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Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

latimes.com

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Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#171

Post by babaganoosh223 »

neilsharma wrote: post #162

I always have a bottle of soylent in my backpack for emergencies, or if I'm in SF for half a day and don't want to waste $10 on a sandwich I can finish in 3 bites. That said, I'm not a big fan of its macros. I don't really care about following food pyramid guidelines and would prefer something with less sugar, fewer starches, and a different oil blend. I make "life-changing bread" [0] on occasion, and its basically m…

Maybe checkout http://diy.soylent.com, some guy made a webapp for you to come up with custom soylent recipes. I made a variant based on Keto chow and it's pretty good.

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#172

Post by LordHumungous »

PeCaN wrote: post #153
LordHumungous wrote: post #130

I'm a big fan of Michael Pollan's manifesto: Eat food . Not too much. Mostly plants. The idea being that processed foods cannot hope to match the nutritional profile found in whole foods, particularly plants. This soylent stuff is about as processed as food comes, so I'm inclined to be very skeptical of it's healthfulness.

…you'd rather eat random shit out of the ground that has been found to not kill you, than to eat something based on studying humans and their nutritional needs? I mean, I can't say I like soylent much but you're just stupid if that's the argument against it.

The body of research on nutrition suggests that a diet high in whole plant foods is optimal for human health. If you think some San Francisco entrepreneurs know something that medical science does not, well more power to you.

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#173

Post by greglindahl »

Karunamon wrote: post #137
matt_wulfeck wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: Why not just make yourself a bowl of lentils? Definitely more nutritious than this stuff and very easy to make it bulk/reheat.

More nutritious? Uh... no. I have no idea why you'd think that. The nutrition facts[1] on the powder show that you can basically live on the stuff and receive 100% of your micro and macro nutrients. Which is the whole point. [1]: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0421/5993/t/4/assets/Compl...

Uh, you realize that nutrient absorption means that you can't just eat the molecules that you need and stay healthy? That's why products in the same space as Soylent, like Ensure, have a lot of research involved.

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#174

Post by davnn »

Matachines wrote: post #85
djsumdog wrote: post #11

I'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…

It's not that people are too stupid to understand, they just did a really bad job telling us, but it kind of was their PR strategy. Look how many articles there are "I ate Soylent only for X days".

Let's see how long it takes them to lose that image of a complete food replacement.

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#175

Post by kctess5 »

PeCaN wrote: post #153
LordHumungous wrote: post #130

I'm a big fan of Michael Pollan's manifesto: Eat food . Not too much. Mostly plants. The idea being that processed foods cannot hope to match the nutritional profile found in whole foods, particularly plants. This soylent stuff is about as processed as food comes, so I'm inclined to be very skeptical of it's healthfulness.

…you'd rather eat random shit out of the ground that has been found to not kill you, than to eat something based on studying humans and their nutritional needs? I mean, I can't say I like soylent much but you're just stupid if that's the argument against it.

Hard to take an argument that includes the phrase "you're just stupid" seriously.

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#176

Post by timv »

dahart wrote: post #95
nemo44x wrote: post #44

A well cooked meal and wine - my greatest joys in life. Simple, romantic and fulfilling. Add butter. Add cream. A beautiful pan sauce from a well timed reduction. A cool glass of white wine in the hot kitchen as all the flavors come together. The scent of fresh cut shallots still lingering as the garlic in the pan sweats. I don't judge anyone for making food and drink a footnote in their life. I enjoy cooking as much…

> I don't judge anyone for making food and drink a footnote in their life. I believe you that you're trying not to be judgemental, but FWIW, your statement equating eating soylent to making food and drink a footnote in life sounds at least presumptuous if not judgemental. I love cooked meals too, but I can easily see the value in a quick, controlled meal with a proper balance of macros, it's not a stretch to understa…

[ I'm not the parent poster ]

> * your statement equating eating soylent to making food and drink a footnote in life sounds at least presumptuous if not judgemental.*

But that was a core part Rob Rhinehart's original proposition.

I totally get that it's not why or how everyone consumes Soylent, but these were the words used to introduce it to the world:

In my own life I resented the time, money, and effort the purchase, preparation, consumption, and clean-up of food was consuming

I used to spend about 2 hours per day on food. ... Now I spend about 5 minutes in the evening preparing for the next day, and every meal takes a few seconds.

Food can be art, comfort, science, celebration, romance, or a reason to meet with friends. Most of the time it’s just a hassle, though.

The food is eating us. I don’t know how to change peoples’ behavior, but now that I’ve discovered Soylent, I’m healthier than I’ve ever been, have more freedom with my time and money, and never have to worry about the stuff.

http://robrhinehart.com/?p=298

I don't see how equating statements like "I resented the time", "it's just a hassle" and "never have to worry about the stuff" with "a footnote in life" can be called presumptuous.

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#177

Post by charlesism »

Meegul wrote: post #136
throwaway101416 wrote: post #102

I had hemorrhoids that would flair up from soy/almond milk or large quantities of corn chips. However, I never had blood loss and it was mostly gone by the time I tried Soylent. After having one drink made with powder version 1.2 or 1.3, I lost about a liter of blood and couldn't move or work on anything that week. Had to switch to yogurt for a month to eat normally again. I think it has to do with jagged precipitate…

What do you mean by unnatural? What is in Soylent that isn't natural ? Food in and of itself is just a mix of different chemicals - be they from plants, animals, or other sources. But at the end of the day, a molecule of glucose from a plant is identical to a molecule of glucose created synthetically.

I will speculate that eating liquid food for a prolonged amount of time doesn't do your teeth and gums any favors.

Whether Soylent qualifies as "unnatural" depends on whether its ingredients, and the amounts of them, are nutritious and not poisonous. Humanity hasn't yet reached a point where we have definite answers to questions like that.

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#178

Post by dasil003 »

Meegul wrote: post #136
throwaway101416 wrote: post #102

I had hemorrhoids that would flair up from soy/almond milk or large quantities of corn chips. However, I never had blood loss and it was mostly gone by the time I tried Soylent. After having one drink made with powder version 1.2 or 1.3, I lost about a liter of blood and couldn't move or work on anything that week. Had to switch to yogurt for a month to eat normally again. I think it has to do with jagged precipitate…

What do you mean by unnatural? What is in Soylent that isn't natural ? Food in and of itself is just a mix of different chemicals - be they from plants, animals, or other sources. But at the end of the day, a molecule of glucose from a plant is identical to a molecule of glucose created synthetically.

This attitude is exactly bothered me about the CEO of Soylent when he was first doing PR about the product years ago. It's not a question of being "natural" per se, it's the question of trace elements and how our body metabolizes food. Food is not just a pile of molecules, it's a particular organization of molecules. How your body digests it matters. A bunch of milled and refined powders of macronutrients is simply not the same as anything we've evolved to eat over the last X million years. How different is it? That's hard to say, but when the CEO is so dismissive of the fact that there are real subtleties here and nutrition science still has a long way to go, it's not confidence inspiring.

The reason that oft-derided-as-woo-woo granola crowd is actually making the logicallly sound choice here is because given the lack of conclusive science, the default assumption should be that a diet closer to what our ancestors ate is a safer bet than a brand new diet that we fabricate based on incomplete and presumptive knowledge.

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#179

Post by cheiVia0 »

benevol wrote: post #164
Matachines wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Processed food is always a bad idea. It's simple, really: The closer your are to nature, the better you feel (because the healthier you are). Our body is happier when we spend our time in nature instead of artificial environment (there are studies on that subject) and we are less cancerous when we eat natural food (as opposed to processed food). Every time we step away from our nature, we sabotage ourselves.

MMM, delicious natural snake venom.

Re: Soylent halts sales of its powder as customers keep getting sick

#180

Post by lsc »

warfangle wrote: post #140
djsumdog wrote: post #11

I'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'm still curious why the soylent thing has hit it off in the HN crowd and not, say, Slimfast. Which is basically the same thing but with more production hardening. Maybe fragile masculinity? IDK.

I certainly think that it's a marketing thing; while gender identity I'm sure plays a role as it does in most marketing, it's not the whole story. There are already meal replacement drinks targeted at manly men; muscle milk is one of the more well known brands.

I think that the difference is that this stuff was uniquely (and probably irresponsibly[1]) marketed towards nerds. - It's not advertised, as the shakes I mention before this, to make you bigger or smaller; it's advertised to save you effort on eating; I think that is the primary difference.

[1]My impression is that they have implied that soylent can completely replace normal food for long periods of time, and I personally think that is dangerous, just because of how much we don't know about micros and about the GI tract in general. I'm sure it's fine if you do the slim-fast thing and have 'a delicious shake for breakfast, another for lunch, then a sensible dinner' - but that's not how soylint seems to be advertised.

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