Food is inefficient, so Rob Rhinehart doesn’t eat anymore. The Atlanta software engineer has created Soylent, a drink that contains the nutrients of a balanced diet without the additives, preservatives and most of the calories. From “This Man Thinks He Never Has To Eat Again,” by Monica Heisey at Vice:

“Question:

How could Soylent affect the world’s eating habits?

Answer:

Consumer behavior has a lot to do with cost and convenience. There are plenty of ways to be healthy, but Americans are more likely to be overweight simply because the food that’s cheap and convenient is unhealthy. I think it’s possible to use technology to make healthy food very cheaply and easily, but we’ll have to give up many traditional foodstuffs like fresh fruits and veggies, which are incompatible with food processing and scale.

Question:

That sounds ominous.

Answer:

I don’t think we need fruits and veggies, though—we need vitamins and minerals. We need carbs, not bread. Amino acids, not milk. It’s still fine to eat these when you want, but not everyone can afford them or has the desire to eat them. Food should be optimized and personalized. If Soylent was as cheap and easy to obtain as a cup of coffee, I think people would be much healthier and healthcare costs would be lower. And I think this is entirely possible.

Question:

And it sounds like it could potentially help with world hunger.

Answer:

Yeah, I’m very optimistic at the prospect of helping developing nations. Soylent can largely be produced from the products of local agriculture, and at that scale, it’s plenty cheap to nourish even the most impoverished individuals. People may giggle when I say I poop a lot less, but this would be a huge deal in the developing world, where inadequate sanitation is a prevalent source of disease. Also, agriculture has a huge impact on the environment, and this diet vastly reduces one’s use of it.”