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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

#971

Post by wott »

the_duke wrote: post #598
Shivetya wrote: post #591

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

You do not spend 30 minutes, let alone 60, chopping, mixing, turning, cleaning. No way. You can do other things like browsing HN (or nothing if you wish) while the meal(s) cook. A fair part of the 'cooking' is just about waiting, not acting.

And as far as the active part is concerned, I like to listen the radio and if I can get organised so that I can prepare the food while one my favourite broadcasts is on the air, I don't even notice I "have to work".

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

#972

Post by Retric »

kaitai wrote: post #686
Retric wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Antimicrobial food would be bad for you as it would harm digestion.

Not quite true. Antimicrobial doesn't mean quite what you think; it means anti-some-microbes. Honey, for instance, has several antimicrobial or antibiotic aspects. Some honey is so because enzymes in it produce hydrogen peroxide, while other honey is so for different reasons, not fully understood. If you feed mice a lot of honey, their intestinal flora rebalance -- in one study, for instance, feeding mice honey as a…

Feed mice a new diet of any kind and their gut will rebalance.

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

#973

Post by colejohnson66 »

posterboy wrote: post #970
colejohnson66 wrote: post #769

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Kitchens are dirty" I don't get that logic. Your toilet is probably cleaner than your kitchen or phone. Doesn't mean you'd eat off your toilet. Besides, you can always clean your kitchen.

Probably? Like over a 50% chance? How did you reach that estimate?

Just a Google search of places dirtier than the toilet

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

#974

Post by posterboy »

colejohnson66 wrote: post #973
posterboy wrote: post #970

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably? Like over a 50% chance? How did you reach that estimate?

Just a Google search of places dirtier than the toilet

from the summary to the first hit:

>These surfaces have more germs than the average toilet seat, and you've likely ...

That's a quantitative "analyses", not qualitative, but "dirtier" implies both. Go drink out of the toilet, if you believe that, I will not.

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

#975

Post by phillc73 »

rpedela wrote: post #969
phillc73 wrote: post #955

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading this story I think the opportunity here is in testing the nutrient levels of the hay. He is your hay guy and he provides a fantastic personal service, but is his product of the highest quality for feeding to horses? Even if "highest" is not the correct measure, just knowing the nutrient levels and, in patricular for hay to feed performance horses, the protein level, will greatly assist in formulating a correc…

Do people who buy hay for horses actually have this problem? Do they really care about the highest quality? If they do then maybe it is a good idea (there are other things to consider like market size). If they do not have this problem, then it is a bad idea by default no matter how good it sounds on paper. The first test of this idea is to interview a dozen or so customers of hay for horses and determine if they rea…

People who breed or train horses for performance sports (racing, endurance, eventing, dressage etc) absolutely do care about the nutrient content and balance of their horses' diet.

There is an ongoing debate regarding feeding high protein hay to performance horses in training.

"Alfalfa hay contains too much protein. a. Excess protein in the diets of race or endurance horseswill slow performance."

http://alfalfa.ucdavis.edu/%2Bsymposium/proceedings/2001/01-...

"Protein remains one of the first concerns of horse owners and trainers when they’re buying feed, even though as a nutrient, protein really doesn’t merit all that attention! For years, the racing community labored under the misconception that more protein in the diet equaled more energy for a racehorse. Fortunately, we now know that just isn’t the case. Not only is protein a poor energy source, but some researchers believe a protein excess in the diet actually can compromise a young horse’s performance...."

http://www.thehorse.com/articles/10331/feeding-racehorses

"Owners should rely on forage analysis as the primary method of determining the appropriate hay for horses."

http://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/horse/nutrition/hay...

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

#976

Post by alasdair_ »

ghostly_s wrote: post #804
mhb wrote: post #716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

polymyth?

Just plain polymath will do fine, seeing as the last time anyone could make legitimate claim to this title was probably 500 years ago.

What about someone like Bill Gates? Programmer and businessman, sure but he also knows a fuck ton about infectious diseases and global politics and all kinds of other things.

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

#977

Post by MistahKoala »

uryga wrote: post #816
abm2205 wrote: post #731

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not trying to make a fuss out of it, but i feel like assuming the users use of "brah" is gendered is something we should try to avoid. unless you know the poster, in that case disregard this.

i feel honored that this was the first comment you decided to write on HN. love seeing quality discussion like this, keep em coming!

I can't believe it was flagged!

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

#978

Post by MistahKoala »

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.

If I was feeling snarky, I'd offer 'ultracrepidarian'.

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

#979

Post by exolymph »

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #850
Animats wrote: post #196

Soylent made such a big deal of being a "tech company", and boasted about their overdesigned web infrastructure for a business that did two transactions a minute. What they didn't have is advanced technology on the production side. They write about "sending samples out" to external labs. It's not like they had an automated lab constantly sampling their production line and posting the results to the web. There are pro…

Our experience at MealSquares[1] has been that these external testing services are entirely oriented around the food industries needs for 'check-offs' rather than any concern about whether food is good or even safe for humans. I repeatedly had food science advisors confuesedly tell me 'but it's generally recognized as safe!' when I raised concerns about newly released designer cocktails of preservatives or flavoring…

I recently ordered a sample pack of Meal Squares and I love them! So tasty and so quick. Particularly good with a glass of milk. My boyfriend isn't as much of a fan, but I've been eating at least one a day since we received the sample pack.

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

#980

Post by [deleted] »

cyphar wrote: post #688

Am I the only person who is more than a little freaked out by the name choice for Soylent? Sure, I get the nerdy reference but the main point of the movie is that the products Soylent made are made from people . Why someone would name a company after that is beyond me, not to mention that the founder appears to have a cult-leader-vibe. /shrug

[deleted]
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