Soylent Experiments

[Daryl and Daryl]

soylent

Link above will take you to a forum discussion of Soylent. Fellow is experimenting with a shake mix that gives one everything they need nutritionally.

[Nick Larsen]

It's made of people!!!

Cool, but how many calories per ounce?!

[Nick Larsen]

He'll I'd try it! Would love something like this for the majority of my meals. Not something I'd replace all food with, but would be nice for the majority of my day to day non restaurant meals.

[M B]

My dad lived feeding Ensure thru a GI tube into his stomach for several yrs, he could not eat.

You can live on prepared food substitutes.

But if youve seen pics of someone that has been on them for ~10+ yrs, you would come to the conclusion that something isnt totally right, or the person would look healthier.

You can have all the macro-nutrients we know of

You will be missing micro nutrients supplied by a varied diet almost assuredly.

[Heather Hohnholz]

I think this guy makes a pretty good case for having covered both macro & micro nutrients. It was interesting to me to find out that there aren't really THAT many of either category. It's just that so few are found in the same places, we have to eat many different foods. Anyway, if he's still doing this and is healthy one year from now, I'd be tempted to try it.

[Jerry Adams]

I don't think micro nutrients are well understood

What they are, how many, what difference it makes if you get them or not,…

[Eric Blumensaadt]

Seems like the "max blender" known as The Silver Bullet could whip up a combo of fresh fruits snd veggies into a balanced meal.

[Bradley Danyluk]

The other really important point is that often our bodies ignore or are unable to process many vitamins if they occur on their own (as in supplement capsules) versus when then appear in particular combinations in real food. This very often will "unlock" the body's ability to digest and absorb the nutrients. We have evolved to eat food, not nutrients.

All this said, you can go a long time without any food at all, and almost indefinitely with extremely minimal food (lemon juice fasting etc) so I wouldn't worry about it while hiking very much at all. There is no particular reason to maintain a "normal" diet while hiking for a few days, even nutritionally, except psychological hurdles (diabetes and other health issues excepted). I find that if I keep active, even my energy levels remain high while fasting. When I allow myself to stop, then I crash… but that's exactly what you want when you stop for the night anyway.

[Jan S]

"diabetes and other health issues excepted"

Can't speak for other health issues but a diabetic can eat nothing for days just as a person without diabetes can. Only trouble I run into in those situations is that I still need a bit of short-acting insulin from time to time and then might end up with low blood sugar. In that cases a bit of sugar will do. But given a bit of experience and experimenting I'm pretty sure I could avoid that too.

Why someone would "eat" something like Soylent without need is a bit beyond me though.

[NFN Scout]

OK, I admit, was curious if this forum ever discussed this stuff. Only see a few tiny threads on it. So has anyone tried it on the trail? I've been on it for a few weeks now at home and I think it could be really appealing on the trail.

First: why would anyone skip real food? I'm a pretty healthy eating vegetarian (want chard & seitan recipes?) and while it sounded absurd when I first read about Soylent, once my (even healthier) wife encouraged me to buy some I realized how it helps me avoid some of the crappy food I eat during the day, and I don't love cooking enough to want to do that more. I only do 1-2 meals of it usually, but I've got a lot more fiber+protein than I was getting otherwise. (And I still usually blend greens for micronutrients.)

Second: What's Schmoylent? Soylent was always open source, so the DIY Soylent site has a bunch of soylent-ish recipes you can tweak to make yourself. Or you can buy them premade (without the Soylent wait list) on the Schmoylent site. I like the Ax Chow. 2100 cals/day, lots of protein, few carbs.

I'm spurred by reading how the one guy did the whole PCT with only cold dehydrated beans shaken in cold water every night. That got me thinking about this as an ultralight backpacking food. Maybe it could be great. Why?

1. No stove needed. No fuel needed. <– pow!
2. Little packing waste. (ziplocs)
3. extremely dense yet easily packable meals. (powder)
4. with soylent DIY or Schmoylent, you can tweak to meet exactly your target cals.
5. tastes so much better than just dehydrated beans.

So if anyone gets to try it before I do, I'd love to hear a reportback.

[Adam Skinner]

I took Soylent on a backpacking trip a couple of weeks ago. Fri, Sat, Early Sun.

I subsisted *almost* entirely on Soylent. I had some small muffins as well for snacks.

I only went through one package of 1.4; actually, not even that. I may have been under-consuming, but I'm the type of guy who doesn't really get too hungry on the trail.

I used a Ziplock 16oz screw-top bowl to mix it in. Just fill 2/3 of the way up with water, dump some soylent in, shake, and drink. Rinse off to clean.

I supplemented with electrolyte pills while I was hiking, since it was like 85F and I was sweating up a storm.

I'm going to be bringing Soylent with me on a similar trip this weekend.

[Stephen Parks]

Glad to see this being discussed here. I've wanted to try this for my normal life, just haven't made the time to play with the DIY tool. It is pretty cool how it dumps everything you need into your amazon cart. Sometimes I just want a hole in my stomach so I could eat without having to eat.

I've also thought it might be good on the trail. It isn't going to be as calorie dense as Fritos, but surely a lot healthier.

[Anonymous]

"I don't think micro nutrients are well understood"

+1 Neither the full spectrum of micro nutrients nor how they interact.

[Landon Sullivan]

I plan to try it this summer for backpacking. While I drink it on a regular basis, I have yet to try it backpacking. Four main concerns I have are that
(1) it tastes better cold,
(2) it tastes better after sitting overnight,
(3) mixes best with hot water, and
(4) it is low in sodium.

The first three make a fridge a must for a regular soylent drinker. Alas, the super-lightweight backpacking fridge is yet to be invented. On the other hand, the most recent soylent formula tastes better and may be okay sans fridge. I have tasted it warm without being repelled. The true test would be drinking warm soylent all day, and I plan to try it this summer.

Low sodium may be a concern if one is planning on heavy exercise, e.g., many backpacking trips. Salty snacks can easily fill this void, which is what I plan to do.

On the plus side, the new formula (v1.4) does not need a separate oil bottle. It is just powder, which makes packing it a breeze. Also, the new formula has more fats and less protein than previous versions, which makes gas much less of an issue, at least for me. Your mileage may vary.

Probably the biggest pull for me is that one of the main energy sources in soylent is a carb that has a low glycemic index. It is great for endurance, fitting perfectly in with backpacking.

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