it could be a game changer. The micronutrients worries me a little bit but I'd definitely be willing to try it out.

Post: #14

I love eating though, not like fatty eating, but the exploration of food. That would take away the entire taste sense. It would be no longer of any use if this happened. Plus people who cook and create allow lots of creativity. This scares me to be honest, are we eventually going to be nothing more than robots?

Post: #15

Just a few days ago I was thinking about this myself. I'm on the paleo diet now and it f-ing sucks how much time and money I need to invest in this diet. I would rather eat one chunk and be done with it.

In fact, ideally this chunk of superfood should be divided in maybe 5 pieces a day so that I just have to stuff one piece of superfood in my mouth 5 times a day and be done with it.
On nights I want to eat some real food or comfort food like chips and candy i can just skip one piece of superfood without overdosing on calories.

An idea with future potential.

Post: #16

I make a lot of smoothies with protein powder, greens, and berries.

In principle he is right.

However there are many components in whole plant foods that he is not getting.

It's a huge improvement over the diet that 90% of Americans eat. Good for him for experimenting.

Post: #17

"To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human"

I wonder if it tastes like Tasty Wheat:

Post: #18

(03-14-2013 10:02 AM)dotbiz Wrote:  I'm still undecided whether this is a hoax or not. But it sure sounds interesting!

Hint: I see a huge business opportunity.

The guys who believe that powders are part of their 'health' routine are going to hate on me for saying this, but...

This soylent stuff is junk food taken to its logical extreme conclusion. Ultimate convenience, but it's processed factory made gunk. It may be rich in nutrients but it's also probably rich in all the chemicals you have to blast food with in order to turn it into a powder in the first place.

Post: #19

(03-16-2013 08:28 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  The guys who believe that powders are part of their 'health' routine are going to hate on me for saying this, but...

This soylent stuff is junk food taken to its logical extreme conclusion. Ultimate convenience, but it's processed factory made gunk. It may be rich in nutrients but it's also probably rich in all the chemicals you have to blast food with in order to turn it into a powder in the first place.

Not at all, you might be right.

For me it's more a thing of the lesser evil: Downing a glass of Soylent is still way healthier than getting a pizza, burger w/ fries or kebap.

I would never stop eating normal food completely, but I'd happily implement a super-food like Soylent into my daily routine.

Post: #20

Looks like they got the funding they needed to get this stuff out. First orders will be shipped in December. Reasonable prices.

https://campaign.soylent.me/soylent-free-your-body

Post: #21

Tim already posted up about a testing period and breakdown:

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/

Count me as one of the skeptics

Post: #22

Sound like a hoax, tough im hoping its not. It would be pretty cool to have a nutritionally perfect food.

Post: #23

I think a lot of people would be interested in something like that more as a meal replacement and less as a sci-fi like replacement of any normal meals at all.

Should definately be more healthy than a protein shake for example, but taking an hour a day to cook up some easy, healthy food is always the better path.

Ginkgo, which is one of the ingredients, can have serious adverse effects with some people btw. and I don't think it's suitable for daily long term ingestion.

Post: #24

Eating good food is one of the last of nature's gifts we can truly enjoy as men... Why would you want to take that away?

Post: #25

(09-06-2013 08:15 PM)germanico Wrote:  Sound like a hoax, tough im hoping its not. It would be pretty cool to have a nutritionally perfect food.

Getting all nutrients from a powder (that amounts to a form of processed foods) sounds too good to be true and it even sounds counter intuitive to my current thinking about getting nutrition from whole foods ala Paleo or even Atkins style... , and maybe this soylent drinking guy can be o.k. and even healthy on that powder diet for several years, especially while young b/c our bodies can take a lot of abuse while we are young and still be resilient...

Personally, I think that we are more likely to give our bodies proper nutrition by eating whole foods, rather than grinding them up..

I don't quite buy it that powders could substitute for all nutrition in whole foods. Don't get me wrong, b/c I do have a Vitamix, and i like to put coconuts in there... o.k. I admit that I put some other things in the vitamix too... but coconuts are my current favorite for the idea of nutrition.

I'm of the current inkling that probably we could live and thrive completely without variants of grains including corn, soy and/or wheat... though i do eat some of this stuff too - b/c these things are put into so many foods that are difficult to completely avoid... Sometimes, I end up eating this kind of stuff in small portions out of social politeness, habit and/or convenience more than anything.... but I am learning to mostly eliminate processed foods and developing eating habits to make them less part of my dietary regime.

On the other hand, maybe we limit our diets to just a few foods, and what immediately comes to mind is bacon, eggs and seaweed - though I am not sure if we need the seaweed... but eggs and bacon are very nutritious. Possibly a couple other essential whole food items would be good, and I am of the current belief that we do not need very many if any fruits and vegetables in our diet either, or at least not in any considerable quantity.

Mostly meat should be good enough to get our essential nutrients though it is a lot more work to prepare and preserve meat as compared with the appeal of the convenience of powders and other processed foods that claim to be nutritious but are not...

Eating meat is my current thinking (in part b/c there are whole societies of people who historically thrived on eating almost exclusively meats, such as eskimos).

The men in the linked article ate only meat for a whole year in the 1930s, and probably we need more recent studies and examples on this kind of thing.

http://inhumanexperiment.blogspot.com/20...-meat.html

Nonethelesss, inspite of my thoughts on the benefits of eating only meat, currently i have been eating foods other than meat, but I am not sure whether those other non-meat foods are necessary, and it is kind of hard to transition to eating only meat.... especially fat, especially since it is more difficult to get quality meat b/c I cannot just get a grass fed cow or a wild elk b/c frequently those meats are industrially produced - and the industrial production means that the store bought animals are generally eating grains.... (better quality if the meat were to be naturally raised).

In sum, I just do not buy the powder thing, and maybe there should be a comparison between the health markers for someone eating quality meat as compared to that powder?