It was pretty hard to explain this one to my parents. What did I mean I was drinking dinner? What is “Soylent”? Had I absolutely lost it?
I’ve decided to write this post after feeling like a broken record when I explain the reasons to people, especially since it seems to come up more frequently (the straw that broke the camel’s back was someone who introduced me as “the guy that doesn’t eat food”).
For those of you unfamiliar, I occasionally will drink meal replacement shakes through the week, either instead of meals or to supplement them. The most common brands I drink are “Soylent” — which is designed to give you exactly the nutrients needed in a 2400 calorie diet — and “Mosaic Nutrition” — a customizable version of meal replacement where you can alter the proportions.
Here are the main reasons I drink these shakes
- It’s extremely quick and requires no preparation, thought, or cooking.
- It’s a great supplement when you haven’t eaten your fill
- It’s cheap — at $5 a meal
- It’s portable in the pre-mixed bottles
I should make it clear that I don’t replace ALL of my meals with these shakes, realistically it’s closer to two meals a week. Here are some scenarios to better understand when I drink it.
- I don’t have time to cook breakfast, and therefore my options are either don’t eat breakfast, get something quick (and most likely greasy) from the deli, or drink a shake.
- I decided to order something that turned out to be much smaller than I thought — the shakes are a great supplement
- I want to put on some weight, but rather than cook extra meals I instead drink a shake around 4 PM
- I’m leaving work and by the time I’m heading home it’s late (post 9pm). The options are to order something unhealthy from a late night take-out place, not eat, or drink a shake.
These are just some of the very real scenarios I’m sure most people go through, and shakes like Soylent and Mosaic are a game changer there — especially if you’re at all health conscious.
On a more macro level, Soylent lets you polarize your meals into two categories — the meals where you’re eating for sustenance (ie. eating lunch at your desk, cooking at home and eating, etc.) and meals which are events (going out with friends, eating at nice restaurants). You can actually save money by replacing some of the meals in the former category with meal replacement shakes, so that you actually have more money to spend in the latter. A big mental shift here is that not all meals actually taste good or are worth eating. After drinking soylent for a while, it actually becomes a more preferable option to a cold cut sandwich for me personally (which has never blown my mind as a food, though others may have a special affinity to Boar’s Head).
Here are some FAQs to answer:
What does soylent taste like?
Soylent tastes a bit like pancake batter before it’s cooked. It definitely takes a drink or two to get used to, but it grows on you and after a while you actually start liking the taste (similar to the first time you had a beer).
Are you full after you drink them?
Surprisingly, yes! If I’m really hungry I’ll have to drink extra, but I’m equally satiated drinking these shakes as I am when I eat non-heavy meals (though I do notice I become hungry somewhat quicker).
How can you drink it when you don’t even know what’s in it?
How well do you know what’s going into your food today? At least with these shakes, they’re under such scrutiny in the first place that they make a concerted effort to be very public with their ingredients.
Don’t you miss food? How can you replace the taste of food?
Like I said, I only fully replace my meals occasionally. I still am a huge foodie! I love going to restaurants, trying new places, etc. It’s the “throwaway” meals that I tend to replace. I also don’t bring Soylent bottles to restaurants, so please don’t disinvite me.
Are you planning to replace all of your meals with these shakes?
Absolutely not. We don’t understand our body chemistry enough for me to believe that we can create full replacements, especially since it’s based on current limited knowledge. If you’re curious, there are plenty of people that have done this. However, my use case will always be alongside regular meals.
Are you on any…medications?
Just my asthma inhaler occasionally, it’s sports induced
Any other notes about the shakes that I should know?
I wouldn’t drink if you fully replaced a meal, it definitely does not hold alcohol as well as I would have thought.
If you have any questions about meal replacement shakes, feel free to reach out to me on twitter @nikillinit