Comment by doix | Hacker News Reader

Comment by doix | Hacker News Reader

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I absolutely hate cooking, the effort vs reward is just not worth it in my opinion. This led to me living off Huel[0] for a long time (at home anyway). I stopped buying groceries and only ordered Huel. The amount of time it saves and the cognitive load it frees up is insane. No longer have to wash dishes, you have a single shaker cup that you wash before you prepare your next drink. No longer have to cook anything, food is ready within 2-3 minutes (wash cup, pour water + huel, shake for a minute). No more writing shopping lists to make sure you buy all the ingredients you need for what you want to cook. No more thinking about when you bought something and determining if it's going to poison you or not, 0 food waste as well :).

I still ate 'real food' when going out and at the work canteen. But having to never think about food at home is great. I also felt great, having those 3-5 portions of huel a day gave me significantly more energy and I felt like a brain fog was lifted (that I wasn't even aware of before).

I've been traveling around for the past ~6 months and I really miss it. I know this kind of reads like an ad, but I have no association with Huel at all. Just a very happy customer.

[0] https://huel.com/

This is the great thing about life, everyone is different and we care about different things and we all get along.

Im the complete opposite but I totally get your point and respect everything you said.

Everything you listed as a positive is a negative for me. Cooking isn’t a waste of time, it’s an opportunity to be creative. I get a lot of pleasure from making a good meal, both a sense of accomplishment but also the pleasure of eating good food. It’s also a time to spend with family. Eating the same food every day, and a texture-less shakes at that, sounds awful. So many of my family memories are around the table.

I get that people see shopping as a waste of time but I enjoy exploring grocery stores and specialty markets, trying out new products and flavors. The other day my wife and I went shopping with our daughter, we got some beer to enjoy while walking around, my daughter got a slice of pizza. The staff in the bakery section was decorating a cake, she thought my daughter was cute and gave her a little cup of frosting and some Easter cake toppings. As a 3 year old it was the greatest experience of her life.

I'm going to agree with you on the effort vs reward on cooking, especially when cooking for one.

The time investment for a balanced meal for 4 is only slightly more than the time investment for a balanced meal for 1. This results in a high time cost per person when cooking for one.

However, I've gone a slightly different way than powdered meal replacement. I've signed up for two different prepared meals (one gives me lunch, the other dinner) that cuts the lunch to "microwave some fairly good food for 2m" and the dinner is "put this raw food in these aluminum trays, scan the barcode, come back in 13 to 20 minutes.

It competes fairly well with going out to eat and while more expensive than other instant dinners, tastes better and has more variety.

Food (& drink) is one of the only reasons I continue to live. If I couldn't practice the meditative process of creation that is cooking, or eat delicious foods, or drink delicious drinks, I would seriously consider ending it all.

.....I wouldn't end it all, of course. But life would feel so empty. What do you do with your life that's worth avoiding one of the simplest pleasures?

To each their own. If there were food pills that would fulfill all my needs I’d be a happy man.

Unlike the grandparent, I cook all my food. I care a lot about what I’m putting in my body.

That being said, I don’t get great enjoyment out of it. Sure, I try and make food that tastes good. If I have to eat, I’d rather it taste good.

But if I could opt out I would.

Well, first of all, I still eat delicious food prepared by restaurants and still drink :).

> practice the meditative process of creation that is cooking

I do not find it meditative at all, the actual cooking process is tolerable, but all the pre-work(shopping/managing ingredients) and post work(cleanup) is not worth it. The reward of delicious food does not outweigh the annoyance I get from those things.

I did something similar for a while with Soylent. It was fine. Good for a time even. I eventually got sick of it. I'm not sure if it's just me but eventually if I'm eating the same thing over and over I tend to get disgusted by it.

If I ate my favorite meal 150 days in a row I would start to almost feel ill looking at it. I just need more variety.

I tried Soylent once and I couldn't even make it two days. It tasted metallic, I'd get nausea after every portion, and I never got any less hungry.

I bought the premade ones. I had a friend who made his own from the powder they sold... I did not enjoy those at all.

I love food but what you’re saying really resonates with me. I hate all the effort around food.

This is definitely something I’d be interested in, but I’m worried about the lack of variety and it’s probably not ideal for people who lift weights regularly (even when supplementing with whey etc).

Have you done any blood tests after going with this diet for a few months? Did you take any vitamin/mineral supplements?

> Have you done any blood tests after going with this diet for a few months?

Nope, I kind of regret not doing something like that to compare before/after. I'm from the UK, you can't just go to your doctor and ask them to do random blood tests if there's nothing wrong with you. They'll politely tell you to go away. Getting them done privately didn't feel worth it, I had little faith in the DIY ones being accurate and getting it done at a clinic was too expensive last time I looked.

> Did you take any vitamin/mineral supplements?

I took vitamin D supplements, before and after. But that's because we get no sun in Scotland :(.

All those products are typically just oats, some protein powder, vitamineral powder and a bunch of flavorings, all blended into dust. You don’t chew because it’s just baby food, so I wonder what your teeth and jaw will be like in a few decades, but nutritionally it’s infinitely better than fast food.

But keep in mind it’s all marketing for oats and vitamins.

Along the same lines, there is absolutely a middle ground between not cooking and needing to buy prepackaged food.

The first step should be birdfood. Eat like a bird. Trail mix basically. It is super easy to concoct your own nut mixes buying things in bulk.

The next step would be to eat fermented food like yogurt and kimchee.

The next would be overnight oats, possibly combined with the yogurt and or trail mix from above.

And finally would be raw greens and canned fish/bivalves and hard boiled eggs and hard cheese.

Any sort of outdoor hiking, camping, wilderness preparedness diet can be adapted to indoor living.

No cooking involved, minimal fridge space, some variety in texture, and anytime you need a snack or feel hunger you can pretty much eat till your hearts content. You can also combine greens, trail mix, eggs, canned meat and cheese to arrive at salad.

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