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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

#541

Post by arvinjoar »

baldfat wrote: post #521
mtberatwork wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Deferring to experts is a poor substitute for thinking for yourself. Not deferring to experts when you posses surface level knowledge (or less) of a subject is a sure-fire way to shoot yourself in the foot.

He is just being a cynic thinking he is a intellectual skeptic. Cynic : Cynics are distrustful of any advice or information that they do not agree with themselves. Cynics do not accept any claim that challenges their belief system. "Being skeptical, not cynical, helps us in forming beliefs that are in agreement with evidence." http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/02/08/im-a-skepti...

That's quite a conclusion, given so little data. Priors may vary I guess.

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

#543

Post by gerbilly »

Meegul wrote: post #142
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.

Do you believe that there is some chemical (or other) difference between two molecules of, for instance, glucose, solely due to their origin?

No I don't but that's not the point.[1]

When glucose is bound up in fiber for example, it is released at a slower rate. This leads me to believe that there may be 100s of other beneficial side effects of getting your nutrients via natural, minimally processed food.

[1] I'm not the original poster.

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

#544

Post by madaxe_again »

mrob wrote: post #424
madaxe_again wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the description I'm willing to bet its polyphenols and some of their customers are sensitive - feed me two pots of green tea and I'll projectile vomit.

I wouldn't be surprised if the fact that it's a powder contributes to this. I've vomited from strong green tea on an empty stomach before, but never from green tea with food. Solid food works as a sustained release mechanism for the nutrients/phytochemicals. A sudden burst of polyphenols won't necessarily have the same effect as the same dose spread over time.

Yup - true - if I've eaten it won't make me nauseous, and having food mass (chyme) in your stomach acts as a buffer for absorbtion.

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

#545

Post by arvinjoar »

mtberatwork wrote: post #510
arvinjoar wrote: post #499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a bad attitude though. Experts with authority granted to them in the form of titles have failed us, and keep failing us in so many areas. Ranging from nutrition to psychology, we really shouldn't put their work on a pedestal. Techies are a smart bunch on average and can stomach a lot more complexity than the average joe. It makes sense for them to try to pick up stuff outside of their line of work. Take Elon…

> Deferring to experts is a poor substitute for thinking for yourself. Not deferring to experts when you posses surface level knowledge (or less) of a subject is a sure-fire way to shoot yourself in the foot.

No, you should definitely listen to what experts have to say. You should then proceed to evaluate it critically. Be mindful of what methodology they use. What assumptions they bake into what they're saying. Ways their model doesn't fit reality. And so on, and so forth. You should seldom defer to them.

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

#546

Post by gm-conspiracy »

n72 wrote: post #477
slg wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the biggest flaws of the tech industry is the belief that being a tech expert is enough to disrupt other industries in which they don't have any expertise. Sometimes they get lucky and it works despite something like Uber's or Airbnb's total ignorance of the law. Sometimes it fails like with numerous cryptocurrency companies relearning why the finance industry has so many dang regulations. Seems like Soylent i…

The founder of Soylent clearly believes he's an expert in many, many fields: http://robrhinehart.com/?p=1331 BTW, anyone know a good word for this attitude? I wouldn't call it hybris, though it's closely related. It's a mix of arrogance, over confidence, ignorance, plus more and very prevalent in SV.

CEO?

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

#547

Post by cauterized »

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…

Exactly. Twice this week I've been in meetings that ran long and left me with no time for lunch.

I keep a box of soylent under my desk specifically for days like this. Without food I get "hangry" and can't concentrate.

I can chug a bottle of soylent in a minute or two between meetings, or sip from it instead of from a water glass, without being even as disruptive as an energy bar would be. (Plus I can't stand how sugary those things are.)

It's a terrible substitute for a salad but there's every reason to believe it's better for you than a slice of pizza or a bag of chips. Like any other food, it has a place in a healthy diet as long as it's in moderation.

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

#548

Post by agentgt »

gerbilly wrote: post #540

Fun fact: Do you know how vitamins got their name? When the first scientists to study food tried reducing it to its basic components, they concluded that it contained: carbohydrates, fats, protein and minerals. Then, based on this knowledge, they started to feed animals a mixture of these four macronutrients, but they wasted away. Afterwards they began to discover the 'vitamins', so named because they were vital for…

Futhermore there is also the epigenome with methyl groups complicating things.

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

#549

Post by hobo_mark »

TillE wrote: post #514
rubber_duck wrote: post #503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use soylent, but I eat something similar (whey + powdered oats + flavoring + milk). I don't know how to cook well, preparing food and cleaning afterwards is a pure waste of time. Buying this stuff in bulk (for like 2-3 months in one order) lets me mix up a batch that lasts me whole week in one day, lets me accurately track my macros and helps me with having eating discipline (I tend to get overweight if I jus…

Joylent and Queal (and others) seem far less weird because they're basically thin instant oatmeal with a multivitamin. It even has real fruit! Fewer weird ingredients, and a fairly nice flavor. It is extremely strange that Soylent has never attempted flavoring. That's a good way of keeping it a niche product for nerds.

I have tried many of them (except Soylent!), and have settled for Joylent, taste and variety were certainly two factors. I've been on it for a month now (it's literally all I "eat", except on weekends) and rotating through different flavours helps the routine.

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

#550

Post by pjc50 »

omnimus wrote: post #321
adamlett wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not quite. It's not that there must be a law for everything , it's that there are laws for many things , and often for good reasons. It's not that we always need to regulate new things because new means risky. It's that many new things are actually old things in new guises, and we already know (or should know) what to be concerned about.

Paradox is that US still has no regulations concerning digital privacy, big data and user protection.

People have paid good money to make sure there aren't such laws.

It only has privacy laws based on incidents that have affected people of sufficient status: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act (and note the little coda in there about Netflix)

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