Photo via Soylent
Photo via Soylent

Food is so pre-bubble burst of the ’90s. Why stop and eat when you can guzzle away at protein packs and keep coding?

At least that’s one of the latest Silicon Valley trends the New York Times recently reported on. Silicon Valley programmers — and others we assume — are so busy that they are powering up with protein meals instead of eating.

“It just removes food completely from my morning equation up until about 7 p.m.,” a software developer Aaron Melocik told the Times.

Has life really come to this?

Photo via Soylent
Photo via Soylent

The beverages of choice include “SchmoylentSoylent, Schmilk and People Chow.” (Can we just stop and reflect a moment on “People Chow,” a name that sounds like dog food?).

According to the Times, “The protein-packed products that come in powder form are inexpensive and quick and easy to make — just shake with water, or in the case of Schmilk, milk. While athletes and dieters have been drinking their dinner for years, Silicon Valley’s workers are now increasingly chugging their meals, too, so they can more quickly get back to their computer work.”

And investors are powering up support behind the meal-replacement beverages. Andreessen Horowitz, which has invested in Soylent, “served Soylent-inis and Soylent Whites at a cocktail event” at South by Southwest. And Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian has also invested in Soylent.

Soylent’s site has a video that explains its product, which has been engineered to create a “balanced state of ideal nutrition” for your body as not a replacement, but a “better alternative to what we eat.”

It’s certainly a intriguing concept, but one that certainly begs a lot of questions, including what happens to a body that is mostly reliant on these mixes for nutrition?

Below, enjoy this brilliant video from the New York Times, in which they have a personal trainer, doctor, sommelier and food writer taste the product:

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