Soylent: Man Wants to Avoid the Time Consuming and Expensive Practice of Eating Food, Develops a Sort of Pharmaceutical Grade Nutrient Slop Instead
March 14th, 2013I’m not suggesting that anyone do this, or not do it. I’m posting this mainly because it made me laugh. I had similar ideas (although not as well thought out and more poorly executed) when I was in my 20s and single.
It might surprise you to see that I’m not steadfastly against something like this Soylent concoction, but I’m not. If you locked me in a cage and gave me a choice between the poison-as-food that most Americans regularly consume and Rhinehart’s Soylent, I would definitely choose the Soylent.
Via: Mostly Harmless:
Food is the fossil fuel of human energy. It is an enormous market full of waste, regulation, and biased allocation with serious geo-political implications. And we’re deeply dependent on it. In some countries people are dying of obesity, others starvation. In my own life I resented the time, money, and effort the purchase, preparation, consumption, and clean-up of food was consuming. I am pretty young, generally in good health, and remain physically and mentally active. I don’t want to lose weight. I want to maintain it and spend less energy getting energy.
I hypothesized that the body doesn’t need food itself, merely the chemicals and elements it contains. So, I resolved to embark on an experiment. What if I consumed only the raw ingredients the body uses for energy? Would I be healthier or do we need all the other stuff that’s in traditional food? If it does work, what would it feel like to have a perfectly balanced diet? I just want to be in good health and spend as little time and money on food as possible.
I haven’t eaten a bite of food in 30 days, and it’s changed my life.
There are no meats, fruits, vegetables, or breads here. Besides olive oil for fatty acids and table salt for sodium and chloride nothing is recognizable as food. I researched every substance the body needs to survive, plus a few extras shown to be beneficial, and purchased all of them in nearly raw chemical form from a variety of sources. The section on the ingredients ended up being quite long so I’ll save that for a future post. The first morning my kitchen looked more like a chemistry lab than a cookery, but I eventually ended up with an thick, odorless, beige liquid. I call it ‘Soylent’. At the time I didn’t know if it was going to kill me or give me superpowers. I held my nose and tepidly lifted it to my mouth, expecting an awful taste.
It was delicious! I felt like I’d just had the best breakfast of my life.
More:
This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again
Similar Sentiment: The Monkey Chow Diaries
Well I can’t fault his sense of humour for the choice of name, but I can’t see myself giving up bacon to join him.