# What benefits would it take for you to eat pills instead of real food? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 27, 2019, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561 "2019-10-27T21:24:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561/41 "2019-10-28T18:59:08Z")
Save time and money by sometimes taking nutritionally-optimized pills instead of eating food? I’d do it, probably quite often. But if I could never eat real food again, I wouldn’t be an early adopter. I’d want other people to try switching before me. Let them figure out the psychological price before I agree to pay it. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561/42 "2019-10-28T19:02:51Z")
Why do the pills provide zero pleasure? If they can somehow pack a full dose of nutrition into the things, surely they have the technology to make them taste like delicious candy. But even if they were just plain pills, I’d switch to them in a heartbeat. I can’t cook (I’m pretty sure me attempting to do so would be a violation of the Geneva convention), and the majority of my diet consists of repetitive store-bought meals that take less than five minutes to prepare and even less time to clean up. Even if I _could_ cook I wouldn’t want to spend more time on it than that; I have better things to do with my time. So yeah, pills for me. The only complication I can see is I have other pills that are supposed to be taken with food. How would _that_ work out? ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561/43 "2019-10-28T19:06:33Z")
I wouldn’t entirely replace all meals, but I’d take a food pill in place of breakfast most mornings and keep some on hand for those days at work where I’m too busy to eat a proper lunch. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561/44 "2019-10-28T19:10:34Z")
I would almost certainly replace some meals with pills if they were equally healthful, provided sufficient satiety, and at similar or lower cost to actual food (including prep time). I don’t think I’d give up eating in general, but there are definitely times when I need to eat something quickly for fuel reasons, and having an easy nutritious pill would be way better than currently available mostly-junk options that are ready to eat immediately. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561/45 "2019-10-28T19:11:21Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Because you somehow know people better than they know themselves?:dubious: I’ll grant that the OP didn’t specify if it is an all or nothing proposition. I wouldn’t like to _never_ have another morsel of food for the rest of my life because, ya know, pizza, but I could easily forgo eating, with only two or three meals a month and the rest just pop a pill. I’m sure there’s someone who would never eat food again, but if it was an all or nothing choice the pills wouldn’t be very popular. OTOH if you get to choose to take a pill when you weren’t interested in exotic mouth-watering foods like pizza then those pills would fly off the shelf. Real food would get real cheap for a short time as people stopped eating as much of it, but once the food producers adjust to the new demand it will get more expensive and the pills will become even more popular. Since these pills have some pretty magical properties already they should be made to magically prevent weight gain, so again, more people will eat them. If it’s a one a day pill it’s not going to be easy to decide to take a pill or eat on any one day, but if it’s a 1 pill per meal system I could see the average person eating only 1 real food meal or less per day, a lot maybe no more than 2 or 3 real food meals a week. A lot of people who didn’t grow up that way, and now forced to eat mostly pills for economic reasons are going to miss real meals though. And if people are starving anywhere in the world with their access to food blocked by evil warlords and the like, we could just fly over and let food pills rain out of the sky. So there are plenty of potential benefits for these imaginary pills, but the concept is very far from reality. I remember this ridiculous future speculation in the first grade in the early 60s. Sounded like a great idea to replace vegetables, but even then I still wanted to eat real fried chicken and hot dogs and grilled cheese sandwiches, and plenty of other food. Incredibly I had not yet ever tasted pizza at that time. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561/46 "2019-10-28T20:04:52Z")
Can I still drink beer? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561/47 "2019-10-28T20:06:43Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Can I still drink beer? Nope. You can only take beer pills. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561/48 "2019-10-28T20:17:54Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Yep, useful for emergencies, but on a daily basis, I would rather they made pills that meant I could comfortably and safely eat ten meals a day Hence your username! ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561/49 "2019-10-28T20:33:11Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Nope. You can only take beer pills. Do the beer pills get you drunk? ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561/50 "2019-10-29T02:06:50Z")
I love to cook and still find it a big pain in the arse. I would gladly forego breakfast and lunch every day, and dinner most days. But I’d have to cook and eat real food often enough to keep my taste buds. Yes, they eventually go away if you don’t use them. I imagine 3-4 dinners per week would do it. The morning pill would have to have some caffeine in it though, or else I’m washing it down with coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561/51 "2019-10-29T02:16:27Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I don’t see how that’s possible. Your body needs not only nutrients, but also fiber: bulk going through to keep the system working. In order to get enough of that in pills, you’d need to swallow such a quantity and size of pills that it would be just like eating a lot of tasteless, hard to swallow meals. Why do that, when you could eat something that tastes good and goes down easily? This does a really good job explaining my concern. In order for pills to serve as my meals, in addition to providing me all of my required nutrients, they’d have to make me feel **full**. ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561/52 "2019-10-29T11:44:38Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > Why do the pills provide zero pleasure? If they can somehow pack a full dose of nutrition into the things, surely they have the technology to make them taste like delicious candy. Can it replace the feel as well as the taste of 15 minutes straight of delicious food? I doubt it. When you swallow a pill, you hardly even taste it. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2019, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561/53 "2019-10-29T11:55:37Z")
While there are certainly foods and meals I very much enjoy, for the most part eating is a chore for me. OTOH, I fucking hate taking pills. What to do… ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2019, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561/54 "2019-10-30T09:39:25Z")
It would have to be part of my joining a spaceship crew. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-benefits-would-it-take-for-you-to-eat-pills-instead-of-real-food/842561.md?page=2)