I've been fascinated with Soylent ever since I first heard about it. I've been thinking about trying it for a few months, but have yet to pull the trigger. Here are my preliminary thoughts on the benefits and drawbacks of undertaking a Soylent-based diet.
The Benefits
1. No Thinking
It's quite stressful thinking about what to eat every meal. There are lots of competing forces that make the decision about what to eat quite a mental burden. With Soylent all of these micro thoughts just stop occurring, and you drink Soylent.
2. Saves Time
I spend about an hour or two every day obtaining and eating food. I wouldn't go as far as to say it's a complete waste - for instance it's nice to get outside and walk around the block when I pick up lunch everyday - but there are probably more productive or enjoyable ways I could be spending this time. Drinking Soylent will give me the choice of how I spend that time.
3. Saves Money
Living in New York City is very expensive. I spend an embarrassingly large amount of money on food (although not as much as some of my friends). With Soylent it costs only $9/day - which is substantially less than I spend now. Drinking Soylent would save me thousands of dollars per year!
4. Engineering Your Body
I love the concept of 'engineering' the human body. The low tech form is just eating and exercising - which is still cool. But with Soylent, at least in the promotional material, the longer term vision seems to be figuring out exactly what the human body needs to thrive, and then making that chemically. It's totally not there yet, but I'm fascinated at the research that will be done in this space. Buying Soylent, in a small way, supports this effort.
5. Solving Global Food Issues
Food is a huge and multi-fasciated global issue. Despite all the technology and wealth of the world, almost a billion people are still food insecure. Rising food prices have even been linked to the Arab Spring. We are still in need of solutions that make food abundant and affordable. Outside of the box thinking, with Soylent as an example, could be part of the solution to solving global food issues.
6. Nutritional Knowledge
I like the idea of measuring things, and am excited about the burgeoning quantified self movement. However, one measurement that is very tricky to obtain is what you are putting into your body in terms of food. With Soylent it's dead easy - and this critical piece of information is provided to you.
The Drawbacks
1. No Chewing
Are there special chemical interactions that come with the chewing process that are beneficial to your health? What will happen if I don't chew food for an extended period of time? I searched the internet for what I'm dubbing "soft jaw", but didn't find anything.
2. No Variety
I'm probably more likely than most people to be able to eat the same thing over and over without going crazy. However, I'm skeptical that I could be satisfied drinking Soylent all day every day indefinately. Maybe in the future they will figure out ways to deliver different flavors, textures, and tastes but for now it's just vanilla cake batter.
3. Completely Unproven
Is consuming Soylent healthy and safe? There haven't been any long term studies on what happens to humans that consume Soylent for an extended period of time. There are a whole host of unknowns that worry me about eating in a way that could potentially have negative long term consequences.
4. Inexperienced Company
I watched this short documentary about Soylent by VICE last year. I was pretty disturbed at the unsanitary facilities and moldy Soylent packages that were discovered. It is also a company run by mid-twenties engineers with no medical or nutritonal expertise. It's hard to know if we are dealing with visionaries or people that are in dangerously over their heads. With normal startups, it wouldn't be a big deal, but this is a startup that provides the very stuff that would be keeping me alive as I consumed their product. There is still a huge trust threshold that they have yet to cross in my mind.
5. Side Effects
Apparently Soylent causes nasty gas. If the company hasn't rectified this, it's a non-starter for me.
6. Against Evolution
This is perhaps where I'm most skeptical. Humans evolved eating food - real food from plants and animals. Taking chemicals and making it into powder as the only form of sustinence goes against everything that humans were evolved to do. The world may be changing fast, but humans as a species are not. I'd like to pause before abandoning a practice (eating food) that we've been doing throughout our history.