Soylent's creator claims that the powder can replace food. But what is it like to live on it for a week? Adam Gabbatt found out

"The powder you now behold is more than meets the eye," reads the marketing material that accompanied what was to be my food for the week.

"This mix of mass, energy and information is the staple food of the future. Refined, robust and efficient, Soylent is food that works."

Soylent was developed by software engineer Rob Rhinehart. In February 2013 he wrote a blogpost explaining how he had researched "every substance the body needs to survive, plus a few extras shown to be beneficial, and purchased all of them in nearly raw chemical form".

Rhinehart then mixed the chemicals together and consumed the resulting mixture. And nothing else. For a month.

He was quite pleased with the results of his experiment.



I feel like the six million dollar man. My physique has noticeably improved, my skin is clearer, my teeth whiter, my hair thicker and my dandruff gone. My resting heart rate is lower, I haven't felt the least bit sickly, rare for me this time of year. I've had a common skin condition called Keratosis Pilaris since birth. That was gone by day nine. I used to run less than a mile at the gym; now I can run seven. I have more energy than I know what to do with. On day four, I caught myself balancing on the curb and jumping on and off the sidewalk when crossing the street like I used to do when I was a kid. People gave me strange looks but I just smiled back. Even my scars look better.

It was with this in mind that I received a week's worth of Soylent – which comes as a powder with additional 'oil blend' – in mid-May, and set about consuming it, and nothing else, for a week.



Soylent has come a long way since it was originally prepared in Rhinehart's kitchen-cum chemistry-lab. The first mass-produced batch went on general sale this month. You can buy a week's worth for $85 from a snazzy website. Rhinehart says people can live on it exclusively, although he expects most customers to use it for "50-80%" of their meals.



When Rhinehart first tried his home-made Soylent, he was pleasantly surprised. "I felt like I'd just had the best breakfast of my life," he wrote on his blog. By day four, in addition to balancing on curbs and jumping on and off sidewalks when crossing streets, he had "noticed how much healthier [his] skin was".

"It's long been dry and rough, with splotches and red bumps but now it's soft, smooth and clear," the Soylent founder noted.

When I first tried Soylent I was also pleasantly surprised. It tasted fine. Slightly sweet, fairly pleasant, oaty, a bit powdery, but fine. It was like a protein shake with sawdust in it.

Unfortunately, the similarity between Rhinehart's experience and mine ended with that initial surprise. I did not feel like I had had the best meal of my life. I felt like I had drunk a particularly powdery drink.

By day four, when Rhinehart was bounding around like a healthy-skinned labrador, I was thoroughly miserable. It was not just that I missed food – which I did – but that I was always hungry. I was irritable, grumpy and a general pain in the arse to work with. I was tired, farting and generally pissed off: with myself, for having volunteered to do this, with Soylent, for not filling me up more, with my friends and colleagues, for eating.

I did not notice a dramatic improvement in my skin. I was not balancing on curbs. Although it wasn't the purpose of Soylent, Rhineheart lost 8lbs of weight in the first week. I stayed exactly the same weight but, oddly and unwantedly, my bodyfat percentage increased: from 12.4% to 13.5%. It was not a good week.

The video above charts my slide into misery as I struggled to stick to Soylent for the whole period. There are, I'm sure, many excellent and noble uses for Soylent. It could have an impact in areas devastated by famine or disaster. (As long as it could be mixed with clean water). It could be used as a quick lunch replacement as a salesman powers through those important facts and figures.



But will the western world become entirely Soylent dependent? Will we all be strutting around with soft smooth skin and glossy hair as a result? Will traditional walking be phased out, replaced by curb balancing and skipping gleefully? Is food dead now?



In a word, no.

