imo, it's disgusting, hugely overpriced and dystopian as hell... they even named it after soylent green ffs.
beans and rice is cheaper, tastier, healthier and can be made in a microwave in less than 20 mins!
this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2026
34 points (90.5% liked)
Soylent
46 readers
3 users here now
founded 2 days ago
MODERATORS
Okay, but you have to be near a microwave for that.
I worked delivery for a long time and that meant 8-9-10 hour days in a truck all over back countries no where near drive thru, much less vegan friendly places . Soylent was a lifeline for me, caffeine, protein, doesn't need refrigeration. Haven't had Soylent in years but it was a lifeline in those days.
I get it, but my position is that we shouldn't be working as much as we are, we should have more free time to actually enjoy food, one of the simple pleasures in life. We need to admit this shit is dystopian and actually work on changing our world so we have more time for ourselves.
Some people don't get the same enjoyment out of eating than others. I'm honestly considering just starting to replace lunch with one of these meal replacements because I often find deciding on and making/eating food to be very draining sometimes.
I can down a soylent easily in 3 minutes, or less than 30 seconds if I'm in a rush. And each one is about the same price id be spending on other food for my lunch at work anyways. And you can get them for like 20% off if you buy in bulk.
the thing is, this kinda leans into the "grindset" mentality. eating food is an important human activity which has been vital for building social cohesion and culture going back all the way to the paleolithic era, it deserves some time and love dedicated to it, IMO.
soylent/huel are like the AI art of food. soulless, bland, slop.
I have ADHD and hate even online shopping. Before I used soylent, I absolutely hated having to think about making sure I get enough of this or that, it took my enjoyment out of shopping and food in general, I ended up malnourished and feeling like garbage all the time because I didn't have the energy to prepare food.
Using soylent I can be sure I have my bases covered nutritionally and then shop for things that I actually want to make/eat. I can actually make food because I want to, not just because I have to. It's made grocery shopping more fun for me and kept me from feeling malnourished. Obviously it's not a replacement for ALL food especially in social settings, but it's good for the filler episodes of dining.
I also have ADHD, and I also hate shopping, even online shopping, so I am totally sympathetic to your position. What I believe is that there should be publicly funded communal diners located within walking distance of all residential neighborhoods where people can get a nutritious, tasty, handmade meal at low or no cost, so that we can feed everyone regardless of health issues and disability, encourage social cohesion and build back towards having a less individualistic society. This is something we used to have, they were called automats, but most of them got converted into restaurants so they could maximize profits rather than providing an important third space and nutrition to their communities.
You know, I have to hard agree with you there. If that kind of infrastructure was in place I would absolutely use it all the time
bro, it is calories. It isn't leaning into the grindset mentality when I can have a default that solves the constantly reoccurring hunger problem without overthinking it and without an annoying level of effort. This stuff is actually made of rice and beans already, just in flour form or at least the Dutch version I purchase is: queal.com. Why is your 20mins of prep/cooking, every meal, plus dishes, for a meal I am going to eat by myself better?
Unfortunately most of us live in a society where we're beholden to predetermined schedule. I don't mean that in a snarky way. If I didn't have a job, I'd eat two meals a day at 10am and 8pm. That's when I naturally get hungry.
But I start work at 7 and even though I'm not hungry in the morning, I have to eat out of necessity. I don't drink this stuff but boy do I see the appeal. The last thing I want to do when I'm half awake is cook a meal
I totally understand it, and I get the appeal, but we should be honest with ourselves and admit that it's fucking dystopian. The product itself tastes terrible and it just further deepens the problem, if we all start using this product then the bosses can cut our lunch breaks even shorter.
The real solution to the problem you've identified is labor organizing, and I'd encourage you to consider unionizing - check out the IWW, it has great resources.
First let me say that I agree that society is becoming more dystopian every day. BUT I don't think some people enjoying not having to think about nutrition a sign of it.
From what I can tell, I'm the outlier. Everyone I've ever lived with wakes up and is hungry for breakfast. People love eating in the morning so much it's become it's own cuisine.
I also don't think it's dystopian for society to have standardized working hours. For most collaborative professions, it's way easier to get stuff done when you're working at the same time as your coworkers.
Eating food has historically been a communal activity where people get together, share a meal, talk about their troubles, have a laugh and a good time together. Our society is so individualistic and obsessed with maximizing productivity at the cost of everything else, so many of us now eat alone -- but this is a very modern development.
Even as recently as the 1970s there were automats in many communities - communal diners where working class people went to eat a very cheap meal and would hang out with other workers - they were social venues (third spaces) as well as serving to fill the role of nutrition.
The choice isn't between eating with people or not. It's between cooking food I'm not really craving or eating something quick. I wouldn't be eating breakfast with anyone at any point in history - either because I live alone or because I'd eat when I naturally got hungry which isn't the same time as everyone else
My atypical apetite is a result of biology, not society. My point is that the existence of a product that caters to people like me isn't dystopian in itself
I understand your point, what I am saying is that everyone should be able to walk to their nearest communal diner, any time of the day, and get a quick meal either for free or for very cheap, and either take that away with them or stay at the diner and eat with your neighbors. That's how food was consumed historically, a few members of the society would cook food for the others and share it communally. The fact that there is a market for this product is a sign that our society is deeply broken, because I'm sure if it came down to picking between a tasty homemade meal cooked by someone else and provided very cheaply, or buying some yucky expensive slop in a bottle/powder, you'd go for the meal, right?
Well no that's what I'm saying, I wouldn't go out of my way for the meal. Even if I didn't have a job. Getting my morning nutrition is a burden and on the weekend I get annoyed when I have to stop doing what I'm doing to make/get food
Fair enough, but I have to say, I think you'd be part of a very small minority, I'm autistic and I have a lot of sensory issues around food and despite all of that I still feel like eating a meal is one of life's few simple pleasures, but I understand, because I'm not really interested in sex, despite being in a small minority who feel that way. Look at the way that meal replacement products are marketed, it's very much targeting people who want to maximize productivity so they can spend more time working in front of their laptops. It's a fundamentally dystopian product, and I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree on that
I did soylent for a year or two back in like 2015, 2 meals a day on average over 5 servings iirc
I really appreciated it. I know for a fact it helped me eat better. Before the soylent I was eating a lot of fast food and quick meals from the grocery store. Not a lot of fruits or vegetables. I felt better on the soylent and lost weight.
TMI Warning My physical experience was a lot of gastrointestinal....movement? My stomach gurgled a lot. Like all the time. My stools were loose and annoying to clean. ** End ** My energy also spiked really hard after meals and dropped quickly after a few hours. I figured it was the type of sugar they were using at the time. Hopefully they've improved this.
I enjoyed my time on soylent and would recommend it to people who feel it's a good fit for their life. Eventually the flavor got old and it wasn't cheap and I've worked harder to eat healthier since then. If you do it I recommend researching flavoring tips and maybe getting one of those small blender setups. Lets you mix up just about anything into it.
Many years back - not long after it first came out, I think - Ars Technica did a series of reviews on it, and the reviewer had similar experiences. It was quite in depth as I recall.
Meal replacements have come a long way since 2015. It's currently 2026, and I've been almost exclusively living on this stuff since 2017 ❤️ Have never felt better. Food choices & nutrition & perfect health have never been easier. I get regular annual physicals & bloodwork at the doctor, and one time the doctor said, "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it." My bloodwork & body weight & blood pressure etc always come back perfect.
There's many other kinds of powdered meals these days. I eat (or drink?) Queal every now and then and have never had any kind of adverse symptoms from it of any kind, even on the days where it makes up all my substantial meals.
Does it come in green?
Yes, actually. Came in here to mention the best flavor was the chcolate mint (the mint makes the chalkiness not as bad if you think of it like those hard mint marshmallow things). And it is very green. :P
Well I'm glad they have a sense of humour. I really really really want the packaging to have a fine print "not made of people" on it somewhere
Nah, I just want them pasture raised, not factory laboured, or street-scooped.
I haven't had Soylent in years but I really miss the excellent flavors they had like chai and Cafe vanilla and yes chocolate mint, those don't exist anymore, right? Circa 2019. That was the best Soylent era.
As a shift worker, it’s been a life saver. Thanks for the reminder to see about grabbing some!
Aah! A Soylent community exists on Lemmy! Subscribed! *
I became a Soylent fan in 2013, then have been living on this stuff since 2017, as soon as I could access & afford it.
Since then there have been many copycat brands all over the world who have improved upon the formulas & pricing & ethics, so since 2021 my go-to brand has been the Jimmy Joy product line from the Netherlands.
I feel better eating meal replacements than I feel when I eat mainstream food.
*Why when I click on the community it says "this community has no posts"? 🤔
Glad you made a sub all about it! How long you been eating it for?
Why is this bot copying an 8yo post, anyway?
Whose a bot lmao
Considering the large disparity in counts between your posts and comments, and this rather ancient post, along with the fact this is not the first time I've seen such behavior from your account... I feel it's pretty reasonable to guess that you have some sort of bot that may be a work in progress you're testing considering the low post frequency rate. If I'm wrong, I'd be interested in why you're pulling old posts off Reddit for posting here. I don't really care much either way, but I'm sure you can understand why it might be considered odd behavior.
I rotate between smaller instance accounts to better help their exposure and comm connectivity.
My comment frequency comes and goes depending on my mood or how busy I am. This account has just had some light comment activity so far.
This was actually part of a .ml crosspost (below), I reverse image search image posts if I'm unable to tell if it's OC or not. This Reddit thread and other things that just point to its thread were the only items to come back so I figured why not throw the actual source source in lol
Why am I cross-posting .ml content?
I cross-post from .ml to the nearest relevant non-.ml comm to reduce the influence of .ml comms and indirectly, the instance as a whole, to help vitilize non-.ml comms and make it an easier decision for other instance admins to defederate because one key reason I identified that admins don't want to defederate is because .ml still has some very large comms and some active niche comms.
Some highlights from the link:
.ml admin, Nutomics continued transphobia https://lemmy.world/post/29222558 The original transphobic Comment from Nutomic: https://lemmy.world/post/18236068
"If you don't support Russia then you just don't understand geopolitics" ~dessalines, .ml admin, dev https://lemmy.world/post/27352415
"Don't worry guys, the Uyghur Genocide was REALLY just birth control! ~dessalines, .ml admin, dev https://lemmy.world/post/30580167
"See! nobody died IN Tiananmen Square, just AROUND it, so it doesn't count!!" ~ Davel, .ml admin https://lemmy.world/post/30673342
"NK is actually good and anything counter to that is Western propaganda!" ~dessalines, .ml admin, dev https://lemmy.world/post/31595035
General negative sentiment to other instances who haven't "seen the way" yet ~davel, .ml admin https://lemmy.world/post/27426510
And so so much documentation on clear heavy handed censorship and bias also on the link. So much I can't even put them all here because this comment would be really long.
I believe the behavior of its admins (the main admins are Lemmy devs) does harm to the overall growth of the Lemmy-verse and maybe even the Thrediverse (since Lemmy kinda kicked off the Thrediverse) because of its association with the devs of Lemmy and their insistence to use .ml as their personal political platform to spread harmful propaganda
On the outside, bringing up Lemmy frequently leads to comments like "Lemmy? Isn't that the place with a bunch of tankies?" Or "Tried Lemmy, but found it full of pro Russia crap so I left". The best way forward from that I see is to either widely defederate from .ml like the rest of the Triad, or pressure them to put a fair and unbiased as possible admin team.
I'll be straightforward and just say I don't understand some of that stuff yet, and it's honestly not much of a priority to me to do so. Just as long as I can have a far less shitty Reddit-like experience, I'm happy. Just getting too old to keep up with the constant change anymore, I guess (along with being slightly handicapped by mental issues like ADD).
Regardless, thanks for the explanation - I've bookmarked it for later reference should something prompt me to want to understand it better. Hopefully others here will get use out of it, too.
You don't really need to worry about it much, basically some instances want to maintain their little filter bubbles to prevent any dissening opinions reaching them, but IMO the fediverse is best when defederation is at a minimum.
Onto or into?