Substituting with Soylent

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Soylent, a “simple, healthy, affordable food”. Or is it? According to their website, Soylent is a “staple food” that can be a whole meal.  Some avid Soylent users use it almost exclusively for all their meals while others use it 2-3 times a week. So far there have been mixed results about this nutritional drink/meal, but first… whats the deal with Soylent?

Soylent comes in two forms: ready to drink ($34 monthly) or powder ($64 monthly). The ready to drink is made of soy protein, algal oil, isomaltulose, and “vitamins and minerals”. The powder includes brown rice protein, oat flower, sunflower oil, and “vitamins and minerals”. These meals are also vegan, lactose free, and nut free as well as being compliant of FDA guidelines. These drinks claim to give you the nutrients your body needs to be healthy but makes no claim to be a weight loss supplement.

Because it is a relatively new product, there aren’t many experiments being run on it but I did come across many personal blogs about the Soylent experience. Though I did find a blog that swore the chemical ridden products in Soylent would do terrible things to you such as give you diarrhea  ?. However, the woman who made this claim had never tried the product itself so she’s not the most reliable source.

Other blogs sang high praise for these meal drinks. The said they felt healthy and full and had no cravings for real solid foods. As impressive as that is, the results were even more impressive. One man lost 10 pounds over 30 days. According to his doctor, the weight was lost in a healthy way and his body fat dropped a whole percent. Another woman had many tests run before and after and all results yielded were great improvements from before the 30 days on Soylent.

Are these firsthand experiences enough to commit to such a life altering way of eating? For now, its impossible to say.  There should definitely be more experiments done to see what real benefits can be obtained from Soylent and products like it. It costs about a third of the average monthly spending americans do on food, so it might be a good alternative for poorer countries to avoid malnutrition and keep costs low. A double blind trial might be beneficial for this to ensure it is not due to the placebo effect of just from keeping people from eating terrible foods. Perhaps the results are due to a third confounding variable. Food and restaurants promote more and more eating, but by drinking their meals, consumers felt they had more time and energy.