Greg Beato on Soylent Cuisine

Remember
when the planet’s young people—or at least its youth-oriented
jingle writers—almost convinced us that a bottle of Coca-Cola could
play a pivotal role in achieving global harmony? While the “real
thing” may have been a balm against the stings of Vietnam and other
afflictions of the era, today’s youthful idealists understand it
will take a lot more than proprietary sugar-water and some
attractive teenagers singing on a hilltop to combat melting polar
ice caps, rising income inequality, and everything else that ails
us. We need a genuine miracle elixir, not just a pause that
refreshes.

Enter Soylent, the gulp that sustains. Its primary components
are a powder made from maltodextrin, rice protein, oat flour, and
more vitamins and minerals than mid-century food scientists ever
managed to pack into a loaf of Wonder Bread, plus a liquid blend of
canola oil and fish oil. Mix the powder with the oil, add water,
and that’s it. As Greg Beato explains, Soylent is almost as easy to
prepare as a glass of Coca-Cola, and yet it is designed to function
as a “staple meal” that offers “maximum nutrition with minimal
effort.”

View this article.