Why I’m Trying Soylent

When I first learned about Soylent, I was very intrigued. Soylent is a new “liquid food” that is meant to be a complete source of nutrition for the body in powder form. It is a mixture of all the essential vitamins and minerals we normally consume through eating food. The powder is simply mixed with water and drunk around meal time and can be used to completely remove solid foods from the diet if the person so chooses.

This to me is very attractive for many reasons, so I ordered myself a two week supply. After ordering, many people have asked me why I would want to try something like this. There are a few reasons:

• I don’t enjoy cooking. To me, cooking is a burdensome process that takes time away from other activities I would rather be doing. It’s simply not a fulfilling activity for me (beyond the physical sustenance of course).
• Eating is a waste of my time. I mainly eat alone in my apartment, so rather than staring at a wall while I eat, I try to multi-task. Eating and doing anything else productive though, is a difficult task. I usually end up watching TV or YouTube videos rather than accomplishing anything productive.
• Food costs money. When I look at my monthly expenses, food takes up the vast majority of what I pay for (not including monthly bills, rent, and student loan payments). If I were to eliminate most of these food expenses from my budget, I would have a lot more money to spend on other turns I more enjoy. Soylent is a much less expensive alternative.
• My allergies make eating difficult. This may be the most important reason for me. I have a few serious health concerns (Lyme disease chief among them) that have caused me to develop multiple food allergies (corn, milk, egg whites, gluten, soy, and wheat to name a few). This makes finding food that won’t cause me problems a difficult and frustrating hassle.

I don’t plan on eliminating food from my life completely, as I think it can serve a very important social function. Eating and experiencing a meal together with friends or relatives can be a very worthwhile activity, and I plan on continuing in that regard. For the vast majority of my meals though, they will be in liquid form.

Now, I’ve heard about as many arguments against Soylent as I have for it, so I’ve decided that the only way I’m going to actually find out if it works is to try it for myself. If it works as advertised, I see it as a way to save myself time and money, and also potentially improve my general health.

I plan on writing here about my experiences drinking Soylent when it finally ships to my door in late September. If nothing else, it will be an interesting experiment.