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> I think many people approach Soylent as a way to solve some of their problems, but people should realize it won't be and can't be. You are saying your case (
by Latty 9y ago
> I think many people approach Soylent as a way to solve some of their problems, but people should realize it won't be and can't be.
You are saying your case (and that of your friend's) apply to everyone. I've lost a lot of weight using Huel (a similar product made in the UK), because it makes calorie tracking incredibly easy and allows me to avoid thinking about food except when I specifically choose to eat something.
Just because it wasn't suitable to you, and your friend didn't find a use for it, doesn't make it bad for everyone.
My experience with Huel was that it allowed me to reset my relationship with food to a more healthy one. My analogy is music - in the past I sat down and just listened to music, sometimes with friends. I still do that, but now I have a phone with me all the time, and headphones, and I listen to music almost all of the time. It's a constant, background thing, rather than (only) a special event.
Food had become something similar for me - I wanted to be eating all the time, to always have some flavour. For music, that relationship wasn't a problem, but for food, it has meant I'm overweight.
So I tried Huel. I don't think about food most days now - I drink, I drink a given number of calories of Huel (helping me lose weight).
Then, sometimes, I go out and eat something really nice with friends or family. Or I just feel like something and I make something nice. I still enjoy food, but it isn't a constant thing.
Now, you could do a similar thing with a normal calorie controlled diet, and in fact I did by using a calorie tracking app a few years back - but I didn't stick with it because it was hard, because every time you go to make food it's a tempation. Avoiding food entirely made it easier for me.
It's definitely not for everyone, but there are plenty of use cases.
- sosodaft 9y agoThis, exactly. I use Huel to replace the meals I eat at home. As a consequence, it is the only food in my apartment. Removing the possibility of eating junk has helped me improve my diet a lot, and I still get to have a takeaway meal for lunch to sate my cravings for real food.
- baby 9y agoOhhh, I thought I had to give up on these things since I moved away from the US. But now I remember that Europe has a lot of these as well. Have you tried other things than Huel? I might be tempted to give it a try.
- Latty 9y agoHuel is the only one I've tried, and I've liked it enough. The flavour is not great by itself (a sweet, malty vanilla flavour for the flavoured one, which is a little weird but fine), but I tend to blend in ice and coffee or fruit (bannas and blueberries, raspberries, all work well). The flavour packs they sell didn't do much for me, they seemed too sweet for my taste (I didn't try them all though). The other big thing I found was the texture improves a lot if blended or left in a fridge for a time before drinking. Shaken and drunk straight away the texture isn't great.
- vidarh 9y agoSame reaction to the taste here, and same reaction to the flavour packs. I threw my flavour packs away.
- Latty 9y agoYeah. With fruit or coffee I think it's really nice though. Coffee is strong enough to overpower the taste entirely, and with a small amount of fruit it tastes a bit like a smoothie with a digestive biscuit blended into it - or you can add a bit more fruit to get rid of that malty taste entirely.
- morsch 9y agoI have a Plenny Shake° once a week or so. It's fine. I tried a few before I settled on it, including Huel. I prefer the taste and texture. Ymmv. Here's a list of Soylent style products; you can filter by shipping destination: https://www.blendrunner.com/ https://www.blendrunner.com/ ° Actually my bags still say Joylent, which was the name until a few months ago. https://www.jimmyjoy.com/ https://www.jimmyjoy.com/
- ConfucianNardin 9y agoTried MANA[1], Joylent[2] and Jake[3] back when I started. Out of the those 3, MANA was clearly superior. The main reason was better texture. Taste was also a factor. Both of Joylent and Jake had a really distinct taste (most likely) caused by sweetener they used, which was really unpleasant. In fact, I never managed to finish Joylent/Jake because I just couldn't get myself to drink them. On the other hand, I still use MANA for ~7 meals a week to this day. Someone I know also tried Huel[4], but their verdict was "would not recommend". [1]: https://drink-mana.com/ https://drink-mana.com/ [2]: https://www.jimmyjoy.com/ https://www.jimmyjoy.com/ [3]: https://jakefood.com/ https://jakefood.com/ [4]: https://huel.com/ https://huel.com/