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Can someone explain to me the appeal of this product? Why would anyone choose to drink a nondescript sludge over the plentiful ways we can get good, enjoyable &

Can someone explain to me the appeal of this product? Why would anyone choose to drink a nondescript sludge over the plentiful ways we can get good, enjoyable & healthy food? I can certainly appreciate the science behind it - this would be a great boon to helping feed those that are less fortunate, but from what I can see that doesn't appear to be the aim of the company.

nightcracker 11y ago
Price and laziness. It's a lot cheaper than eating out, and (often) a bit cheaper than cooking yourself. On top of that, it's a lot easier to just shake a bottle and eat than to cook.
- normloman 11y ago
  It may be faster than cooking for yourself, but not always cheaper. http://www.watchusthrive.org/Libraries/Resources_Documents/Budget_Factsheet-2011.sflb.ashx http://www.watchusthrive.org/Libraries/Resources_Documents/B...
  - Renevith 11y ago
    Soylent actually competes pretty well on price too! The calories on those recipes range from 140 to 386 per $1 serving. That's $5-14 for 2000 calories, while the new Soylent formula is $12. (Slightly more if you don't subscribe, slightly less if you get the powder formula instead of pre-mixed.) Plus, the recipe cost assumptions must be pretty generous to get to $1. One of the recipes calls for 1 pound of ground beef and makes 6 servings. The flyer for my local discount grocery has the ground beef at $4.50, but the nicer grocery nearer to me is already over $6 just for the meat, let alone two cans of tomato sauce, some pasta, some carrots, shredded cheese... I'll bet in a real-world test of those recipes, Soylent would beat the average cost.
coherentpony 11y ago
Lifestyle? IIRC, the creator of Soylent had a busy lifestyle and as a result barely had time to cook or eat and that's why he created Soylent.
- mahouse 11y ago
  If your lifestyle does not give you time to cook, you should try to change it, instead of inventing that mud.
  - Igglyboo 11y ago
    Why should you waste time cooking if you don't want to and can exist without it?
  - brainburn 11y ago
    ^ is your opinion. Some people prefer not to spend time on cooking.
    - mahouse 11y ago
      Of course it's my opinion. That is an Internet comment, not a research paper.
  - normloman 11y ago
    Right! Even if you don't like to cook, not having the time to is symptomatic of overwork.
    - easytiger 11y ago
      Or a desire to feel like you are overworking like a superhero
      - mahouse 11y ago
        Just grind some nootropics into your Soylent to turn it into a Smart Soylent 3000™
    - joeriel 11y ago
      I work about 9 hours a day and spend my remaining time with my family, volunteering, going to the gym, learning guitar, etc. There are many times where I just don't have time, desire or energy to cook a healthy meal. A healthy meal replacement is a lot better than ordering pizza. Don't assume that a busy lifestyle means 'overwork' - I just have different priorities.
EarthLaunch 11y ago
If it's done right: Time saver. Digestive problem avoidance. The right nutrient ratios. Time saver can be more important that it seems. If you have to eat quick a lot, or just hate food prep, it can come down to unhealthy fast/restaurant food vs this.
untog 11y ago
It's for people that are too busy to cook. Sadly, usually people who are busy working on a startup that will have failed within the next year, hopefully leaving them with time to think about life priorities. I know this makes me sound excessively negative but food is so many things - not just the flavours, but the skill of cooking, the social experience of sharing a meal... Soylent just screams "misplaced priorities" at me.
- sneak 11y ago
  Drinking Soylent from time to time does not prevent one from cooking or sharing meals, any more than any other new type of food does.
Zikes 11y ago
I've been using Soylent as an occasional meal replacement, not a complete food replacement. In a decent thermos it works well to replace my breakfast, lunch, or dinner with minimal fuss, and is cheaper than eating out when I don't feel like cooking.
Igglyboo 11y ago
Some people only care about eating as far as subsistence goes, soylent saves you time and money in this regard.
fizzbatter 11y ago
I feel like i'm in the opposite camp. Every time i see a Soylent post in any non-Soylent corner of the web (HN, non-Soylent Subreddits, etc), there's always 1 (x100) posts of: "Why would you do this!?" I feel like i need someone to describe this to me. Why is it so hard to grasp? "Fast food" makes its living off of ease and price. You could argue taste, but many (most?) people feel that a good homecooked meal tastes a lot better than a McBurger - so i'm going to ignore taste. We have isles and isles of meal replacements and frozen foods. All with the purpose of giving you food on the Go, and food on the quick. We also have people constantly skipping meals, for reasons other than diet. I myself often skip breakfast or lunch because i'm busy, and eventually 9am turns into 10am turns into 11am turns into "Welp, i may as well just eat lunch". So it seems blatantly obvious that meal speed, ease and even price is an issue for many, many, many people. So why is it so confusing to see a liquid form of this that aims to be an even healthier meal replacement than existing meal replacements? We already have meal replacements. We have had them for ages. They're just incredibly unhealthy. .. I just guess i can't fathom why so many people (not you specifically) are so confused at Soylents existence. </rant>
- orangecat 11y ago
  There's a weird psuedo-religious aspect to it too. It's right to spend an hour cooking, and wrong to have a convenient pre-made meal, even if it's nutritionally as good or better.
  - fizzbatter 11y ago
    Couldn't agree more. I completely admit that Soylent is not perfect, and i am also a little worried of the (many?) aspects of nutrition that we're unaware of. But many people live on Fast Food, which scares me far far more than Soylent does. But just because something is not perfect, does not warrant the very odd zealotry that i see for "normal" food and against Soylent (and like products). It's honestly, flat out bizarre to me. They act like "normal" food is their favorite sports team, or a company that they have vested interest in. As if their profits will take a hit, if this new fangled Soylent thing catches on. And i can't imagine it is for our potential health that these people are fanatical. I don't see them being so religious about many other non-healthy life habits that people have. Yet, throw in liquid food and it's a slug fest. I just don't understand.
thomnottom 11y ago
Personally I'm interested in it because I feel like we (as in my family) often waste too much time simply thinking about food. When are we going to eat? What are we going to make? Do we need to pick some things up? Should we go out? We've gone out too much this month and it's getting expensive... It sure would be nice to cut that out for a few meals each week. Friends of mine who do a really good job prepping meals for the week tend to sacrifice the better part of a day just for that process. On top of that we're dealing with more and more restrictions on our diets due to health issues (cutting back on dairy and gluten).
gabemart 11y ago
> Can someone explain to me the appeal of this product? Why would anyone choose to drink a nondescript sludge over the plentiful ways we can get good, enjoyable & healthy food? Perhaps this is something you would never consider using yourself, but I find it hard to believe you can't imagine why it appeals to some people. Lots of people - huge numbers of people - find it very inconvenient to source healthy, palatable food twice or three times per day, every day. Even lots of people who really enjoy eating or cooking find it inconvenient or limiting to have to eat as often as is necessary.
aeze 11y ago
It's convenient and relatively healthy to my knowledge. Blended with some peanut butter or fruit it's pretty tasty too.
moistgorilla 11y ago
Every person in this thread who is "shocked" why anyone would want soylent is using this whole "good healthy REAL food" bs and it's honestly nauseating. It reminds me of advertising for "artisanal" products and it also reminds me of people complaining about how the world is too fast paced and you need to slow down and get some fresh air. No, I don't. Anyway, your post in particular made me pull the trigger on buying this.
- tom_usher 11y ago
  Sorry for the nausea - it's only after posting that I realised I could have been less antagonising. It's good to hear your opinions though.
- ConceptJunkie 11y ago
  I've been using Soylent for breakfast for about a year now. I really like it, and it's nice not to have to worry about breakfast which occurs at a time of day I am not interested in food preparation. I save that for the weekend when I enjoy cooking. The rest of the time, I eat "regular food".
nattaggart 11y ago
I eat it because it's cheaper, faster, and I trust Rob when he says it's healthier than any other meal I could make. The flavor/texture is something that I got used to almost immediately and I actually crave the stuff now ;) An added bonus is that I can completely eliminate over-eating from my lifestyle (without feeling hungry all the time), which has allowed me to lose weight.

nightcracker 11y ago

Price and laziness. It's a lot cheaper than eating out, and (often) a bit cheaper than cooking yourself. On top of that, it's a lot easier to just shake a bottle and eat than to cook.

normloman 11y ago
It may be faster than cooking for yourself, but not always cheaper. http://www.watchusthrive.org/Libraries/Resources_Documents/Budget_Factsheet-2011.sflb.ashx http://www.watchusthrive.org/Libraries/Resources_Documents/B...
- Renevith 11y ago
  Soylent actually competes pretty well on price too! The calories on those recipes range from 140 to 386 per $1 serving. That's $5-14 for 2000 calories, while the new Soylent formula is $12. (Slightly more if you don't subscribe, slightly less if you get the powder formula instead of pre-mixed.) Plus, the recipe cost assumptions must be pretty generous to get to $1. One of the recipes calls for 1 pound of ground beef and makes 6 servings. The flyer for my local discount grocery has the ground beef at $4.50, but the nicer grocery nearer to me is already over $6 just for the meat, let alone two cans of tomato sauce, some pasta, some carrots, shredded cheese... I'll bet in a real-world test of those recipes, Soylent would beat the average cost.

coherentpony 11y ago

Lifestyle? IIRC, the creator of Soylent had a busy lifestyle and as a result barely had time to cook or eat and that's why he created Soylent.

mahouse 11y ago
If your lifestyle does not give you time to cook, you should try to change it, instead of inventing that mud.
- Igglyboo 11y ago
  Why should you waste time cooking if you don't want to and can exist without it?
- brainburn 11y ago
  ^ is your opinion. Some people prefer not to spend time on cooking.
  - mahouse 11y ago
    Of course it's my opinion. That is an Internet comment, not a research paper.
- normloman 11y ago
  Right! Even if you don't like to cook, not having the time to is symptomatic of overwork.
  - easytiger 11y ago
    Or a desire to feel like you are overworking like a superhero
    - mahouse 11y ago
      Just grind some nootropics into your Soylent to turn it into a Smart Soylent 3000™
  - joeriel 11y ago
    I work about 9 hours a day and spend my remaining time with my family, volunteering, going to the gym, learning guitar, etc. There are many times where I just don't have time, desire or energy to cook a healthy meal. A healthy meal replacement is a lot better than ordering pizza. Don't assume that a busy lifestyle means 'overwork' - I just have different priorities.

EarthLaunch 11y ago

If it's done right: Time saver. Digestive problem avoidance. The right nutrient ratios. Time saver can be more important that it seems. If you have to eat quick a lot, or just hate food prep, it can come down to unhealthy fast/restaurant food vs this.

untog 11y ago

It's for people that are too busy to cook. Sadly, usually people who are busy working on a startup that will have failed within the next year, hopefully leaving them with time to think about life priorities. I know this makes me sound excessively negative but food is so many things - not just the flavours, but the skill of cooking, the social experience of sharing a meal... Soylent just screams "misplaced priorities" at me.

sneak 11y ago
Drinking Soylent from time to time does not prevent one from cooking or sharing meals, any more than any other new type of food does.

Zikes 11y ago

I've been using Soylent as an occasional meal replacement, not a complete food replacement. In a decent thermos it works well to replace my breakfast, lunch, or dinner with minimal fuss, and is cheaper than eating out when I don't feel like cooking.

Igglyboo 11y ago

Some people only care about eating as far as subsistence goes, soylent saves you time and money in this regard.

fizzbatter 11y ago

I feel like i'm in the opposite camp. Every time i see a Soylent post in any non-Soylent corner of the web (HN, non-Soylent Subreddits, etc), there's always 1 (x100) posts of: "Why would you do this!?" I feel like i need someone to describe this to me. Why is it so hard to grasp? "Fast food" makes its living off of ease and price. You could argue taste, but many (most?) people feel that a good homecooked meal tastes a lot better than a McBurger - so i'm going to ignore taste. We have isles and isles of meal replacements and frozen foods. All with the purpose of giving you food on the Go, and food on the quick. We also have people constantly skipping meals, for reasons other than diet. I myself often skip breakfast or lunch because i'm busy, and eventually 9am turns into 10am turns into 11am turns into "Welp, i may as well just eat lunch". So it seems blatantly obvious that meal speed, ease and even price is an issue for many, many, many people. So why is it so confusing to see a liquid form of this that aims to be an even healthier meal replacement than existing meal replacements? We already have meal replacements. We have had them for ages. They're just incredibly unhealthy. .. I just guess i can't fathom why so many people (not you specifically) are so confused at Soylents existence. </rant>

orangecat 11y ago
There's a weird psuedo-religious aspect to it too. It's right to spend an hour cooking, and wrong to have a convenient pre-made meal, even if it's nutritionally as good or better.
- fizzbatter 11y ago
  Couldn't agree more. I completely admit that Soylent is not perfect, and i am also a little worried of the (many?) aspects of nutrition that we're unaware of. But many people live on Fast Food, which scares me far far more than Soylent does. But just because something is not perfect, does not warrant the very odd zealotry that i see for "normal" food and against Soylent (and like products). It's honestly, flat out bizarre to me. They act like "normal" food is their favorite sports team, or a company that they have vested interest in. As if their profits will take a hit, if this new fangled Soylent thing catches on. And i can't imagine it is for our potential health that these people are fanatical. I don't see them being so religious about many other non-healthy life habits that people have. Yet, throw in liquid food and it's a slug fest. I just don't understand.

thomnottom 11y ago

Personally I'm interested in it because I feel like we (as in my family) often waste too much time simply thinking about food. When are we going to eat? What are we going to make? Do we need to pick some things up? Should we go out? We've gone out too much this month and it's getting expensive... It sure would be nice to cut that out for a few meals each week. Friends of mine who do a really good job prepping meals for the week tend to sacrifice the better part of a day just for that process. On top of that we're dealing with more and more restrictions on our diets due to health issues (cutting back on dairy and gluten).

gabemart 11y ago

> Can someone explain to me the appeal of this product? Why would anyone choose to drink a nondescript sludge over the plentiful ways we can get good, enjoyable & healthy food? Perhaps this is something you would never consider using yourself, but I find it hard to believe you can't imagine why it appeals to some people. Lots of people - huge numbers of people - find it very inconvenient to source healthy, palatable food twice or three times per day, every day. Even lots of people who really enjoy eating or cooking find it inconvenient or limiting to have to eat as often as is necessary.

aeze 11y ago

It's convenient and relatively healthy to my knowledge. Blended with some peanut butter or fruit it's pretty tasty too.

moistgorilla 11y ago

Every person in this thread who is "shocked" why anyone would want soylent is using this whole "good healthy REAL food" bs and it's honestly nauseating. It reminds me of advertising for "artisanal" products and it also reminds me of people complaining about how the world is too fast paced and you need to slow down and get some fresh air. No, I don't. Anyway, your post in particular made me pull the trigger on buying this.

tom_usher 11y ago
Sorry for the nausea - it's only after posting that I realised I could have been less antagonising. It's good to hear your opinions though.
ConceptJunkie 11y ago
I've been using Soylent for breakfast for about a year now. I really like it, and it's nice not to have to worry about breakfast which occurs at a time of day I am not interested in food preparation. I save that for the weekend when I enjoy cooking. The rest of the time, I eat "regular food".

nattaggart 11y ago

I eat it because it's cheaper, faster, and I trust Rob when he says it's healthier than any other meal I could make. The flavor/texture is something that I got used to almost immediately and I actually crave the stuff now ;) An added bonus is that I can completely eliminate over-eating from my lifestyle (without feeling hungry all the time), which has allowed me to lose weight.