Soylent Review

Soylent Powder is one of a number of Soylent products that claim to be a complete meal replacement shake. It states it can eliminate meal planning and replace meals altogether, saving you time, stopping you from feeling hungry, and giving you all the nutrients you need.

In reality though, Soylent Powder is one of the many meal replacements on the market that offers way more than it is able to deliver. In the following Soylent drink review, we will show you exactly how and why that is.

Soylent Powder is a meal replacement shake that claims to boost muscle and heart strength and health, optimise your immune system and metabolism, and provide sustained satiety, energy, and hydration. These are all lofty goals the Soylent drink falls well short of though.

The Soylent Complete Meal Replacement drink is made with a formula containing soy protein isolate, canola Oil, isomaltulose, maltodextrin, soluble corn fiber, modified food starch, soy lecithin, cellulose, various vitamins and minerals, and flavours and preservatives like salt, mono & diglyceride, xanthan gum, and sucralose.

The nutritional breakdown of 400 calories, 19 grams of fat, 20 grams of protein, and 42 grams of carbs per serving all looks ok on the surface. However, the ingredient list should sound the alarm bells immediately.

Right away, a lack of ingredient amounts is alarming. It stops you from knowing exactly what you are consuming and is a trick used by companies who want to hide something. Then, not only does it not use the most effective source of protein but it also has multiple added sugars.

Given that complete meal drinks are designed to be quickly digested, this means it can easily spike your blood sugar. 16 grams of sugar per serving is already quite high but becomes even worse when you realise 15 of them have been added.

While it is vegan friendly and nut free, gluten free, and dairy free, it also contains soy and added sugars and preservatives, which are things people often try to steer clear of. It is available in a choice of original flavor and cacao flavor.

Priced at $69.50 for a 35 serving bag, Soylent Powder isn’t cheap either. When you can get other meal replacement shakes that are much more effective, such as Rootana, for just a little more money, there is really no good reason to buy Soylent Powder.

Soylent Drink Customer Reviews

Customer reviews of the Soylent drink seem to be positive at first glance, with it holding an overall score of 4.6 out of 5. However, on closer inspection, most of these reviews focus only on the ability of Soylent to film them up, rather than the health benefits it offered.

The negative Soylent drink reviews, on the other hand, were a lot more telling. These included things from not experiencing the claimed benefits to the Soylent flavor being disgusting. Some people even experienced health concerns, such as balding, stomach pains, and nausea.

This seems to confirm what we have already established, which is that the Soylent drink is a meal replacement shake to avoid.

Ingredients In Soylent Meal Replacements

Before we look at the ingredients in Soylent Complete Meal Replacement drinks, it’s important to note the Soylent website doesn’t list any of the quantities that are used. This means it is almost impossible to know how beneficial an ingredient can be no matter how good or bad it is.

Soy Protein Isolate

Soy protein isolate is a type of protein found in soybeans. It is often used as an alternative to whey in plant based protein shakes, as it contains all of the essential amino acids.

Unfortunately, there are studies to suggest soy protein can lower a person’s testosterone levels (1). This is why other meal replacement shakes use “almost complete” protein sources like pea protein instead, as they offer all of the benefits of soy proteins with none of the drawbacks.

Canola Oil

Canola oil is obtained from crushed canola seeds and is used as it is a great source of omega 3 fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids. It is said to be even more effective than olive oil, unfortunately there are risks associated to its use as well.

Not only does it contain trans fats and saturated fatty acids, but it’s also linked to side effects like reducing the effect of antioxidants in your body, causing inflammation, insulin resistance, and hypertension, impairing cognitive functions, damaging blood vessels and more (2).

Isomaltulose

Isomaltulose is a natural sweetener that is similar to traditional sugar, although has less calories and roughly half the sweetness.

However, it is still more calorific than other sweeteners available, while its inclusion serves no other nutritional purpose (3). This means it could easily have been replaced with a better, lower calorie alternative.

Maltodextrin

Maltodextrin is an artificial sweetener with the same number of calories as regular sugar and offers no other health benefits. It sweetens the drink but also spikes your blood sugar faster than normal sugar and there are plenty of better alternatives which could have been used (4).

Soluble Corn Fiber

Soluble corn fiber is a source of dietary fibre obtained from corn starch. It can be useful to fill you up, lower cholesterol and blood sugar, and potentially even improve bone health.

However, it is also highly processed and there have been a number of gastrointestinal side effects linked to its use, such as stomach pain, bloating, gas, nausea, diarrhoea, and cramps (5).

Soy Lecithin

Soy lecithin is a compound formed from various fats and lipids which is obtained from eggs, dairy, seeds, and legumes. It is a popular addition to foods and supplements as it contains omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals like choline.

This allows it to offer benefits like improving cholesterol, immunity, and mental functions and aiding with stress and certain illnesses. Unfortunately, these benefits are minimal and outweighed by the risks it poses, which include allergic reactions and oestrogenic effects (6).

Sucralose

Sucralose is a non nutritive artificial sweetener that serves no purpose other than to sweeten a product.

While it contains no calories and won’t spike your blood glucose, it can reduce good bacteria in your gut, increase inflammation, and potentially lead to obesity and diabetes over time (7). While not overtly bad, there are definitely better, safer alternatives available.

Vitamins and minerals

The vitamin and mineral premix added to Soylent drinks includes biotin, calcium, choline, chromium, copper, folic acid, iodine, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, niacin, zinc, selenium, pantothenic acid, potassium, riboflavin, thiamine, and vitamins a, b6, b12, d2, and k1.

These can offer an extensive range of benefits, from improving the health of your skin, bones, muscles, and organs, to boosting the performance of your brain and body, and even boosting your overall health, fitness, and wellbeing.

Unfortunately, vitamins and minerals will only be useful when used in appropriate doses.

While Soylent hides the quantities of most of its ingredients, vitamins and minerals is one area where you can see what is in it and there simply isn’t enough to be effective or compete with other meal replacement shakes.

Additional Ingredients

Other than the main ingredients listed, Soylent Powder also contains a few other additional ingredients.

Xanthan gum and cellulose are polysaccharides, monoglyceride and diglyceride are fatty acids, and modified food starch is an artificially altered form of starch. All five ingredients are put in food and supplements as they are emulsifiers, stabilisers, and thickening agents which help to hold the product together and give it texture.

You then also have salt and some natural flavors which are used to create the taste of the Soylent drink and preserve it. The fact that salt can cause high blood pressure and the exact natural flavourings used isn’t disclosed should give users plenty of pause for concern.

Soylent Drink Review Conclusion

Soylent Powder is a product that doesn’t even come close to being one of the best meal replacements on the market. From using subpar ingredients and artificial additives to hiding the quantities of all of the ingredients it does use, the Soylent drink fails in almost every way.

Considering it also isn’t cheap, you should save your money and look at other meal replacement shakes that have been proven instead, such as Rootana.

Rootana offers all of the same advantages as the Soylent drink, while being made from high quality ingredients that offer countless additional benefits. Given that it costs only slightly more, going with Rootana as your chosen meal replacement shake is simply the smart move.

References 

https://aacrjournals.org/cebp/article/16/12/2796/260051/Effect-of-Soy-Protein-on-Testosterone-Levels

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23731447

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12387299/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4940893/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7231297/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3065734/