it's...square food? (Squareat) 

They really missed the opportunity to advertise it as "3 SQUARE meals a day"

I was a private chef for a memory care facility (Dementia patients in their last months of life), and I did have at any time 1 - 3 residents who required pureed foods. We ordered foods from a supplier who made different types of purees and put them into plastic molds that gave them the shapes of their normal food counterparts. So puree peas would look like a pile of peas on the plate, fish look liked grilled portions of fish, etc. They played with flavors and colors, while controlling the salt content so that it would cater to a wide variety of dietary restrictions. When I had to make my own purees, I would keep these molds and reuse them for the aesthetics. Residents liked it when I would plate up their food like they were in a restaurant. These squares you're eating remind me of these purees but with very little creativity. It also makes me worry that people are going to jump on this hype train like it's a new ultra healthy diet fad.

These could be either absolutely amazing or the worst thing in the world for different autistic people 👁👁🌈💖

I love how their whole brand is square themed, but their meet the team photos are in a hexagon for no reason

so i know that these can offer potential benefits to people who struggle with eating disorders but all i feel when i see that plate with 6 uniform squares of different colors is a fight or flight response

I do understand how this could be beneficial to some people with medical issues. However, as someone who has disordered eating patterns & struggles to get myself to eat enough, I went on the website to see if this would work for me. Spoiler alert: each square is like 65 calories MAX, so for a whole box where it’s $10 for 4 (not including shipping), you’d only be getting around 200-260 calories. Meanwhile, it costs $2 for a box of 12 pierogis where I get 4x the calories & the only prep I have to do is boiling water. Hell, even a cliff bar and some Ovaltine is a more effective meal replacement.

I think that this would be interesting if they were more calorically dense. A lot of people in the comments seem to indicate that something like this might be helpful for people who have a hard time eating enough, but seeing as you were full after 3 squares, which isn't enough calories for a whole meal, they seem to really be missing that market

the "i ate three squares last night; i need to talk to my therapist" and "it's one thing if i poison myself but i didn't want to poison my dog so he didn't get any just in case," parts were especially dystopian

this feels like what a kid's movie villain would distribute and trick the public into consuming in order to transform people into mutant creatures for their army or something

I have a sensory disorder that causes me not to feel hunger cues most of the time, so theoretically Squareat might be a good option for me, but that price point is fucking ridiculous.

The fact that they don’t have someone with a serious culinary background on the team is genuinely ridiculous. It’s actually really hard to process foods the way that they are and make sure they still taste good. But it can be done!! There are companies out there already that make puréed food for people with chewing issues that do a way better job than this company seemed to.

“I had to invent quick, easy, ready to eat meals… I basically had to reinvent food!” Completely glosses over the entire freezer section

So basically overpriced, artisan MREs without the decades of nutritional and shelf-life research.

Sounds like this company just needs to change it's marketing strategy and show that this product could help people with certain types of disordered eating. Not so much for the average person who just wants to "eat healthier."

I think it would be less dystopian if they made them into different shapes like dinosaurs and such lol 🦖

This definitely looks like something you'd eat on a spaceship after the earth was drained of all its resources as humans explore space for a new habitable planet.

This looks like if the four most pretentious students in film class were told to make a satire of a startup advertisement.

Honestly if this was around when my father was going through chemo it would have been amazing. He had real issues with texture and flavors because of the treatment.

She's right. There's something about opening a box and being like "Here's my squares of food for dinner tonight". That just feels wrong.

As someone who's recovering from anorexia I feel like this might trick my brain into eating because it doesn't feel like "real food" and it seems like you could eat it faster But again, I haven't tried it so this is just a guess Edit: okay I just read in the comment section how little calories they have, so if they can't put more calories into a single square, this would actually be extremely counterproductive

I wish these weren't so expensive. My teenage son has severe sensory issues and disordered eating but I think he'd be able to tolerate these.

I definitely think this would be useful for a lot of disabled people, neurodivergent people, and sick people. Many people in the comments have said how they think so- however as an autistic person with extreme sensitivity to food textures and taste, this feels like it would make me just as uncomfortable as normal food. They still have weird food textures- just a different shape.

Conspiracy theory: the chefs and nutritionists are not listed on the website bc they were so disgusted with how bland the food they were forced to make was that they would only continue work if their names were taken off the project

i used to work in a nursing home and we used to serve prepacked purée for people who couldn’t chew that looks very similar to this. i’m sure that’s much cheaper than this

While watching this, I was literally eating my lunch. My lunch everyday is in one of those portioned containers that has three sections. In one section I had kolbassa sausage and cheddar cheese, the second section had baby carrots and cucumbers and the third had broccoli florets and sliced red pepper. Lastly I had a separate container with homemade ranch dip. Anyway, the reason I explained my lunch in such great detail is because in some ways it's quite similar to the Squareats. The portions are controlled, the food is cold, and it's served in boring squares. It's also not prepared or seasoned, really it's mostly just chopped vegetables. But like, I feel like my meal was WAY better than the Squareats you were eating. It feels like Squareats would be a lot better if it focused less on pureeing everything and more on the 45 gram portions. I also think Squareats is working with an outdated food pyramid with those portions. 135 grams of chicken, 90 grams of rice, 45 grams of veggies and 45 grams of sweets seems... off. To put it lightly. Not to mention the lack of healthy fats, that chicken looks leaner than a supermodel. I feel like 3 veggie, 2 chicken, 1 rice would have been a lot better. Granted it would also be more expensive.

Swell, I think you're totally right that there is a place for food like this. My issue is that this looks like another startup run by mediocre good-looking people who want to "disrupt" XYZ and con money out of people and not a company looking to help people with food or eating issues.

$145 for eight meals and some fluff is kinda ridiculous, honestly. I’m part of a family of five. We’re upper middle class, so we generally eat pretty well, both quantity and quality wise. Our weekly groceries-three sizable meals a day for seven days for five people, plus snacks and deserts, usually with some food left over-cost somewhere in the ballpark of $200 (and if it deviates, it’s usually less). If we tried to feed our family with the eight meal packs, it would multiply our weekly spending on food by almost a figure of ten. And it’s also just incredibly dystopian and sad, which lowers its value significantly in my mind. And yet they have the nerve to call it innovative and affordable. ALSO HOW DID A TEAM OF ITALIANS DO THIS TO FOOD??

I see people saying this could help with texture issues but some look like they’re too smooth and too dry. I could actually see this triggering a lot of people’s sensory issues (including mine). I’d rather drink a meal replacement shake. I struggle with cooking especially during a depressive episode but I also think I would get like “fatigued” from eating the same consistency with the same bland flavor for so long everyday.

I'm with you on this one. They look like food rations from a dystopian future. I definitely see that it has value in certain scenarios. But it needs some serious reworking.

I would get something like this for like fruit and veggies (or really anything you don't have to heat up i guess), but thats really it, have it as like a new kind of snack bars. Otherwise why not just find a normal meal kit service that sure will take a little more time to make but will taste a million times better and will likley be cheaper

Idk why this made me think of that one woman on TikTok who’s dealing with parosmia as a long covid symptom and basically everything tastes like sewage, vomit, basically anything disgusting. And I wonder if something this bland could allow her and others also suffering with parosmia to get the nutrients they need

Things that made me laugh out loud: “This tastes like the illusion of rice.” “I’m full. But I’m not happy about it.” 😂

I know you said you would struggle with “actually cooking it” but I would love to see the differences between baking it or pan frying it

Squareat is just fingerfood but instead of old people in homes, it's more expensive for in your own home! So innovative! Edit: just wanted to let you know, even the elderly get multiple shapes for their food.

I love that you are thinking about the disabled community and call it out in your video. One note though, we aren’t differently abled, we are disabled. In the future please avoid using differently abled as it is not correct label nor the terminology we use. Disabled is not a bad word and is embraced by the majority of the community!

"Startups need to be taken down a peg" honestly something that needed to be said

This definitely feels like it was designed for tech bros who call fasting bio hacking 😅

I’m disabled and have an eating disorder and I’m very grateful you brought that point up! I feel like we get over looked a bunch and it’s interesting to hear someone actually mention us. Also side note, disabled isn’t a bad word 💜

“Disabled” isn’t a bad word ☺️ But thank you so much for recognizing the uses for this! It’s an important part of the discussion which a lot of people leave out.

It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to 45 grammes a week. And only yesterday, Amanda reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be REDUCED to 45 grammes a week.

I think the idea of extremely easy to make, filling food that comes in a small size and is pretty simple and easy to make is good. I have a lot of mental health issues that make actually making and consuming food hard, so having stuff ready to go is nice, and people with medical conditions/treatments that affect how they eat and taste, or certain kinds of disordered eating might benefit too. But the way the market and package it is straight out of a dystopian hellscape. Ground up, flavorless food shaped like a square makes me think of fucking soilent green, not anything I’d like to eat. It’s just sad.

It *theoretically* sounds like it would be a great boon for people going through intense depression and lack of energy problems. Ready made food with a proper nutrition makes it that much easier to get yourself to eat and take care of yourself.

If it’s just a one-ingredient piece of fish and one suggested way to cook it is throwing it into a pan, what’s stopping people from buying frozen fish cut into small pieces and throwing that into the pan

I have a lot of issues with food textures so CONCEPTUALLY something like this sounds literally amazing for me, but the way you were describing how they were mushy and like "hard baby food" makes them sound hellish actually. Though I'm actually really happy you mentioned people like me who have issues with eating, & approached that with empathy!

145 dollars for 8 meals !? How is that affordable?? That's 18 dollars a meal, you can eat out at that price

it sort of feels like they took hello fresh's vibe of little prep and fresh food and then made it dystopian

This company doesn't make any sense to me. They're advertising these as "meal boxes" and "meal plans" but their very own FAQ says they AREN'T meal replacements 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ the marketing seems all over the place, they keep going on like 2 weeks is some magical shelf life and how this fills the shortcomings in OTHER meal kits (but reminder, it's NOT a meal replacement). They also never point out what those shortcoming are and how this box fixes it🤷🏻‍♀️ This whole thing is wild to me, thanks for testing them so the rest of us don't have to sink our money in!

I had all of these exact same thoughts when Soylent came out, for all the reasons you already mentioned but ALSO because they NAMED their product SOYLENT!!!

Honestly, I was thinking of food for those with sensory or depression issues. I struggled with depression for a long time. And I think this would help tiny me deal with the chore of food easily. Or maybe small beginner kid foods. Like offer this product for moms with kids who are teething and want an introduction to simple food. I think there's potential, but it's struggling to get there.

This sounded great, as I have a condition that prevents me from eating just eating normally, and I’ll just use sauces and condiments for it, that’s not a deal breaker. Then I saw the price. I think I’ll stay with the meal replacement shakes.

I have arfid (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder). Of course, everyone is different even those who have arfid, but mushy textures are one of the worst triggers for me. I think the only texture worse is chunky soups or sauces.

They don’t have a list of the seasonings used? That counts as ingredients and as a US company they are liable to lawsuits as people can be allergic to spices and have a reaction due to them not writing them on the packaging…….. do they not look at laws? I feel like this one is relatively well known and it’s kinda concerning they don’t put it in the label

Ah yes, I was wondering how the Soylent Corporation would rebrand itself after that whole "Soylent Green is people" controversy. Now I know!

Hey Amanda, this comment isn’t specifically for this video, but it’s as good a place as any to say I’m really proud of how you’ve consistently delivered good, fun content and grown your channel so much within a short period of time. More power to ya!

Hey I noticed you said ‘differently abled’ for the most part the disabled community prefers the term disabled. Obviously not everyone agrees, but that is the general consensus from actual disabled people. Abled people who are uncomfortable w/ disability tend to use different words bc they view disability as a bad thing.

So as someone who loves meal replacement shakes I get the idea. But like... Can we do it in a less dystopian, "you get 3 squares as your rations before going back to your job that you do for 16 hours a day and where trackers so your overlords know where you are all the time" way? Maybe???

This product rly appeals to me as someone with adhd who forgets that I’m hungry. I like the idea of eating real food quickly with minimal prep but it seems like it’s not cheaper or as tasty as just microwaving vegetables. Also I love the idea of smooth rice. If they hadn’t marketed it as a dieting tool and made their first round of products taste like actual food then I would be pretty psyched. It really sucks that these startups that are actually good ideas for neurodivergent people are always marketed as diet food!

This is literally just food for those cardio people that say “I only eat because I have to” or “food is only fuel to me”. So basically it’s a lot for a very small percentage of people.

When I was really in the thick of my ED I would only eat what I called “food cubes” (I.e. protein bars) and “food goop” (kids food pouches and protein shakes). Because it wasn’t really food in the traditional it didn’t make me feel guilty to eat it. I think the inventor is honestly going through something similar.

I can't explain this, but Amanda has the energy of a Canadian without being one

At first I was kind of intrigued about the veggie blocks, as I really struggle to prep and eat enough vegetables as I should be getting, but basically puréed blobs seems like the least appealing delivery method to me. Also, I’ve heard that the presentation of food actually does have an effect on how satiated and satisfied we feel after meal - I.e. eating all of the food off a smaller plate feels better than eating the same amount off a larger plate & having leftovers, or having dessert served on a nice plate vs off a napkin. Basically we seem to base expectations off what we see and and those squares don’t set up a very pretty picture lol.

Unkar Plutt: One half portion Amanda: Last week they were a half disappointment each.

As a person who spent years in the US Army eating MREs I can tell you to make prepackaged shelf-stable food actually somewhat appealing takes a gargantuan R&D budget from the companies involved. And if they actually ever gave us food that was just mushy, uniform, flavorless pucks they would have regretted having given us rifles too.

This reminds me of this book I read in middle school called Hungry. The entire point of which is that this girl goes on the run from the government for showing any interest in actual food instead the food replacement drink things that are the only option at all.

First Squarespace and now Squareat. Squares for everyone! Squareat is people!

these are the most unsettling foods ive ever looked at. like i can see how it can help other people (like with disordered eating or certain food sensitivities) but the square shapes just make it look so Wrong also its crazy expensive

This should have been sponsored by Square space

My favorite part of this video is Amanda giving Hermes a full explanation to why he can't have it, and talking to him in a full on grown adult tone. I feel like she's secretly teaching Hermes how to speak english

It just looks like you're eating fancy little hotel soaps 😫

I could see this as being good say if you struggle with textures. Something appeals slightly to me as someone who really struggles with food textures but it's just to expensive when meal replacement shakes are better and tastier.

I mean, as someone labeled as a 'picky eater' because of issues with texture and such in food, i could see this as a good way to maybe solve that. But i agree 100% it needs some work shopping first. I would try this though.

Seriously these companies should be paying Amanda for marketing and development consulting, she always has so many good tips on how to make products better!

These squares aren't that different in concept from nutritional shakes like Ensure and bars like Quest. They're doing things that have already been done, but at a ridiculous price and a seriously bland taste

Oh god we’re reaching a point that it’s going to be like those “protein packs” in snowpiercer

hey amanda, just a heads up, as a disabled person, we usually prefer the word disabled instead of differently abled! no hate, maybe you just didnt know :)

Thinking $145 USD for 8 meals is not outrageously expensive is the most California thing ever.

Just what we need, more processed food.

For my eating issues, this would be a nightmare, but different strokes for different folks.

This feels like a freaking nightmare for someone recovering from calorie counting and disordered eating. Also if this brand is a longcon to make a "three square meals a day" joke, I may have to end puns.

This gives the vibes when they first invented the replicator in star trek and engineers are trying it and being like "ye it works but ı would prefer it wasn't"

I know a couple people who would love premade bars of food for the portion control aspect of it. The lack of taste might throw them off but some light seasoning might help with that.

It sounds like the La Croix of food. A memory of a flavor/smell

The price is way too high. Especially when other meal kits typically run under 100$. I can see it being useful though. Your review really makes me want to make these but better because I’m certain it’s possible. I’d agree that they are probably cooking out a lot of flavor in the the process, guessing the seasoning happens before any binding agent is added even though it also needs seasoned. But I’d also guess that an athlete oriented company like this isn’t including enough salt fat and seasoning in the first place for it to be good

It could be good for people with disabilities but it reminds me of that scene in The Force Awakens when Rey trades scrap metal for packaged portions of unidentifiable food shapes

I also feel kinda weird about the marketing, however this does seem like something that would really help me as someone with disordered eating, and am unable to get the nutrients to help me throughout the day. That said, I doubt I would actually spend that amount of money on this food, nor do I think I would choose this over other "meal replacement" strategies.

This is pureed food, the fibers get destroyed therefore is not really as healthy as they make it to be. It's the same thing with smoothies, we're better off eating the fruit.

I just got an ad for this on instagram and I RAN to RU-vid to find commentary. This is exactly how I feel.

Amanda talking about how the square shapes disturb her somehow didn't connect until she was showing pictures of the individual meals and I realized that they're LITERALLY all shaped like that and then the horror became viscerally real for me.

I enjoy cooking, and I would much rather actually see what I'm eating.I wouldn't want to eat a square. But I know a lot of people who either hate cooking, don't know how to cook, or too exhausted to cook who would jump at something this. I'm surprised this wasn't marketed to college students, folks who work in entertainment or medical fields, or just men since our society is so insistent men shouldn't cook.

hey love the video but just fyi "differently abled" is like just a term that able bodied people made up to feel better about themselves. Most disabled people just prefer to be called disabled. Cuz, there's no shame in being disabled.

thank you for thinking about people with different food needs and texture sensitivity. It's always wonderful to see your openess to this which isn't for you, but you see that for someone else it could be.

Hate eating. If there was a pill that gave all my calories and nutrition per day I'd buy that in a heartbeat. I looked at some of the "meals" and they only come out around 200 calories. You'd have to eat 10 meals, around $100, to get your nutrition in for the day. That's insane.

My man really heard three square meals and took it to HEART.

I have autism which causes me to have an aversion to certain textures and flavours, but mainly when it is too mushy. I'd prefer it if it was more crunchy (a lot of people with ASD don't eat beans or mushrooms for example). But I don't hate this idea, it is a way of having more structure in your life and the squares satisfy me (if it were to become mainstream and way cheaper)

I got excited at the premise of these because of exactly what you mention: my anxiety likes to hyper-fixate on food prep for some reason, as well as texture. I hope someday we get more food items for folks like myself!

This is legit the food they eat in the Original Star Trek. Even Star Trek thought it was a bad idea.

looking at all the little squares doesn't bother me much bc it kind of reminds me of mochi, which is one of my favorite things. but the knowledge that, instead of a delicious rice dough and ice cream treat, its actually a futuristic dystopian hell-food u would see described in a shitty YA novel, does make me want to jump off a fucking cliff

This feels and looks like the kind of things they give the astronauts in space. I might be depressed but I would still prefer to eat milled oats right out the box like a horse than eat the dystopian square foods.

Thank you for doing this, they have been re-targeting me constantly for like well over a YEAR without actually being available and I was fascinated and curious but would never actually pull the trigger.

I work with people who have a wide range of disabilities, and I could see a few of them really enjoying this. It's just a baby little concept, but I can see this supporting certain groups of people and their needs!