Hi everyone I'm Monica Reinagle and you're listening to the nutrition divas quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous.

I've gotten lots of questions about a new product called Soilent. It's a powder that you mix with water and oil

and consume in place of food.

The name is a sort of inside joke referring to a 1973 science fiction film called

Soylant Green.

And you can Google that if you're not in the joke. In any case, the

soilent you can buy today is the brainchild of a software engineer named Robert Reinhart,

who set out to create something that could completely replace food as a source of nutrition.

Apparently, he got tired of the amount of time and money he was spending to plan, shop, cook,

eat, and clean up after meals day after day, and he wanted a simpler way to meet his nutritional needs.

So he started out by learning everything he could about which nutrients humans need to function and to flourish.

And then he started mixing up raw ingredients into what he thought might be the optimal proportions.

Like any self-respecting body hacker, Reinhart tested his invention on himself and a few other willing

volunteers and some of them went for extended periods of time without consuming anything

but Soyland.

And then based on his own experience and

feedback from others, Reinhart tweaked the formula and the ingredients until he felt

that he had a winning formula. Rosa Labs, a company founded by Reinhart, is now selling soilent to the public.

And there's also a robust do-it-yourself community who are experimenting with and sharing recipes for homemade versions.

So, are these guys on to something?

Or a Soyland a bad idea?

Here are what I see as the main pros of Soyland as an alternative to food. Number one, cost. At present, existing

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