Sounds like Complan...
Except repackaged for the morbidly curious sickos who think they may be eating people.
In the latest attempt by denizens of Silicon Valley to free themselves from the shackles of normal life, a startup has created a meal replacement substance named "Soylent", and this Reg hack is going to spend the next seven days trying to live entirely off the stuff. Soylent Corporation launched in May with a funding campaign …
The ocean's dying. Plankton's dying. It's people. Soylent Green is made out of people. They're making our food out of people. Next thing, they'll be breeding us like cattle for food. You've gotta tell them. You've gotta tell them!
You tell everybody. Listen to me. You've gotta tell 'em! SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE! We gotta stop them! Somehow! Listen! Listen to me… PLEASE!!!
It's exactly like enteral feeding stuff only much more expensive.......
You can get complete feeds for people who are unable to eat for a lot less than this stuff, a quick google gets you:
http://www.allegromedical.com/dietary-supplements-c522/nutren-1-0-fiber-p548658.html
24 'drinks' for $31, nutritionally complete including fibre.....
There are 3 important tests that you need to do to verify this as a food substitute:
1) Does it have the same effect as a kebab after a night of booze?
2) Does it have the same effect as a bacon sarnie the morning after a night of booze?
3) Can you have it for lunch at your desk without looking like a plonker?
One more thing to watch out for, the after effects of an all Soylent diet. There's no polite way to put this, but how horrific is it on the way out?
It's still new, give it time. It probably hasn't made its way to Scotland yet.
Ach, this isn't even a challenge, you can obviously use it as a batter so we'd probably use it to coat something else a bit more exotic (Mint Poppets anyone?) before the obligatory inadvisable deep frying...
Mind you, for the record, Google deep fried Oreos, deep fried twinkies, deep fried snickers.. The US also has a history of slapping batter on some foodstuffs not normally associated with the antient and noble art of deep frying and just going for it.
"Mind you, for the record, Google deep fried Oreos, deep fried twinkies, deep fried snickers.. The US also has a history of slapping batter on some foodstuffs not normally associated with the antient and noble art of deep frying and just going for it." -- Youtube:Fried Butter on a Stick!
"Mind you, for the record, Google deep fried Oreos, deep fried twinkies, deep fried snickers.. The US also has a history of slapping batter on some foodstuffs not normally associated with the antient and noble art of deep frying and just going for it."
Oh, that's not the US, that's Texas. They'll deep fry anything down there, including their prisoners.
I was once given a pointer by a Scotsman on the proper way to consume porridge (porage).
Boil it up as usual, probably with a lost more salt than you would normally us, and pour it into a drawer. Then when you want to eat it, cut squares of it out of the drawer and fry them.
Can't say it would appeal to me unless made with plenty of chillies.
Can you cook it at all? it looks like batter, so can you make pancakes out of it?
Then you could spice the flavour up with some fried bacon, and sausages, and tomato, scrambled egg, muschrooms, beans, a couple of slices of fried bread, ketchup and HP sauce. Could be a really tasty breakfast. although might be better to leave out the weird-pancake and just have the other stuff :)
I like eating as much as the next guy, but this really appeals to me. In true hipster fashion: I have been following this guy's exploits for a while before he went commercial and it really seems he has a point. His plan is to solve malnutrition in one product and it looks like he has it. But it doesn't replace all eating, he says he likes to have A couple of meals a week and enjoy them rather than being slaves to eating three times a day.
Once he launches in Europe I will be going for it!
Quite frankly, I am amazed that there are people so lazy or lacking of taste so severely as to voluntarily forgo the joy of eating proper food in favour of drinking that baby-milk formula for adults. Maybe the next step is to skip the whole drinking inconvenience and feed it directly over an IV?
Food is not a gas tank refill and nobody is so time-challenged that they can't spend 20-30 minutes a day to prepare proper meals for themselves.
I can understand the utility of this as some kind of emergency rations on ships and space stations, humanitarian supplies to famine zones etc. But as a voluntary food substitute?
Losing the taste of food is losing a part of our humanity IMHO.
Thanks ever so much for telling the rest of us how to live our lives. Do you have any other pearls of wisdom for the rest of us?
Food is exactly a "gas tank refill" - it is digested and provides energy to keep your body going. That some people choose to make a hobby of it is their own choice.
I hope that you grow your own veg and hunt and kill all your meat by hand. After all, food is the most important thing in life so you'd better do a proper job of it.
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Food is not a gas tank refill and nobody is so time-challenged that they can't spend 20-30 minutes a day to prepare proper meals for themselves.
Food is a gas tank refill, as far as our body's concerned. Taste is all about us searching for the best energy-packed food, usually. As for the time-challenged, this is a good option for some types who have jobs where 30 minutes is all you have for eating. Technically, this might be healthier than eating at McD's. Though I'd agree that I'd use it more for emergency rations than everyday eating!
Food is much more than a fuel tank refill. An easy example that shuts down the biological imperative for energy density idea is to look at a child. Even a baby dislikes certain things, regardless of nutritional content. Same with dogs, horses and cats.
Sometimes it is best not to over think things. Life as a whole is pretty straightforward, and although scientist types hate it, not everything has a reason or underlying cause.
"Quite frankly, I am amazed that there are people so lazy or lacking of taste so severely as to voluntarily forgo the joy of eating proper food in favour of drinking that baby-milk formula for adults"
It amazes me that some people assume the whole of humanity is as able as themselves in every respect. It amazes me that some people think their second-rate cooking is worth the time and effort just to get some fuel. It amazes me that some people are so rich in time and money they assume everyone can afford to taste the best food in the world without making some sacrifices.
Not all of us are rich, successful gourmet chefs -- some of us can't eat what we love every day and, instead, choose to fuel our bodies whilst we save the time and money to enjoy things.
"Quite frankly, I am amazed that there are people so lazy or lacking of taste so severely as to voluntarily forgo the joy of eating proper food in favour of drinking that baby-milk formula for adults."
Lacking in taste, or lacking in time and/or skills? The first example to spring to mind: I don't know what proportion of people eats a ten-minute lunch at the desk, but it's probably pretty high (in certain professions, at least).
"Maybe the next step is to skip the whole drinking inconvenience and feed it directly over an IV?"
This is something many people would go for, I'm sure, assuming an IV can actually be made convenient rather than highly invasive.
"Losing the taste of food is losing a part of our humanity IMHO."
But that's not really the point of Soylent, I gather - the point is to get rid of mediocre food so that when we do eat, we eat really well. As Rob himself says, I may enjoy beer, but I don't want to drink it twenty-one times a week.
"This is something many people would go for, I'm sure, assuming an IV can actually be made convenient rather than highly invasive."
That would be really depressing if it's true.
"But that's not really the point of Soylent, I gather - the point is to get rid of mediocre food so that when we do eat, we eat really well."
But, surely, one cannot eat well if his food is a jug of a cold flavoured glue. What can be more mediocre an experience than that? I am just puzzled why would anybody choose a solution which is worse than the original problem.
I know someone who is in his fifties and runs his own business successfully (and therefore presumably isn't a total fool). He exists almost exclusively on low-preparation processed crud: crisps, value brand pasties and nasty microwave meals. He is hugely averse to cooking. I was present the first time he chopped up an onion a couple of years ago and last week he successfully cooked some rice under my instruction, but it's unlikely he'll ever get into the cooking habit and I could see him downing gloop instead and paying handsomely for the "convenience".
Yes, it's pathetic, hence the icon.
IMHO, food should be merely fuel, sex should be merely mechanical procreation. I hope for a future in which we don't *need* to eat, drink, breathe, have sex. I really resent being at the mercy of my biological body, and like like to believe that humanity will be free of it eventually, turning all these things into pass-times, not requirements.
"IMHO, food should be merely fuel, sex should be merely mechanical procreation. I hope for a future in which we don't *need* to eat, drink, breathe, have sex. I really resent being at the mercy of my biological body, and like like to believe that humanity will be free of it eventually, turning all these things into pass-times, not requirements."
You have lost touch with your humanity. I recommend some councilling. You are not a robot and should not aspire to be one.
I like eating as much as the next guy, but this really appeals to me. In true hipster fashion: I have been following this guy's exploits for a while before he went commercial and it really seems he has a point.
If you're a true hipster you won't want anything to do with it now he's went 'commercial'
"His plan is to solve malnutrition in one product and it looks like he has it. "
How can this solve malnutrition in famine-struck tracts of the Third World? It seems to need clean water and a means to refrigerate the final mixture to make it drinkable.
Will the maker be funding such developments with the profits from this gloop?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Colin
Malnutrition isn't always about the third world, to quote the Time article:
"On a trip home to Atlanta, Rhinehart says he came across an elderly neighbor, who had become gaunt with age as he grew too old to continue properly cooking. He realized Soylent might have benefits for other people too."
"“It seemed ridiculous that things have gotten so efficient and streamlined and we have come so far, but we haven’t figure out how to get healthy food to everyone,” says Rhinehart. “In San Francisco, the food and health differences between the poorer and more affluent areas are so clear. It’s not that people don’t know what things are healthy and unhealthy. They don’t have the means.”"
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2013/06/10/soylent-is-the-food-of-the-future-really-a-nutrition-solution/#ixzz2WCdThNUM
It’s not that people don’t know what things are healthy and unhealthy. They don’t have the means.
It's exactly the opposite. Poor people do have the means to eat healthily, they either choose not to, or more likely, don't know how to cook.
£15 - £20 a week ought to be able to feed you quite nicely. Particularly if you've got time to shop around for bargains and make stuff. You won't be eating meat every meal of course, but you should be able to get a balanced diet and have some nice stuff too. That wouldn't get you far in ready meals, or turkey twizzlers - but real food goes a long way. Most of my evening meals come in well under £2 a portion. And if time's tight, it takes the same 20 minutes to make a casserole for 6, as it does to make it for 1, and then you've got 5 frozen ready-meals that are quite healthy.
I think the El reg Special Projects research thingy needs to do a full scale investigation into the effects of eating 200g of each type of biscuit in twenty minuets. Everything from Hobnobs to Jammy Dodgers including dead fly biscuits, Bourbons, Nice and even Fig Rolls!
Maybe get that turd examiner woman from Channel Four involved too if drunk.smile's experiences with custard creams are anything to go by.
...This has not only been done before but has been done better. You should look into Fortisip, PEG tubes and feed pumps.
If you are going to eat gloop - what better way than having it pumped directly into your stomach by a machine via a plastic tube sticking out your belly button?
All very well until the belly-button port gets infected. Icky. Although still less annoying than nasal-gastric tubes (backpacks and litmus paper at the ready).
Much better to have it teleported directly into the stomach. I'm currently working on a device to do this, as architects keep forgetting to make space in their building plans for the water services plant - and the only solution that ever seems acceptable is teleportation. Hmmmm, perhaps I ought to launch my own kickstarter program...
Beer for the inspiration that I expect it to provide me for the rest of the evening.
....err won't this make one rather constipated? I'm no expert on the human digestive system but I thought we needed plenty of roughage to 'help things through'. That looks like a gloopy milkshake to me. Has this been thought through? Will one need extra assistance or will it be quite the opposite? No doubt our intrepid reporter will keep us informed about his movements.......!
Given the attitude of the manufacturer towards "wasting time", I suspect that his attitude will extend to proper bowel movements, and that to reduce that the amount of dietary fibre will be minimal.
So I expect this stuff to give you serious constipation if used for extended periods, and a major bollocking of your intestinal flora, with all unpleasantness (short and long term) attached to that. Unless the manufacturer has miraculously evaded all the associated complications that come with medically indicated and applied liquid nutrition, you can expect *at least* the same long and intermediate term problems.
Would be interesting for a taste comparison to some of the more popular babymilk brands out there.
... or for the yet more cynical, buy some wholesale farming milk substitute that they feed to cattle, and see how similar this stuff is.
I doubt this guy has put huge amounts of work into testing and verifying the contents. It seems more likely he's just found a cunning way to make a quick buck selling milk substitutes to the gullible.
It's basically maltodextrin (a carbohydrate, similar to glucose, but less sweet) and whey (protein powder, a byproduct of cheesemaking) and olive oil and various vitamins and minerals.
Whey is commonly used as a supplement protein source by bodybuilders and other sportspeople (in addition to real foods) and maltodextrin is commonly used in sports energy drinks.
They are OK in addition to a balanced diet of real food, but I wouldn't like to survive solely off them.
and call it "Sin". Looks and sounds bloody awful but for those who find eating a chore I'm sure it will be ideal. In fact it looks exactly like those diet shakes that various companies were flogging a few years back. If it tastes anything like them then eating your own sick is preferable,... and the after effects will turn you into a human hovercraft called Mr RumptyPumpty Bottyburp Fartypants. The icon is what happens when you walk past a naked flame.
As somehow who spent 5 months on a VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet) drinking nothing but water and eating nothing but meal replacement shakes and soups, which are pretty similar to this stuff, I can assure you it's perfectly possible to live without real food for extended periods. Not much fun, but doable.
My advice would be get yourself a really, really good food mixer, I went through a fair few before I found one that mixed the powder in a sensible amount of time and was rugged enough to survive so much use.
Uncle Slacky, that can only be done with certain varieties of potatoes. Perhaps the most (in)famous of those is the Lumper, which for that very reason was widely grown for domestic consumption in Ireland in past centuries, and which was nearly wiped out by Phytophthora infestans in the 1840s. I think that a descendant of the Lumper is now being sold again in Northern Ireland.
The alcohol in vodka is, well, alcohol (ethanol, ethyl hydroxide, call it what you will). It has quite an effect on various efficacies of food ingestion, usually negative. There's a lot of research about it.
The main problem is that alcoholics tend to neglect their actual food intake in favour of alcohol.
Making some bizarre alcoholic cocktail with this goop will reduce, but not remove, the amount of available useful nutrition.
Many alcoholic drinks are a little nutritious (beer, for example is, and has been called, liquid bread). Vodka, being distilled loses much of the other stuff that pops along in beer.
Beer as "liquid bread" was significantly lower in alcohol content than the stuff you buy in pubs - and a hell of a lot yeastier. I've drunk middle-ages recipe brews. Some could be regarded as "chewy"
The main reason for drinking beer was that it was safer than drinking water - people hadn't cottoned on to the fact that it was boiling the water which made beer safe.
"The main problem is that alcoholics tend to neglect their actual food intake in favour of alcohol."
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
"Many alcoholic drinks are a little nutritious" And don't forget the resveratrol in red wine. I'm sure that red wine should count as one of your five a day!
It woudl remind me of the scene in the Thomas Crowne Affair where Rene Russo pours a class of glop and drinks it after a trip across the pond.
Maybe it was the stuff, who knows.
As for "cooking" it, the stuff looks like pancake batter, so maybe it is salvageable after all. It probably does contain ingredients from my two favorite food groups: Sugar and Preservatives.
I hope that someone records the before and after weight to see if one can lose a few pounds.
The only thing that I am interested in about this product is what your stools look like after eating nothing but this stuff for say, a month.
If this product could assure me a perfectly double-tapered, golden brown shit every time on a clockwork schedule, then I would heartily partake. Otherwise, I just don't see the benefit.
I can't see how this is any different from Nurishment or any other fortified protein shake type thingie. I've lived off nothing but Nurishment and redbull for a couple of days.
But 3L of that gloop? Noo thankyou. If they can get the volume down to 1L a day or even into pill form then it's worth considering, but as it is, you may as well have normal meals.
On the flip side, apart from the smell it looks EXACTLY the same on the way out as when it went in.
I did read somewhere that the great apes eat their waste, in order to extract the maximum useful energy from the undigested plant matter.
Also if a way could be found to generate the protein, carbohydrates etc directly from available plant matter (cough hemp /cough) then it could go a long way towards one day colonising Mars etc.
Red Bull SO need to look into this, imagine that. "New, Soylent Bull. Now with 400% more roughage."
AC-DC x520
I can quite honestly see this being useful for me - I quite often have periods where I am not quite having a flare-up, but could really do with 'resting' my digestive system - but those horrible complan / fortisip things are quite revolting after a few days. This would suit me perfectly as an alternative, being able to add my own flavouring to it.
Not sure I could live off the stuff permanently though....
Yes. People who consider this a replacement to all food, all the time miss out on the true strength of it. Helping those that need it, and not those who think they do because it's a fad/cool. I still baulk at the internet a no matter how impossible/obscure/bizarre the idea, you'll get 100 people on Kick starter funding it as the "greatest most useful think ever". If someone posted a chocolate Kettle, the replies would be "it will solve world hunger" and "obviously it's to help global temperature trends". I don't know if I should laugh of cry...
I can see one potential group of large customers - Law enforcement. This can be used as another way to make life behind bars unpleasant so people don't want to go back. It has its advantages. It comes in powder form so you can store a lot of it in a small space. Also it won't quickly go off if you don't put it in the freezer. The people who mix it with water don't need to know how to cook anything. The cost of cooking (gas, maintaining the stove) can be avoided. Also there's no need for eating utensils that inmates can use to make weaons. Also there's a huge savings on dishwashing - fewer things to wash. I say the soylent people should send a sample to Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpio with the reminder he can safely add green food dye to it.
So I would resort to spooning the powder in my mouth, then drinking some water to swill it down - maybe jump up and down to mix it all up a bit! ; )
That way I can carry on with what I'm doing instead of wasting my life boiling things until they're soft or fry things until they're brown. Not to mention the bother of actually spending time eating something and then washing up those centuries old cutlery devices and plates.
Get with the times guys, beige goo is the way to goo!
The first thing that occurs to me is to try freezing the stuff into popsicles and having it as a frozen treat.
-Or freeze it into ice-cubes and use the ice-cubes to cool down other glasses of the stuff.
I guess a brave/foolhardy chef could also try baking it into a cake or bread or something.
Perhaps blending it with some actual fruit and/or milk as well.
-Just don't try to blend it with beef, bovril, tabasco and a brick. I don't foresee that ending well.
--Hilariously, but not well.
Perhaps boiling ramen noodles in the stuff.
-I don't imagine that would be very good, but as long as you're already engaging in ill-advised culinary and gastrointestional experimentation.
See if it can make imbibing Alka-Seltzer any less godawful.
Mix it with apple cider, if any can be located.
-Alternatively, forget this nonsense and just drink the apple cider, because apple cider is the stuff.
Chill it down thoroughly, mix it with Jello-O powder, custard and/or pudding, serve as a desert treat.
-Possibly with fish sticks, if you're feeling rather peculiar and/or Gallifreyan.
--Or chill it down that thoroughly, mixed with your choice of other powdered cooking ingredients and use it as dip for cookies.