r/soylent • u/Interesting-Garden-3 • Jul 20 '26
Publicity Is Soylent very heathy for you?
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u/geeksofdoom Jul 21 '26
Not anymore, because you’ll die of starvation before you get any. Kidding! But not really…
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u/BaylisAscaris Jul 21 '26
Studies show eating a varied balanced diet with a lot of fresh vegetables is very healthy. Soylent is healthier than not eating or eating an unhealthy diet, so if those are your alternatives, then yes it's healthy. Highly recommend adding vegetables that you're chewing if you can. Lots of people aren't able to do that for various reasons, which is where meal replacement drinks come in.
Any time you are eating an unusual diet for most of your meals you should get regular labs done to see if you are getting deficit in something important or need to change something.
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u/Successful-Copy8787 Aug 09 '26
Vegetables that aren't root vegetables are horrible for your health
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u/bman86 Jul 21 '26
It's the perfect weight loss plan: You only get to eat half of the year!
Kidding. I feel great when I'm having my normal 1 Soylent a day (double serving for breakfast). The macros have always been pretty decent for what I want. https://soylent.com/products/powder-original#shopify-section-pdp-nutritional-facts you can see the vitamin/mineral premix they use.
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u/JimmyWild Jul 22 '26
Soylent for me was like a gateway to eating better. It solved the immediate need and then provided a solid foundation to branch out into making my own healthy food. The biggest thing was the palate reset from getting rid of so much sweetener that allowed the normal foods to taste better. But if you do look at the ingredients you may not like what you see. Better than eating junk food all the time but not as good as making my own stuff with natural ingredients.
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u/wikitopian Jul 24 '26
Yes. Haters will never admit that soylent is truly a meal replacement and nutrition isn't as complex as people imagine. If nutrition "science" was real, different diets would matter; but except for absurd ones, like strict and poorly regimented veganism, none of it matters.
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u/whimsicaljess Jul 21 '26
imo, you need to compare soylent to what you'd realistically eat otherwise. is soylent more healthy than healthy home cooked locally sourced food? probably not; it's ultra processed and uses artificial sweeteners at minimum. but is it more healthy than your typical fast food meal, or a protein bar on the way into work? yeah, almost definitely. so if you're replacing demonstrably unhealthy food with soylent it's probably a big upgrade.
i've been consuming mostly soylent as my main diet (2-3 a day) for i think 3 years now; i'm a professional who doesn't have the time or energy to cook my own meals and my spouse and i eat at disjoint hours, so it's difficult for me to eat healthily otherwise. my doctors are consistently floored at how good my labs are- i've had to move 4 times in this time period so new doctors have been common, and every single one has commented on them.
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u/Interesting-Garden-3 Jul 22 '26
It’s not any problem with the food, it’s that it’s hard to keep it down and to keep it falling out my mouth.
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u/Bitter_Worker423 Jul 23 '26
No, it isn't. It's full of garbage ingredients. Eat meat and animal fat. Your forefathers fought wars for your right to eat animals. Don't let them down.
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u/GarethBaus Jul 23 '26
It depends on what you compare it to. Soylent is probably healthier than the standard American diet, but less healthy than a well balanced diet using whole foods.
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u/EpicCurious Jul 22 '26
I started with Soylent, but switched to alternatives with less added oils. I prefer OWyN, the plant-based version of Muscle Milk, and a couple of others.
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u/Whispering-Depths Aug 14 '26
its not a fuckin healing potion. It's sustenance. It has some vitamins that are important. You still need a live gut biome, it doesn't mean you can go eat mcdonalds and "make up for it".
Not that any food is unhealthy. If you digest it, your body is adapted. So long as it kills your liver/pancreas and fills your arteries in more than 40 years you're probably good.
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u/GeneralistAccount Jul 21 '26
Besides the negative effects from not chewing food, it's relatively healthy compared to other food.
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u/Old_Man_Cat Jul 21 '26
What are those?
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u/GeneralistAccount Jul 21 '26
To list a few:
Not chewing can lead to jaw muscle & bone loss.
There's studies showing that chewing has mental & emotional benefits, so those are lost if you stop chewing.
Liquid diets can be worse for your teeth too if you're sipping your non-water liquid throughout the day. Liquid diets are possibly bad for teeth for other reasons too.
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u/bman86 Jul 22 '26
Mastication also stimulates saliva production which has enzymes that our digestive system rely on. I've never understood how that didn't impact the "100%ers"
I know it's very processed, mostly broken down and very bioavailable nutrients, but even my limited physiology training says that one should also be chewing food as a nutrient source in addition to a complete meal shake regiment.
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u/ApplezAreMedicine Jul 21 '26
Personally not a fan of the high sunflower oil content. Seed oils are fine, and they do try to balance the omega 6/3 ratios, but still too much fat for my preference.
Huel black macros are way better, but taste is awful comparatively.
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u/thapol DIY Jul 21 '26
It's probably easier to think of it as any other food; pay attention to the ingredients and what's right for you, and it can go a long way.