English Composition

Professor Jesse Miller

Cassandra Kuplast

September 17th, 2019

                                                      Soy You Have a Favorite Meal?

     Many Americans share the same perspective. We love food. All different types of food mean something different to every family. If there is one thing we can all agree on, it is that food unifies us. Nothing can create more memories within a family then a homecooked meal can. With the invention of the meal-replacement drink Soylent, will our traditions change? Will the custom of sharing a Sunday meal with your family fall to an exaggerated protein shake?

In “The End of Food”, Lizzie Widdecombe profiles Rob Rhinehart and his invention of the food substitute Soylent.  The essay detailed his journey through finishing the cheapest and most effective way to fuel your body.  He invented Soylent as a way to cheaply provide himself with enough energy to get through the day, while being healthy.  Rob Rhinehart was an engineer, who worked for the incubator Y Combinator, trying to manufacture a technology startup.  During this process, he encountered some serious budget issues, and he was desperately trying to remedy them.  He was eliminating every item in his life that cost him money.  During this process, Rhinehart noticed how much he was spending on food.  He realized that he didn’t want to spend that much, and it was pointless for him to be spending this much on something he viewed to be so trivial. This prompted him to reconsider his choices as to what he was eating, and how it affected his wallet. He started living on fast food, eating McDonald’s and Little Caesars. After one week, understandably, he felt malnourished. “I felt like I was going to die,” said Rhinehart.”I was starving.”. Obviously, the cheapest option for food was not what Rhinehart needed to function as an adult. He needed a new, cheap option. He decided to try something new. He ordered all of our bodies essential nutrients, and he combined them in a blender with water. This prompted the invention of Soylent. Soylent is a meal-substitute made from the perfect balance of vitamins and nutrients. It is made into a smoothie type texture, and gray/beige in color. The purpose of Soylent is to fuel your body, while being as cheap as possible.

So how do we feel about Soylent? Many people were understandably taken aback by this new product. Why would you want to drink your meal? This type of meal would often seem like a punishment, not something you look forward to. So why would we choose to eat like this? That is because this is arguably the best way to fuel your body. The drink contains all the nutrients that your body needs to perform its best. Soylent can also be considered convenient. Instead of taking the time out of your day to leave work, go get lunch, and then eat it, you can take Soylent with you. You never have to leave your desk, and it takes very little time to prepare. When using Soylent as your meals, you can become much more productive by eliminating the time it takes to eat each meal. However, one may argue that this may not be the best solution to this problem. People love eating meals, and it’s not just for the food. Meals are often seen as social occasions

and outings to enjoy.  While we enjoy these social occasions, one can argue that these are not the best ways to spend our time or money. If you go out to eat with four people, it takes, on average, at least two hours to arrive, eat your meal, and then leave the restaurant. This is obviously not the most efficient way to eat. So why do we do it?

Food is often seen not just as a source of energy, but as a cherished gift. Food is used as comfort and celebration throughout every culture. Food not only fuels us, but it unifies us as well. In American culture, we see food as something to celebrate. During birthdays, graduations, and celebrations, we all share food, and the party is centered around a cake. We use food to aid us in our celebrations and enjoyment. It is part of our culture to celebrate using food, and to use it as a crutch when we are sad. If we were to change the way we view food, it would affect all of these other areas as well.

In my favorite meal essay, I discussed the Butternut Squash Soup Recipe that has been in my family for generations. It is a hearty soup, perfect for a cold fall day. The soup is a bright orange, flecked with different spices and bits of bacon. The smell can warm you instantly, and my family always enjoyed it while sitting around a fire watching football. Just thinking about that soup conjures up so many amazing memories of my family, from growing the squash, to cooking the soup, to eating it around a crackling fire. These memories were only made because we gathered as a family to create and enjoy this soup. The smell of it can make you reminisce all those memories, even of years long past. This would not be possibly with Soylent. You are not going to remember cracking open a bottle of Soylent with your grandmother like you would a homemade meal.

Replacing your favorite Sunday memories of hearty comfort food with cold, grey Soylent isn’t exactly Rhinehart’s goal. As Widdecomb stated in her article, “The End of Food”, “Soylent isn’t coming for our Sunday potlucks. It’s coming for our frozen quesadillas.” By saying this, it seems that Widdecomb discovered that Rhinehart’s intention wasn’t to replace our favorite meals. It was only to replace the meals we grab and eat that aren’t correctly fueling our bodies. It seemed easy at first to judge Soylent as a replacement for our favorite memories, but it just isn’t that. Soylent was meant to replace the frozen quesadillas that Rhinehart was living off of for weeks at a time. If we are able to find a healthy balance between our sunday dinners and our bottles of Soylent, then we will be able to more effectively fuel our bodies.

While it seems easy at first to accuse Rhinehart of stealing our joy for food, that is simply not the case. The invention of Soylent allowed us to reevaluate how we view food in our society. After learning about Soylent, it is much easier to see the contrast between a meal for social benefit, and a meal because you are hungry and need to eat. In our society, food is a way to connect with ourselves, our friends, and our family. Soylent is not replacing that, it is merely making it easier for us to see the contrast. We considered Soylent at first to be something scary because it was different. In reality, it is not hindering us, but helping us.

Works Cited

“The End of Food”, Lizzie Widdecomb, The New Yorker, Web, Published May  12, 2014

Soylent.com, Web Access