SeanFromCanada's Blog

Originally posted on Oct15, 2014

Okay, now that we’ve had our little ‘love in’ (with The 21st Meal), I ask that you consider answering the following question: What’s your number?

Imagine for a moment that there is actually a ‘meal pill’ that we could take to represent all of the healthy and essential aspects of a normal ‘food based meal’…How many meals in the average week would you take that pill?

I’m betting that most people have a number above zero – something more than never. (Consider that rushed Monday morning, when work, the kids, the weather and your car conspire against you…). I’ve had this conversation with many people, and even my food-loving friends concede their number is a positive integer.

So now that most of us are taking a pill for some of our meals, what would we ask of this miracle pill?

The obvious elements include calories, vitamins, minerals…all the nutrition stuff. And I’m certain the market would demand a ‘make me feel full’ feature – the business model kind of falls apart if the product offers the lifelong feeling of starvation. But where to go from there? This could be highly contentious stuff. Consider the possibilities…

Beyond nutrition and feeling full, I’m sure it wouldn’t be long before we asked the pill to provide more. I wouldn’t be surprised to see us asking it to dial in our weight (to something healthy, stable / consistent and ‘attractive’). And now that we’re ‘mixing’ our pills for particular outcomes, it’d be logical to address a range of known health conditions (high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.). But where do we go from there? Do we want to introduce ‘situational’ pills – like if I was hiking across the Sahara or working in a mine in Chili? What about athletes, and Navy Seals? Lets not forget about those night shift workers and the computer programmers who can produce more without the inconvenience of sleep.

I don’t have the answers to these questions, and you can bet each topic would be contentious and debated heavily. As I see it, the components of the discussion include: Health, Body Shaping (external), Body Performance (internal), Taste and likely Mix (how the pill reacts to other medications etc.).

I do see that this whole pill thing is a highly complicated and ethical dilemma. While fun to think about and certainly attractive to have (when I’m rushed and on the verge of starvation), I see the actual guidance of the food pill will require much consideration. Well, at least that’ll give our governments something to think about.