Ultimate Health Food Mix For Busy Office Workers Leaves Something To Be Desired

Blogger Farhad Manjoo recently spent a week taste-testing a new health drink touted by its creators as a scientific solution to a purported need for quick, nutritious meals made from a mix. Soylent, as it’s called, is meant to replace “staple meals” in the lives of people who have too little time to prepare healthful foods. The inventor of Soylent says it’s cheap ($3 a serving), easy to prepare, and more nutritious than the junk most office workers stuff themselves with. The problem, according to Manjoo, is that Soylent is “punishingly boring” and “joyless”. It tastes and looks bland: it is the same color as motel carpets. It may offer complete nourishment, but it does so “at the expense of the aesthetic and emotional pleasures many of us crave in food”.