Posted on 04/29/2014 1:43:32 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Rob Rhinehart invented Soylent—a beverage that he claims contains all necessary nutrients—as a food replacement. The first batch is shipping this month.
“I was 6 or 7,” Rob Rhinehart began, “and I guess my mother was serving salad. I was looking down at a plate with these leaves on it. I could look outside and see leaves on the trees, and it just seemed a little weird. It seemed a little primitive - like something an animal would do. On this nice plate, in this nice house, why would I eat this thing that grows on trees? I thought, ‘We can do better.’”
“Better,” for the now 25-year-old Rhinehart, is Soylent, a beige beverage that he claims contains every nutrient the body needs. With tongue firmly in cheek, he named it after the ubiquitous food substitute Soylent Green found in the dystopian science fiction movie of the same name. For 30 days, the software engineer turned kitchen chemist consumed nothing but Soylent and reported his progress on a blog. With the help of an enthusiastic online community, he honed his formula, raised $3 million from investors, and is now bringing his product to the market.
I sat down with Rob at a Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles in January to talk about the future of food. He drank black coffee while I sipped Soylent from a chilled metal thermos he had brought.
* * *
This is pretty good. It tastes a bit like unsweetened custard.
What I’ve found is that a lot of people who like the idea, like the taste, and a lot of people who don’t like the idea are repelled by the taste. Because it has so little intrinsic taste, it pretty much comes from your expectation.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Do we have to embrace EVERY plotline for EVERY dystopian novel out there?
The stuff may keep you alive, but it is no substitute for steak and potatoes.
Wait till we get Edward G Robertson lookalike check in LOL!
Well we have achieved 1984 and Idiocracy thanks to modern American exceptional ism it was time to move on.
This guy’s either got the closest shave I’ve ever seen or the Soylent Green is eating at him from the inside out.
Caveat emptor.
Flaw #1 - The body is too complex to be sure that eating/drinking the same thing every day will give you everything you WANT. The human body can survive on very little nutrients so it NEEDS very little. However, thriving is a different story. And thriving is what you WANT.
Flaw #2 - Eating is pleasurable for a variety of reasons. This is the equivalent of reducing sex to a petri dish. Sure, it’s the same result but none of the pleasure.
Good for him, may he enjoy it and live a long and healthy life. I want to eat something that is identifiable as having been hanging from a plant or having scurried around on 4 legs or having flapped its wings.
So are prison kitchens on their way out, too?
While I don’t think I’d want to live on something like this I’m curious about its value as a storable emergency food resource.
I'm not sure. You might want to get Laz's opinion of that.
A little salt, a little pepper and lots of Tabasco sauce will add flavor to even the most repulsive of drinks..........
You've obviously had someone cooking for you for most of your life..................
Live on your own for a number of years and you might change your mind..........LOL!
All the phytoestrogens are turning him into a girl.
LILO liquid in liquid out
Well, I’ve lived on my own for over a decade but 90% of my meals are made by someone else.
Don’t forget the fish!
Personally, I wouldn’t drink anything this guy makes. He looks creepy.
“LILO liquid in liquid out”
Exactly! If people started buying this stuff like crazy, I’d be buying up a lot of Kimberly-Clark stock (makers of Depends and Huggies).
They are going to need them badly.
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