# Soylent™ apparently is neither green, nor made of people? Inquire Within... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 22, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-apparently-is-neither-green-nor-made-of-people-inquire-within/659041 "2013-05-22T17:26:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-apparently-is-neither-green-nor-made-of-people-inquire-within/659041/21 "2013-05-23T07:30:53Z")
> [@nion](#): > > I for one enjoy pooping… I take that back, I do too. Nothing like the moment of solitude and the great feeling after taking a healthy dump. However, I probably enjoy sleep too much. Love my naps. But damn if I don’t have a bit of guilt for crashing on the couch or sleeping in far too late when I should really get my ass moving. I blame my shitty-ass diet. Speaking of which, if there was a meal-supplement that would help give my body more of what it needs and less of what it doesn’t… Oh, nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-apparently-is-neither-green-nor-made-of-people-inquire-within/659041/22 "2013-05-23T07:36:18Z")
> [@Critical1](#): > > given that they say there are no known allergens in the stuff and that soy is a top 10 food allergen I would guess not. > > [http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/food-allergies/AA00057](http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/food-allergies/AA00057) > > but then again who knows No, you’re probably right. Reading a tad further, it looks like he’s creating this powder from very fundamental organic and vitamin compounds, minerals salts and fatty acids such as olive and fish oils (among other things such as probiotics and antioxidants). Sounds delectable! ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-apparently-is-neither-green-nor-made-of-people-inquire-within/659041/23 "2013-05-23T10:23:09Z")
There has been discussion of the product in a very recent thread on “[Why don’t nutritious human food pellets exist](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=691430)”. I’m all for this idea, as I stated in the other thread as well. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-apparently-is-neither-green-nor-made-of-people-inquire-within/659041/24 "2013-05-23T13:38:47Z")
> [@April\_R](#): > > I think there maybe some serious digestive consequences to this. The human body needs to poop wether we like to or not. This product actually causes you to poop less,which may be detrimental to colon health. IANAD but that is MHO What if one took fiber pills while using this stuff? Would that be good enough? I wonder what it tastes like. He says it’s nummy but he doesn’t say what it tastes like. I’d feel better about this if he were a chem major or a nutrition major and not a computer major. I am actually considering ordering a week’s supply of this stuff. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-apparently-is-neither-green-nor-made-of-people-inquire-within/659041/25 "2013-05-23T14:03:13Z")
Look, I love food, and I enjoy cooking. However, I’m also morbidly obese with bouts of severe depression and a chaser of ADHD. This means, for me, that eating healthy is an enormous challenge, and one that I had better master, or my life will be cut short by a decade or more. If I could remove food from the equation long enough to get the weight off for three years and then slowly add it back into my diet until I reached a happy equilibrium, I would be all _over_ that shit. One dollar a serving? Unless you need twenty to thirty servings a day, that’s more than affordable in comparison to fast food and eating out. The only worry I see is how to ensure all the phytonutrients and micronutrients are included when I doubt we even know what they all are yet. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-apparently-is-neither-green-nor-made-of-people-inquire-within/659041/26 "2013-05-23T22:51:41Z")
If he’s making it from raw proteins, fats, etc, how is he making it taste good? When I read your description, I just assumed that it would taste horrible. And I know how hard it is to stay on a diet with food you don’t like. If you can’t stay on healthy foods now, it would be much harder if all the food didn’t taste good. I’m not exactly sure I see why this is so expensive when there are so many other similar products out there. I don’t get why this is getting so much backing. I’ve seen stuff like this in health food catalogs. I figured this was going to be really cheap or something. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-apparently-is-neither-green-nor-made-of-people-inquire-within/659041/27 "2013-05-23T23:44:56Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > Sadly, that’s just how tons and tons of people think of food. > > Most people find no joy in exploring new flavors, new types of food, find any joy in cooking and creating and baking, etc. I’m not directly accusing you, but it’s ironic that so many of the people who get very sarcastic and cutting about others not being into food will out of hand dismiss things like sports as a waste of time. I’m just not that into food. Please, give me a way to iterrupt the constant freaknig gnawing in my gut that I seem sort of cursed to deal with a few times every day. And preparing food? Spending all that time for something I’m not that into in the first place? Urg. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-apparently-is-neither-green-nor-made-of-people-inquire-within/659041/28 "2013-05-23T23:58:05Z")
If it’s any better than Ensure, there are thousands of Elders and people with chewing and swallowing difficulties right here in the US who would benefit from it. Sometimes it’s not a matter of not wanting to chew, it’s an \*inability \*to chew. Current meal replacement drinks leave a lot to be desired, both in terms of actually being complete nutrition and in patient acceptance. ---
**Author:** ![Rubixcube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Rubixcube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubixcube)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-apparently-is-neither-green-nor-made-of-people-inquire-within/659041/29 "2013-05-24T00:35:30Z")
I see quite a bit of use for this, and I enjoy food quite a bit. Do you make yourself a proper high quality meal three times a day seven times a week? Of course not. Sometimes you don’t want to cook. Sometimes you just grab whatever to fill your stomach due to time restraints. This is a better alternative. I’d rather drink a bland shake (tastes of cake batter according to the folks [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8WpksPED_Q)) than some shitty something or other that’s both unpleasant _and_ terrible for me. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-apparently-is-neither-green-nor-made-of-people-inquire-within/659041/30 "2013-05-24T00:39:24Z")
There’s no chance I would ever buy into anything without being able to read an ingredients list, and in this case, a nutritional analysis, first. How can they be selling this stuff without that labeling? How do they know it will be shelf stable for so long when they’ve only been making it for a few months, and in small batches? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soylent-apparently-is-neither-green-nor-made-of-people-inquire-within/659041.md?page=1)