Soylent has recently made waves in the food community as a meal and nutrition supplement. However, over in Silicon Valley, some tech workers are taking the Soylent diet to an extreme by replacing their 3 square meals a day with 3 cylindrical bottles of Soylent. To get you up to speed on one of the most unique food trends in Silicon Valley, here are the 4 things to know about Soylent.
1. It was started by a startup — kinda.
Photo courtesy of soylent.me
Robert Rhinehart and a few other programmers originally set out to build a startup tackling inexpensive cell phone towers. However, when the group realized they were down to the last $70,000 of their seed funding and needed something to show for it, they turned to formulating a nutritional shake that could save workers the time and energy of preparing a meal. A few months of experimenting and crowdfunding later, Soylent was born (with over a million dollars of backing!).
2. It can save you time by replacing your lunch and breakfast.
Photo courtesy of Soylent via Facebook
Many employees at tech companies in San Francisco and Silicon Valley have turned to Soylent to increase their productivity. Soylent “just removes food completely from the equation until about 7 PM,” attests software engineer Aaron Melocik, who sips on 2 bottles of Soylent throughout his day in place of breakfast and lunch. Programmers and venture capitalists alike replace meals with regular gulps of the shake in order to maximize the time they have to work — a lunch hour turns into an extra hour to get things done.
3. It can save you money too.
Photo courtesy of Soylent via Facebook
A 400 calorie bottle of Soylent 2.0 costs only $2.83 per bottle when bought in a pack of 12. With an average meal of 500 calories, a Soylent lunch would cost only $3.53. If you’re willing to mix it up yourself, you can buy Soylent 1.5 powder and that 500 calorie meal will set you back to just $2.29!
4. It really is nutritious.
Photo courtesy of soylent.me
Packed with 37 grams of carbohydrates, 20 grams of protein, and 20% of your daily servings of vitamins and minerals, a bottle of Soylent can definitely enrich your diet and potentially replace a meal. It has the same amount of protein and carbs as a 1/2 cup of chicken with 3/4 cup of rice. It’s also completely vegan as well as lactose- and nut-free.
Photo courtesy of soylent.me
We at Spoon will probably keep to actual food for meals, but if you’re ever looking for a quick fix during a busy week, a bottle of Soylent just might do the trick.