I’ve been asked many questions about Soylent and my recipe, so here’s an FAQ:
Why are you bothering with this? Do you hate food that much?
No, the opposite, I love food! That’s how I got to be 160kg, man. Soylent is just a way to eat something without thinking about to eat, or choosing something unhealthy so I can lose weight. It’s like those weight loss shakes, just better for me in the long term.
Will you eat nothing but soylent forever?
No – not even the dude that invented Soylent does that. The way Rob describes his relationship with food now describes how I feel too:
“I like beer, but I usually drink water. I love walking through the city, but I usually take the bus. I love conversation, but I still send a lot of emails. I find separating utility from leisure increases my enjoyment of both. Personally, I enjoy food, there are just many things I enjoy more. I get far more enjoyment out of a Stephen Pinker book or a jazz band than a fancy dinner. I’d rather build a ham radio or learn a new programming language than plan a meal. Asking me to cook is like asking a chef to program. It’s not for everybody, but I respect their passion and skill. I want cooking to be a hobby and a profession, like photography, not a necessity. Now I have the freedom to spend more time on the things I want to do. When I do want a nice meal I’ll happily pay someone to cook who is actually good at it.”
I’ll still share meals with my partner when we find the chances to eat at the same time, or when I’m not at home (I’m not carrying a bottle of Soylent around with me!) – the bulk of my food will probably be soylent.
Aren’t you scared you’ll get sick or die?
This is probably the most common question I’ve been asked. Simply put – I’ve managed to eat pretty poorly the past 29 years, and besides from being fat, I’m healthy. There are people in third world countries with awful diets, yet they manage to live. The human body is amazingly resilient. Experimenting with some healthy food chucked in a blender isn’t going to hurt me, let alone kill me. If anything weird happens, I’ll stop and go to a doctor.
Isn’t it a concern that the food isn’t solid?
This was my first thought too. Wouldn’t your shit just turn into a liquid diarrhea mess? Apparently not. Rob had a similar thought and posted this in regards to not eating solid food:
One may think a liquid diet could affect the GI tract in the long term but gastroenterologists seem to agree this is not the case. The body turns ingested food to liquid quite quickly anyways.
Plus it’s not like I’d be eating Soylent exclusively – I really like solid food!
That’s a lot of calories in your recipe!
It’s what the NHMRC recommend for my activity level, age, gender and height.
Many of the items in your recipe are over 100%, what does that mean?
The NHMRC have a recommended amount and an upper limit for most nutrients. You obviously need 100% of a certain nutrient, but if you get say, 300% of a nutrient (i.e: 3x times the recommended amount), there won’t be any side effects unless you exceed the upper limit. What happens when you exceed the upper limit depends on the nutrient. Some are relatively harmless, some are quite serious. Either way, as long as you keep under the upper limit, you’re cool. Some nutrients don’t have an upper limit – this means the NHMRC couldn’t find any evidence to suggest anything will go wrong if you have a significant amount of that nutrient.
There’s a lot of sugar in your recipe!
That’s true, there is a lot of sugar (100g – 25g/serving), but it is low GI sugar and a great way to sweeten the mix and obtain low GI carbohydrates. It has to be CSR LoGiCane sugar – any other sugar is not low GI.