January 19, 2017 • 41 mins
Soylent is a meal replacement drink, but not really. So what is it? Total sustenance in a glass? Some say so. Is it made from humans? No, that's just a movie. Learn all about this odd concoction in today's episode.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry over there,
which means it's time for stuff you should know. He's
(00:23):
the He's the DJ, I'm the rapper. Who's the DJ?
Don't you remember? That was the first, first or second
d J Jazz Jeff and the Fresh Prince album. Now
wouldn't need them. Everybody was totally confused as to who
was who, so they actually named their album He's the DJ,
I'm the rapper, and like Will Smith is pointing at
(00:44):
himself and pointing at Jazz Jeff. And then their newest
album is called He's the movie Star. I'm the one
who asked you if you want fries with that soda?
Poor jay Z Jeff. That's so mean. I'll bet he's
a like a successful producer. I bet he is totally
successful and probably way more successful than me. And I'm
just a jerk. It's a little late now, I know.
(01:05):
I thought it would be funny. And I also insulted
fast food industry workers too. It's like that that one
Simpsons where somebody I think was calling Homer a chicken,
and some giant chicken walks over and goes he's insulting
the both of us. This show just gave and gave
(01:30):
and gave for decades. I think DJ Jazzy Jeff, I'm
looking right now. I think he's still uh a DJ
record producer and still a DJ called like DJ DJ. Yeah, yeah,
I'm just mean. Sorry, Jazzy Jeff. You know who's not mean? You? No,
(01:52):
I'm pretty mean? Okay. Um, A kid named well, I
don't want to call him a kid. I want to
call him a kid because he's younger than me. But
he's a dude now. Yeah, his name is Rob Brian Hart. Yeah,
not Rob Reiner, No, no, no, no adult Rob Brian Hart.
Although he had a movie called When Harry Met Soilent.
(02:12):
That's pretty good. That was good. And you know what
I'm ashamed to say, I didn't even see that coming.
Was so bad. Emily always laughs when I left. She
always like, you really cracked yourself up, didn't you. Like,
I'll just be walking down the hall laughing at myself
and she that's a way to say, Chuck's drunk. Chucks drunk,
and you're not as funny as you think you are. Oh,
(02:35):
I see what you mean. Yeah, you really crack yourself up.
Sometimes you should say, somebody's got to alright, Soilent, this
is not a paid promotion for soiling Let's go ahead
and just get that out of the way. No, but
it's they're they're it's gonna pay off for him big time. Well,
I mean, we're gonna talk a lot about a specific brand,
(02:56):
but um, I think it's worthwhile because it is the
innuine I think it's a genuine revolutionary product in a
lot of ways. And it's not an endorsement. I'm just
saying it's really super unique. Yeah, it's not not to
endorse or whatever, but it's probably the single greatest thing
humans have ever invented. Have you ever had it? Have I?
(03:18):
You know? I have not. Actually I wanted to try
it today. But you can't just go down to the
corner store and get it. No, you can't. You have
to order Soilent from their website, soilent dot com or Amazon.
Of course, I didn't know you could get it on Amazon. Yeah,
they you can get it there. Now, that's good. The
prices have come down from so we're working from an
article we should say from probably two fourteen in tech
(03:42):
industry years, that's like ten years ago. And this is
definitely a cornerstone of the tech industry. And what we're
talking about is, is well a food replacement UM called
soilent or not a food replacement? Well, yeah, originally it
was intended to be a food replacement or a meal
(04:04):
replacement or no, I guess it was originally intended to
be a food replacement where you could just live off
of this stuff you didn't need other food. And then
now it's intended to be a meal replacement where you
would eat other food, but you could say, have this
instead for lunch or whatever. Yeah, or you could eat
it along with your meal. Sure, Like let's just call
(04:26):
it beige food. Yeah, my liquid state, Yeah, pretty much
entirely liquid. It's like pancake batters. That what I kept
running across the consistency, And I mean, doesn't everyone I
want to drink pancake batter. I've been known to take
(04:47):
a sip of pancake battery. It sounds really gross. Um,
we haven't tried it, and I really wanted to, like
I said, for this, but um, we may or may
not get Um. Our colleague Jonathan Strickling here. It just
depends on if we can find him. Uh, he's been
he was being tattooed by NASA the other day. Oh
that happened. Huh, not by NASA, but sort of with
(05:11):
NASA for NASA, under NASA's supervision. Maybe. I mean he
got a tattoo for work via NASA. Yep. Um. So
I haven't seen him since then, But if we can
get him in here, he did the soilent thing for
a while. Uh, and he loves to talk, so he
would be good. As a matter of fact, let's just
(05:33):
add a thirty minute silent part here, but we can
insert what he'll say after we introduced him. But anyway,
I did not get to taste it, but it has
been likened to everything from pancake batter two um, meta
musel or cream of wheat or a tasteless milkshake. Um,
(05:53):
although they do have flavors out now, which we'll get to.
But um. What the original intent of soilent taste wise
was that it was just really just neutral and bland
for the purposes of we don't want people to get
sick of eating this. Yeah, and probably the best meat. Yeah, right,
(06:14):
exactly that if you don't have a taste, you can't
really get sick of a taste, right, But I disagree.
I'm sure he could totally get sick of this. Sure,
but it also is something of a blank slate that
people can add their own tastes and flavors to, like
maple syrup or fruit or peanut butter or something. Yeah,
which I didn't think about. That's a great idea, right,
So they specifically wanted to create this product for a
(06:37):
number of reasons. And like I said, that guy who
I said was nice, he actually is nice. From the
Broad a New Yorker profile of him, SAME's Rob Brian
Hart And um, he actually he went to tech. He's
in Atlanta, boy, Yeah, And he was in San Francisco
working at a tech startup out of his house with
some of his roommates. And he decided that um, eating
(07:03):
was taking up way too much of his time and money, time, money, effort. Um.
It was just something he wasn't very interested in. And
he also was, um, I think concerned with exactly what
he was eating. I think he was just basically living
off a ram And he said, which is not the
healthiest thing you can possibly eat sure. So he decided
(07:24):
to take a little time and research nutrition and how
it relates to human physiology. And he had this idea
that if you could get rid of the unnecessary parts
of food, like food is kind of a clunky, inefficient
vehicle for delivering nutrients. If you could get rid of
(07:46):
the clunky part and just have the nutrients, you could
you could live fairly healthily on just the raw materials
of food that we need from food, right, just the nutrients. Yeah,
Like I can save money, I can save time, um
from going to the grocery store and cooking and cleaning,
(08:06):
and I can get everything I really need to have
a genuinely healthy diet um right here in this. I mean,
I guess i'll call it a drink. I mean it
goes down like a drink, right, Yeah, okay, so we'll
call it a drink. But it's not to be confused with.
I mean, there have been all kinds of meal replacement
(08:27):
drinks over the years, uh, from like insurer to slim
Fast and muscle milk, Yeah, protein shakes and stuff like that.
This is not that this is supposed to give you
everything you need in your body for a meal. Yeah, nutritionally.
Other meal replacement drinks are meant to be meal replacements, right,
Like if you couldn't get enough nutrients from your food
(08:49):
because you're recovering from surgery, you need an extra bit.
Your doctor may say, like drink and ensure every day whatever.
Or like you said, protein chakes like muscle milk. If
you're a weightlifter, you need uh hit a protein after
you work out, you you will probably drink some sort
of protein shake afterwards. Right, So there's very specific um
(09:12):
reasons for the meal replacements or supplements that have been
invented up to soiling. What's that soiling apart was that
it was created intentionally to be a replacement for food,
Like this was all you needed. You never needed to
eat food again. All you had to do was eat
soiling every day, every day, and and ingeniously, and I
(09:35):
don't think he intended to even he was just looking
for something for himself. He wasn't looking to change the
food industry or to start a company. I don't think,
not of a food company. But he very ingeniously started
a blog against when thirteen called how I Stopped Eating Food,
which is super grabby on the internet. Title wise, like
(09:55):
someone's going to see that and go, well, what in
the world is this all about? And that's what happened.
It went viral, it blew up. He detailed on there
that he lost weight. He said his intellectual and athletic
performance improved. He said he spent a lot less money
on groceries, but he put he put athletic and scare quotes.
(10:17):
He's like, if you know what I mean, because he
did go to tech and he was a software engineer,
I meant sex. But yeah, yeah, the other way that
joke worked. He said he spent a lot less money
on groceries and he only spent about five minutes a
day making this stuff. And he described it as a
quote sweet succulent, hearty meal in a glass end quote,
(10:40):
and people were all over it. He said, like after
a week he would see ads for food and it
would just be nauseated by him. He any that he
came to crave um the soiling, which wasn't called soilent
at that time. No, he did call it soilent. Oh,
I thought he didn't call it until he like got
the Kickstarter. Going from what I saw, I actually saw
(11:02):
that blog post, and I believe he calls it Soilent
in it. Okay, well whenever he got it, he got it.
Spoiler alert by the way, upcoming. There was a movie
in nineteen seventy three called Soilent Green, very famous, uh,
kind of classic cult classic sci fi movie with Chuck
Heston and the big reveal and soil it's about this, uh,
(11:24):
this future world, this dystopian society where um, these people
are fed these rations and in the end you realize
that's it's revealed that people are eating other people. Soilent
Green is people people, right, so um. And for that reason,
because that was just such a famous ending, Like if
that actually spoiled the movie for you, like, let us know,
(11:46):
so Chuck can come hit you with a hammer because
everybody knows the ending of the twist and Soiling Green. Yeah,
I'm just you know, but he he yeah, I know.
That was nice of you. See you're not a mean person,
You're nice. Um. The he he was lobbied by investors, friends, family,
Everybody's like, you gotta change the name of Soilon. But
(12:08):
he would explain to him, it's actually not based on
the movie. He's based it on the book that was
the source for the movie Soiling Green. The book was
called Make Room, Make Room, and it was written by
a guy named Harry Harrison, and it's it was basically
about overpopulation and in the book that people are fed soilent,
which is a food made of soy and lentils, And
(12:32):
that's what he based it on, was that book, not
the the food being made from people, which apparently the
makers of the movie used some pretty deep artistic license
to totally alter it at the end. Yeah, So it
started out nerdy, and it got nerdier because he was like,
it's actually a deep cut right exactly from make Room,
(12:54):
Make Room exclamation points. But he he um, he did
detail in this blog post, and I'm pretty sure he
did call it soiling in it, and he thinks very clever.
I think it was a really kind of a funny
wink to call it that. Sure, but he um. He
posted the recipe that he went by in a follow
(13:17):
up post and it's still up there. You can go
see how to make soilent yourself, And as a matter
of fact, a lot of people do. There's this um
subculture of d i y soilent enthusiasts, people who are
like so into it that they're creating their own blend
for themselves from scratch self soil enters, yep, soilent preppers.
(13:40):
So he started that Kickstarter got about three million bucks.
Uh because people thought it was a cool idea. UM,
submitted it to the f D A right, yeah, and
that went whatever, but they classified it interesting instead of
a dietary supplement. They said, now this is a food
like knock yourself out, NERD go get sued. We don't care.
(14:05):
And then he got a co packer, Rosa Labs in
l A and um, they produce it for him still
and people started eating or drinking this stuff up. Yeah,
I mean especially other um people who work twenty three
hours a day um and didn't want to be bothered
with having to eat because they didn't really care about
(14:27):
food and or they were like, all I'm eating is
mac and cheese, Like what what am I doing? Like?
If I'm gonna care that little about food, then I
might as well eat something that's healthy that takes even
less time to make them mac and cheese and just
the whole um. Uh. The mentality behind soil it really
like tapped a nerve and that stuff took off like
(14:48):
very quickly. Um. They started selling like thirty thousand units
of it a month. I guess packets a month by
two thousand fourteen, and it was it debuted. The first
shipments sold. They're shipped in May of two thousand fourteen,
so like within seven months they were selling thirty thousand
units a month. Yeah, it went gold right away. Uh,
(15:10):
it's like round and round by. We'll take a break
here and um I'll see if I go find Strickland
and we'll be right back. No, no Strickland yet. Oh yeah,
(15:43):
he has not appeared since the New year. You know,
he's in Las Vegas right now? Right? Oh was he
at c E S. Well, that makes sense. I didn't
read my company blog. Uh yeah I did. Actually I
did see that on our internal blog, right that we
all post our daily goings on and last each other
(16:04):
so silent. Uh. Again, we said that the taste isn't
the big thing. Um, but they really aim to just say, hey,
it's convenient, you're gonna save some money. And if you're
you know, like you said, if you're someone who doesn't
put so much care into what you're making for yourself,
(16:24):
like you could like you said, you could eat nothing
but this, but even the owner said, like you could
but like, what do you want to food is great? Yeah,
And they've walked that back tremendously. I think the more invested. Yeah,
the more they've walked that back. So originally it was
and he would give interviews and just tell everybody like, yeah, man,
(16:45):
you can you can just live off of this indefinitely
if you want. Now they say it's not intended to
replace every meal, but it can replace any meal. Yeah.
I think it's a really good I don't know if
they've if they've tapped into the doomsday prepper segment, but
(17:05):
like this seems to be the kind of thing that
somebody could and should have, like in the trunk of
their car or along with their canned goods and roll
of masking tape. Yeah, you know, I mean I literally
when I read this, I was like, you know, I
wouldn't mind having a case of this in my trunk.
(17:27):
Be a disaster, Yeah, pick up check that doesn't work,
but you never know. I mean, I doubt if I'm
ever gonna be like lost in the wilderness, but if
i was, it'd be nice to have food for a week. Yeah,
you know, for food for a week. I mean, these
the sealed packets, unopened apparently last for a year. Al right,
so I'd have to on day three sixty four every year,
(17:49):
I'd have to drink them and get some new ones.
You'd have to drink nine months worth of food on
one day if you're a heck of a New Year's Eve.
So we are officially on version one point seven. Yeah,
that as of about two weeks from this recording ago,
they issued one point seven And as of a couple
(18:10):
of days ago, they introduced two new flavors um Yeah,
and that's soilent two point oh. Oh is that official? Yeah,
that's like um as technically a separate product. It's like
pre mixed soilent drinks. All they have. They've had those
in in the natural flavor since the beginning though, Oh
(18:31):
is there right? I thought they just started with powder
and then came and added the drink, and then now
they added those two flavors to the drink. I think
the new flavors are new. They've had the drink for
a while. And they also now have a bar, a
soilent bar that's unavailable right now. And about why in
a little bit, because it's quite interesting. I did not
know that um do they have the coffee ist is that. Yeah,
(18:53):
that's out. So that's soilent in a bottle with caffeine. Yeah,
so that's your morning. Well, I guess whenever you want
the calf angeled, I would say morning, but you never
know what your schedule is. That that sounds dangerous because
I mean, like this is food, right, and people have
a tendency to pound coffee. You don't want to pound
the stuff like you'll gain weight. I mean, I guess
if you're trying to gain weight, sure do it, but
(19:16):
like this is this is the stuff is engineered to
be just what you need to sustain you or maintain
your weight. Or I guess if you wanted to gain weight,
you just drink more of it pounded, you know, supposedly
lose a little weight if you go like a soiling
only for a few weeks. But it's all anecdotal. I
don't think they make any claims. No, I don't think
(19:37):
so either. So they're on one point seven now and
each version supposedly they just you know, they're tweaking the recipe.
They're listening to people, which sounds like the right thing
to do, Like it sounds like they're really listening to people,
and people are saying, oh, it's um, it's too thick,
Like I don't like one point six, So they'll say,
all right, a little xanthem gum take that out. Uh.
(19:59):
They switch the primary source of fatty acids from fish
oil to algible oil. But now I think the algae
oils out now right, No, no, so the alga oils in.
And they actually the reason why they switched out of
fishal well two reasons. It made it vegan when they
change from fish oil to algible but they also like
it it um has far less of an environmental impact
(20:23):
algae um farming does, but they even took it a
step further, and they're not using oil from farmed algae.
They're using oil from bioreactors, which take up even less
space and use less energy for algible oil production than
farming does. Right, So they're really like trying to narrow
the impact environmentally that this stuff has. Yes, And the
(20:46):
reason why is it is very much linked to our
artificial sweetener episode. Somebody introduced whole algile flower to the market.
UM as I think a thickener. I think it also
is an emulsifier UM, and it just creates a pleasant
mouth feel. I think um. And it's also somewhat nutritious supposedly,
(21:10):
but it also can make people violently ill. And so
all of soilent one point six had to be suspended,
including the bar. That's why the bar is not available
any longer. Um because it all contained this whole algile flower.
They had to basically stop selling it, and then they
tinkered with it, and that's why one point seven came out. Uh, Well,
(21:32):
if if you're if you don't know much about soilent
and you're literally screaming at your at your car radio
right now or wherever you're listening, but what is it really?
Then tell them what it's mainly derived from. Oh, it
is soy protein. They replaced the brown rice and the
oat flour and potato starch, and rice starts with basically
(21:54):
just soy soy protein, another a couple other carbohydrates, So
it's mainly soy, just a soy based meal, soy algeil
oil um, something called um I so malt malte loose.
It's a which they synthesize from beats. It's a carbohydrate
but also a bit of a sweetener, canola oil. I
(22:15):
think they took it. I think they took that out
and the reason. Okay, so there is rice starching it.
They definitely took the brown rice, the oat flower, and
the potato starch out. Because if you go to their website,
it's so cool. At the very bottom the bottom navigation,
they'll they'll say release notes, and it will bring up
(22:38):
PDFs of the notes about what they changed and why.
UM for every single version of UM soiling, so it'll
say we took this out because we found that this
is actually better for the environment, or that this delivers
the vitamin that we're trying to get better, or UM
(22:59):
for whole algile flower. They said that they removed it
to improve customer experience, which means not making you violently. Yeah,
it's I mean, like I said, it sounds like they're
they're continually striving to get it right. Yeah, but they're
also more than that, they're also sharing what they're doing
(23:21):
because the whole thing was kind of based out of
that open source tech ethos, and so they've kind of
maintained that open source thing ever since. They're just very
transparent as a company. Yeah, looking at the as of
January third, nutritional facts and one bottle fo calories one
(23:41):
grams of total fat two grams of saturated fat. And
this is for the the regular natural, right, so I
keep calling natural? Is that what they call it? Uh? Original?
Let's just say non flavored yet original a ridge. How's that? Uh?
Cholesterol nocles are all which they've had from the beginning,
(24:02):
ugrams of sodium, thirty six grams total carbs, three grams
dietary fiber, nine grams of total sugars, nine grams of
added sugars, and then uhs of protein, and a whole
host of vitamins and minerals. Yeah, and those vitamins and
(24:22):
minerals are important. That the essential nutrients UM, which are
nutrients like vitamins and minerals that our bodies need but
can't make. UM. They apparently went to the n I
H and the FDA and several other UM groups and said,
you know, what does the human body need to function
and thrive? And they that's what they put in there.
(24:45):
They have this blend of vitamins and nutrients that they
include as part of the recipe for soilent. One of
the things that soilents I don't want to I guess
criticized for, I guess, but more one of the concerns
that people who are skeptical about it have is that
it um it doesn't have any non essential nutrients, which
(25:08):
are nutrients that your body can make itself, like cholesterol
that has zero cholesterol, but your body can make its
own cholesterol. And that was a deliberate move on Reinhardt
and his his UM co founders parts that they decided
that they didn't need non essential nutrients, that it was
UM something that our bodies already make and so therefore
(25:30):
it was UM redundant basically to add this stuff in,
because this is just the basic bear minimum that you
need for to to be healthy and thrive. But some
people are saying, well, these things are also found in
nature in our food, and we take them in and
we don't really know enough about nutrition and how it
affects the human body to say you don't really need
(25:52):
to take in from the outside any non essential nutrients.
So people are saying, we're gonna have to see over
the course of year is what kind of effects this
has on people UM who are just eating soil, and
if those people do exist, you know, five ten years
from now. Yeah, and especially if that's something that you
kind of touted or not you. But he touted to
(26:13):
begin with, which is, hey, man, theoretically you could just
eat only this. Yeah, but I mean he was like this,
this twenty something dude who had a really great idea,
and I didn't care about what the investors were saying,
and and he cared about people's health. He wasn't doing
it to be like a huckster or snake oil sales
or anything like that. You know, he was just not
(26:33):
watching his p's and ques like somebody who was from
a PR department might ask him to. All right, well,
let's take another break and I'm gonna We're gonna walk
to Las Vegas. Get them. I'm gonna see if Strickland's
up for this. Go get that guy, and I'll be
right back in about ten days. Hey, and put twenty
on black for me. M alright, good news, bad news.
(27:17):
I owe you forty dollars man. No wait, no, that's good. Yeah,
I thought you were paying me back with interest. Bad
news is I couldn't find Strickland in Vegas. Actually, if
we can't find Strickland, this is just hot off the
presses our buddy Joe ran dazz oh yeah, currently uh
of at midnight Fame he drank soil it for a
(27:41):
little while, yeah, and asked him. I texted him for
a description, and this just came in and he said, uh,
it tasted like the devil's chalk. But some reptilian part
of me appreciated obtaining sustenance without having to worry about
flavor or preparation. Basically, space stationed serial killers should like it,
(28:02):
and no one else. That's our that's our Joe, all right.
So if you want to buy someone, like I said,
you can get on Amazon. Now. I think it's only
available in the USA and Canada still though, unless that's changed,
I did not see that. But what what you can
do is you can buy the pouches of powder and
(28:25):
mix it where you can buy the bottles um and
you can get subscriptions that cut a little of the
price off depending on how much of this you want
to drink, and that is up to you, as a
human being to decide how much of this kind of
nasty stuff. And I've heard our buddy Joe Randazza had
(28:45):
some of this too, and I tried to get a
quote from him on what he would describe the taste,
and he hasn't replied yet, but I've heard some people
say like, oh, it's really not that bad, and I've
had heard other people say like it's disgusting and you'd
really have to choke it down. So I guess there's
a spectrum. I I mean, I guess I saw a
couple of quotes like that, But for the most part,
(29:08):
it seemed like people were surprised by how either neutral
or strangely yeah, strange, strangely um alluring the taste was. Yeah,
I didn't heard that. There's this. There's a great New
Yorker article that profile I mentioned earlier UM called I
think it's called the End of Food. It's from two
thousand before team when this was like at the peak
(29:29):
of its buzz um and Lizzie Wincombe, who wrote the thing,
try soiling herself and it's weird. I think she actually
says she starts to crave the taste after a while,
but then some of her colleagues give these pithy quotes
about what it actually tastes like, but they weren't actually
trying it, you know what I mean. She she was
(29:51):
actually trying to like, subsist on it for a little while.
She apparently came to like it interesting I'm curious about
its longevity. Like, when something like this comes out, I
definitely see the allure of it becoming the rage for
a while. But and and I think one of them
we'll talk about what a dietitians think. But um, one
(30:12):
of the allures of food is is food and sit
and making it and sitting with friends and the wonderful
taste that you get any experience you get of breaking
bread with one another. And this really throws all that
out the window. Um, you can't romanticize sitting down with
a soilent shake and your friends, even if they all
have one on their plate, it's just not the same.
(30:34):
And nor do nor do they say it is the same. Um.
But it makes me wonder like, once this initial fad
wears off, what will it become? You know, it's bizarre.
I just realized something. Well, you were saying that that
this is the opposite of what we were saying. One
of the problems with artificial sweeteners is so instead of
(30:55):
exciting the gustatory response of your reward pathway for meeting food,
all this does is um create satiation. So you're you're
full from it, but you're not enjoying tasting it or
eating it or smelling it or looking at it or
thinking about it. So it's the exact opposite where artificial
sweeteners excite that that um, that gustatory sensor um, but
(31:20):
don't fill you up. This does the exact opposite well,
And then I wonder what kind of effect that can
have on your body, Like it does it dull that
and kill that gustatory response, or does it make it
so that when you do eat something, it's just like, wow,
I can't believe the taste of the strawberry, and I
don't know I um I that I've read about this
(31:42):
this guy um, his name's Angus Barbieri and he's a
Scotsman from nineteen sixty six. I think he was in
his early twenties, and he went three hundred and eighty
two days without eating a thing. He was under the
supervision of some mad scientist doctor who was giving him
(32:03):
like vitamin supplements and monitoring him. But he survived just
on these vitamin supplements and coffee, tea and water for
more than a year. And the reason he did it
was he weighed four hundred and fifty six pounds and
he was like, I'm tired of it I want to
get down to one eighty and he did. Um. But
he on the day he he broke that two day fast,
(32:25):
he had a boiled egg, I think a piece of
buttered toast, and I think some coffee, and he said,
I enjoyed the egg very very much. So I would
guess that that you if you did eat soiling, if
you ate like a whole food, you would find it
pretty rewarding, whereas if you ate like a synthetic food
like junk food or whatever, you'd probably be like, oh
(32:47):
my god, this is terrible, you know, but I'll bet
that strawberry would taste pretty good. Well if you ask
a dietician. And we didn't do a pole, but um,
I think this one. Dr joy Do Boast, spokesman for
the Academy of Nutrition and diet Tetics, Um not tnatics.
(33:09):
I saw her quotes from this article, but then I
saw a lot of other ones, and they have kind
of all been in line, which is basically like, yeah,
I mean, sure this stuff is okay and you can
use it to a certain degree, but we don't. There
just aren't studies like no one's gonna come out, No
scientists is gonna come out and say yeah, you could
(33:30):
live on this stuff for a year, because they just
haven't done these peer reviewed studies and these long term
risk and benefit analyzes don't exist. So no, no scientists
is gonna come out like and put their name behind
it in that kind of way, right exactly. But it's
like you said, like even if they would, even if
they were like, you know what, this is, fine, go
(33:50):
ahead and do it forget food, there's something missing, Like
there's that communal experience like you were saying, there's that
the relaxing act of cooking. Um. Like I I understand
feeling like it's your burdened with it sometimes when you're
under the gun and you you have to eat, but
just getting everything ready and cooking it and then cleaning
(34:12):
up afterwards is it can be a total pain. So
I understand the sentiment behind it. But I also would
never replace food entirely ever. Never. Yeah, well of course not, um,
because we're normal people. Um. But the other thing Dr
Doubos says, which I think is a very huge point,
is that what they've done is, I mean, there aren't
(34:35):
a hundred different types of soilent depending on what kind
of person you are. They basically said, this is just
your basic nutrition for your average person. It's one size
fits all and nutrition she said, they're making nutrition on
one size fits all approach. The nutrition just doesn't work
that way. So depending on your age, your lifestyle, how
(34:55):
active you are, what kind of like you know, maladies
you have in your life. Um, it's and and again
they're not claiming to do that. Like all they're claiming
is to do what it is, which is, Hey, we're
gonna make this thing. It might be good for some
people to use. Sometimes we'll probably keep you alive. I thought,
(35:17):
there's so. I also remember I was talking about the
non essential nutrients that aren't in there, and people are
wondering what effect that might have. There's also another um
thing that that's missing that's kind of subtle, but it
might have an impact. This Japanese study found that it
seems the art or not the art, but the act
of chewing has some sort of benefits. So like it
(35:38):
has a stress reduction and um, it also probably controls
the amount of glucose entering your blood by just kind
of unlocking food slowly by chewing it into smaller and
smaller pieces. And you don't do that with drinks like soilent.
You just get hit with it all at once, so
(35:59):
there's a big flood of your of nutrients into your bloodstream.
And fortunately with that stuff, it's it's good stuff. But um,
like if if they were saying like, the sugar probably
has a greater impact on you than the same amount
of sugar delivered through solid food because it just hits
you faster and so your your levels increased. Quicker about that.
(36:22):
Either I'm gonna get some, are you going to? Yeah,
I'm gonna get some and just have it on hand.
And I mean it beats driving to McDonald's If I
don't have any food. Sure, you know you should hide
it in the wheel well or your spare tire. Well.
I do have a pickup truck, so I have no trunk,
That's what I'm saying. Uh, I guess it's underneath. I
(36:45):
gave away your hiding place. Now my hiding place is
actually behind the rear seat. Oh gotcha. That's a good one.
No one will ever find anything there, and there you
will find. It's pretty salacious, but you'll find bungee cords
and jumper cables in John Strickling. Yes, have you got
anything else? No? Unless we insert Strickland, which would go
(37:05):
right here. But if not, um, we'll just end it. Well,
let's find out right now. Nope, we didn't. Oh well, um,
I should probably say chuck. And we probably should have
said this fairly early on. We have like no um
uh financial interests in soilent whatsoever? We even backing on Kickstarter, No,
(37:27):
I got I got no interest other than wanting to
taste this, uh this junk. Yeah, all right, if you
want to know more about soilent, type that word into
the search bar how stuff works dot com. And since
I said search bar, it's time for a listener mail. Uh.
You know, it wouldn't surprise me if Reinhardt listens to
the show. Oh well, if he does, what's up, dude? Yeah,
(37:51):
so at the very least we might get a case
of this stuff at the office. Oh boy. And UM,
I'm gonna call this, well, I'm gonna call this one
of what maybe several breastfeeding email replies. Uh. First of all,
we did a show, two parter on feeding babies. First
part was on breastfeeding, and we were both nervous, and
(38:14):
I have to say it went great, and we've been
getting great feedback and I'm super proud of these episodes. Yeah,
they're good. Based on the feedback we've been getting very supportive,
which makes us feel good. Yeah, we were pretty tense alright,
So this is one of those Hey guys. Uh. Plus
she has a great name. I know you're worried about
getting tons of attack emails for doing an episode and breastfeeding,
(38:36):
but our promises isn't mean smiley face. I listened to
the episode right after I got home from breastfeeding Glass.
I'm currently pregnant do on February. Uh so, man, this
is gonna come out probably about a month before that.
And she does a big scream and anticipation. I took
a class through my local hospital on breastfeeding to prepare you. Guys. Uh,
(38:59):
you had really great thing to say about breastfeeding, and
it pretty much lined up with what the lactation consultant
running the class had to say. I'm so glad that
you tackled tackle the issue, especially because you are men
um even though I know it scared you. The lactation
consultant said, the biggest barrier to women breastfeeding is not
having a supportive partner, uh, which I don't get that
at all. Um. Hopefully with your podcast you read some
(39:21):
partners out there who will now be more informed and
better able to support the new mother in their lives.
I hope so too. I was so glad that you
mentioned the war over feeding currently going on as well.
Formula is also a great option for feeding babies. No
matter what militant moms have to say, just feed your baby.
Keep up the great podcasting. And her name is Claire Victory,
(39:47):
and boy, she's so close to being named declare Victory.
Oh yeah, I hadn't thought about that, and she said
ps and never offended. By the way when you say guys,
I hope others aren't either. I feel like you've have
gotten to the point where guys is gender neutral. Sure
we're making that our mission in life, I hope. So. Yeah.
Well thanks a lot, Claire, Yeah. Uh, we appreciate a
(40:11):
big time. And thanks to everybody who sent us notes
of support for that one, because they are very well
received by us and clear good luck yeah yeah, best
wishes to you, Yes, good luck how it goes well. Uh.
If you want to get in touch with us, like
Claire Victory did, you can tweet to us. I'm at
Josham Clark, and there's also s Y s K podcast
(40:32):
where you can find both of us. You can also
find us on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash Stuff
you Should Know, and Chuck is at Charles W. Chuck Bryant.
You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at
how stuff Works dot com and has always joined us
at our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know
dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
(40:56):
is it how stuff Works dot com
Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry over there,
which means it's time for stuff you should know. He's
(00:23):
the He's the DJ, I'm the rapper. Who's the DJ?
Don't you remember? That was the first, first or second
d J Jazz Jeff and the Fresh Prince album. Now
wouldn't need them. Everybody was totally confused as to who
was who, so they actually named their album He's the DJ,
I'm the rapper, and like Will Smith is pointing at
(00:44):
himself and pointing at Jazz Jeff. And then their newest
album is called He's the movie Star. I'm the one
who asked you if you want fries with that soda?
Poor jay Z Jeff. That's so mean. I'll bet he's
a like a successful producer. I bet he is totally
successful and probably way more successful than me. And I'm
just a jerk. It's a little late now, I know.
(01:05):
I thought it would be funny. And I also insulted
fast food industry workers too. It's like that that one
Simpsons where somebody I think was calling Homer a chicken,
and some giant chicken walks over and goes he's insulting
the both of us. This show just gave and gave
(01:30):
and gave for decades. I think DJ Jazzy Jeff, I'm
looking right now. I think he's still uh a DJ
record producer and still a DJ called like DJ DJ. Yeah, yeah,
I'm just mean. Sorry, Jazzy Jeff. You know who's not mean? You? No,
(01:52):
I'm pretty mean? Okay. Um, A kid named well, I
don't want to call him a kid. I want to
call him a kid because he's younger than me. But
he's a dude now. Yeah, his name is Rob Brian Hart. Yeah,
not Rob Reiner, No, no, no, no adult Rob Brian Hart.
Although he had a movie called When Harry Met Soilent.
(02:12):
That's pretty good. That was good. And you know what
I'm ashamed to say, I didn't even see that coming.
Was so bad. Emily always laughs when I left. She
always like, you really cracked yourself up, didn't you. Like,
I'll just be walking down the hall laughing at myself
and she that's a way to say, Chuck's drunk. Chucks drunk,
and you're not as funny as you think you are. Oh,
(02:35):
I see what you mean. Yeah, you really crack yourself up.
Sometimes you should say, somebody's got to alright, Soilent, this
is not a paid promotion for soiling Let's go ahead
and just get that out of the way. No, but
it's they're they're it's gonna pay off for him big time. Well,
I mean, we're gonna talk a lot about a specific brand,
(02:56):
but um, I think it's worthwhile because it is the
innuine I think it's a genuine revolutionary product in a
lot of ways. And it's not an endorsement. I'm just
saying it's really super unique. Yeah, it's not not to
endorse or whatever, but it's probably the single greatest thing
humans have ever invented. Have you ever had it? Have I?
(03:18):
You know? I have not. Actually I wanted to try
it today. But you can't just go down to the
corner store and get it. No, you can't. You have
to order Soilent from their website, soilent dot com or Amazon.
Of course, I didn't know you could get it on Amazon. Yeah,
they you can get it there. Now, that's good. The
prices have come down from so we're working from an
article we should say from probably two fourteen in tech
(03:42):
industry years, that's like ten years ago. And this is
definitely a cornerstone of the tech industry. And what we're
talking about is, is well a food replacement UM called
soilent or not a food replacement? Well, yeah, originally it
was intended to be a food replacement or a meal
(04:04):
replacement or no, I guess it was originally intended to
be a food replacement where you could just live off
of this stuff you didn't need other food. And then
now it's intended to be a meal replacement where you
would eat other food, but you could say, have this
instead for lunch or whatever. Yeah, or you could eat
it along with your meal. Sure, Like let's just call
(04:26):
it beige food. Yeah, my liquid state, Yeah, pretty much
entirely liquid. It's like pancake batters. That what I kept
running across the consistency, And I mean, doesn't everyone I
want to drink pancake batter. I've been known to take
(04:47):
a sip of pancake battery. It sounds really gross. Um,
we haven't tried it, and I really wanted to, like
I said, for this, but um, we may or may
not get Um. Our colleague Jonathan Strickling here. It just
depends on if we can find him. Uh, he's been
he was being tattooed by NASA the other day. Oh
that happened. Huh, not by NASA, but sort of with
(05:11):
NASA for NASA, under NASA's supervision. Maybe. I mean he
got a tattoo for work via NASA. Yep. Um. So
I haven't seen him since then, But if we can
get him in here, he did the soilent thing for
a while. Uh, and he loves to talk, so he
would be good. As a matter of fact, let's just
(05:33):
add a thirty minute silent part here, but we can
insert what he'll say after we introduced him. But anyway,
I did not get to taste it, but it has
been likened to everything from pancake batter two um, meta
musel or cream of wheat or a tasteless milkshake. Um,
(05:53):
although they do have flavors out now, which we'll get to.
But um. What the original intent of soilent taste wise
was that it was just really just neutral and bland
for the purposes of we don't want people to get
sick of eating this. Yeah, and probably the best meat. Yeah, right,
(06:14):
exactly that if you don't have a taste, you can't
really get sick of a taste, right, But I disagree.
I'm sure he could totally get sick of this. Sure,
but it also is something of a blank slate that
people can add their own tastes and flavors to, like
maple syrup or fruit or peanut butter or something. Yeah,
which I didn't think about. That's a great idea, right,
So they specifically wanted to create this product for a
(06:37):
number of reasons. And like I said, that guy who
I said was nice, he actually is nice. From the
Broad a New Yorker profile of him, SAME's Rob Brian
Hart And um, he actually he went to tech. He's
in Atlanta, boy, Yeah, And he was in San Francisco
working at a tech startup out of his house with
some of his roommates. And he decided that um, eating
(07:03):
was taking up way too much of his time and money, time, money, effort. Um.
It was just something he wasn't very interested in. And
he also was, um, I think concerned with exactly what
he was eating. I think he was just basically living
off a ram And he said, which is not the
healthiest thing you can possibly eat sure. So he decided
(07:24):
to take a little time and research nutrition and how
it relates to human physiology. And he had this idea
that if you could get rid of the unnecessary parts
of food, like food is kind of a clunky, inefficient
vehicle for delivering nutrients. If you could get rid of
(07:46):
the clunky part and just have the nutrients, you could
you could live fairly healthily on just the raw materials
of food that we need from food, right, just the nutrients. Yeah,
Like I can save money, I can save time, um
from going to the grocery store and cooking and cleaning,
(08:06):
and I can get everything I really need to have
a genuinely healthy diet um right here in this. I mean,
I guess i'll call it a drink. I mean it
goes down like a drink, right, Yeah, okay, so we'll
call it a drink. But it's not to be confused with.
I mean, there have been all kinds of meal replacement
(08:27):
drinks over the years, uh, from like insurer to slim
Fast and muscle milk, Yeah, protein shakes and stuff like that.
This is not that this is supposed to give you
everything you need in your body for a meal. Yeah, nutritionally.
Other meal replacement drinks are meant to be meal replacements, right,
Like if you couldn't get enough nutrients from your food
(08:49):
because you're recovering from surgery, you need an extra bit.
Your doctor may say, like drink and ensure every day whatever.
Or like you said, protein chakes like muscle milk. If
you're a weightlifter, you need uh hit a protein after
you work out, you you will probably drink some sort
of protein shake afterwards. Right, So there's very specific um
(09:12):
reasons for the meal replacements or supplements that have been
invented up to soiling. What's that soiling apart was that
it was created intentionally to be a replacement for food,
Like this was all you needed. You never needed to
eat food again. All you had to do was eat
soiling every day, every day, and and ingeniously, and I
(09:35):
don't think he intended to even he was just looking
for something for himself. He wasn't looking to change the
food industry or to start a company. I don't think,
not of a food company. But he very ingeniously started
a blog against when thirteen called how I Stopped Eating Food,
which is super grabby on the internet. Title wise, like
(09:55):
someone's going to see that and go, well, what in
the world is this all about? And that's what happened.
It went viral, it blew up. He detailed on there
that he lost weight. He said his intellectual and athletic
performance improved. He said he spent a lot less money
on groceries, but he put he put athletic and scare quotes.
(10:17):
He's like, if you know what I mean, because he
did go to tech and he was a software engineer,
I meant sex. But yeah, yeah, the other way that
joke worked. He said he spent a lot less money
on groceries and he only spent about five minutes a
day making this stuff. And he described it as a
quote sweet succulent, hearty meal in a glass end quote,
(10:40):
and people were all over it. He said, like after
a week he would see ads for food and it
would just be nauseated by him. He any that he
came to crave um the soiling, which wasn't called soilent
at that time. No, he did call it soilent. Oh,
I thought he didn't call it until he like got
the Kickstarter. Going from what I saw, I actually saw
(11:02):
that blog post, and I believe he calls it Soilent
in it. Okay, well whenever he got it, he got it.
Spoiler alert by the way, upcoming. There was a movie
in nineteen seventy three called Soilent Green, very famous, uh,
kind of classic cult classic sci fi movie with Chuck
Heston and the big reveal and soil it's about this, uh,
(11:24):
this future world, this dystopian society where um, these people
are fed these rations and in the end you realize
that's it's revealed that people are eating other people. Soilent
Green is people people, right, so um. And for that reason,
because that was just such a famous ending, Like if
that actually spoiled the movie for you, like, let us know,
(11:46):
so Chuck can come hit you with a hammer because
everybody knows the ending of the twist and Soiling Green. Yeah,
I'm just you know, but he he yeah, I know.
That was nice of you. See you're not a mean person,
You're nice. Um. The he he was lobbied by investors, friends, family,
Everybody's like, you gotta change the name of Soilon. But
(12:08):
he would explain to him, it's actually not based on
the movie. He's based it on the book that was
the source for the movie Soiling Green. The book was
called Make Room, Make Room, and it was written by
a guy named Harry Harrison, and it's it was basically
about overpopulation and in the book that people are fed soilent,
which is a food made of soy and lentils, And
(12:32):
that's what he based it on, was that book, not
the the food being made from people, which apparently the
makers of the movie used some pretty deep artistic license
to totally alter it at the end. Yeah, So it
started out nerdy, and it got nerdier because he was like,
it's actually a deep cut right exactly from make Room,
(12:54):
Make Room exclamation points. But he he um, he did
detail in this blog post, and I'm pretty sure he
did call it soiling in it, and he thinks very clever.
I think it was a really kind of a funny
wink to call it that. Sure, but he um. He
posted the recipe that he went by in a follow
(13:17):
up post and it's still up there. You can go
see how to make soilent yourself, And as a matter
of fact, a lot of people do. There's this um
subculture of d i y soilent enthusiasts, people who are
like so into it that they're creating their own blend
for themselves from scratch self soil enters, yep, soilent preppers.
(13:40):
So he started that Kickstarter got about three million bucks.
Uh because people thought it was a cool idea. UM,
submitted it to the f D A right, yeah, and
that went whatever, but they classified it interesting instead of
a dietary supplement. They said, now this is a food
like knock yourself out, NERD go get sued. We don't care.
(14:05):
And then he got a co packer, Rosa Labs in
l A and um, they produce it for him still
and people started eating or drinking this stuff up. Yeah,
I mean especially other um people who work twenty three
hours a day um and didn't want to be bothered
with having to eat because they didn't really care about
(14:27):
food and or they were like, all I'm eating is
mac and cheese, Like what what am I doing? Like?
If I'm gonna care that little about food, then I
might as well eat something that's healthy that takes even
less time to make them mac and cheese and just
the whole um. Uh. The mentality behind soil it really
like tapped a nerve and that stuff took off like
(14:48):
very quickly. Um. They started selling like thirty thousand units
of it a month. I guess packets a month by
two thousand fourteen, and it was it debuted. The first
shipments sold. They're shipped in May of two thousand fourteen,
so like within seven months they were selling thirty thousand
units a month. Yeah, it went gold right away. Uh,
(15:10):
it's like round and round by. We'll take a break
here and um I'll see if I go find Strickland
and we'll be right back. No, no Strickland yet. Oh yeah,
(15:43):
he has not appeared since the New year. You know,
he's in Las Vegas right now? Right? Oh was he
at c E S. Well, that makes sense. I didn't
read my company blog. Uh yeah I did. Actually I
did see that on our internal blog, right that we
all post our daily goings on and last each other
(16:04):
so silent. Uh. Again, we said that the taste isn't
the big thing. Um, but they really aim to just say, hey,
it's convenient, you're gonna save some money. And if you're
you know, like you said, if you're someone who doesn't
put so much care into what you're making for yourself,
(16:24):
like you could like you said, you could eat nothing
but this, but even the owner said, like you could
but like, what do you want to food is great? Yeah,
And they've walked that back tremendously. I think the more invested. Yeah,
the more they've walked that back. So originally it was
and he would give interviews and just tell everybody like, yeah, man,
(16:45):
you can you can just live off of this indefinitely
if you want. Now they say it's not intended to
replace every meal, but it can replace any meal. Yeah.
I think it's a really good I don't know if
they've if they've tapped into the doomsday prepper segment, but
(17:05):
like this seems to be the kind of thing that
somebody could and should have, like in the trunk of
their car or along with their canned goods and roll
of masking tape. Yeah, you know, I mean I literally
when I read this, I was like, you know, I
wouldn't mind having a case of this in my trunk.
(17:27):
Be a disaster, Yeah, pick up check that doesn't work,
but you never know. I mean, I doubt if I'm
ever gonna be like lost in the wilderness, but if
i was, it'd be nice to have food for a week. Yeah,
you know, for food for a week. I mean, these
the sealed packets, unopened apparently last for a year. Al right,
so I'd have to on day three sixty four every year,
(17:49):
I'd have to drink them and get some new ones.
You'd have to drink nine months worth of food on
one day if you're a heck of a New Year's Eve.
So we are officially on version one point seven. Yeah,
that as of about two weeks from this recording ago,
they issued one point seven And as of a couple
(18:10):
of days ago, they introduced two new flavors um Yeah,
and that's soilent two point oh. Oh is that official? Yeah,
that's like um as technically a separate product. It's like
pre mixed soilent drinks. All they have. They've had those
in in the natural flavor since the beginning though, Oh
(18:31):
is there right? I thought they just started with powder
and then came and added the drink, and then now
they added those two flavors to the drink. I think
the new flavors are new. They've had the drink for
a while. And they also now have a bar, a
soilent bar that's unavailable right now. And about why in
a little bit, because it's quite interesting. I did not
know that um do they have the coffee ist is that. Yeah,
(18:53):
that's out. So that's soilent in a bottle with caffeine. Yeah,
so that's your morning. Well, I guess whenever you want
the calf angeled, I would say morning, but you never
know what your schedule is. That that sounds dangerous because
I mean, like this is food, right, and people have
a tendency to pound coffee. You don't want to pound
the stuff like you'll gain weight. I mean, I guess
if you're trying to gain weight, sure do it, but
(19:16):
like this is this is the stuff is engineered to
be just what you need to sustain you or maintain
your weight. Or I guess if you wanted to gain weight,
you just drink more of it pounded, you know, supposedly
lose a little weight if you go like a soiling
only for a few weeks. But it's all anecdotal. I
don't think they make any claims. No, I don't think
(19:37):
so either. So they're on one point seven now and
each version supposedly they just you know, they're tweaking the recipe.
They're listening to people, which sounds like the right thing
to do, Like it sounds like they're really listening to people,
and people are saying, oh, it's um, it's too thick,
Like I don't like one point six, So they'll say,
all right, a little xanthem gum take that out. Uh.
(19:59):
They switch the primary source of fatty acids from fish
oil to algible oil. But now I think the algae
oils out now right, No, no, so the alga oils in.
And they actually the reason why they switched out of
fishal well two reasons. It made it vegan when they
change from fish oil to algible but they also like
it it um has far less of an environmental impact
(20:23):
algae um farming does, but they even took it a
step further, and they're not using oil from farmed algae.
They're using oil from bioreactors, which take up even less
space and use less energy for algible oil production than
farming does. Right, So they're really like trying to narrow
the impact environmentally that this stuff has. Yes, And the
(20:46):
reason why is it is very much linked to our
artificial sweetener episode. Somebody introduced whole algile flower to the market.
UM as I think a thickener. I think it also
is an emulsifier UM, and it just creates a pleasant
mouth feel. I think um. And it's also somewhat nutritious supposedly,
(21:10):
but it also can make people violently ill. And so
all of soilent one point six had to be suspended,
including the bar. That's why the bar is not available
any longer. Um because it all contained this whole algile flower.
They had to basically stop selling it, and then they
tinkered with it, and that's why one point seven came out. Uh, Well,
(21:32):
if if you're if you don't know much about soilent
and you're literally screaming at your at your car radio
right now or wherever you're listening, but what is it really?
Then tell them what it's mainly derived from. Oh, it
is soy protein. They replaced the brown rice and the
oat flour and potato starch, and rice starts with basically
(21:54):
just soy soy protein, another a couple other carbohydrates, So
it's mainly soy, just a soy based meal, soy algeil
oil um, something called um I so malt malte loose.
It's a which they synthesize from beats. It's a carbohydrate
but also a bit of a sweetener, canola oil. I
(22:15):
think they took it. I think they took that out
and the reason. Okay, so there is rice starching it.
They definitely took the brown rice, the oat flower, and
the potato starch out. Because if you go to their website,
it's so cool. At the very bottom the bottom navigation,
they'll they'll say release notes, and it will bring up
(22:38):
PDFs of the notes about what they changed and why.
UM for every single version of UM soiling, so it'll
say we took this out because we found that this
is actually better for the environment, or that this delivers
the vitamin that we're trying to get better, or UM
(22:59):
for whole algile flower. They said that they removed it
to improve customer experience, which means not making you violently. Yeah,
it's I mean, like I said, it sounds like they're
they're continually striving to get it right. Yeah, but they're
also more than that, they're also sharing what they're doing
(23:21):
because the whole thing was kind of based out of
that open source tech ethos, and so they've kind of
maintained that open source thing ever since. They're just very
transparent as a company. Yeah, looking at the as of
January third, nutritional facts and one bottle fo calories one
(23:41):
grams of total fat two grams of saturated fat. And
this is for the the regular natural, right, so I
keep calling natural? Is that what they call it? Uh? Original?
Let's just say non flavored yet original a ridge. How's that? Uh?
Cholesterol nocles are all which they've had from the beginning,
(24:02):
ugrams of sodium, thirty six grams total carbs, three grams
dietary fiber, nine grams of total sugars, nine grams of
added sugars, and then uhs of protein, and a whole
host of vitamins and minerals. Yeah, and those vitamins and
(24:22):
minerals are important. That the essential nutrients UM, which are
nutrients like vitamins and minerals that our bodies need but
can't make. UM. They apparently went to the n I
H and the FDA and several other UM groups and said,
you know, what does the human body need to function
and thrive? And they that's what they put in there.
(24:45):
They have this blend of vitamins and nutrients that they
include as part of the recipe for soilent. One of
the things that soilents I don't want to I guess
criticized for, I guess, but more one of the concerns
that people who are skeptical about it have is that
it um it doesn't have any non essential nutrients, which
(25:08):
are nutrients that your body can make itself, like cholesterol
that has zero cholesterol, but your body can make its
own cholesterol. And that was a deliberate move on Reinhardt
and his his UM co founders parts that they decided
that they didn't need non essential nutrients, that it was
UM something that our bodies already make and so therefore
(25:30):
it was UM redundant basically to add this stuff in,
because this is just the basic bear minimum that you
need for to to be healthy and thrive. But some
people are saying, well, these things are also found in
nature in our food, and we take them in and
we don't really know enough about nutrition and how it
affects the human body to say you don't really need
(25:52):
to take in from the outside any non essential nutrients.
So people are saying, we're gonna have to see over
the course of year is what kind of effects this
has on people UM who are just eating soil, and
if those people do exist, you know, five ten years
from now. Yeah, and especially if that's something that you
kind of touted or not you. But he touted to
(26:13):
begin with, which is, hey, man, theoretically you could just
eat only this. Yeah, but I mean he was like this,
this twenty something dude who had a really great idea,
and I didn't care about what the investors were saying,
and and he cared about people's health. He wasn't doing
it to be like a huckster or snake oil sales
or anything like that. You know, he was just not
(26:33):
watching his p's and ques like somebody who was from
a PR department might ask him to. All right, well,
let's take another break and I'm gonna We're gonna walk
to Las Vegas. Get them. I'm gonna see if Strickland's
up for this. Go get that guy, and I'll be
right back in about ten days. Hey, and put twenty
on black for me. M alright, good news, bad news.
(27:17):
I owe you forty dollars man. No wait, no, that's good. Yeah,
I thought you were paying me back with interest. Bad
news is I couldn't find Strickland in Vegas. Actually, if
we can't find Strickland, this is just hot off the
presses our buddy Joe ran dazz oh yeah, currently uh
of at midnight Fame he drank soil it for a
(27:41):
little while, yeah, and asked him. I texted him for
a description, and this just came in and he said, uh,
it tasted like the devil's chalk. But some reptilian part
of me appreciated obtaining sustenance without having to worry about
flavor or preparation. Basically, space stationed serial killers should like it,
(28:02):
and no one else. That's our that's our Joe, all right.
So if you want to buy someone, like I said,
you can get on Amazon. Now. I think it's only
available in the USA and Canada still though, unless that's changed,
I did not see that. But what what you can
do is you can buy the pouches of powder and
(28:25):
mix it where you can buy the bottles um and
you can get subscriptions that cut a little of the
price off depending on how much of this you want
to drink, and that is up to you, as a
human being to decide how much of this kind of
nasty stuff. And I've heard our buddy Joe Randazza had
(28:45):
some of this too, and I tried to get a
quote from him on what he would describe the taste,
and he hasn't replied yet, but I've heard some people
say like, oh, it's really not that bad, and I've
had heard other people say like it's disgusting and you'd
really have to choke it down. So I guess there's
a spectrum. I I mean, I guess I saw a
couple of quotes like that, But for the most part,
(29:08):
it seemed like people were surprised by how either neutral
or strangely yeah, strange, strangely um alluring the taste was. Yeah,
I didn't heard that. There's this. There's a great New
Yorker article that profile I mentioned earlier UM called I
think it's called the End of Food. It's from two
thousand before team when this was like at the peak
(29:29):
of its buzz um and Lizzie Wincombe, who wrote the thing,
try soiling herself and it's weird. I think she actually
says she starts to crave the taste after a while,
but then some of her colleagues give these pithy quotes
about what it actually tastes like, but they weren't actually
trying it, you know what I mean. She she was
(29:51):
actually trying to like, subsist on it for a little while.
She apparently came to like it interesting I'm curious about
its longevity. Like, when something like this comes out, I
definitely see the allure of it becoming the rage for
a while. But and and I think one of them
we'll talk about what a dietitians think. But um, one
(30:12):
of the allures of food is is food and sit
and making it and sitting with friends and the wonderful
taste that you get any experience you get of breaking
bread with one another. And this really throws all that
out the window. Um, you can't romanticize sitting down with
a soilent shake and your friends, even if they all
have one on their plate, it's just not the same.
(30:34):
And nor do nor do they say it is the same. Um.
But it makes me wonder like, once this initial fad
wears off, what will it become? You know, it's bizarre.
I just realized something. Well, you were saying that that
this is the opposite of what we were saying. One
of the problems with artificial sweeteners is so instead of
(30:55):
exciting the gustatory response of your reward pathway for meeting food,
all this does is um create satiation. So you're you're
full from it, but you're not enjoying tasting it or
eating it or smelling it or looking at it or
thinking about it. So it's the exact opposite where artificial
sweeteners excite that that um, that gustatory sensor um, but
(31:20):
don't fill you up. This does the exact opposite well,
And then I wonder what kind of effect that can
have on your body, Like it does it dull that
and kill that gustatory response, or does it make it
so that when you do eat something, it's just like, wow,
I can't believe the taste of the strawberry, and I
don't know I um I that I've read about this
(31:42):
this guy um, his name's Angus Barbieri and he's a
Scotsman from nineteen sixty six. I think he was in
his early twenties, and he went three hundred and eighty
two days without eating a thing. He was under the
supervision of some mad scientist doctor who was giving him
(32:03):
like vitamin supplements and monitoring him. But he survived just
on these vitamin supplements and coffee, tea and water for
more than a year. And the reason he did it
was he weighed four hundred and fifty six pounds and
he was like, I'm tired of it I want to
get down to one eighty and he did. Um. But
he on the day he he broke that two day fast,
(32:25):
he had a boiled egg, I think a piece of
buttered toast, and I think some coffee, and he said,
I enjoyed the egg very very much. So I would
guess that that you if you did eat soiling, if
you ate like a whole food, you would find it
pretty rewarding, whereas if you ate like a synthetic food
like junk food or whatever, you'd probably be like, oh
(32:47):
my god, this is terrible, you know, but I'll bet
that strawberry would taste pretty good. Well if you ask
a dietician. And we didn't do a pole, but um,
I think this one. Dr joy Do Boast, spokesman for
the Academy of Nutrition and diet Tetics, Um not tnatics.
(33:09):
I saw her quotes from this article, but then I
saw a lot of other ones, and they have kind
of all been in line, which is basically like, yeah,
I mean, sure this stuff is okay and you can
use it to a certain degree, but we don't. There
just aren't studies like no one's gonna come out, No
scientists is gonna come out and say yeah, you could
(33:30):
live on this stuff for a year, because they just
haven't done these peer reviewed studies and these long term
risk and benefit analyzes don't exist. So no, no scientists
is gonna come out like and put their name behind
it in that kind of way, right exactly. But it's
like you said, like even if they would, even if
they were like, you know what, this is, fine, go
(33:50):
ahead and do it forget food, there's something missing, Like
there's that communal experience like you were saying, there's that
the relaxing act of cooking. Um. Like I I understand
feeling like it's your burdened with it sometimes when you're
under the gun and you you have to eat, but
just getting everything ready and cooking it and then cleaning
(34:12):
up afterwards is it can be a total pain. So
I understand the sentiment behind it. But I also would
never replace food entirely ever. Never. Yeah, well of course not, um,
because we're normal people. Um. But the other thing Dr
Doubos says, which I think is a very huge point,
is that what they've done is, I mean, there aren't
(34:35):
a hundred different types of soilent depending on what kind
of person you are. They basically said, this is just
your basic nutrition for your average person. It's one size
fits all and nutrition she said, they're making nutrition on
one size fits all approach. The nutrition just doesn't work
that way. So depending on your age, your lifestyle, how
(34:55):
active you are, what kind of like you know, maladies
you have in your life. Um, it's and and again
they're not claiming to do that. Like all they're claiming
is to do what it is, which is, Hey, we're
gonna make this thing. It might be good for some
people to use. Sometimes we'll probably keep you alive. I thought,
(35:17):
there's so. I also remember I was talking about the
non essential nutrients that aren't in there, and people are
wondering what effect that might have. There's also another um
thing that that's missing that's kind of subtle, but it
might have an impact. This Japanese study found that it
seems the art or not the art, but the act
of chewing has some sort of benefits. So like it
(35:38):
has a stress reduction and um, it also probably controls
the amount of glucose entering your blood by just kind
of unlocking food slowly by chewing it into smaller and
smaller pieces. And you don't do that with drinks like soilent.
You just get hit with it all at once, so
(35:59):
there's a big flood of your of nutrients into your bloodstream.
And fortunately with that stuff, it's it's good stuff. But um,
like if if they were saying like, the sugar probably
has a greater impact on you than the same amount
of sugar delivered through solid food because it just hits
you faster and so your your levels increased. Quicker about that.
(36:22):
Either I'm gonna get some, are you going to? Yeah,
I'm gonna get some and just have it on hand.
And I mean it beats driving to McDonald's If I
don't have any food. Sure, you know you should hide
it in the wheel well or your spare tire. Well.
I do have a pickup truck, so I have no trunk,
That's what I'm saying. Uh, I guess it's underneath. I
(36:45):
gave away your hiding place. Now my hiding place is
actually behind the rear seat. Oh gotcha. That's a good one.
No one will ever find anything there, and there you
will find. It's pretty salacious, but you'll find bungee cords
and jumper cables in John Strickling. Yes, have you got
anything else? No? Unless we insert Strickland, which would go
(37:05):
right here. But if not, um, we'll just end it. Well,
let's find out right now. Nope, we didn't. Oh well, um,
I should probably say chuck. And we probably should have
said this fairly early on. We have like no um
uh financial interests in soilent whatsoever? We even backing on Kickstarter, No,
(37:27):
I got I got no interest other than wanting to
taste this, uh this junk. Yeah, all right, if you
want to know more about soilent, type that word into
the search bar how stuff works dot com. And since
I said search bar, it's time for a listener mail. Uh.
You know, it wouldn't surprise me if Reinhardt listens to
the show. Oh well, if he does, what's up, dude? Yeah,
(37:51):
so at the very least we might get a case
of this stuff at the office. Oh boy. And UM,
I'm gonna call this, well, I'm gonna call this one
of what maybe several breastfeeding email replies. Uh. First of all,
we did a show, two parter on feeding babies. First
part was on breastfeeding, and we were both nervous, and
(38:14):
I have to say it went great, and we've been
getting great feedback and I'm super proud of these episodes. Yeah,
they're good. Based on the feedback we've been getting very supportive,
which makes us feel good. Yeah, we were pretty tense alright,
So this is one of those Hey guys. Uh. Plus
she has a great name. I know you're worried about
getting tons of attack emails for doing an episode and breastfeeding,
(38:36):
but our promises isn't mean smiley face. I listened to
the episode right after I got home from breastfeeding Glass.
I'm currently pregnant do on February. Uh so, man, this
is gonna come out probably about a month before that.
And she does a big scream and anticipation. I took
a class through my local hospital on breastfeeding to prepare you. Guys. Uh,
(38:59):
you had really great thing to say about breastfeeding, and
it pretty much lined up with what the lactation consultant
running the class had to say. I'm so glad that
you tackled tackle the issue, especially because you are men
um even though I know it scared you. The lactation
consultant said, the biggest barrier to women breastfeeding is not
having a supportive partner, uh, which I don't get that
at all. Um. Hopefully with your podcast you read some
(39:21):
partners out there who will now be more informed and
better able to support the new mother in their lives.
I hope so too. I was so glad that you
mentioned the war over feeding currently going on as well.
Formula is also a great option for feeding babies. No
matter what militant moms have to say, just feed your baby.
Keep up the great podcasting. And her name is Claire Victory,
(39:47):
and boy, she's so close to being named declare Victory.
Oh yeah, I hadn't thought about that, and she said
ps and never offended. By the way when you say guys,
I hope others aren't either. I feel like you've have
gotten to the point where guys is gender neutral. Sure
we're making that our mission in life, I hope. So. Yeah.
Well thanks a lot, Claire, Yeah. Uh, we appreciate a
(40:11):
big time. And thanks to everybody who sent us notes
of support for that one, because they are very well
received by us and clear good luck yeah yeah, best
wishes to you, Yes, good luck how it goes well. Uh.
If you want to get in touch with us, like
Claire Victory did, you can tweet to us. I'm at
Josham Clark, and there's also s Y s K podcast
(40:32):
where you can find both of us. You can also
find us on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash Stuff
you Should Know, and Chuck is at Charles W. Chuck Bryant.
You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at
how stuff Works dot com and has always joined us
at our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know
dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
(40:56):
is it how stuff Works dot com
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Chuck Bryant
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