While I think in theory it’s possible for them to work–and they might indeed work for specific people with specific needs–a percentage of people using them are probably of a similar type to others who have gravitated towards food fads through the past century.

Like, if you hit up the Wikpedia or some history site and look at food/diet ads from 100 years ago, those products look pretty ridiculous to modern eyes. But they’re marketing the same thing, right? Health? Convenience? They’re targeting people who are desperate for solutions to their problems, using marketing language common to that era.

And I think a large percentage of these meal replacement products are doing the same thing to modern people, that all the “health food” stuff from decades prior did to our grandparents and great-grandparents. People are, after all, people, and it’s easy to fall for marketing regardless of what era you live in.

For a while I was skipping lunch or eating junk food due to work pinning me down for 80 hours a week. I wanted something fast but healthy and not expensive. Prepared meals cost too much, delivery apps only raise the price.

I had heard of soylent before and found ready-to-drink was available at Target. Not bad, but not good. Too sweet for me. After looking into these things more I eventually settled on Mana as they seemed to be the most focused on nutrition and constantly improving their product. I’ve been getting their powder by subscription ever since to replace one meal a day (usually breakfast). Comes out to less than 5 minutes and $2 a day. It’s borderline bland, which makes it easy to have fun with. Add chocolate powder, some mango juice, or leftover coffee from the French press, whatever to break out of the “I’m only eating this for sustenance” monotony.

The premade soylents are pretty good, and I regularly have them with a protein bar as my lunch. They’re pretty expensive in my opinion, so I try and look for them on sale, but the ease of not having to prep lunch is often worth it. I try and keep it under $2 a bottle for the 14oz ones, which still feels expensive to me, but some of the lunches I prep are around that cost, and it’s way cheaper than going out to eat (I keep a spare one at work in case I ever forget to bring lunch)

Blend some (1/4 cup or so) oatmeal into a powder. Put in 1-2 TBS peanut butter. Then add milk/yogurt/fruit/a little vanilla/some honey whatever you want. You can make your own liquid meal replacement without all the processing in commercial options, for less money and it’ll be fresh.

If you want something fast but it doesn’t have to be drinkable, mix 2-4 TBS peanut butter and 1/2 cup or so of oatmeal in a little bowl. Microwave for like 30 seconds to a minute or so. Add a couple TBS of juice or a small handful of chocolate chips. You’ve now got a basic “energy bar” that can be eaten with a spoon. Can also function as a light desert or sweet, healthy snack.

I think stuff that’s churned out in huge quantities, packaged in plastic, shipped around and designed to be shelf stable is questionable at best. If microbes won’t even digest it (which would make it go bad) how digestible is it for people?

Oatmeal and peanut (or other nut) butter is real food and it only takes a minute or two to mix up something basically the same as one of those replacement options, but made fresh. For my basic vitamins daily, I’ll have a bowl of plain cheerios (somewhat processed but better than a pressed vitamin) and some fruit. Maybe some greens here and there. (I’ll also try to hide some marmite in something, to up my B12 as I eat very little meat or dairy.)

All of these options are super cheap.

We have evolved for millions of years to eat real, natural, organic foods that not only provide the nutrients we need, but just as importantly, bacteria to maintain a healthy gut biome. Meal replacements is putting your health in the hands of a for profit corporation that may have the best interests, but also, many have shareholders who demand a return. Who are you going to trust. Foods from Mother Nature that have no processing or something made in a factory where you have no way to verify how it was actually made?

I have tried many alternative foods, some claiming optimal health, but only real unprocessed foods have given me the health others cannot match.

I mix Huel shakes for lunch when I don’t have leftovers from dinner to eat. It’s healthy (I think), convenient, inexpensive, and it tastes fine.

I have a Soylent Cafe most mornings on the way into work. It serves both as my first cup of coffee and also a 400 calorie breakfast. It’s $3/bottle which is more expensive than making food at home but I don’t have the time to prepare a meal before leaving for the day anyway. It’s also much cheaper and healthier than stopping or going through a drive thru.

My biggest concern is the amount of plastic as 3-4 bottles per week feels very irresponsible.

The flavor is pretty good but I miss the original Cafe Vanilla variety. That was really good.

Huel hot and savory is pretty good if you want most of the convience and nutrition profile, while still getting the “experience” of food.

Juicing is an excellent way to boost your metabolism and loose weight. Unfortunately a lot of plant matter gets wasted in the process, and in this economy itshard to justify such a big waste of food. I managed to loose 100lbs during my juicing phase.

There’s a great documentary about a guy with medical issues who traveled around the USA while solely juicing for over a month he interviewed locals with food addiction issues. Very impactful.

My father is a severe diabetic but can’t keep his hands off the sweets. One of the people interviewed said the exact thing my dad loves to say when gourging himself on yet another tasty cake. “If you’re going to die, die happy!” Obviously copium mixed in with a deep subconcious depression. I finally came up with the perfect retort whenever I catch him saying that:

“Somehow I doubt that tasty cake brings you anything close to happiness, dad. Enjoy your next insulin shot.”

I try to eat as few highly processed food as possible. Nearly all industrial meals and convenience products are packed with artificial substances to improve taste and especially optimize production cost. Most prominent water in combination with something to adjust viscosity.

Full meal replacements are the pinnacle of high processed foods IMO. You take “everything that a human needs” mix it with water and stuff it with aroma.

I got some problems with this approach:

• I’m not confident that there is really everything I need in it

• Extracting nutrition from food usually takes time, drinks are easy to process and probably release nutrition much fast (needs confirmation)

• Eating is not only about getting nutrition, chewing also triggers effects on your body

• Eating only artificial stuff destroys your taste, a lot of people are so used to highly processed stuff that they can’t even appreciate the taste of high quality food

• Take a break for eating, you can socialise with your family or coworkers and give your body time to regenerate

I personally love my smoothie meal replacement, helps me not feel bloated or overly full and very easy to not over eat/drink. The one meal I wouldn’t replace is dinner though.

I currently have Holfood chocolate flavor. Tastes pretty good, high in protein, not too filling. Sometimes, I’ll add in a scoop of unflavored whey to up the protein and calorie content.

I’ve had Soylent in the past, but I’ve never liked the flavour. Then at some point, they changed the formulation and it made me puke when I had it. Holfood vanilla is like a slightly more palatable version of Soylent if you like that neutral flavour.

I make very easy shakes in my nutribullet which are just water, ice, oats, chia seed, protein powder with probiotics, peanut butter and some berries or a banana. I swap in some other things like hemp hearts for the chia sometimes.

Tastes great and requires little effort.

I have gastroparesis, which means that I’ve been leaning on these pretty heavily of late. I don’t yet have a favorite, really, but the premade Soylent is rather filling. My biggest issue with all of them has be the sugar content.

Big fan of penny shakes as an alternative to soylent.

Filling, tastes acceptable, low sugar, high fiber and protein, and costs like 1.80/serving.