# Why don't nutritious human food pellets exist **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 20, 2013, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795 "2013-05-20T06:31:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/21 "2013-05-20T12:49:04Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > I most definitely would. Imagine the time that would be saved! How would it save time? You’d still have to eat platefuls of the stuff. Sure, you’d save time preparing it, but you can do that already by just buying ready-to-eat foods. Were you imagining something really compact like ‘food pills’? Because that’s just not realistic. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/22 "2013-05-20T13:07:21Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Everything else sounds like a waste of time, too. To each, their own. I know I dislike taking time out from other stuff to eat. I don’t hate food or anything. I would probably like it if it were an optional activity like going out or drinking alcohol. I could choose how often to take time out for it. It would be great! > [@Mangetout](#): > > How would it save time? You’d still have to eat platefuls of the stuff. Sure, you’d save time preparing it, but you can do that already by just buying ready-to-eat foods. > > Were you imagining something really compact like ‘food pills’? Because that’s just not realistic. > [@Tangent](#): > > I’d give you two weeks (probably less) before you’re so tired of it you’d never want to eat it again. I was indeed imagining compact stuff like pills. The guy linked upthread by **Mostly clueless** has made a shake with every required nutrient that he drinks (and has been drinking exclusively for three months). That too would save time in both preparation and consumption and would suit my purposes. I have absolutely no trouble in imagining that I could easily switch to consuming shakes exclusively for sustenance, and eat occasionally if I felt like it. He’s about to launch a crowdfunding venture. I will pledge if he seems to have the business chops to bring something like this to market. I may pledge anyway just to express support for the idea. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/23 "2013-05-20T13:14:03Z")
Too early for “Soylent Green”? ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/24 "2013-05-20T13:15:29Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > Too early for “Soylent Green”? I’m not sure if you’re aware, but the guy in the link, Rob Rhinehart I believe, has gone ahead and called his shake Soylent 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![chargerrich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chargerrich/32/5399_2.png) [@chargerrich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chargerrich)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/25 "2013-05-20T14:24:16Z")
I always thought that perhaps my [Zone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZonePerfect) bars where rather like an all inclusive meal bar. Now that I am trying to get back to college and former running weight, I eat these for breakfast and lunch and only have a single “real” meal, five days a week. I would think I could survive on only these, given their composition but I am no expert. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/26 "2013-05-20T14:28:02Z")
Space Food Sticks. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/27 "2013-05-20T15:30:18Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > I was indeed imagining compact stuff like pills. The guy linked upthread by **Mostly clueless** has made a shake with every required nutrient that he drinks (and has been drinking exclusively for three months). That too would save time in both preparation and consumption and would suit my purposes. I have absolutely no trouble in imagining that I could easily switch to consuming shakes exclusively for sustenance, and eat occasionally if I felt like it. He’s about to launch a crowdfunding venture. I will pledge if he seems to have the business chops to bring something like this to market. I may pledge anyway just to express support for the idea. I read the article, but couldn’t see where he said _how much of the stuff_ he’s needing to drink per day. From experience - when I had a severe dental problem and could not take solid food - it’s not especially convenient or time-saving ingesting your daily nutriment in liquid form. I survived on a thick shake made from peanut butter, milk powder, full-fat cream, bananas, soya milk and fortified with vitamins - I could only drink 500ml of this before feeling very full up - and it wasn’t enough - I lost weight at a rate of up to a couple of pounds a day. ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/28 "2013-05-20T15:34:29Z")
Liquid forms of “human chow” do exist; they’re how we keep severely ill hospital patients alive. But they’re certainly not anything you’d want to consume voluntarily. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/29 "2013-05-20T16:27:14Z")
People (In America, at least) generally have three meals a day; breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You could have three meals designed to complement each other, so that over the course of a day you’d get complete nutrition. Maybe then you’d be able to make each of them more palatable. In the morning, you pour a box of BreakFast into a bowl. At Noon you tear open a bar of Lunch. Then at 6:00 you cut yourself a nice, thick slab of Dinner, smugly thinking how _your_ meals have much more variety than **PSXer** ’s. ---
**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 20, 2013, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/30 "2013-05-20T17:50:14Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I read the article, but couldn’t see where he said _how much of the stuff_ he’s needing to drink per day. > > From experience - when I had a severe dental problem and could not take solid food - it’s not especially convenient or time-saving ingesting your daily nutriment in liquid form. I survived on a thick shake made from peanut butter, milk powder, full-fat cream, bananas, soya milk and fortified with vitamins - I could only drink 500ml of this before feeling very full up - and it wasn’t enough - I lost weight at a rate of up to a couple of pounds a day. I would like to have this recipe. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/31 "2013-05-20T18:25:55Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > If they can make a single all-inclusive food for dogs then why can’t they do the same for humans? > > It would make life much easier. 1. They do and it isn’t wonderful 2. No it wouldn’t. The market for such an item would be so limited as to make it totally impractical to develop and market profitably. The overwhelming majority of people on the planet _like_ eating. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/32 "2013-05-20T18:30:53Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > If they can make a single all-inclusive food for dogs then why can’t they do the same for humans? > > It would make life much easier. Aren’t nutritious human food pellets called “breakfast cereal?” Bachelors have subsisted on the stuff for generations. When my cupboard has little else, there’s 3 types of Total in there for quick rations. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/33 "2013-05-20T19:51:53Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > I would like to have this recipe. From memory, it was something like: 50g smooth peanut butter 50g skimmed milk powder 100g banana 100ml double cream 2 tablespoons chocolate powder Soya or oat milk - top up to 500ml blend smooth using a hand blender - I also added a teaspoon of a vitamin-enriched drink powder I bought at the Pharmacy, but if you’re not actually restricted to a liquid diet, you could take a pill. 500ml of this stuff works out to be about 650 to 700 calories - and it’s not especially well-balanced (short on protein, very short on fibre). I could only manage one portion at lunchtime, plus a can of soup in the evening, as I still wasn’t very hungry. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/34 "2013-05-20T20:07:40Z")
I eat the same thing for breakfast and for lunch five days a week and I have no problem with it. I think people are thinking we’d eat the same thing EVERY SINGLE MEAL and most of us don’t want to do that. I’d love to have some tasty healthy thing to eat for breakfast and for lunch and then be able to have dinner of my choice. ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/35 "2013-05-20T20:10:26Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I eat the same thing for breakfast and for lunch five days a week and I have no problem with it. That’s…unimaginable…at least for me. I get bored of things _so_ easily when it comes to eating. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/36 "2013-05-20T20:11:27Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > 1. They do and it isn’t wonderful > > 2. No it wouldn’t. The market for such an item would be so limited as to make it totally impractical to develop and market profitably. The overwhelming majority of people on the planet _like_ eating. I love eating, but if I was still working I would seriously consider 2 meals a day of this stuff with a regular dinner …wait, isn’t that the old nutrisystem [or some such diet plan, medifast maybe? I never did them, just gt stuck at work listening to people discussing them] ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/37 "2013-05-20T20:29:10Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > Would you really choose to eat some homogenized food pellet for every meal when there are a wide variety of choices available? Hell yes! Food is boring. Thinking about food is boring. Preparing food and cleaning up its detritus is boring. I’d gladly give that up to have more time for just about anything. > [@BigT](#): > > I know this board has more than a few people who say they would do it, though, but I have a feeling that’s because they lack the imagination and/or the experience to know what it would be like. They aren’t the type who give food very much thought–as they just eat for sustenance–so it doesn’t dawn on them how much eating the same thing all the time would suck. We’ve evolved as omnivores, and thus naturally seek out variety in our diets. Yeah, we also evolved to live in holes in the ground and crap while we run through the forests, but some of us have moved past that. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/38 "2013-05-20T20:32:21Z")
Pretty much, you can do this on Kashi Golean Crunch. And, it’s tasty. Yes, you will need some Vitamin water too. But the cereal has plenty of fiber, vitamins and protein. So yeah, if you are sitting at your game (I know why this question is asked)for 20 hours a day, boxes of his, plus some Vit C vitamin water (or just a pill) will keep you alive and regular for a long time. The lack of exercise will do you in, however. Thumbs don’t count. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/39 "2013-05-20T21:03:09Z")
I don’t think the boredom problem would necessarily be an obstacle. There could be seven different flavors of Food Loaf, one for each day of the week. The OP could try baby formula, I suppose. It tastes nasty, but a little Wild Turkey improves it. > [@Sudden\_Kestrel](#): > > Yeah, we also evolved to … crap while we run through the forests… Is that why I keep doing that? Man, my cross-country team _hated_ me. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795/40 "2013-05-20T21:08:57Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > I don’t think the boredom problem would necessarily be an obstacle. There could be seven different flavors of Food Loaf, one for each day of the week. > > The OP could try baby formula, I suppose. It tastes nasty, but a little Wild Turkey improves it. > > Is that why I keep doing that? Man, my cross-country team _hated_ me. But at least the bear never caught you!😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-nutritious-human-food-pellets-exist/658795.md?page=3)