To save energy, man formulates liquid diet

To save energy, man formulates liquid diet


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ATLANTA — Food is a waste of time, energy, and not the most efficient way to get your nutrients, says a man who has quit eating food from the Earth and started consuming only a drink he concocted.

It's not juice, a smoothie, or the cleanse where you only drink water, lemon juice, and maple syrup. Rob Rhinehart, a programmer from Atlanta, calls it "Soylent" — but more accurately it's a mixture of raw vitamins and nutrients.

For the two months, Rhinehart has been eating his mixture of nutrients and says he feels great.

"In my own life I resented the time, money, and effort the purchase, preparation, consumption, and clean-up of food was consuming," Rhinehart wrote on his blog. "I am pretty young, generally in good health, and remain physically and mentally active. I don't want to lose weight. I want to maintain it and spend less energy getting energy."

Like many extreme diets, this one raises some concern: Just how healthy is this liquid diet, exactly?


No one seemed to worry about me when I lived on burritos and ramen and actually was deficient of many known essential nutrients.

–Rob Rhinehart


For one thing, Sharon Akabas with the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University told NPR, Rhinehart's two-month experience is meaningless, and he can't know exactly what and how much of it his body needs by reading textbooks.

Rhinehart disagrees, pointing out the monotonous diet of many cultures.

"I'm touched so many people are concerned about my intake of possible unknown essential nutrients," he said. "No one seemed to worry about me when I lived on burritos and ramen and actually was deficient of many known essential nutrients. The body is pretty robust. If you can survive on what most Americans or Somalians eat, you can surely survive on Soylent."

Jay Mirtallo, an Ohio State professor of pharmacy, says Rhinehart has basically recreated a medical food like Ensure or Peptamen, but without the regulation that keeps the products in check.

"They're very complex products, in terms of making sure you get them in a form that's palatable but that stays in a form that's bioavailable to the body," Mirtallo told the Washington Post. "Some of the products are very difficult to get into a liquid form and may lose their potency when they do that, or could interact with other substances that keep them from being absorbed completely."

Those concerns aside, Mirtallo said, Rhinehart's formula is probably fine for his survival.

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Rhinehart's formula, however, is more cost-effective. He spends only $154.82 a month on the raw materials to make Soylent. According to a 2012 Gallup poll, young adults tend to spend between $127 to $173 a week on food. Men tend to spend more on food than women, and they also tend to eat out more often.

On Rhinehart's blog, he mentions that he still eats out socially on the weekends, but sticks with his drink the rest of the week.

"As any Instagram user knows, food is a big part of life. Food can be art, comfort, science, celebration, romance, or a reason to meet with friends. Most of the time it's just a hassle, though," Rhinehart wrote. "If you saved money on food at home you would have the freedom to go out more often."

Is the occasional meal out with friends enough though, or is this liquid diet suitable only to the single who live alone? Would it interfere with the good family dinners can do for a family?

Rhinehart doesn't have these answers, but he feels like the drink could be the answer to other problems.

"To me diet always seemed to be a trade-off," he said. "Time, money, health: pick two. You certainly have the capability to be healthy, but it will cost you. What about the single mom, the poor student, struggling entrepreneur or artist, the unemployed, or the elderly? These people desperately need energy, and its harder for them to be healthy than anyone else. Living on fast food and ramen is cheap and convenient, but unhealthy. Shopping at places like Whole Foods costs a fortune to many people and cooking healthy recipes takes practice and time."

Top image: Vice

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Celeste Tholen Rosenlof

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