Are you serious? The products are substantially different.
If you look at the nutritional info for Ensure[1] and Soylent[2] you'll see that Soylent has more calories, more fat, no cholesterol, more sodium, more potassium, less sugar, more protein.
Most important, Soylent has a more even distribution of the daily % of vitamins and minerals. If you drink 3 bottles of Ensure you're up to 180% daily value of Vitamin C, 240% of Vitamin D, 180% Manganese. The even distribution makes it easier for it to act as a complete meal replacement not just a diet or sports supplement.
My feeling is also that Soylent measures more and tweaks their formula more. Their goal is to be a good cheap meal for everyone:
Soylent is a food product (classified as a food, not a supplement, by the FDA) designed for use as a staple meal by all adults. Each serving of Soylent provides maximum nutrition with minimum effort.
In a paycheck or two I'll buy a bunch of these and they'll be my lunch and breakfast replacement. Things like Ensure don't cut it as a staple meal.
> Most important, Soylent has a more even distribution of the daily % of vitamins and minerals.
Which is actually what you don't want, since the daily % isn't consistent in meaning. In some cases its a target which most people should meet or exceed. It some cases its a target most people should be around. It some cases (e.g., sodium) its nearly the maximum recommended for the majority of the population, and above the maximum recommended for a substantial minority.
> My feeling is also that Soylent measures more and tweaks their formula more.
Soylent is tweaking it more because they are moving it around fairly rapidly to deal with component prices and feedback from unanticipated negative impacts on consumers.
If you look at the nutritional info for Ensure[1] and Soylent[2] you'll see that Soylent has more calories, more fat, no cholesterol, more sodium, more potassium, less sugar, more protein.
Most important, Soylent has a more even distribution of the daily % of vitamins and minerals. If you drink 3 bottles of Ensure you're up to 180% daily value of Vitamin C, 240% of Vitamin D, 180% Manganese. The even distribution makes it easier for it to act as a complete meal replacement not just a diet or sports supplement.
My feeling is also that Soylent measures more and tweaks their formula more. Their goal is to be a good cheap meal for everyone:
Soylent is a food product (classified as a food, not a supplement, by the FDA) designed for use as a staple meal by all adults. Each serving of Soylent provides maximum nutrition with minimum effort.
In a paycheck or two I'll buy a bunch of these and they'll be my lunch and breakfast replacement. Things like Ensure don't cut it as a staple meal.
[1] https://ensure.com/nutrition-products/ensure-plus#vanilla [2] http://files.soylent.com/pdf/soylent-nutrition-facts-2-0-en....