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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

#591

Post by Shivetya »

anExcitedBeast wrote: post #585
rl12345 wrote: post #572

Soylent’s product itself has zero novelty in it. Meal Replacement Powders (MRPs) have been around for decades and are popular among the bodybuilding crowd. The only “innovation” Soylent has brought to the table was being the first company to market MRPs to geeks and hipsters -- and that's it. Personally, I've never tried their product because the ingredients they use seemed average/fudged at best (and I tend to avoid…

> Tip: if you care about maximizing the quality of your dietary supplement, research and buy each ingredient individually, and then mix it all up yourself. That defeats my primary use case for MRP: not needing to think about nutrition. I hate cooking, I hate cleaning, and eating out all the time feels wasteful. I just want quick, healthy meals with a decent shelf life.

but cooking good meals is so damn easy, there are even companies which will deliver the ingredients to very nice meals if you want to cook them.

anecdotal at best, but a friend years ago was diagnosed with adult diabetes and told he had to change his diet. this guy never cooked. part of his transition was cooking classes provided as part of his diabetes counseling. he discovered a world of quick and easy meals, many in a single pan and all were healthy.

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

#592

Post by castratikron »

throwaway898908 wrote: post #207
timdorr wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having entirely lived on Soylent for a full year and having went back to solid foods with no weaning period and no ill effects, I doubt the veracity of your unsubstantiated claims.

@timdorr: "Crazy to think that over the last year and a half, more than 50% of my diet has been in the form of liquid @soylent." [1] So not all of your diet. I very much doubt your ability to refute my claim, given that you did not meet my criteria of not eating solid food. [1] https://twitter.com/timdorr/status/694271673248264192

Isn't 100% more than 50%?

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

#593

Post by saalweachter »

Ygg2 wrote: post #490
mapt wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, one-third is a pretty small number in the grand scheme of things. Drop it down to zero (asymptotically difficult) and carrying capacity rises by 50%. Switch the meat eaters over to grain & legumes (with minimal fresh vegetables), and it rises by something in the 200-1000% range.

I don't think it does. Land used for feeding cattle != Land used for farming grains/legumes/vegetables. Plants that we eat require higher quality of land, than ordinary grass. Also it's not an easy transition. Essentially it's like saying if everyone keeps same distance between car behind and front of them, then there would be little to no traffic jam. I mean sure, that's true, but requires a tectonic change in human…

Yeah, my personal guess is that animals have a place in even the ideal, most efficient agricultural system, even if it is at a lower intensity than in modern American agriculture.

Sheep and cattle can graze on land that is not useful for crops. Pigs can eat food waste and reclaim those calories. Chickens can forage in suburban spaces and convert corn quite efficiently.

We might be better off feeding less corn to livestock, but keep in mind field corn is one of the most productive crops in modern agriculture -- either we need to start feeding humans a lot more corn meal, or you're stuck planting a less efficient crop in place of corn. Growing corn to feed to pigs and chickens, while supplementing their diet with foraging and food waste, is not that crazy of a prospect, from a land use perspective.

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

#594

Post by BatFastard »

adrianm wrote: post #588
n72 wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This has to be satire. Right? Please be satire. Thanks for sharing this though, I was previously under the impression Soylent was created by someone relatively sane.

His attitude is at least better informed then many celebrities. And he was a celebrity for a short time.

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

#595

Post by rl12345 »

mpg33 wrote: post #590
rl12345 wrote: post #572

Soylent’s product itself has zero novelty in it. Meal Replacement Powders (MRPs) have been around for decades and are popular among the bodybuilding crowd. The only “innovation” Soylent has brought to the table was being the first company to market MRPs to geeks and hipsters -- and that's it. Personally, I've never tried their product because the ingredients they use seemed average/fudged at best (and I tend to avoid…

I'm not even a "foodie" person and the idea of just eating these meal replacements all the time seems like being in "food prison."

Agreed. Personally, I take supplements as a way to complement my normal diet -- not to substitute it. Once in a while, when it's not possible to have a real food meal, those MRPs can be also very handy.

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

#596

Post by 0xcde4c3db »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #160
warfangle wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wouldn't attribute it to some kind of nefarious gender issue. It's as simple as marketing, which does matter. Slimfast in it's name implies a diet drink, not food replacement. Most people would never even consider them in the same arena and that's due to simple marketing by the very companies that produce them.

The commercials very prominently suggested replacing breakfast and lunch with Slim-Fast shakes, so much so that "a shake for breakfast, one for lunch, and a sensible dinner" was basically their unofficial slogan. Obviously it was still marketed for weight loss, but the suggested use is strikingly similar to what a lot Soylent advocates suggest.

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

#597

Post by ewzimm »

rl12345 wrote: post #587
anExcitedBeast wrote: post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tip: if you care about maximizing the quality of your dietary supplement, research and buy each ingredient individually, and then mix it all up yourself. That defeats my primary use case for MRP: not needing to think about nutrition. I hate cooking, I hate cleaning, and eating out all the time feels wasteful. I just want quick, healthy meals with a decent shelf life.

It requires you a little more upfront work indeed but once you have your stack mixed and stored it gets as practical as with any other MRP.

I think it goes against a lot of people's idea of efficieny. Why should each person need to research, source, and mix their own MRP if we have similar needs?

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

#598

Post by the_duke »

Shivetya wrote: post #591
anExcitedBeast wrote: post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tip: if you care about maximizing the quality of your dietary supplement, research and buy each ingredient individually, and then mix it all up yourself. That defeats my primary use case for MRP: not needing to think about nutrition. I hate cooking, I hate cleaning, and eating out all the time feels wasteful. I just want quick, healthy meals with a decent shelf life.

but cooking good meals is so damn easy, there are even companies which will deliver the ingredients to very nice meals if you want to cook them. anecdotal at best, but a friend years ago was diagnosed with adult diabetes and told he had to change his diet. this guy never cooked. part of his transition was cooking classes provided as part of his diabetes counseling. he discovered a world of quick and easy meals, many…

Cooking still takes time.

For anything decent, you need AT LEAST 30 minutes, usually more like 60+.

And then comes the cleaning of pots, pans, filling the dishwasher.

That's a WHOLE HOUR I could be wasting my time on HN instead!

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

#599

Post by ZenoArrow »

GunlogAlm wrote: post #75

I wonder if this applies to Huel ( https://huel.com ), essentially the British version of Soylent.

I've been trying Huel, it's been good so far. If I remember correctly, Soylent has had issues with cadmium that Huel have said hasn't been an issue for them.

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

#600

Post by mpg33 »

rl12345 wrote: post #595
mpg33 wrote: post #590

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not even a "foodie" person and the idea of just eating these meal replacements all the time seems like being in "food prison."

Agreed. Personally, I take supplements as a way to complement my normal diet -- not to substitute it. Once in a while, when it's not possible to have a real food meal, those MRPs can be also very handy.

Although I'd imagine a liquid diet where you are mainly only consuming smoothie type beverages has to be less hard on your digestive system just because of the simply fact it requires less effort to break down?
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