People Chow: My month without food

For the past month I've largely given up food. I can count on two hands how many traditional meals I have eaten so far this year.

Instead I've been consuming what would charitably be considered a nutritional shake for the vast majority of my meals, based on a do-it-yourself recipe of Soylent, a California based start-up company producing a new "super food." For those science fiction aficionados, Soylent is not made out of people, or at least the company claims it isn't.

Being in a high-stress and unpredictable career as a journalist, often the last thing I think about on a daily basis is what I'm going to eat. Many days I simply forget to eat lunch and by mid-afternoon just run to a local fast-food restaurant and grab something quick and entirely unhealthy. There were periods where I would have a good month or two of preparing and bringing lunches from home, but I always ended up back in the rut.

This unhealthy habit would intensify when covering breaking news or meetings that last until well into the night. By the time I got home, the last thing I would generally want to do is spend time preparing dinner.

That's when I stumbled on a Reddit thread asking why we have these foods for cats and dogs that provide all the nutritional requirements they need on a day-to-day basis, but we don't have the same for humans. The top response was for this product called Soylent that was introduced about two years ago.

After reading a number of reviews about people's experiences on Soylent, I decided to take the plunge; however, the company has been so deluged in orders that new customers are on a wait-list for up to six months. Due to the high demand, Soylent has been rather supportive of do-it-yourself efforts to create customizable recipes.

Eventually, I settled on People Chow, a recipe that is essentially a mixture of corn flour, whey protein, canola oil, and a vanilla bean multivitamin powder that is combined with water to provide all the essential vitamins and nutrients required in a balanced diet. There is a small bit of Stevia and dark chocolate cocoa powder to provide a slight sweetness to the drink, but on the whole, the two ingredients only make up maybe 2 percent of the total mass of the recipe.

So far the experience has been more enjoyable than I had ever imagined it would have been when I first started out shortly before New Year's, and other than the fact the drink doesn't have much of a taste at all — outside of a slightly sweet chocolate flavor — there aren't many negatives that I have experienced.

First the positives:

•It's incredibly easy to mix. I can make up a week's worth of People Chow in my kitchen in about the time it would take to prepare a single meal. Each night I measure out three blender bottles of the recipe and mix it with oil and water, and put it in my fridge for the next day, which takes maybe five minutes. Combine this fact with not having to do dishes after each meal and it's a winner on this point alone.

•It's incredibly cheap. It does require about two to three weeks of one's food budget to get all the necessary ingredients to start making it, but at roughly $5 for a day's food it's a bargain when considering the cost of a typical meal out.

•There is no food waste. I live alone and a common predicament of single adults is that of having to cook for one person when most recipes make multiple servings. I am horrible about leftovers, so People Chow solves the issue of throwing away food and money.

•There is no stress about what I am going to eat. It is one less decision I have to make throughout the day, and one that is often made during stressful situations leading to unhealthy choices. Think of how many meals one eats a day that he or she doesn't particularly enjoy, but consumes solely for survival; that's exactly what People Chow is replacing in my life.

•I know exactly how many calories I'm eating and in what macro-nutrient ratios I am consuming them in. The recipe is incredibly malleable to fit one's needs and preferences. Want to have more protein? Just mess around with the recipe to get it to the level you want.

Out of all the positives, the only negative I can think of is the rather blandness of consistently consuming the same thing. The taste itself is nothing to write home about — it's no gourmet meal — but on the whole it's not gag inducing like some of my colleagues believe. There is nothing stopping me from having other meals, some reviewers have committed to only consuming Soylent for an entire month, but the temptation isn't as strong as maybe I thought it would be starting out.

Since switching my diet almost completely to People Chow, I have lost about 7 pounds, with really no adverse side effects. I do get hungry from time to time, but I believe that is purely a byproduct of how much I'm consuming and the number of calories I've decided to consume in a day, not because it is a liquid diet.

I don't intend for People Chow, or possibly Soylent, to replace 100 percent of my meals. Eating is often a social event and while I didn't take a bottle of People Chow to the Super Bowl party I attended, I could imagine the awkwardness of everyone enjoying the delicious food that was there, while I was sipping from my blender bottle.

Colleagues in the office often question my sanity in giving up food — the first thing anyone asked me was why I hated food — but for now, it's something I fully intend to continue.

Logan T. Carlson can be reached at 715-384-3131 ext. 328.