Soylent: Day 1

OMG! It's HERE!!!!

The long awaited Soylent has arrived. Different from Soylent Green, it is not made from people. Instead it is made from fish oil, rice protein, and oat flour. For those concerned, you can look at the list of ingredients here.

One of the things I am most excited about is that it is also gluten free and it has been theorized that many of my health issues are gluten related.  If you have ever tried to go gluten free with a normal diet, then you know the frustration at gluten being added to the most random things like Soy Sauce. Things you wouldn't imagine having it, have been added for flavor. So it's nice to have that portion of my life be simplified. I don't have to wonder what I'm going to eat, or take some long break from working to prepare and consume.

My skeptical foodie friends cannot comprehend my excitement over Soylent.  My daughter Morgan exemplifies that excitement in the picture to the right, even though she will not be partaking in it. She was just excited that the boxes made her a nice stage. We've offered her to taste it, but she has no interest and adult nutrition is different and more consistent than that of a growing child.

In some ways Soylent reminds me of the black broth that Spartans lived off of, although it was made from pig's blood, which I can't see being incredibly appealing.

After eating my last meal for a month last night at the Cheesecake Factory, my husband and I waited till today to start Soylent together.  We mixed it up last night in a container to chill over night, so this morning I had my first taste of it. It wasn't bad, but the rice protein does give it a chalky texture.  However neither of these things matter much to me as I'm used to sucking down Slimfasts whose tastes I hate with their sickly sweet or strange overkill flavors. At least there was none of that, and my body is used to liquid diets thanks to Slimfast too, so I doubt that I will have the greater transition like my husband. In fact my body seems to have far more issues when not on a liquid diet like Slimfast. So I have high hopes for Soylent, which is basically like formula for adults.

Several of my curious friends are watching me as their Soylent guinea pig, while others who have far more refined diets are I think watching to make sure I don't keel over dead. It will take time to see what the final verdict is, but so far it's doing pretty good.

I am still drinking Coke for a while, although drinking more water. I plan to get used to giving up food before I quit Coke.  One thing at a time.

It will be interesting to see the differences between my husband and I. So far my appetite is fully quenched and I have no residual hunger after the first dose this morning.  I keep staring at the jug I have it in, wondering how I'm going to get all of that in me by the end of the day, but it went quicker than I thought. I've used the same container for tea in the past and emptied it in a day so I think it just looks like a lot. Divided up into 3 meals it looks like it will be one full glass at a time, which is no big deal.

So here's hoping that Soylent is the key to healthier living at a reduced cost.  If it is, it could help a lot of people stretch their paychecks without having to worry about food. It could help others make speedy meals and get back to work, knowing that they were getting everything their body needs.  Who knows maybe this will be the future for hospital food, airlines, or even welfare instead of food stamps.  Most people are attached to the classical forms of feeding, but if people can move past that it might be the key to some of society's problems. Perhaps that's too optimistic at this point. So we'll see in a month if I'm still as hopeful for it. So far, so good though.