“The Joy of Soylent”

Originally posted on existentialenso.posthaven.com.

When Soylent, the nutritionally complete meal replacement, first debuted, I was incredibly skeptical. I love food. A lot. And the idea of devoting any of the allotment of calories I can healthily consume in a given day to something so comparatively bland and boring seemed silly. However, I recently decided to try it and quickly became an enthusiastic convert. I can’t imagine going for long without real food, but I could never imagine doing the same now with Soylent either.

I embarked on this experiment with my girlfriend, and we originally planned to just replace breakfast with Soylent. We ordered two boxes, one of Cacao and one of Nectar. The flavoring in the latter, frankly, is disgusting. The lemon notes to it taste more like Lemon Pledge than something belonging in food. However, Cacao tastes like a creamy bottle of chocolate milk. I have yet to try the other flavors, though I have a box of the new Vanilla caffeinated variety on the way.

When one tries any sort of nutritional or health product, it is important to be mindful of the placebo effect. Expecting something to make you feel better will often make it do just that. However, the first bottle left me feeling energetic and satisfied, so we decided to do a second for lunch that day. We have replaced every single breakfast and lunch since, while still allowing for a rather sizable dinner of ‘real? food.

The results are profound already. I’m down a few pounds. We have spent a lot less time deciding meals, cooking, cleaning up, etc. Waste for these meals is reduced to a single, recyclable bottle. We have saved a lot of money. Even after heavy dinners like pizza, I found myself not feeling the usual bloated fatigue that often comes from consuming unhealthy food.

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