Get ahead in Silicon Valley: replace real food with liquid meals
Mixing protein powders, fish oils, vitamins and minerals into a blender and drinking the results is seen in Silicon Valley as the new way to consume a healthy diet without the burden of eating real food
It is late evening and biochemist George Bonaci, 27, is standing in the kitchen of the San Francisco technology hub where he works, casually making the next day's breakfast and, quite possibly, lunch and dinner too. He puts various protein powders, fish oil, vitamins and minerals into a blender and gives it a whizz. He'll down it tomorrow as a replacement for at least one meal. It has the texture of raw pancake batter, only Bonaci's is chocolate flavoured. He says he likes it because he can get so absorbed in his work that he sometimes forgets to eat. "I will have my mind on something and the next thing I know it is eight hours later," he says. This way he gets exactly what his body needs with minimal fuss and disruption.
Bonaci's tipple is a DIY version of Soylent, a powdered meal replacement invented in 2013 by Rob Rhinehart, a San Francisco programmer who decided it cost too much time and money to eat. But after about nine months on a largely Soylent diet, Bonaci came to the weighty realisation that he needed a low-carb, high-protein alternative. But Soylent only comes in one formulation. "I began mixing up my own carb-free version," says Bonaci.
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