Soylent CEO Rob Rhinehart holds a bag of finished product inside a warehouse in Oakland, California where the company runs its business on September 09, 2013. The 24-year-old software engineer developed Soylent, a homemade nutrient concoction, designed as part meal-replacement drink, part thought experiment, providing every necessary nutrient while challenging societys current perception of nutrition.
It was created by Rob Rheinhart with the goal to create the ultimate food. No, it wasn't designed to replace solid food. It was made as an alternative to the usual food humans eat. It was meant for individuals who don't have the luxury of time or don't want to spend time cooking, eating, and cleaning.
Now, this power-based product has its version of Soylent. 32-year-old entrepreneur Harsh Batra calls it SupermealX. Such a food substitute has gotten a "go" signal from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.
Will products like these become the liquid replacement for conventional food?
Rheinhart, the man behind Soylent, said it is his "longest running experiment to date". Soylent is packed with the nutrients needed by a person on a daily basis. All you have to do is add water and you're good to go.
"It takes a little perspective to see that food really is made out of chemicals; we can reduce it, and build it back up and make it better," Rheinhart said.
Some of the people who have become the most interested in this liquid food alternative include coders, engineers and venture capitalists. For instance, FOX 10's Jeff Moriarty's interest has been heightened.
"To me it is just an intriguing idea, we are at a point in our culture where you can just put aside worrying about a creative lunch and just boil it down to one clear drink," Moriarty said.
Moriarty is took Soylent for a week. "Well so I am going through these three phases figuring out how to make it getting balanced right, and getting used to the taste that is really odd," he said. However, after not wanting to have the same food for the whole week, Moriarty decided to go back to eating normal food while having an occasional Soylent on the side.
Furthermore, Batra believes products like Soylent and his SupermealX can replace solid food. "Food in the future will be limited to social gatherings and eating out," he says. He has been using his recipe since 2013.
On the other hand, Dr. Terry Simpson, a specialist in nutrition and weight loss, said he would not recommend people to totally use it. "There are some real issues when you look at how people absorb vitamins, most people actually like using their teeth, and biologically it is probably better," Dr. Simpson said. "...I recommend that they learn to cook," he added.
Steve Case, the CEO of Revolution, a company that invests in ideas, also believes that food substitutes like Soylent and SupermealX are not the future. "Put another way: the future of food is food," he says.
~Thanks to Beverly Zeña Jane A. Linao of Food World News
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