I received a 1 week supply of Soylent yesterday. However, my plan is only to use it as a lunch replacement, so it should last me 3 weeks.
I don't eat breakfast, so that means that for the next three weeks, I will have a Soylent lunch, and my typical dinner.
The morning light of my kitchen makes it look much more yellow than it is.
The smell and taste is pleasant, actually. Maltodextrin, Rice Protein, and Oat Flour are the primary ingredients, and it tastes like a malty oatmeal shake. I have read that the oil blend can make it taste fishy, but I didn't detect that at all.
- POUCH INGREDIENTS: Maltodextrin, Rice Protein, Oat Flour, Vitamin and Mineral Blend [Potassium (as Potassium gluconate), Calcium (as calcium carbonate), Choline Bitartrate, Magnesium (as magnesium oxide), Vitamin C (as ascorbic acid), Zinc (as zinc sulfate), Vitamin E (as dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate, Vitamin B3 (as niacinamide), Copper (as copper gluconate), Vitamin B5 (as calcium D-pantothenate), Manganese (as manganese sulfate), Vitamin B6 (as pyridoxine HCL), Vitamin B2 (as riboflavin), Vitamin B1 (as thiamin HCL), Vitamin A (as palmitate), Chromium (as chromium chloride), Folic Acid, Biotin, Iodine (as potassium iodide), Molybdenum (as sodium molybdate), Selenium (as sodium selenite), Vitamin K1 (as phytonadione), Vitamin D2 (as ergocalciferol), Vitamin B12 (as cyanocobalamin)], Gum Acacia, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Artificial Flavors, Xanthan Gum, Sucralose.
OIL BLEND INGREDIENTS: Canola Oil, Fish Oil
Unfortunately, Soylent uses Sucralose as a sweetener. That is a deal breaker for me. I avoid artificial sweeteners, and I am not going to be consuming them on a daily basis. Even if I enjoy Soylent, this will probably be my first and last batch for that reason. It's unfortunate. The drink could stand to be less sweet. I would like to try it without the Sucralose.
I'll report back after a few days.
I'm very excited to hear your report on it. What's the price/meal at right now? Something like $2.50 I think? It seems to me I remember reading about a pretty big "DIY Soylent" community that sprung up after the Kickstarter ended. Might be worth it trying to make your own without Sucralose? Edit: http://diy.soylent.me/Unfortunately, Soylent uses Sucralose as a sweetener. That is a deal breaker for me. I avoid artificial sweeteners, and I am not going to be consuming them on a daily basis. Even if I enjoy Soylent, this will probably be my first and last batch for that reason. It's unfortunate. The drink could stand to be less sweet. I would like to try it without the Sucralose.
I know that there are DIY Solylents, but the main attraction for me is that I can get a reasonable healthy meal with minimal effort. I often find myself resenting the time and effort that I have to put into food, especially in order to eat healthy. I do like a nice meal every few days or so, but on most days there are other things I'd rather be doing with my time than buying food, preparing it, and then cleaning up afterwards. The price is now $85 for a 3 week batch, so it's actually $4.04 per meal without shipping. I think I paid 60-something for it though. If you order 28 bags on their monthly plan ($255/mo), then you can get the cost down to $3.03 per meal.
Still too high for me, and I think higher than advertised (at least according to various articles I read last year). The inventor claimed that it was healthier, faster and cheaper than preparing your own meals. Price will probably go down though. So about the sucralose, why on earth is that in the baseline meal blend? That's ridiculous. Do all of the options you can choose from when ordering have sucralose?then you can get the cost down to $3.03 per meal.
How the... what...? Twenty-five hours? You don't have breakfast, so that's 107 minutes per meal (or three hours supermarket time per week and 87 minutes per meal). What are you making -- roast turkey? I cook dinner form scratch a few days a week. Any longer than 30 minutes to cook and 20 to clean and I'm annoyed. Lunch is ten minutes of cooking and five of cleaning. I would like to understand how you cook.
Oh, not me, but my wife comes close to it. She likes to have three prepared meals a day. Also, she likes Chinese food, which takes a lot of prep, mostly cutting vegetables. Dinners take more than an hour from beginning of prep to the end of clean up, and breakfast and lunch are probably near an hour each.
Because my wife works slightly later hours than me on a consistent basis, I do almost 100% of the cooking. A lot of days it feels like by the time she gets home and I get everything prepped and made, we wrap up at 10:30 and the night is pretty much done. Easily the biggest time sink on my personal time every weekday. I'm lucky because I really like food I guess, but when I have things to do it's rough because I can't opt out, -I have to feed her :)
Reading the announcement, I get the feeling he knew he was going to sell this stuff from the start. "Mathematical notation that used to look obtuse is now beautiful." This is after a month of a Soylent-only diet. Can you give us some qualatative feedback on your trial? How many million dollars do you feel like? How do your scars look? Perhaps more usefully, did the product meet your goals for convenience and cost? Did you get sick of it or did it grow on you? The creator sounds committed to sucralose. Perhaps you would consider Schmoylent.I feel like the six million dollar man. My physique has noticeably improved, my skin is clearer, my teeth whiter, my hair thicker and my dandruff gone. My resting heart rate is lower, I haven’t felt the least bit sickly, rare for me this time of year. I’ve had a common skin condition called Keratosis Pilaris since birth. That was gone by day 9. I used to run less than a mile at the gym, now I can run 7. I have more energy than I know what to do with. On day 4 I caught myself balancing on the curb and jumping on and off the sidewalk when crossing the street like I used to do when I was a kid. People gave me strange looks but I just smiled back. Even my scars look better.
I'm definitely interested in knowing how you feel after a couple of weeks. Good luck, don't faint.
They just updated the formula.... http://blog.soylent.me/post/98982202087/introducing-soylent-1-1
Well, that's an improvement. The levels are so low that I'm not much concerned about it, especially if I just have it for lunch. Mostly, I don't like the taste, which I can currently detect. I'd like to try this new formula.Sucralose has been reduced from 60mg to 30mg per pouch and a blend of digestive enzymes (Alpha-galactosidase and proteases) have been added to the forumula.
I'm flirting with the idea of anteing up and ordering some for myself. Currently, I'm on a weightlifting binge, and those macros looks realllll nice. I typically use Muscle Milk (so bro, yo) to supplement my protein intake, and the macro ratios are similar. The Soylent has better micronutrients, but more carbs. I also find myself lamenting my need to eat and hate the prep and cleanup, so I usually eat out. I'm thankful to have a salary that allows me to do so. I really like unsweet iced tea, but everyone down here in the South will screw up your order and give you sweet tea. Convenience stores don't even stock unsweet tea of any kind. It's like everyone wants to give you diabetes. Hopefully they'll put out a Soylent mix sans sucrose sometime in the future.The drink could stand to be less sweet.
Muscle Milk is nearly 50% protein and like 15% carbohydrates, soylent is less than 30% protein and nearly 70% carbohydrates (without the oil packet). That doesn't seem very similar to me. Soylent, for me, is waaaay too heavy on carbohydrates. Which is sad, because it's convenient enough to be worth the price for me if it had more appropriate macronutrient ratios.
It still has better macros than the vast majority of Americans' diets... what a low bar that is, though. But you're absolutely right. Too many (presumably simple) carbs.
Mine usually consists of an energy drink and whatever baked good my coworker has brought in.
POUCH INGREDIENTS: Maltodextrin, Rice Protein, Oat Flour, Vitamin and Mineral Blend [Potassium (as Potassium gluconate), Calcium (as calcium carbonate), Choline Bitartrate, People, Magnesium (as magnesium oxide), Vitamin C (as ascorbic acid), Zinc (as zinc sulfate), Vitamin E...
A friend raised a good point on facebook that I thought you might know the answer to: what's the difference between soylent and medical-grade food substitutes (like, what we feed to people who can't feed themselves, to keep them alive until they heal)? Because she was wondering whether there are uncertainties about using soylent in the longterm (potential nutrient deficiencies, or something), and if there are, why don't we solve them in the same way we solve the issues that might arise for people in comas etc.
I expect that Soylent is probably similar nutritionally. However, since it isn't going down a feeding tube, I suspect that Soylent tastes better. Even so, I can't imagine that it would be the optimal approach to eat the same thing every day, regardless of what it is. We evolved with varied diets, so I would assume that our physiology is optimized for variation.
That killed it for me. I was thinking about giving it a try.Unfortunately, Soylent uses Sucralose as a sweetener. That is a deal breaker for me. I avoid artificial sweeteners, and I am not going to be consuming them on a daily basis. Even if I enjoy Soylent, this will probably be my first and last batch for that reason. It's unfortunate. The drink could stand to be less sweet. I would like to try it without the Sucralose.
Can you provide the nutrition information for a serving as well (caloric content, fiber, etc)? I'm very curious. What are you anticipating your nutritional load to look like on the reg? Didn't the founder/creator state that he stopped, uh...defecating after some time living on the product? ;)
No, you still poop. Here's the nutritional breakdown: There vitamins are all about 33% per serving, which you can kind of see here. I guess I am getting 2/3 of my recommended calories, and who knows when it comes to vitamins. I try to eat a healthy/reasonable sized dinner.
No, one pouch is for 3 servings. IMO 2010 Calories is more than I need on any given weekday. If this was all I was living on, I would probably have two pouches every three days. They do mention that the sodium is lower than the recommended amount, and that if you are only drinking Soylent, you might add a pinch of salt to it.
No one should be eating 100+ grams of protein a day? Based on . . . what? I've never seen that recommendation in any literature, any studies, or by any nutritionist. I've seen 40% protein recommended for weight loss/muscle gain pretty regularly, and at 2000 calories per day that's 200g of protein. I don't eat 200g, but I definitely get at least 100g a day.
Has to do with how much phosphorus you consume. As you get older (middle age), your body gets less effective at breaking down these compounds, which apparently calcify (?) into toxic compounds. I'm by no means a biologist, but I've heard this from people who are. http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/phosphorus Not an issue in young people. I guess people who exercise a lot or are putting on muscle or are athletes probably shoot for around 100g, now that I think about it.
Hm, that's pretty interesting. The phosphorous:calcium ratio problem that your link addresses (too much phosphorous in the blood leaches calcium out of bones and into blood to maintain the proper ratio, this leads to weaker bones and additional calcification of soft tissues) brings to mind the problem with salt; it's not that additional sodium intake is necessarily unhealthy, it's that too much sodium can throw off your sodium:calcium ratio which can then cause the same kind of problems (plus higher blood pressure depending on the person and just how much sodium they're taking in and are able to process). Not something I'd heard about before. I did some reading after you mentioned risks of high protein, and while I didn't read about calcium I did read about cancer. More protein means more cellular growth and division, and more cellular growth and division means more risk of cancer. This, also, becomes more significant in older people. Seems like the best plan is to eat your protein and build your muscle when you're young and then cut down when you get a bit older.
This is also interesting, though of course it's a bit ... tautological, or self-defeating. That is, taken to extremes the "logical" conclusion would be no cell division at all. So I'd guess that shouldn't be a significant factor in an athlete's cost/benefit analysis. Maybe there's a defined amount of protein/day where the risk factors exponentiate, but I bet the science is as yet too imprecise to find it.I did some reading after you mentioned risks of high protein, and while I didn't read about calcium I did read about cancer. More protein means more cellular growth and division, and more cellular growth and division means more risk of cancer. This, also, becomes more significant in older people.