This product is a sad example of the lengths to which some people will go in order to avoid spending time on tasks which are generally necessary and often quite enjoyable and rewarding. Cooking certainly fits this description: it's an enjoyable process, a rewarding skill, and something that others will love you for if you do it well.<p>The constant focus on saving time and increasing personal productivity is a recipe for mental illness, in my opinion. Most people would do well to slow down, tune out, and make themselves a decent meal. I suspect that some and perhaps many of the people obsessed with personal productivity and life hacking will at some point suffer from a stress or anxiety disorder and will realize that life is short and there's no point in trying to hurry through it.<p>This trend towards saving time by sacrificing basic requirements like eating and sleeping is increasingly absurd. In a year or two, I'll open Hacker News and there'll be an article in the top ten that describes how you, too, can Avoid Wasting Time Due To Lengthy Bowel Movements. Don't believe the hype. Have a good night's rest, followed by a leisurely shit and a tasty, gruel-free breakfast you made yourself, and you'll be a better person for it.
I'm curious why no one mentions Unimix, memorably described by Roy Blount Jr as "Purina Famine Chow", made and distributed by disaster relief organizations. This stuff has been done before.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unimix" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unimix</a>
Sometimes, leaving stuff to experts is wise.<p><a href="http://examine.com/blog/soylent-is-made-from-hype/" rel="nofollow">http://examine.com/blog/soylent-is-made-from-hype/</a><p>We complain when non-programmers tell us how to do our jobs because it takes a lot of study and experience to do it properly.
I do wonder what the long term effects of eating this would be. Ive read some of the creators blog posts and I get the impression he doesn't know what hes doing. He has no education or experience in nutrition.
He seems to have this reductionist view of the human body and eating.
For instance he will say I was feeling a little X today so I added a few grams more Y and today I'm fine! Basically he is being incredibly unscientific about it.
There's a ton of maltodextrin in this according to the nutrition facts. Can we really say it's a good idea to have that much maltodextrin for carbs compared to whole wheat breads, whole grain/whole wheat pastas, or other "cleaner" carb sources? I'm no nutritionist, but all those bodybuilding supplements and nutritional drinks that are full of maltodextrin don't get a good rep from the health community. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I think the most interesting thing about this whole experiment is that it took this long for someone to do it. You would assume there'd be a wealth of information from military studies of battle-ready rations, or something.
Some people want to try liquid feed. Here are some already existing companies making liquid feeds:<p><a href="http://ensure.com/" rel="nofollow">http://ensure.com/</a> Ensure<p><a href="https://www.nutricia.co.uk/fortisip//" rel="nofollow">https://www.nutricia.co.uk/fortisip//</a> Fortisip<p><a href="http://www.complan.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.complan.com/</a> Complan<p><a href="http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/abbott-brands" rel="nofollow">http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/abbott-brands</a> Abbott Nutrition Brands<p><a href="http://www.medifast1.com/index.jsp" rel="nofollow">http://www.medifast1.com/index.jsp</a> Medifast<p><a href="http://www.optifast.com/Pages/index.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://www.optifast.com/Pages/index.aspx</a> Optifast<p><a href="http://www.slim-fast.com/products/" rel="nofollow">http://www.slim-fast.com/products/</a> Slimfast<p>Soylent make some claims about world hunger. As the article mentions Soylent is currently expensive. Their crowdfunding level was food replacement at about $7 per day. That's way outside the range of the 20% of the world population living on less than $1.25 per day. The main ingredient of Soylent is water. Unfortunately, about a billion people do not have access to clean drinking water.<p>Hopefully with mass manufacturing they can get the cost down. And they could plow back some of the profits into providing clean water.<p>There are other worrying things about Soylent.<p>> <i>For anyone who struggles with allergies, heartburn, acid reflux or digestion, has trouble controlling weight or cholesterol, or simply doesn't have the means to eat well, soylent is for you.</i><p>> <i>Soylent frees you from the time and money spent shopping, cooking and cleaning, puts you in excellent health, and vastly reduces your environmental impact by eliminating much of the waste and harm coming from agriculture, livestock, and food-related trash.</i><p>From (<a href="https://campaign.soylent.me/soylent-free-your-body" rel="nofollow">https://campaign.soylent.me/soylent-free-your-body</a>)<p>Lots of 'problems with digestion' are going to be serious illness for which liquid feeds are used. It is irresponsible for Soylent to claim to be safe for those people without extensive testing.<p>There's no evidence that a liquid feed replacing all meals will put anyone in excellent health.<p>The product uses agricultural products. As the article mentions, milk proteins are significant impact.<p>Soylent also claims to have a shelf life of years. I'm still very curious about this. Many micronutrients will not have a shelflife of years. vitamin C needs to be kept in the dark, in an airtight container, away from heat and moisture.<p>It was a mild irritant when it was one guy experimenting on himself (but giving out the recipe for other people to follow along). Launching a product from that with these claims, especially that there's "much evidence", is irresponsible.