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JoHaSa t1_j4i5bq7 wrote

Reply to comment by wallowsfan289 in There’s a strong relationship between diet in early life and food preferences in adulthood, research finds by Additional-Two-7312

Those nutritient drinks are awful for long term consumption for multiple reasons and here are only some of the reasons:

  1. Humans thrive with variety. We are adapted to adapting.
  2. Getting enough nutritients is not enough. We need volume. Otherwise we are hungry and have bad cravings. Just like if we eat highly calorie dense food, our system does not realize it has enough energy.
  3. Humans get bored. See 1.
  4. Teeth and mouth. Our teeth and muscles need to work. So chewing is essential.
  5. We need stuff that we do not know about yet. For example it is not so many years ago we knew next to nothing about gut bacteria and its huge importance. That bacteria needs stuff industrial nutritive products probably no not have.
  6. Fibre. Different kinds of fibre in sufficient amounts.
  7. And so on and on and on.
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narrill t1_j4ip80j wrote

Many meal-shake type products are made with whole foods, have sufficient volume to be filling, and have tons of fibre. There are even some companies (e.g. Huel) that sell what are essentially dehydrated, fortified meals, which provide some variety and also involve chewing.

In the context of nutrition and physiological wellbeing there's not really anything wrong with these products, and most are going to be better than a typical diet in many parts of the world. The issue, I would guess, is that the good ones aren't cheap.

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wallowsfan289 t1_j4ilm0a wrote

Fair. It being the bulk of our diet sounds like a bad idea, but I feel like it could help fill some gaps with people who maybe don’t have great access to healthy variety. We’re good at adapting but also creatures of habits. I feel like some of these generalizations change widely between person to person.

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