Hate cooking? Think food is overpriced? Well this might just be the answer you’ve been looking for
The no-food diet must surely be one of the more bizarre regimes to come out of America. Straight out of Silicon Valley, three cups of this nutrient-dense beige slosh is apparently enough to meet all of your body’s demands each day. Tech developers have changed the way we socialise and the way we shop, now one wants to change the way we eat. The man in question is Rob Rhinehart, the beige slosh is Soylent and according to him, Soylent is the future of food.
A software engineer based in San Francisco, Rhinehart created Soylent out of frustration. As a post-grad with a limited budget he resented preparing meals, believing it was time consuming and expensive. Eschewing the trendy salad bars that dominate the California foodie scene, Rhinehart developed an unhealthy reliance on pizza and burgers, before turning his engineer’s brain to a new kind of problem: food. “I just thought rather than getting into this back-to-nature, holistic approach to food, I could see it as a form of hardware and standardize it, make it cheap,” Rhinehart told New York Magazine. Whatever the solution, it had to be portable, fast, cost-effective and offer complete nourishment.
In many ways Rhinehart is correct in identifying food as a problem. Agriculture is a huge global strain – the food industry is responsible for a significant percentage of world energy use and pollution. Adding insult to injury, most humans are pretty incompetent at feeding themselves. The US Department of Health‘s statistics show that almost 70% of Americans are overweight or obese. Soylent claims to have just a third of the calories of a regular American diet but a full RDA of nutrients. It’s blend of synthetic vitamins, sweeteners, rice protein and oat flour mean it carries none of the environmental implications.
Nutritionists have dismissed the project as “misguided” and “frightening”. A dismissive Noel Cameron, Professor of Human Biology at Loughborough University told the Telegraph: ”Do I buy that he can stop eating food and start living off Soylent? Not for a minute. One of the reasons why is that the part of the process of masticating and chewing food releases hormones that control your appetite. And if you’re not doing that you’re not controlling your appetite appropriately. Appetite control is essential for controlling things like obesity and anorexia.”
Defying the critics are Soylent’s devoted audience of body hackers intent on upgrading mother nature’s OS. Despite a finalised product not yet being commercially available the hype around Soylent has spawned an entire lifestyle. A thriving and almost entirely male community has sprung up on Soylent’s own discussion boards, whilst DIY Soylent is a site for users to share and tinker with their own versions of Soylent recipes. This is known as ‘open sourcing’ in the coding-tinged vernacular of this techie fraternity, and is actively encouraged by Rhinehart. The internet has formed a haven for Soylent converts to compare stats, share recipes and argue the benefits of their various additives far from the raised eyebrows of sceptics.
Isaac Kotilicky is typical of this community, a self confessed “information junkie” who replaces conventional food with Soylent for at least two meals a day, five days a week. Having adopted soylent last December, Isaac still reserves his weekends for “muggle food” but has found that the introduction of Soylent has helped him lose weight and feel generally better, telling me: “I feel fuller with less food and have more energy overall… I easily lose weight even without exercise.”
A primarily beige diet might sound drab but for Isaac, “Soylent is a great blank canvas to play around with”. He could fill a book with his recipes, including Soylent key lime pie, cherry cake Soylent and spinach and feta Soylent pizza. This is an extreme case of the Soylent gourmet, though nearly all DIYers add flavouring. The minority that bake present soylent at it’s most marketable – a malleable dietary supplement.
Brian, 22, exalts the time-saving benefits of a liquid diet. “Soylent requires five minutes to prepare and consume… For the first time in history it will be easier to have a perfect diet than to stop by McDonald’s.” The lifestyle Soylent touts synchs with modern life – non-existent lunchtimes spent working at computers, cash-poor time-poor workers and fear-mongering over health issues are common facets of the everyday. Soylent is a logistical dream compared to the relentless planning, gathering and preparation of daily healthy meals.
Comparisons between Soylent and other meal replacement shakes evoke the same response from all Rhinehart disciples. “Meal replacement shakes do not do not attempt to provide all of the nutritional molecules required by human metabolism”, explains Brian, “or provide any of them in the correct ratios”. Isaac adds that “Replacing your food intake with the current crop of shakes is not only potentially bad for your health, but phenomenally expensive.”
These people have a lot of faith in Soylent but the project remains experimental. Rhinehart used himself as guinea pig in an initial 30 day trial, chronicled online. While honing the formula Rob gave himself three different overdose poisonings, experienced heart palpitations and iron deficiency. Adjusting the formula in accordingly, his clearer skin, higher energy levels and improved athletic stamina inspired him to persevere. Following the trial, Rhinehart invited readers and journalists to beta-test his concoction themselves.
First hand accounts from beta testers are mixed. The more unpleasant side effects included chronic gas for Ars Technica’s Lee Hutchinson and Brian Merchant of Vice Motherboard found his Soylent-fuelled body ill-equipped for the ravages of stimulants like caffeine and alcohol. Experiences from the DIY community are more overwhelmingly positive. Consumers are able to control their weight and experience improved energy, finding exercise easier. Some members report stronger libido, though are likely cockblocked by the Soylent-induced stinkbreath (another unfortunate side effect).
It’s impossible to imagine Soylent existing without the internet. After peaking interest thorough his blog Rhinehart decided to crowdfund the entire project. A video was released pitching the ‘free your body’ concept to potential investors. Within three hours the $100,000 target was reached . The current investment stands at $2,000,000 from 20,000 internet backers. Money comes from consumers and venture capitalists, all keen for a stake in future food.
Soylent’s success as a social phenomenon is testimony to the power of the internet. The product is due for launch in April or May but already has a legion of followers. Arguably the real genius is in Rhinehart’s branding of Soylent; the marketing is more tech product than whole food. This reaches a new market of hackers intent on efficiency, intrepid information gatherers without the resources to invest in the organic movement. Soylent hits these people in their favourite hangout- the internet. Community plays the most important role. Described by a user named Morgan as “one of the most reliable hubs of nutritional information on the internet”, Soylent’s discussion board is a library of first hand accounts documenting the positives and negatives of a liquid diet. The concept is far from mainstream but insight into a clique where Soylent has become the norm strips the initial insanity from the idea. Regardless the veracity of Soylent’s status as the future of food, as a product it tackles some of society’s most pressing concerns.
Featured Image: Soylent, inset images: Soylent, DIY Solent
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