Before I get into my ingredients and nutrition facts reviews and analyses for Soylent’s protein products, let me say this …
I love the idea of Soylent: a convenient, inexpensive way to get a full meal.
If you take a closer look at the ingredients and nutrition panel though, there are a few red flags you need to be aware of if you care about the foods you put in your body.
In this Soylent review, you’ll find out exactly why.
Click/tap the links below to jump to each section …
What Is Soylent Made Of? Nutrition Facts and Ingredients Review
I’ve reviewed a lot of different protein powders. If there’s one single piece of advice I can offer when deciding for yourself whether a product is “healthy,” it’s this:
The nutrition facts and ingredients are the only objective sources of truth.
Let’s have a closer look at the nutrition facts for both Soylent bottle (liquid) and pouch (powder). We’ll start with Soylent Drink.
Soylent Drink 2.0 is the current version of their liquid ready-to-drink bottle, which is now available in three flavors: Original, Cacao, and Nectar. 1.8 is the current version of the powdered formula. Here are the nutrition facts labels for each:
Soylent 2.0 Drink Nutrition (Original):
Soylent 2.0 Drink Nutrition (Cacao):
Soylent 2.0 Drink Nutrition (Nectar):
Soylent 1.8 Powder Nutrition Facts:
Upon first glance, you might think these are healthy.
Here’s where this review gets a little ugly though if you’re a Soylent fan.
Each “meal” has between 9 and 15 grams of added sugar. Newly proposed recommendations provided by the WHO encourage limiting added sugar to less than 5% of your total energy intake each day. That’s just 100 calories’ worth of sugar (or around 25 grams) for someone who eats 2,000 calories per day!
So 60% of the sugar you’re supposed to eat in an entire day is in a single serving of Soylent Powder!
According to Soylent’s website:
The Soylent recipe is based on the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and is regulated as a food by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Uh, call me crazy, but where does the IOM (or any other respectable health organization) recommend 15 grams of added sugar in a single meal?!
But this isn’t even the worst part.
We haven’t gotten to the ingredients yet …
Soylent Ingredients
First, I’ll call your attention to this graphic from Soylent’s website:
As you can see, the ingredients in Soylent are:
- Not organic (which means there’s a high likelihood there are chemical pesticides and herbicides in your meal replacement shake)
- Not kosher-free
- Not GMO-free (Soylent actually says their products are “proudly made with GMOs“)
- Not allergen-free
Here are the complete ingredient lists for Soylent’s current releases of their Drinks and Powder:
Soylent 2.0 Drink (Original):
Soylent 2.0 Drink (Cacao):
Soylent 2.0 Drink (Nectar):
Soylent 1.8 Powder Ingredients:
These sounds more like chemistry experiments than real food.
There’s a lot of cheap fillers and additives in those ingredients lists but I want to call your attention to a few, in particular, you might want to consider avoiding …
Click on the links below to read about the potential dangers and side effects of the following Soylent ingredients. I’ve summed up each in parentheses too.
- Soy Protein Isolate (cheap protein source usually produced from GMO and chemical-ridden soybeans; derived using petroleum-based hexane; common allergen and cause of inflammation)
- Natural Flavors (the 4th most common ingredient on food labels; consist of a “natural” extract combined with potentially hundreds of chemical compounds that food companies don’t have to disclose, thanks to the FDA)
- Maltodextrin (GMO corn-based starch used to thicken processed foods)
- Soy Lecithin (GMO soy-based thickener/emulsifier that may promote inflammation)
- Sucralose (artificial sweetener that caused cancer in animal studies; still approved by the FDA for some crazy reason)
What Does Soylent Taste Like?
I didn’t case for the taste for either Soylent bottle (2.0) or pouch (1.8). It’s kind of like a thick, malty mush. Not gag-worthy by any means but not good either. The Cacao and Nectar Drinks tastes better but that’s because they use so-called “natural” flavors (see link above).
I’ve heard that earlier versions were too sweet so they reduced the sweetness level in the latest version. It’s still too sweet for my liking.
Its grey color is a little off-putting for me but this may not be an issue for others.
I realize this is only my opinion about how Soylent tastes and not a very objective answer. If you’d like to hear what others have to say, check out the answers to this question on Quora: What does Soylent taste like?
Soylent Price
One of Soylent’s biggest draws is its cost—it’s pretty cheap. This comes as no surprise when you look at their list of unhealthy, processed junk ingredients.
Here’s how much Soylent costs:
Soylent Drink 2.0 Original Price:
$34 for 12 bottles ($2.83 per 400 kcal serving) or $32.30 for 12 bottles with a monthly subscription ($2.42 per 400 kcal serving)
Soylent Drink 2.0 Cacao Price:
$39 for 12 bottles ($3.25 per 400 kcal serving) or $37.05 for 12 bottles with a monthly subscription ($3.09 per 400 kcal serving)
Soylent Drink 2.0 Nectar Price:
$39 for 12 bottles ($3.25 per 400 kcal serving) or $37.05 for 12 bottles with a monthly subscription ($3.09 per 400 kcal serving)
Soylent Powder 1.8 Price:
$64 for 35 meals ($1.83 per 400 kcal serving) or $154 for 35 meals with a monthly subscription ($1.54 per 400 kcal serving).
Soylent Recall
It seems like every time I blink, there’s another Soylent recall …
Soylent recalled their 1.6 Powder in late 2016 after it made a lot of people sick.
Then 1.7 was released after a messy dispute with one of their ingredient suppliers.
Just a month later, they released version 1.8, adding “soluble corn fiber,” which they claim is a “truer source of fiber to the consumer,” whatever that means.
Then 1.8 was recalled due to “undeclared allergens.”
Mistakes happen in the food industry, I get it. But that’s a lot of recalls in a short amount of time.
Soylent Review: The Final Verdict
My Soylent review can be summed up in three words:
Not. Real. Food.
Sure, it satisfies your daily calorie requirements—but it may do your body more harm than good because of all the artificial, processed, junk ingredients.
Look for a meal replacement powder with ingredients sourced from organic whole foods instead.
This is the first of a two-part series. Check out the next post: Healthy DIY Soylent Recipes with Organic, Real Food Ingredients
