I recall a science book, as a kid, that speculated that future people would just pop pills everyday instead of eating real food, but also noted that “it is unlikely that people would be willing to give up the enjoyment of food.”
Supposing that there were massive savings in time and money (let’s say that futuristic nutrient pills cost no more than Tylenol and saved you a great deal of time in cooking food, grocery shopping, dishwashing, etc.) but there was zero pleasure to be had in swallowing these pills, would the pros outweigh the cons to you?
I…err…can’t do it. Even though it would be massive $$ saved, I would miss the real food too much. I can see many people in the military in combat, or astronauts, or people below the poverty line, though, for whom this would be very useful.
I’d keep a supply around for backpacking or as meal replacements but all the time? Never. Not ever ever gonna happen. I like food–I like to shop for it, prepare it AND eat it so yeah, no thanks.
I doubt it’s possible to pack enough calories into pills. And imagine (if that issue was solved) if you’re hungry and pigged out and ate twice as many pills? You would gain weight so fast!
Pills aren’t as tasty as food. Or if they are, you swallow or chew them so fast you won’t enjoy them nearly as much.
Many people do not like artificial or unfamiliar food. They might not like fake meat, or juiced vegetables, or textureless food, etc.
If this “food” became common, and much cheaper than natural food, I might buy this for lunch, just to save time at work. Maybe even breakfast (again to save time). But certainly not dinner. I wouldn’t invite friends out to chow down pills either. And what would I snack on?
The pill would need to contain nutritive value perfectly optimized for my body, remove my desire to eat food, and counteract any physiological effects of not eating (such as intestinal difficulties). And, yes, it would need to be cheap and easy to obtain. It would also need an established history - I won’t be the first jumping on that bandwagon.
my aunt who actually hates eating and tries to eat as little as possible would love this …me on the other hand …
Dont they have something like this for people who can’t physically eat ? I know the prescription version of ensure (or something like it) was supposed to have enough nutrition in it so you only had to consume it once or twice a day via iv tube…
I could handle it for a few days a week to save time or money or at times when I’m by myself for days but to me cooking/food is something I enjoy and eating something I share; use socially with friends and family. I could never give it up for good and ever.
If you only take pills for your nutrition your teeth will fall out and your intestinal tract will get messed up in numerous ways, probably making it difficult for you to ever eat normally again.
Right, but let’s assume that the pills make your body work healthily and perfectly fine. The thread is simply asking about the cost-benefit of the pleasure people get from actual food, versus the monetary savings and time saving and energy saving of just swallowing a few pills instead. Nothing about health or medical aspects.
Pills are rather small, but people do consume energy bars/energy paste/energy shakes/survival hardtack for special purposes. (But who does that instead of every single meal?) There was the guy who tried to live on nothing but Primate Chow, who got really sick of it after less than a week, because he didn’t realize that apes are not given only the Primate Chow, they get fresh fruit and other treats also. But that is a good example of the lack of appetite for eating the same astronaut food day after day after day, not to mention those energy bars cost a fortune compared to a sack of rice or whatever. If you don’t like preparing food and do like spending money, eating at restaurants comes to mind long before food pills, plus you get to try different things all the time.
I could do it as a form of weightloss and for weight maintenance. If it really could alleviate my hunger on a 2000 calorie diet I’d lose 2 pounds per week for the first year and then it would take another year to get down to about 5% body fat. I’d take two years of my only suffering being not having the pleasure of food. Then doing pills one week per month would be any easy way to maintain.
Not in a million years. The OP mentions money and time savings, but food is my hobby, my pleasure. i actively choose to spend the lion share of my disposable income on food experiences. I look forward to the weekends because it means I can spend time making yoghurt and flat breads and cooking elaborate dinners which take hours, or even days, to prepare.