Recently read this article regarding Soylent, the “food” of the future. It’s a mixture of the three macronutrients (carbs, fat, and protein) in the proportions we need for survival. You drink it for sustenance instead of eating normal meals like we usually do. You no longer think about preparing meals, what to eat, where to eat, how much to spend on food. You just mix the powdery substance into a slurry and sip throughout the day. The rationale is summarized in this excerpt:
Rhinehart, who is twenty-five, studied electrical engineering at Georgia Tech, and he began to consider food as an engineering problem. “You need amino acids and lipids, not milk itself,” he said. “You need carbohydrates, not bread.” Fruits and vegetables provide essential vitamins and minerals, but they’re “mostly water.” He began to think that food was an inefficient way of getting what he needed to survive. “It just seemed like a system that’s too complex and too expensive and too fragile,” he told me.
Soylent does raise some interesting ideas and brings new light onto nutrition today. Is food overrated? Are we placing too much focus into eating?
Is it better to drink a meal replacement complete with essential nutrients, or would we be better off consuming actual food that may not represent a balanced meal?
Most importantly, the debate on Soylent is bringing nutrition education into focus. People are trying to create their own versions of the nutrient drink, doing research into what our bodies need, experimenting and talking about vitamins and minerals. This is GREAT. Better to discuss and learn than to sit around blindly telling each other what the perfect diet should be.
What do you think? Is Soylent a positive win for society?
positiveeats.wordpress.com 