I just started on 1.6 2 weeks ago and enjoying the freedom of this, as well as the ability to control my intake.
I need a vegan alternative.
Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick
111–120 of 1001 posts
Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Soylent is like birth control for food: it lets you choose whether food is going to be for pleasure or for sustenance. I eat it often because it's healthy, quick, and I actually enjoy it. That said, I also very much enjoy food with family and friends. They're too completely different things though, but previously we had to use the same tools for both needs.
Isn't this why we invented the "sandwich"?
I believe the point is that a sandwich doesn't have the macronutrient ratio most people want and a full range of micronutrients so people don't have to be worried about missing anything important if they decide to eat sandwiches for 2/3rds of their meals.
Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick
#113I'm really amazed by all the supporters on here. When I first heard about Soylent, I thought it was a terrible terrible idea. I mean, there's so much to food. It's not just eating it, it's all the flavours and ingredients and cooking with friends and loved ones and parties and such. I'm guessing most people on here use it as a supplement + regular food, but when I saw it originally, it seemed like it was intended to…
Every time Soylent is on HN people say this. Why don't people understand? It's so simple: Soylent is for meals you don't care about but need. It's not a) the ONLY food you can eat or b) supposed to replace all meals. I order a box of Soylent bottles every few weeks—they come in handy while working or for a quick breakfast or if I have little time and am hungry. I also cook meals with my girlfriend a few times a week…
> Soylent is for meals you don't care about but need
This is the problem. That concept is completely foreign to a lot of people (me included). The combination of my body's needs and the way I was raised lead me to view each meal as an opportunity to be enjoyed, never a chore.
Something I observed in the weightlifting community: there are people who need to worry about dieting (cutting) and people who worry about eating enough (bulking). Serious weightlifters go through cycles of both but most people struggle more with one side or another.
Bulking isn't a struggle for me -- I can clear 5,000 kcal/day without a sweat. I've trained myself to eat pretty healthy but I'd always prefer steak and eggs for breakfast. On the other hand, a friend of mine complains about all the pizza he has to eat to meet his targets. Soylent makes a lot of sense for him (quick calories) but I'll never understand that feeling of "ugh, I need to eat, guess I'll have a Soylent".
Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick
#114Have gone through a few cases of Soylent 2.0 with no issues. I use to drink a few a week as a sporadic meal replacement. Now, I mix my own variation with casein protein and trehalose. Intestinal flora tweak? When I switched to a modified ketogenic diet, it took a few days to adjust. I now start the morning with coffee mixed with butter and caprylic acid (refined MCT oil). Advice was: ease into it; too much, too soon,…
OMG "disaster pants" is from here out going to be in my lexicon.
Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Soylent is like birth control for food: it lets you choose whether food is going to be for pleasure or for sustenance. I eat it often because it's healthy, quick, and I actually enjoy it. That said, I also very much enjoy food with family and friends. They're too completely different things though, but previously we had to use the same tools for both needs.
Isn't this why we invented the "sandwich"?
Yes
Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick
#116> Soylent said there shouldn’t be any issues with its premade drinks, which cost slightly more than just the powder. Interesting. I tried the premade drinks (Soylent 2.0) a couple of months ago and within an hour had stomach cramps and was forced to retreat to the bathroom. Unlike a software bug it's mentally very hard to forgive -- I love the idea of Soylent but doubt I will ever try it again, in any form. Serious q…
> There are a limited number of ingredients, all of which are surely well documented and tested. There isn't really any bright line between edible and poisonous. E.g. if you buy a bunch of field guides, the exact same plants and mushrooms will be listed as edible in some books and poisonous in others. There are lots of species that are widely considered poisonous, but many people eat them anyway without any ill effec…
> the exact same plants and mushrooms will be listed as edible in some books and poisonous in others.
Are you serious? Any mycologist or survivalist worth their salt will tell you to avoid any mushrooms you could not identify with 100% certainty because there is no regret if you had them. Some manuals may advocate (in very desperate situations) eating a small piece of an unknown species to see if you have a reaction before consuming more, but that is still pretty dodgy since not all toxins have a short incubation period.
Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick
#117Not putting solid food into your system for long periods of time (months, years) will destroy your ability to digest solid food when you start refeeding. I've seen people in eating disorder facilities who have lived on diets of liquid food (historically Ensure, basically the same thing) who have not defecated for months, and when they start eating again suffer for weeks and weeks from horrendous constipation, often r…
Ensure is not intended to be used as a complete nutrition source, so it's not surprising that subsisting on it for long periods would cause problems. For long term use a nutritionally complete formula should be used such as Jevity or Twocal (made by the same company that makes Ensure).
Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really? When Soylent was first announced, I'm pretty sure I read something where Rhinehart was positioning Soylent as the primary source of meals, with the occasional real meal thrown in as a luxury.
Can't both be true for different people?
No, this particular question has an empirical answer.
Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick
#119Man, this is a bummer. As much as I hate the concept of Soylent as food, I see it as the only way to scale food production for the growing population, without killing our planet. The other options are still in the labs. Artificial tissues for instance. Vertical farming is one alternative, but that is again fraught with massive energy consumption. I hope Soylent gets to solve this.
Isn't Soylent primarily made from rice and soybeans? These are commodity crops that require huge amounts of fossil fuels (chemical fertilizer, fuel for tractors, transportation, processing) and government subsidies in order to be profitably cultivated.
Still less of a burden compared to meat and vegetables
Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick
#120I'm really amazed by all the supporters on here. When I first heard about Soylent, I thought it was a terrible terrible idea. I mean, there's so much to food. It's not just eating it, it's all the flavours and ingredients and cooking with friends and loved ones and parties and such. I'm guessing most people on here use it as a supplement + regular food, but when I saw it originally, it seemed like it was intended to…
I did a DIY soylent diet for ~6 months last year. I had maybe 1 regular meal every 2 weeks during that time.
Honestly, it fucking kicked ass. I'll list some of the pros and cons
Pro
- Easy to make
- Portable
- Little mess/no cleaning
- More time to do other stuff
- Most insane regular shits. 2pm everyday, sit, shit, 2x wipe, done in 30 seconds. Every shit was exactly the same.
- Never any indigestion, gas, diarrhea, sick feeling
- Never felt hungry. Like I would go weeks without feeling that sensation
- Felt really good overall
- Skin disease cleared up for the first time in over a decade
- Perfect control over calories and macro composition
- Cheap(ish), $7 a day.
Cons
- Bland/bad taste and texture
- Gets old fast (like "Ugghh, not this again")
- Must drink lots of water with it. (really only a con because I had to carry a water bottle too, but water is good for you)
- Takes a while to drink, at least for me.
- Piss is neon yellow (from vitamin B, not really a con, just odd)
- People are kind of freaked out by it
- Doesn't store well in liquid form, so must be made each time before drinking or at least daily.
- Needs some time to sit (~30 min) after making or else it has a really bitter taste.
- First 2 weeks were brutal. Felt all manner of sick and uneasy from it. My body felt all out of wack. Intense headaches too. Others had warned of this so I pushed on. I was about to give up but on day 13 I woke up feeling great and it was smooth sailing from then on out. Guess it was my body adjusting? I had a really shit diet before that.
Right now I am still drinking them but way less, maybe 6 a week down from 21 a week. Regular food is just so good. But I plan to go back to it in the near future.