Has anyone tried any Soylent-type food replacements (not weight loss shakes as such, they are different), either ready mixed or in powders to be mixed with water into a shake? The idea is that you can live off those foods alone, they will cover all your daily nutritional needs (*waits for the "do they come in green"-type sentiments* Finished?) ,but most people vary from occasionally replacing a meal through eating 1-2 liquid meals a day to them being about 95% of their diet and only occasional muggle food.
Each meal is as big as you want to make them, but basically 500-700 calories or so for a standard meal. I like them for the ease of it, as about half the time I live alone and generally only think of food by the time I am ravenous, so unsurprisingly tend to go for frozen tv dinners and other really quick foods, but they have so many ingredients that I can feel after the meal are probably not doing me much good (I suspect I may have IBS, certainly avoiding FODMAP-heavy foods seems to help), so alternatives were welcome. Also, as managing the weight of my greedy and fat-prone younger dog is so easy when using kibble, I figured surely human kibble must make weight management easier too?
I have tried a couple, planning on trying a third, and am quite encouraged, though one I much prefer over the other I have tried. I would be interested in hearing other people's experiences.
The original Soylent itself is not available in Europe, but we have our own, and I tried Netherlands-based Joylent and the UK brand Huel. I am glad I did Joylent first, because had I started with Huel I probably would have abandoned the idea quickly (some ingredient in it I find all but unpalatable - though some people seem to love it).
Joylent comes in certain ready flavours, each bag has enough powder for three meals, or 2000 calories. It is vegetarian but not vegan (the protein is whey-based), though vegan alternatives also available for most flavours. Huel comes in bigger bags, and in two basic variants, Unflavoured & Unsweetened and Vanilla, but also has flavour packs that can be added to either. It is vegan and also comes in gluten-free alternatives.
The price of Joylent comes to about 2€/standard meal, Huel a little more, but not by much. Also Queal seems to be in the same price range, am going to try that next.
Joylent has occasionally had some issues with long waits for delivery whenever they run out of anything, but I know that now and order well in advance to avoid that being a problem. Huel was very prompt the one time I ordered from there.
My GF with disabilities likes soylent and probars (nut bar) as good and easy 'I forgot to eat, omg food!' options. I've liked the probars but have yet to venture into the soylent world.
I have listened to the first half or so of the podcast episode on my commute to work. Probably won't subscribe to more episodes from them at the moment (the "OMG, we are so super-American and bubbly! Giggle!" really drains me and I am already subscribed to far too many podcasts as it is).
Got far enough that they are obsessing over flatulence. I never noticed an increase over my already impressive tootage, if anything a decrease, probably because of the low FODMAP content. Adjusting to the high fiber content did take my insides a few days, however. But after about 10 days of a shake a day I felt better overall than I had for years. The heavy gut feeling and bloating I have had for the better part of a decade seemed to vanish, as did my general fatigue.
Unfortunately, I ran out of Joylent a couple of weeks ago and am still awaiting my new delivery from them (as well as the new Queal), so there has been a break in my usage and had to revert to 100% gross regular food. I have the Huel, but no, downing that would be a chore.
Their comments about it being difficult to eat makes me think Soylent might, in fact, be more like Huel (except oily? Huh?) than Joylent, the latter tastes to me like pretty much any shake and I try to get every drop out of the bottle. Huel has been thrown out by me half-way through the portion as soon as I am no longer explicitly hungry.
They also mentioned more cravings for sweet and salty things, whereas I had the opposite experience.
So far my take on it is that all the various products might be very different from each other. Looking forward to my Queal starter pack to see how it compares to the others.
My wife subsisted mostly on protein shakes for the better part of a month following her gastric bypass surgery.
That was another annoying thing about the podcast hosts, they immediately jumped to the sentiment of 'why would anyone want to abandon real foods?!?! Real food is nummy! ', and I have got some similar reactions from others on "why have a food replacement meal when you could just have an actual meal?"
I have a love-hate relationship with foods, I might enjoy eating some things as long as they aren't too strongly flavoured, but usually feel terrible after eating. And I forget to eat, so I get headaches or tired or hangry. Or eat junk food. I remember thinking already as a child how great it were if we could just take a nutrient pill like one can with vitamins and then forget about eating. Then there are people who might need to be on liquids for, as you say, gastric issues, or jaw/mouth/throat issues. I have seen comments from people on the boards of the products who mention they have an eating disorder, and the shakes is all they are able to eat.
Meal replacement shakes
Linear Mode
