This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

&#62; a 24-year-old software engineer &#62; ... &#62; Soylent contains all of the nutritive components of a balanced diet<p>What utter bollocks. We're (as in, scientists studying nutrition and how utterly wrong food industry has gotten that in the 20th and early 21st century) finally starting to get our collective heads around the benefits of whole foods vs. highly processed foods, and just how badly our bodies deal with the latter. It may be theoretically possible to create some processed food that's on par with the nutrition of whole foods, but I doubt that anyone alive today knows how to do it. He may see "good" results on some metrics due to a lack of any desire to go hypercaloric -- i.e. there's probably no artificially boosted food reward[1] mechanisms in his glop. But that won't make up for the glop's likely deficiencies.<p>So an impatient _software engineer_ comes along and claims to have whipped up a drink that eliminates all that. A task that specialists have so far failed at.<p>&#62; "I read a textbook on physiological chemistry and took to the internet to see if I could find every known essential nutrient."<p>I've seen this enough to be sick of it; it seems to be form of the software "everything is just an [easy] problem" mindset gone badly wrong. The supplement and meal replacement powder/drink industry is a multi-billion dollar market. First sanity check: _no_ staff scientists for any of these companies thought to go look at a textbook and the intertubes and do the same thing? DOH! Egg's on them!<p>Another example of this failure: when software/CS types wander off to do experimental science (e.g. human subjects) without _any_ training in how to do experiment design, data collection, or analysis. "Just ask 'em some questions!" The general form of the problem seems to be a blindness to the depths of domain knowledge required to be effective in other disciplines.

I have Crohn's and as a result had periods in my life where I was on a liquid diet of something called Modulen for weeks and months at a time.<p><a href="http://www.nestlehealthscience.com/products/modulen_ibd" rel="nofollow">http://www.nestlehealthscience.com/products/modulen_ibd</a> A similar, more familiar product: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensure" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensure</a><p>Pretty terrible experience. I had to drink close to a dozen cups of the stuff a day and it didn't go down easy. The stuff worked however and I went back into remission.<p>Defecating while on this became a very rare occurrence but otherwise almost normal if I recall correctly. And another interesting twist: while I was very weak, I gained some noticeable muscle mass - I imagine because this is essentially taking protein powder consumption to an extreme.<p>It seems like this perhaps guy created a better version than Nestle on account of it actually tasting good and not needing a dozen cups a day - it is not a good lifestyle for healthy people but is very interesting as a supplement.<p>Drinking one can of something a day to insure you get all the nutrients necessary, including the rare ones, is a lot easier than adhering religiously to a very balanced diet. Sort of like a multivitamin that actually works.

<i>Eating to me is a leisure activity, like going to the movies, but I don't want to go to the movies three times a day.</i><p>For anyone that doesn't understand that statement, I recommend taking a few years off work, where you spend your time getting up early every day, doing something all day (hiking, walking, gardening, building, whatever) and go to bed late in the evening (i.e. Full days of activities you want to be doing). I spent 2 years doing this, and I was shocked how much time is wasted buying, cooking, and eating food three times a day. It's really a huge chunk of time you can't spend doing what you want.<p>Now I'm back in the 9-5 routine, and it's not so obvious - partly I think because taking time away from my desk to eat is actually nice, as-is dinner with my girlfriend and others.<p>When you've got other things you'd rather be doing, eating is a time-consuming PITA.

If he's a true programmer, he'd code up an iphone app that controls an arduino that mixes up the precise amounts of amino acids, boron, saccharides, glucose and polyphenols for the perfect Soylent to start his day. Maybe even post his objective C on github so I can issue a pull request with 200% more boron. You know, here in the bay area, we have plants that tweet when they run out of water. I can rig up a tweetbot so his body tweets whenever he is dehydrated, and Amazon can intercept that tweet to dropship amino acids to his kitchen where the arduino mixes up the next batch of Soylent.<p>I should stop watching scifi.

&#62;Soylent contains all of the nutritive components of a balanced diet, but with just a third of the calories...<p>This worries me. It's not a misquote, either. From his blog^0 :<p>&#62;...I get all the nutrition and energy I need with about 1/3 the calories the average American consumes...<p>The average American consumes 2,757 calories^2 . There's a term called the Basal Metabolic Rate. It is the amount of calories your body needs just to keep living, without thinking about movement^2 . A sample man's basal metabolic rate is over 1800 calories^3 . So thinking you can drop that down to 900 is suspect, especially in the long term.<p>[0]<a href="http://robrhinehart.com/?p=298" rel="nofollow">http://robrhinehart.com/?p=298</a><p>[1]<a href="http://www.livestrong.com/article/347737-the-average-american-daily-caloric-intake/" rel="nofollow">http://www.livestrong.com/article/347737-the-average-america...</a><p>[2]<a href="http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/metabolism/WT00006" rel="nofollow">http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/metabolism/WT00006</a><p>[3]<a href="http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/" rel="nofollow">http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/</a> for a 5'10", 175 lbs, 30 years old, inactive man

I think this is absolutely fascinating. I'm surprised that many think that this type of eating is some sort of dangerous experiment. People eat crap diets all the time. In my bachelor days, I knew several people who ate only fast food, microwave burritos, frozen pizza, etc. Literally, these people would almost never eat fruit and their vegetables were mostly just the beans in their Taco Bell.<p>Myself, I eat almost exclusively low carb. Salads, chicken, various low carb veggies, eggs, cheese, etc. I supplement with a lot of protein shakes to increase muscle mass from working out. I feel fantastic, I have very little body fat, and my mind stays much clearer than when I'm carbing.<p>I think the whole low-carb trend showed us that the dogma surrounding foods and diet has been a load of crap. There are lots of approaches to eating that can work, and many are far superior to the "food pyramid" nonsense that has practically ruined the health of America.<p>Experiments like this one in eating (er, not eating) may show us things about our metabolisms that we never realized.<p>I, for one, would love to get rid of most food preparation, save money, and maybe even be healthier. Kudos to Rob Rhinehart for looking for a new approach to the problem of sustenance.

From the "recipe"[1]:<p><i>This mechanism can also metabolize protein and fat, but the brain can only use Glucose for energy. In fact, the brain uses 25% of the body's glucose, though it accounts for only 2% of its weight.</i><p>This would have me concerned if I were considering this. While 100% true, it neglects the entire ketone metabolic pathway[2], which the brain will use fine instead of glucose. If this something big like this has been missed (it's the foundation of many very-low carb diets, treatments for epilepsy and other brain disorders, etc), what subtle things have been missed?<p>1. <a href="http://robrhinehart.com/" rel="nofollow">http://robrhinehart.com/</a><p>2. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketone_bodies" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketone_bodies</a>

I (half-Swiss) like efficiency as much as the next HN reader, but at a certain point, efficiency must be weighed against enjoyability. I can't imagine <i>not</i> eating a delicious roasted vegetable strudel with a balsamic vinegar reduction, or potatoes with crème fraîche and chives in puff pastry. I delight in the delicacy required to prepare these items, and enjoy eating them even more.<p>Cooking is (obviously) an activity that is not enjoyed by everyone, but it's an enormous leap to call it "a waste of time". Imagine, if you will, that someone has invented a speedy way of deodorizing yourself without water and soap, as showering is as much a waste of time. Sounds great, until you realize that there is a reason for these rituals. It takes me away from code, writing, and working, and offers me a moment to clear my head. What does your morning shower take you away from? What does preparing your breakfast, a cup of coffee, or dinner take you away from?<p>Not everything needs to be optimized for efficiency. If you've ever been to France, you'll know that many people spend an hour or more at breakfast. It slows people down, and provides them a chance to think, contemplate, and relax. Sometimes, the very act of something being inefficient can be beneficial in its own right.

&#62; because "soylent" is the name of a wafer made out of human flesh and fed<p>Bit of nerd pedantry: this is incorrect. "Soylent" is the name of a type of processed food. There are different kinds made from various things. "soylent green" is a new variety introduced in this category that is supposedly made from kelp (or something like that) but is famously made from something else entirely.<p>It's actually a pretty apt name.

This is the kind of idea that will probably go nowhere, but could change the world.<p>My first reaction, being an ardent lover of many ethnic cuisines, was "of course I'd never use something like that" but then I got to this line:<p><i>Eating to me is a leisure activity, like going to the movies, but I don't want to go to the movies three times a day.</i><p>Suddenly, I'm imagining "A DVR for eating." You have a steady intake of Soylent (the name absolutely must change), and when you have time to prepare a nice meal or go out to a restaurant, you adjust your intake ahead of time so your hunger level is appropriate. Crazy, but now I have another ingredient for my sci-fi universe.

<i>I read a textbook on physiological chemistry and took to the internet to see if I could find every known essential nutrient.</i><p>The danger is that there are far more essential nutrients that we don't know about, than nutrients that we do. And the only way to get these nutrients is to eat a well balanced diet.<p>That being said, this would be amazing if it works and I applaud him for trying.

Call me superstitious, but I believe there are unknown unknowns in our understanding of nutrition. The human body evolved eating various fibrous things. I'm not going to run that kind of experiment on myself.

Overhyped synthetic-milk or what. Another misguided 'engineer' thinking he can 'hack' a system, which modern science is still figuring out, and that too without any controls or rigorous monitoring...<p>I'll check back in 5 years and see how healthy he is, assuming he sticks solely to Soylent without problems till then.

Setting aside the question of whether the subject is actually feeding his body everything he needs (a question that he appears to readily acknowledge as "good skepticism"), I have to wonder about the consistency of statements like these:<p><pre><code> we'll have to give up many traditional foodstuffs like fresh fruits and veggies, which are incompatible with food processing and scale. Soylent can largely be produced from the products of local agriculture </code></pre> If local agriculture suffices to produce Soylent, why not just eat food? What concerns me is that it's somewhat unclear what's actually involved in producing the constituent ingredients, whether there are limitations on how much of them you can easily produce, and what the byproducts of the production process are.

Generally speaking, one can always be correct in saying "I never have to eat again in my life."

Fascinating. The discussion as well. Surprised at how few comments there were about the culture of eating.<p>Part of the reason Soylent makes sense is that we are already eating 'food-like substances' (to paraphrase Michael Pollen) much of the time. He is just doing it in a controlled instrumental way.<p>When I go to the datacenter (5 miles from the Lincoln tunnel in the godforsaken New Jersey Meadowlands). I generally pack the same food. kefir, beef jerky and an almond cranberry mix. Purely functional food so I can stay there and concentrate. Is it balanced and nutritional? probably not really.<p>I am American and the soylent thing feels very American to me. Which is not a bad thing. I love food and good eating but when I compare my relationship with food and eating with my wife's it is totally different. I was raised on frozen stringbeans with a sauce made of canned mushroom soup next to pot roast cooked to medium well...<p>My wife is Korean and food is totally different - more like what I would associate with someone from Italy or the south of France, etc. Ingredients and process. Her kimchi or the way she cooks rice (6 kinds of grains) - the innumerable side dishes all complementing one another, table grilled meat. Friends, wine. Strong coffee afterwards.<p>I could not imagine life without that - even though much of the preparation is time consuming. When she roasts seaweed over an open fire it takes hours. My boys seem to eat it in minutes...<p>Homemade dumplings involves the whole family and flour all over the place and a few hours of work to make about a gross of dumplings...<p>All of that is not something I would like to replace.<p>However - how often do you have a meal like that? 10 - 20 times a year.<p>What happens the rest of the time? There is an element of drudgery to daily eating. I use a hand grinder and a moka stovetop pot for my coffee. A pain in the ass - but I am addicted to the result.<p>Maybe a routine where you ate soylent for the instrumental times and had festive meals when desired (or when you really craved something).

When consuming all vitamins and minerals together, some cancel each other out.<p>I tried Googling some articles to back up what I'm saying. Unfortunately, there is nothing presented in a pretty pre-packaged form. So go with this. e.g.: CTRL + F "vitamin C supplements can destroy dietary vitamin B12" and "Potassium" here: <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/926.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/926.html</a><p>He may not be absorbing all the nutrients. Talking about absorption, through my own experience, I believe a body absorbs naturally occurring things like protein, carbs, and fat better than when it is isolated. Again, I couldn't find some quick hard scientific evidence, but found very general malabsorption of nutrients info here: <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000299.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000299.htm</a><p>Generally, it is thought that loose stools means you are not absorbing nutrients properly. So, joking aside, I am interested to know what type of stools this man has.<p>I'm sure we can gain some interesting insights, albeit from one single person, if he tracks his experience/diet properly.

I am a 27 year old software engineer and am glad to see a peer researching alternate nutrition (and it truly is just that) that doesn't boil down to [Agent X] is EVIL or [Agent Y] is MIRACULOUS.<p>I have a negative appetite in the morning and used to forego breakfast. Last year I opted for a protein and fruit shake as soon as possible after waking and began a low-carb low-sugar diet. I highly recommend it for a lifestyle that unavoidably includes sitting far too long in front of a computer.<p>His idea is taking that to an extreme - but I'm certainly interested in trying that extreme.

I'd be really curious to learn how his teeth and gums are doing. If you can find a way to eat without ever having food touch your teeth or gums, I'd imagine you'd have incredible oral health. Thoughts?

I don't get it.<p>There are plenty of liquid feeds already in existence. These contain fibre and all the other nutrients you need to survive, and they come in a variety of flavours.<p>And you can have a naso-gastric tube fitted, to eat while you're doing just about anything else.

"So what’s in Soylent, exactly? Everything the body needs – that we know of, anyway..."<p>...and that's when it falls apart.

This diet already exists. It is called by many names: elemental diet, space diet, astronaut diet.<p><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1410941/pdf/gut00494-0076.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1410941/pdf/gut0...</a><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elemental_diet" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elemental_diet</a><p>Some hospitals may serve this to very ill patients. It has been the subject of much study. It is customized based on the needs of an individual. Most can't stand the taste. It generally works well in the short term, although I am not aware of any long term studies that have been done.<p>I too am interested in this. Have they determined that animals live longer or shorter lives on this diet? It could be rather easy to determine this: considering the relatively short life span of earthworms or fruit flies.<p>Anyone who is interested in this topic: email me at: nickelnerve@gmail.com

His approach assumes (among other things) that we know absolutely EVERYTHING there is to know about nutrition.<p>I'm fairly confident that that's not a good assumption. And that a long-term diet of his soylent will lead to some nasty deficiency. (Of course, if he's willing to be the research guinea pig for the rest of us, more power to him.)

This is basically what my infant does.

How is this any different from other methods of meal replacement? Maybe his is formulated better, but this is pretty much what Slim-Fast/Ensure is.

"Young man discovers meal replacement powders and thinks he never has to eat again." - The Onion

This reminds me of the guy that ate monkey chow<p><a href="http://www.angryman.ca/monkey.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.angryman.ca/monkey.html</a>

This kind of thing can't make it to market as an actual product fast enough. As a lazy bachelor I constantly feel thwarted by the amount of effort required to eat a health balanced diet without it taking up several hours a day.

It intrigues me that he said he would poop a lot less.<p>Most of the mass in poop is actually dead bacteria living off of the food that you can't process (and whose waste we reabsorb at times). We know from studies that the intestinal flora varies quickly depending on what you eat. I also know that my mood swings depending on what I eat.<p>So his account of mood change (he said he felt very energetic) is very plausible.<p>It looks to me that he reduced the numbers of intestinal bacteria by a dramatic amount with his diet. I wonder what potential side effects (good or bad) this could have.<p>Scientist studying the intestine here? Something to look into I guess. :)

If this guy is phony, there's no harm in reading a couple articles and laughing at it.<p>The problem starts if he is right. We could be reading about the food of the future. Normal food will be a luxury reserved for a few.

A link to his blog: <a href="http://robrhinehart.com/" rel="nofollow">http://robrhinehart.com/</a>

Not innovative at all... Plenty of product like that already, e.g. <a href="http://nestlehealthscience.us/products/Pages/RESOURCE%C2%AE-2-0.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://nestlehealthscience.us/products/Pages/RESOURCE%C2%AE-...</a> usually consumed in a medical setting.<p>No one will take that for long unless unable to do otherwise thought. Not that the taste is unbearable, but eating is more that nutrition, it's also fulfilling desire... Not even speaking of the social aspect...

He is "dead wrong" about fruits and vegetables. The phytonutrients in fresh food are the building blocks of our cellular infrastructure and immune systems. There are at least 30 detailed medical studies about how taking fruit and vegetable concentrate increases all sorts of markers of health, from lower stress hormones, to increased cell performance, to reduced damage to DNA, to less days of missed work (2 different studies: one on law students, one on special forces soldiers). There isn't anything else that's ever been clinically proven to reduce damage to DNA except for fruits and vegetables (specifically JuicePlus concentrate) but the finding should generalize to fruits and vegetables. Source: <a href="http://corsonwellness.com" rel="nofollow">http://corsonwellness.com</a> (See 30+ medical studies, videos, etc) The most researched food supplement is just simple fruit and vegetables juiced down and concentrated. This guy might be on to something with macronutrients, but it's not a recipe for good health, which requires micro-nutrients. All 10,000 different plant nutrients found in an Apple, not just one like Vitamin C.<p>Maybe if you add the two together, that would be a balanced diet.

He is lately experimenting with nootropics? Choline, which is the de facto number number one nootropic, is an essential nutritient, and essential for your brain to function. this could explain his train of thoughts :) Also he mentions soylent from a book made from lentins and soy which contain lectins. soy contains also pythoestrogen, not good for your prostate. i'm pretty sure his omega6 amount is also too high, and there is some oxidation as he uses olive oil. the ratio of the nutrients is wrong as its based on the FDA, and is different for different ethnic groups. its very naive of him to think that his soylent is toxic free, as his ingredients are highly processed nutritients, adding new toxins to this mix. No details about monitoring his blood, so i supose he only checked the bare minimum, also not relevant after such a short time. also i think some nutritient are not ment to be consumed together because they bind to each other and create new chemical compounds, which are probably toxic. I think he should read a few more books.

From what I've read, it is better to get calcium from milk, vegetables like Spinach, Kale, Okra, Collards, or Soy or White beans, or some fish rather CaCO3. The Mayo clinic suggests taking CaCO3 with food, because stomach acid helps with the absorption: <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/calcium-supplements/AN01428" rel="nofollow">http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/calcium-supplements/AN01428</a> Otherwise, Calcium Citrate may be a better choice.<p>The thing that worries me most about this diet is that, while in some ways it may be of great benefit in energy, etc., some of the side effects may not be seen for months, years, or perhaps a few decades.<p>It is an interesting experiment, but I think it would be a good idea if it were controlled and monitored by a doctor.<p>Also he said, "This is one case and it's only been a month". I ate almonds, peanuts, cheese, meat, and veggies for a few months, lost 15 lbs. But, since I've gained it all back and then some. One month at a new diet something hardly makes one an expert.

<i>There's no evidence organic food is healthier than conventional food</i><p>Isn't it well known that chemical fertilizers, pesticides, preservatives, heavy metals and other nasties do affect foods supplies through the conventional food chain? I think people who enjoy naturally grown food do so with the knowledge that they are avoiding all of this. Sure, it's not going to make a great difference over a few meals, but if you spend your life eating well rounded meals grown naturally your body is certainly going to benefit.<p>Secondly, I am currently under the impression that evidence of bioavailability for many supplements is pathetic to zero.<p>Finally, the damage that extracting, packing, shipping, storing, ordering and measuring these artificial food replacements causes to the environment (ie. the real ecosystems they are ultimately sourced from) is vastly greater than that of simply plucking a fresh tomato from the vine.

Well he will soon find out that these things interact and you can't take them all together. Example: Calcium against iron <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/1600930/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/1600930/</a> It will take him 2.5 months. At least that's how much it took me to find out.

I'm kind of the opposite of this guy, in that I'm probably a "foodie", I'm a member of slow food, etc. But I have thought about something like this. The thing is that I love food and eating, but I don't get a lot of enjoyment from meals that I eat alone at home, which are usually breakfast and lunch. I would love to just not think about them at all and that would also free up additional money for better meals and drinks with friends and dates.<p>I don't think the liquid approach he is going for a good one though from a mechanical anatomical view. Bulk provides important functions, especially in the colon. Not having it in the diet could mean if he did end up with a girlfriend, that first date could be spent in the bathroom.<p>I think my approach would be more along the lines of a porridge with some supplements added in.

The merit of this experiment depends highly on whether he's actually captured all his nutritive and caloric needs within his recipe. There are a lot of vitamins and minerals that we need, but that aren't found in that many things. We get them through diversity of diet. Vitamin B12 is a good example--it's found in meat and some types of seaweed and not much else, so vegetarians and vegans are usually deficient in it without supplementation.<p>Whenever you restrict your diet consistently over time like that, you run the risk of deficiency. So if you take it to the extreme of eating the exact same thing for every meal, you had better make sure that that one meal really does contain everything your body needs, or else you are going to develop a deficiency very quickly.

Everyone in this thread is looking at this the wrong way. I'm surprised HN is reacting in such a negative way.<p>If his diet is unbalanced, it's an issue with the official daily requirements being wrong.<p>If he's planing on marketing his innovative product, it's a failure of marketing.<p>Either way he's not very liable of failure.

If this is real, I hope he keeps a very detailed log of his experiences. Since I doubt very much that we know everything about human nutrition, this could be a valuable data source for finding more gaps in our knowledge.<p>It would also be interesting to see the effect of this on gut microbes, which are seem to be increasing in importance in the formula of overall health [1,2]. I wish him the best of luck, but it's not something I'll be doing.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.nature.com/ismej/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ismej2012153a.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nature.com/ismej/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ismej...</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120815174902.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120815174902.ht...</a>

This idea would probably be better when given to children who are just getting over formula or breastmilk, albeit with proper modifications are they grow. Babies do just fine on a liquid diet with breastmilk essentially just containing the necessary nutrients. Assuming they kept this liquid-nutrition diet (adjustingly accordingly), it sounds more viable.<p>However, a grown man whose body is used to solid foods probably won't be able to adapt so easily, similar to what happens to long-time vegetarians who go back to eating meat again.<p>I'm a little confused as to why people are so quick to turn this down. Even if nutrition interaction is complex, there's probably still a solution to make this work (different drinks at different times, etc).

I was wondering why while there is "dog food" there's no "people food". Only reason I came up with that if they got anything wrong and person who would eat only "people food" had anything wrong with his health he would sue the company for millions.

I don't understand why everyone on this thread is making it seem like this impossible. I feed my dog the same food and portion every single day. He is lean, muscular, and full of energy all day. We're both mammals, how different could it be?

The solving world hunger aspect of this post is laughable. This highly processed shake can be made from local agriculture. Great! Why not just <i>eat the local agriculture itself</i>? You wouldn't have to build the infrastructure to process real food down into a powder. You also benefit from all the nutrients we haven't discovered yet. We're just at the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we know about nutrition. So far we know a lot about nutrients in isolation, not as whole foods. Maybe that's why this seems like a good idea to this guy. I'm glad he's doing at least two real meals a week. That should keep him alive.

Previous discussion on the creator's blog: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5215223" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5215223</a><p>Generally accepted ad a hoax or ruse of some kind.<p>My opinion: Food is good. I don't want to replace food.

This seems like an appropriate place to quote Knuth.<p>"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."

Why are people are having such a visceral reaction to this idea? Finding alternatives to solid, "fresh" food is an issue we will have address in the near future, if not right now. With forecasts about population growth rapidly rising (We said it would reach 10 billion by 2100. It only took 13 years to jump from 6-7 billion.)<p>This could be implemented not only for hunger in impoverished nations, but for world overpopulation and depletion of resources including livestock and agriculture.<p>People are commenting this guy is crazy. But in the next few decades I'd rather there was 100 crazy guys trying this for every McDonald's junkie.

I think this will work just fine temporarily, and should be looked into for widespread distribution during emergency situations like famines. But doctors first recommended the amazing powdered baby formula in the 50's and 60's and then switched their recommendations back to mothers' milk for most of the population in the 90s. Of course we should continue to experiment and understand nutrition, and powders, potions, and pills can supplement a diet, but I don't think it's anywhere near or ever will be a complete substitute for real food. Real food being healthy, whole foods.

I don't know how effective his particular recipe is, but this is a pretty important concept (and not a new one). He nails it when he says that eating is a social activity like going to the movies, but you might not want to do it 3 times a day. People are resisting it now because it doesn't sound "natural" but it will definitely be the new normal.<p>If we do end up developing a meal substitute it could also provide a solution to world hunger. I remember reading about a gel that is distributed to Africa in cans which was helping the food problem there (can't find it via Google now).

A few months ago, I had the realization that on most days I only ate because I HAD TO. I find it extremely frustrating having to spend lots of time <i>thinking</i> about what to eat e.v.e.r.y.d.a.y.<p>On average, I might like only 20-40% of what I eat. Mainly because good/tasty food is expensive, hard to find, and/or prone to change in taste due to various elements. I really believe if there was balanced nutritious drink out there that gives me what my body needs, tastes ok, and costs relatively cheap, I would be one happy customer.<p>I'm keeping my eye on news like these from now on.

&#62;&#62; " I read a textbook on physiological chemistry"<p>&#62;&#62; "I'd been reading a lot of books on biology"<p>Well award this man a degree already. Am I the only one who doesn't trust these kinds of qualifications? A software engineer who is a hobbyist bio-chemist is telling me about a system that "costs 150 a month, cures skin diseases in 9 days, will get you in the best shape of your life, and tastes great." (per his blog)<p>Really? I mean... really, really? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And in this case, it's probably very dangerous as well.

Looks like Scott Adam's Dilberito returns: «With the mantra “We Make it Easy to Eat,” Scott Adams Food, Inc. condenses the gastronomy, convenience, and economy (the would-be price in 2008, adjusted to inflation, is $3.31) into one object, eliminating the need for contemplation and decision.» <a href="http://dankbuilders.blogspot.dk/2008/03/dilberito.html" rel="nofollow">http://dankbuilders.blogspot.dk/2008/03/dilberito.html</a><p>Like Dilbert, the animated series (second season wasn't actually that bad), Dilberito has not caught on.

This guy just reminds me of the book by Claude Lévi-Strauss called the culture code. The US (and northern european) code for food is fuel, while in southern Europe it's pleasure. The fact that he looks at drinking soylent as a way to save hundreds of dollars a month in food and energy probably means he views food as a fuel and an inconvenience instead of pleasurable highlight of the day.<p>I find it amusing but not for me. I for one consider food pleasure and even bigger pleasure when eaten with friends and family.

Discussions about how to save time on eating and cooking -- essentially the ultimate life hacking -- always make me think about early man and his lifestyle that must have consisted mostly of hunting trips that may well have taken up days at a time, and then returning home with the prey and enjoying every bit of the reward. I wonder if they ever contemplated on how they could minimise all this time they spent on keeping themselves alive to make room for .. ehm, what else was there to do anyway?

What makes me a bit skeptical about this is that this guy is apparently 24 and was in generally good health before he did all of this. I think most of us have experienced that when you're that young, you can eat pretty much whatever you want without much adverse consequences. There's plenty of college students only a little younger in basically good health whose diet is mostly alcohol and fast food. What happens when you feed this stuff to an overweight 45-year old?

Reading this guy's blog reminded me very much of personal experiences of people suffering a significantly damaging eating disorder (ED) such as anorexia -<p>ED sufferers also report euphoria, and a keen focus on key metrics such as weight loss and exercise allows them to ignore negative health effects.<p>I would suggest this guy's experience is textbook typical of very low calorie diets (VLCD). That doesn't mean it will be healthy in the long-term - according to wikipedia, he might expect gallstones.

Let's see how well he's doing after a year of living off the stuff. There's probably more complexity to food than breaking it up into vitamins, minerals, and calories.

I wonder how it tastes with rum?

One question I have is where he acquires these materials, if not through some form of agriculture.<p>I mean, harvesting wheat isn't exactly what I would call "inefficient"

&#62; <i>I started wondering why something as simple and important as food was still so inefficient</i><p>It's inefficient <i>because</i> it's important. The production and consumption of food is one of the most ritualized aspects of humanity, and most cultures define themselves in no small part by their culinary traditions.<p>To humans, food is far, far more than simply the output of some nutritional optimization technique.

LIfe being reduced to 1's and 0's, this is the worst thing I've read in a long time. Eating fresh tasty food is one of the joys of life, why on earth would you want to cut that out of your life. What's next, a way of reproducing without having to have sex? What's better than a home made burger, English breakfast, pasta with sauce from fresh tomatoes and basil, seafood fried rice?

If it were possible to remain healthy long term, I'd totally sign up for a pill or drink that took a minute or two to consume and contained everything that we need to survive. I might not do it every day because there are some foods that I really like, but generally I don't enjoy eating and find it irritating that I have to spend so much of my life doing it.

Especially striking and inspiring was how he thinks of food as an "old technology":<p>&#62; I don't miss the rotary telephone and I don't miss food.

I've always wanted to do this, and actually have talked to some GI's making this happen. They always said you can do it for a couple of months, but the stomach is designed to handle solid food. I definitely plan to become a beta tester for him though. For a college student, this is a dream.

I think this is one of those "Whatever floats your boat" kind of things. For me, as with others, eating is something I enjoy, not a chore, and I look forward to food. Also, I'm not sure how one's social interactions work in this world, especially since so much that is tied around food.

This guy is getting a boat load of attention for doing something mildly interesting at best. He's using whey protein, olive oil, and some kind of starch. That's food. Nothing more, nothing less. You can't just suck down CHON and call it good, or all we'd have to do is breathe.

&#62; Mental performance is harder to quantify, but I feel much sharper.<p>A friend of mine frequently goes on crash diets and fasts and always reports that he feels sharper in the beginning. I'd guess (unscientifically) this is actually evidence that he is missing a few important nutrients.

One thing experiments like this often seem to forget is that our bodies have evolved to eat. Even something as simple as your stomach physically expanding to hold large quantities of less nutrient-dense whole foods has been shown to have an effect on the body and brain.

Aren't a lot of people already doing exactly this because they have a disease or disability that makes them unable to chew and swallow food? Roger Ebert hasn't been able to eat solid food in years and is still kicking, so what's in the stuff that's keeping him alive?

Interesting an I've seen it discussed a lot in sci-fi and on reddit too.<p>But I wonder if his throat will start to constrict from lack of bulk going down it, he probably needs some bulk or at least the option of liquid and solid.<p>Plus his teeth and gums will probably suffer from lack of stimulation.

I think the technical term for what Rob Rhinehart has is "eating disorder". He will get sick eventually, as all people who do stuff like this do, and if he's <i>lucky</i>, the damage he is doing to his health will be reversible because he's young.

"No groceries, dishes, deciding what to eat, no endless conversations weighing the relative merits of gluten-free, keto, paleo or vegan."<p>Is this a predominantly American thing? I've never even heard of these things used to describe food before I came to the USA.

<i>Water bills are lower.</i><p>Wow, how much is he spending on water for this to be a tangible benefit?

I think what makes me the most sad is that this method removes the joy and cultural bonds when one cooks and breaks bread with others.<p>Eating a meal and talking about life with others are things I consdier the most precious of them all.

Eating is not only for sustenance.<p>Here's a book recommendation: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Never-Eat-Alone-Relationship-ebook/dp/B000FCJZ4K/" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Never-Eat-Alone-Relationship-ebook/dp/...</a>

What bizarre, emotionally-stunted, inner life must one possess to want to eradicate one of life's most reliable pleasures.<p>I as deep a distrust of people that don't love food as I do of people that don't love music.

Based on his recipe I don't see how this is being perceived as novel or revolutionary. Surely many HNers have endeavored to make "bachelor chow" (or more appropriately slurry) in the past.

Doesn't make sense to me at all. Yes, it is really good thing to be really busy with something in life. But are you really that busy that you dont have time to enjoy a good healthy meal? What abut sex ? What about girlfriend or wife ? Hey and is sleeping is also waste of time ?<p>Well, there are always pathological cases like this particular man in question but I dont think anyone else should even try this sort of stuff.<p>Secondly, our body has evolved not just to digest nutrients but also normal food which may contain many other essential things science is not yet fully aware of. So this sort of artificial diet is risky and it might cut your life by few years. Is it worth it ?

He'll be fine as long as he drinks that in addition to eating steamed kale and sweet potatoes, broccoli, brown rice and a variety of beans and sprouts.

A bit of topic, but is it really required to have _that_ much tracking scripts on your site?<p>Ghostery is showing up 14 blocked trackers, which is a way too much I think.

Here's a good food idea:<p>Don't eat sugar, any fruits which don't have a Greek or Hebrew name or any liquid which is less than 1,000 years old. (Taleb) ;-)

"I was a little worried it was going to kill me, but decided it was for science and quickly downed the whole thing." sounds familiar ;)

If I were still single, I would be all over this.

Here's the story in his own words: <a href="http://robrhinehart.com/?p=298" rel="nofollow">http://robrhinehart.com/?p=298</a>

Let's say he is right. Maybe, right? Am I the only one who likes to eat? Eating actually gives me a break from other things.

&#62; I started wondering why something as simple and important as food was still so inefficient, <i></i>given how streamlined and optimised other modern things are.<i></i><p>Things must be really different in Atlanta....<p>EDIT:<p>Downvotes? Really? On a site presumably full of hackers, you are gonna tell me "modern things" are really streamlined and efficient? Software for the most part isn't. Cars aren't. Houses, apartments, restaurants, workplaces, none of it is. Come on. It's a pretty absurd statement.

A buried quote worth repeating on Pi Day: * this day I ran 3.14 miles non-stop. This is an irrational improvement<i>

When you get tired of food, wine, women/men/{other object of attraction}, song, and sleep, you are tired of life.

&#62; Revolutionizes eating<p>&#62; Doesn't let anyone know ingredients<p>Besides the disturbing nature of this guy, I always like the idea of the matrix glop food.<p>Someone should really open source working on this, I understand it is a hard thing to get right but enough people working on this and using strictly whole foods as base ingredients would probably lessen any negative outcomes.<p>And really, it can't be much worse than my nightly chow down on fast food.

I would love to see how he does lifting some weight on this diet vs. just sitting in front of a computer.

As I blog about cheap meals, I'm wondering what the per-meal price is for this concoction. Any ideas?

I'm on this. I'm not even going to read any comments pertaining. All my life I prayed for this day.

Please don't use this as an excuse to let the world's population hit eleven digits.<p>Stop fucking, for fuck's sake!

Mhh I could try this with Guinness, on second thougth ... its still a good idea.

This is disgusting, and this man-boy is obviously mentally unstable.

As a hardcore gamer I'm interested, but... it would be too bad x_x

Rob is also a YC alum. He has dropped noticeable weight.

They will take the soylent from his cold, dead hands! :-)

He's going to poop liquid for the rest of his life.

I would be _so_ interested in something like this.

This man never wants to take a solid shit again.

Wasn't this shown to be a hoax a while back?

Someone should tell him there is a reason babies and cubs don't drink milk when they grow up.<p>He probably discovered milk, but it seems to me that milk tastes better.

I love how all the arm chair biochemists here jump on this as being so dangerous because in theory there could be something he needs and isn't getting. Yet most of them are eating a diet that is deficient in things we <i>know</i> you need. This guy's gross sludge is a hell of a lot healthier than what most people are eating, go bitch at them instead.

No matter what you think of this guy or his product, you have to give him props for being his own guinea pig.<p>I, for one, hope that he proves everyone wrong, and a year from now, I'm mixing up my own Soylent, because though I do love a good meal, I'm a busy person, and I often find myself eating simply to sate hunger. If I could replace that footlong sub with a glass of soylent, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Linkbait. Indeed, he eats. It's just really awful food.<p>I am glad I still have the freedom to eat what I choose. I hope that never changes.