Soylent (no, not THAT Soylent) really isn't that bad

[Mabouya]

On a lark the other day I ordered two tubs of Soylent and two other "meal replacement" powders. I just had a 12 oz serving of the chocolate (aka "cacao") and taste-wise it's pretty good. When mixed correctly that's about 400 calories, and will serve as my last meal of the day. I certainly don't plan on using it as a very large % my meals, but every now it then it will be convenient, say if I'm stuck late at work and have run out of the Amy's TV dinners + frozen veggies that are usual go-to in that situation.

Anyone out there using meal replacement products like Soylent on a somewhat regular basis?

What's your long-term ride report?

BTW, as the poster says, the movie takes place in 2022, so it seems only right for me to do this now...

[guido]

Not exactly on topic but, perhaps useful experience: I've never found soy protein supplements to be effective for recovery. Whey works much better for me. When I cook with soy, mostly tofu, I'm always complementing it to complete the protein/amino acid balance and have had few or no issues. What ever I'm eating, I also always supplement with B vitamins. Before using Soylent for a large portion of my meals I'd make sure the protein/amino acid balance is achieved.

My 2c.

[sk_tle]

I don't understand the purpose of those things.

[Octave]

@Mabouya, my two cents would echo those of @guido. There are so many good apps and websites out there these days for tracking nutritional info that it should be a cinch to see if there are any missing pieces. If so, it should be easy to compliment Soylent or whatever other "powders" you've acquired to ensure you're not creating some nutritional gap (though I can't see them being any more gap-inducing than a frozen Amy's meal in that situation.

For what it's worth, my wife and I recently used a company called 5-strands to do a hair sample analysis to determine potential deficiencies since we have relatively odd diets (17 years vegetarian, 11 vegan, then recently started eating eggs in the last years as we moved to a farm and started raising livestock and chickens). It was very informative and I'm eating a lot more hemp seeds these days. It might be worth doing (cheap and quick) if you have any concerns of that nature. We both tweaked our diets a bit and will redo in 6 months to see if there is a notable difference.

I don't understand the purpose of those things.

Huh? The OP seemed to state it pretty clearly, let me help you here. Otherwise I'll just assume this is the usual virtue signaling.

On a lark the other day I ordered two tubs of Soylent and two other "meal replacement" powders. I just had a 12 oz serving of the chocolate (aka "cacao") and taste-wise it's pretty good. When mixed correctly that's about 400 calories, and will serve as my last meal of the day. I certainly don't plan on using it as a very large % my meals, but every now it then it will be convenient, say if I'm stuck late at work and have run out of the Amy's TV dinners + frozen veggies that are usual go-to in that situation.

[sk_tle]

Huh? The OP seemed to state it pretty clearly, let me help you here. Otherwise I'll just assume this is the usual virtue signaling.

Well then let me rephrase it differently. Why would anyone want to replace a meal with some liquid thing made out of powder and what is that to do with being late at work? There is so much one human body can so efficiently and a 16h work shift is certainly not it. Past a number of hours you are just not efficient anymore. Going home and taking the 5 to 10min it takes to do a perfectly healthy meal or salad seems a better option to me than ingesting heavily processed food regardless of how healthy they pretend it to be.

[Scott G.]

I don't understand the purpose of those things.

In the old days, 50 hour PBX installs were fueled with pizza, mountain dew and oreos.
Now you can drink your food adjacent materials instead.

[echappist]

Well then let me rephrase it differently. Why would anyone want to replace a meal with some liquid thing made out of powder and what is that to do with being late at work? There is so much one human body can so efficiently and a 16h work shift is certainly not it. Past a number of hours you are just not efficient anymore. Going home and taking the 5 to 10min it takes to do a perfectly healthy meal or salad seems a better option to me than ingesting heavily processed food regardless of how healthy they pretend it to be.

It's important to be able to distinguish why others may see utility in a product vs whether one would use the product oneself. You don't like it; we get that. I personally probably won't use it either, but that doesn't mean others don't find utility.

I'm not sure if you have lived in the U.S., but 16-hour workdays is quite common in certain sectors, even if it's only 2-3 weeks out of a year.

Top of my head, commercial litigation, mergers & acquisition, software development, lots of "techy" start-ups, etc would see those type of hours at least when approaching a deadline.

Then the appearance of always working gets fetishized, to the point that people want to be seen at their desks for more than 12 (or even 16) hours a day. It's quite illogical (classical mistaking cause for effect), but it works sufficiently well that people aren't deterred by the negative consequences. It's the whole reason why we have emetic neologisms such as "bio-hacking", whose devotees represent one intended market segment for this particular product.

What you write just isn't very applicable to the target market segment (not to mention for this particular segment, going home and coming back may literally be an 1.5 hour endeavor for the travel alone). This is also the reason why most tech companies have "ridiculously good" on-site cafeterias (so people can eat on-site) and why those other sectors mentioned (banking and finance) give out meal vouchers to employees staying past common dinner time. It's just for a particular type of people, even mastication is asking for too much of their time, and they'd rather have nutrients in a liquid form that takes minimal amount of time to ingest.

See these articles (they are op-ed pieces), which delves into the issue of intended consumer and how it's pretty much just a twist on meal-replacement drinks that have been widely available for decades.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...th-modern-life

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...-san-francisco

[j44ke]

I eat a lot of hummus.

[Mabouya]

I eat a lot of hummus.

With some fava beans and a nice Chianti?


More seriously, this is my favorite:

[j44ke]

With some fava beans and a nice Chianti?


More seriously, this is my favorite:

Homemade! Using beans from Rancho Gordo. Their chickpeas (also perfect for making falafel flour) are a completely different animal from what's in cans. My wife makes a white bean and miso hummus that is very good from their Marcella beans, named after the Italian cookbook author, Marcella Hazan. And I periodically experiment with whatever beans are in the pantry and need eating (most recently, the last half-bag of this bean,) usually mixing in some (usually Aleppo) zaatar and other spices. My wife started making it when we realized that a lot of hummus in the store is heavy on citric acid while I was dealing with some reflux problems.

I'm really into the spreadable food group because it gives me a chance to eat some of the amazing bread (Sparrowbush Farms and BreadFolks for two best out of several) we have around here.

[Tom]

Wow. Kalustyans has spices I haven't seen even at the shop here in town that has everything. Not to mention a source of b

[Tom]

eans that are different and good and fresh. Thanks!

[j44ke]

And here is amazing tahini

and great miso.

If my wife will tell me where she got it, I will post the miso hummus recipe.

[Mabouya]

Homemade!

I suspected that that might be the case.

I tried to make some a long time ago that turned out to be pretty bad, so I'm sticking to store-bought.

[j44ke]

Try this recipe:

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/...cipe-iOS-share

[Scott G.]

I eat a lot of hummus.

And halavah for desert, with 50 weight Turkish coffee.

[j44ke]

And halavah for desert, with 50 weight Turkish coffee.

Amen!

[pdxharth]

I’m late to this, and while I do love hummus, I’m gonna focus on the OP.

I’m a high school teacher with a 15 mile commute. That means I have to make my breakfast and lunch before I start my ride in. I have to do this the night before when I’m toast and just want to veg out after dinner. Meal prep is a pain in the butt, in other words. But I use leftovers and a lot of omelets and eggs and refried beans and make it work. This year I decided to try something else. After some research, I chose to try Huel. I also tried the organic brand, but that tasted horrible. I usually eat the Huel with some toasted nuts on the side and it’s not bad. Just doing this twice a week takes a lot of pressure off my need to constantly be preparing food in the evenings.

I use the chocolate and the peanut butter flavors and blend it with soy milk and water or coffee. I use half the amount of Huel and add some protein powder. It’s less sweet and has what I want, nutrient-wise. Here’s my pro-con list:

Con
Not as healthy as whole, natural foods.
Not good environmentally (because processed food just isn’t, generally)

Pro
Satisfies my hunger til lunch
Quick and easy to make.
I enjoy it.

That’s my take.

[Mabouya]

Here’s my pro-con list:

Con
Not as healthy as whole, natural foods.
Not good environmentally (because processed food just isn’t, generally)

Pro
Satisfies my hunger til lunch
Quick and easy to make.
I enjoy it.

That’s my take.

Another pro I'll add is that if you're trying to keep track of or limit your calories it's a lot simpler to do that if all you need to do is count the number of scoops. That way you can know and/or limit with a lot less effort compared to a "normal" meal where a bunch of different things are tossed together. Plus, you're much less likely to have any waste.

Like you, I've found that a few powdered meal-replacements a week help simplify things.