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Soylent Coffee: Nootropics, fat, carbs, protein

arstechnica.com

41–50 of 80 posts

Re: Soylent Coffee: Nootropics, fat, carbs, protein

#41
One problem with products like Soylent is that the nutrition label is used for marketing, and as a result they consciously engineer the product to optimize for that.

Nutrition facts labels and recommended daily intakes vary by country, and they're backed up by a lot of bad science and guessing games.

Consider that the USDA recently lifted their recommended maximum intake of cholesterol from 300mg/day (1.5 eggs/day) to no upper limit at all (after 50 years), or that study after study has failed to find any significant benefit from taking daily multivitamins (and to the contrary has found that taking too many, or the wrong kind, can cause liver damage), or that every sugary breakfast cereal and energy drink would seem quite healthy if all you looked at was the nutrition facts label.

I don't think nutrition facts labels are particularly meaningful, so a product sold almost entirely on the basis of how strictly it conforms to those government recommendations isn't of much interest to me.

If you're Soylent, you also have to lean heavily on government recommendations as a form of insurance against lawsuits. There's a lot of risk in encouraging people to eat only your food for every meal of the day, and being able to tell a judge that your product closely adhered to government recommendations is undoubtedly helpful in various litigation scenarios, but I don't think that necessarily forms a good foundation for what people should be eating.

Re: Soylent Coffee: Nootropics, fat, carbs, protein

#42

Sausages are a ground mix of meats. Is there an equivalent for a mix of vegetables, fruits, grains, meat, etc? It would make more sense as a complete cheap meal than a powder, except for being perishable. It brings to mind the 'diet problem' http://www.neos-guide.org/content/diet-problem for which, if optimizing for price only, often suggests that you eat mainly potatoes.

I think veggie burgers are sort of a 'sausage' of different veggies.

Re: Soylent Coffee: Nootropics, fat, carbs, protein

#43
post #30

I saw the photo of two guys standing in the lab. Somehow I thought it is from Breaking Bad or some other show (I'm not watching it so wasn't sure...). Then I read the description: > Soylent scientists at work in the food labs refining Coffiest's flavor. Well, not even close.

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Re: Soylent Coffee: Nootropics, fat, carbs, protein

#44

One problem with products like Soylent is that the nutrition label is used for marketing, and as a result they consciously engineer the product to optimize for that. Nutrition facts labels and recommended daily intakes vary by country, and they're backed up by a lot of bad science and guessing games. Consider that the USDA recently lifted their recommended maximum intake of cholesterol from 300mg/day (1.5 eggs/day) t…

> that every sugary breakfast cereal and energy drink would seem quite healthy if all you looked at was the nutrition facts label.

That is factually false, since their labels do quite accurately reflect that they consist of nothing more than carbs (and a bit of protein, for some cereals). I'm not sure how one would come to a conclusion that energy drinks are good for you from their nutrition label, unless you're assuming sugars, artificial colorings, taurine and caffeine are all healthy compounds.

Re: Soylent Coffee: Nootropics, fat, carbs, protein

#45
Wow. That name is literally from Frederik Pohl's 'The Space Merchants'. Now that's cojones (Pohl died in 2013). I see I'm not the first to notice this, but it's worth noticing.

I'd try the stuff, if they didn't put 1,6-Dichloro-1,6-dideoxy-β-D-fructofuranosyl-4-chloro-4-deoxy-α-D-galactopyranoside in it. (the brand name is 'sucralose'). That stuff gets everywhere, but I have a nasty reaction to it and really don't appreciate the company lobbying to have it treated like some kind of safe 'sucra' or 'ose'.

Re: Soylent Coffee: Nootropics, fat, carbs, protein

#46

One problem with products like Soylent is that the nutrition label is used for marketing, and as a result they consciously engineer the product to optimize for that. Nutrition facts labels and recommended daily intakes vary by country, and they're backed up by a lot of bad science and guessing games. Consider that the USDA recently lifted their recommended maximum intake of cholesterol from 300mg/day (1.5 eggs/day) t…

> that every sugary breakfast cereal and energy drink would seem quite healthy if all you looked at was the nutrition facts label. That is factually false, since their labels do quite accurately reflect that they consist of nothing more than carbs (and a bit of protein, for some cereals). I'm not sure how one would come to a conclusion that energy drinks are good for you from their nutrition label, unless you're assu…

Some people don't balk at the sight of a mostly-grain ingredients list. Lots of people aren't into macronutrients.

Re: Soylent Coffee: Nootropics, fat, carbs, protein

#48
post #40

Sausages are a ground mix of meats. Is there an equivalent for a mix of vegetables, fruits, grains, meat, etc? It would make more sense as a complete cheap meal than a powder, except for being perishable. It brings to mind the 'diet problem' http://www.neos-guide.org/content/diet-problem for which, if optimizing for price only, often suggests that you eat mainly potatoes.

Scott Adams developed something like that (without meat) as the Dilberito. It failed in the market. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilberito

Dilberito : the bad tasting food that will make sure you will remain forever alone. I guess the product stayed too true to the comic...

Re: Soylent Coffee: Nootropics, fat, carbs, protein

#49
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because we don't know why. Just like we didn't understand omega fatty ratios a couple decades ago. So this has everything to do with it. There's more to diet than numbers, yet if you're on a pure Soylent diet, you're clearly not getting some relatively-unknown things that are almost conclusively beneficial to your body. Absence of proof is not proof of absence. Eat your fruits and vegetables or, statistically speakin…

> yet if you're on a pure Soylent diet... Soylent's marketing puts... people at serious long-term health risk. Even Rosa Labs doesn't recommend a pure Soylent diet. I liked Soylentconor's comment on reddit the other day, pointing out that the right way to look at Soylent is that it's "just food"[1] I'm obviously not arguing Soylent is perfect, but it's almost certainly better than what most people eat most of the tim…

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Re: Soylent Coffee: Nootropics, fat, carbs, protein

#50
post #39
post #26

In Europe, you can try : https://www.joylent.eu/ https://www.joylent.eu/products/wake-up-joylent And they also sale bars now! There are other competitor like Queal or Huel

I did try Joylent. I managed to drink one "meal" but couldn't go through the second one. It's the most disgusting thing I have ever encountered. I eat a lot of things many people would consider unsavory, including snails, oysters, cheese, etc., things way past their expiration date, and very bad (cheap) Chinese food. But this, no. I had bought 40 bags of the stuff that sit unused in my cupboard. Maybe Soylent is way…

A pill is probably pretty close to impossible. Even pure fat only has 9 calories per gram. 2000 calories is about 8 fl oz which you could (theoretically) drink, but would be a whole lot of pills.
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