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Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

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Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#261

Post by schneitj »

ghurtado wrote: post #204
XorNot wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also eat small amounts of poison and become immune. Everything will be damage in large quantities. And some common things probably do long term damage (e.g. any amount of charring on meat) but we never question them.

> You can also eat small amounts of poison and become immune. What kinds of poison can you build an immunity to by eating small amounts of it?

I heard snake venom is like that.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3410065/The-man-immu...

Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#262

Post by mstodd »

Pitarou wrote: post #222

Inexcusable. The only reason Soylent have gotten away with it for so long is that the FDA rules for this category of product haven't been written yet. A product shouldn't make people sick when used as intended. So if a product is intended to be consumed as 100% of your diet, it MUST: - contain all known macro- and micro-nutrients necessary for human health - contain nothing that makes you sick when you eat it all the…

Gotten away with it? Have they been lying about something? If people don't buy their products, they'll leave the market. If people continue to buy them, they'll stay. I really hope the FDA doesn't get involved. As it is a low cost source of nutrition, more regulation will raise the price with no corresponding added benefit to the consumer; affecting the people who may be the most vulnerable to price increases.

Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#264

Post by binoct »

ghurtado wrote: post #204
XorNot wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also eat small amounts of poison and become immune. Everything will be damage in large quantities. And some common things probably do long term damage (e.g. any amount of charring on meat) but we never question them.

> You can also eat small amounts of poison and become immune. What kinds of poison can you build an immunity to by eating small amounts of it?

Iocane powder

Actually there are a few, though it's definitely not the rule - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridatism

Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#265

Post by Philadelphia »

_23sd wrote: post #156
frenchy wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heme-bound iron is better absorbed by the body than other sources of iron, which is why sometimes vegetarians are anemic despite the high quantity of iron in vegetables. Much of the the known mechanics of digestion are molecular, but that's mostly due to the fact that we have a lot better scientific tools to deal with things on a molecular level than we do with macro-molecular constructs.

Okay, but you're still talking about how a particular nutrient interacts with the digestive system in a particular way. I don't assume there's any evidence that eating meat increases the absorption rate of iron from plants as well, for example. The hypothesis I responded to was a component of algae reacting with another chemical to create a product that some people are sensitive to.

Eating foods high in vitamin C increases absorption of iron. Calcium conversely reduces it, which is another reason for becoming anemic on a vegetarian diet, if you get a lot of your protein from dairy.

Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#266

Post by munificent »

homulilly wrote: post #73
munificent wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author does not say all algae are plants. She says the algae used to make algal flour are plants . As far as I can tell, she is correct. AlgaVia uses "microalgae", which, according to Wikipedia[1] are plants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microphyte

Perhaps it's been changed since you posted this link but I see nothing about microalgae being plants.

From the article: "Unlike higher plants, microalgae do not have roots, stems, or leaves."

"Higher" here to me implies microalgae are also plants, otherwise the qualifier isn't needed.

The article for "algae" says: "No definition of algae is generally accepted. One definition is that algae 'have chlorophyll as their primary photosynthetic pigment and lack a sterile covering of cells around their reproductive cells'. Some authors exclude all prokaryotes thus do not consider cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) as algae."

So it seems a little silly to me to split hairs about whether algae are plants in an popular audience news article about a food product.

Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#267

Post by DashRattlesnake »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #189
ng12 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe Soylent has a pretty good idea. They know what changed in their formula, they know the difference between the products receiving complaints and the products not, and they have evidence from other companies (Honey Stinger) who had similar issues.

I wonder if they run any sort of A/B testing. Wouldn't harm if they sent few packages with one ingredient missing once in a while, then see what's the response.

> I wonder if they run any sort of A/B testing. Wouldn't harm if they sent few packages with one ingredient missing once in a while, then see what's the response.

The idea of using A/B testing for food safety testing is horrifying.

Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#268

Post by chillacy »

whyenot wrote: post #221
XorNot wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also eat small amounts of poison and become immune. Everything will be damage in large quantities. And some common things probably do long term damage (e.g. any amount of charring on meat) but we never question them.

That may work with (fictional) iocane powder in The Princess Bride, but almost all real poisons don't work that way. For example, you aren't going to become immune to the amatoxins in death cap mushrooms by having a nibble everyone once in a while.

It happens enough to have a name though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormesis

Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#269

Post by botexpert »

briHass wrote: post #38

Part of the issue is their desire to keep the product vegan. Instead of using known-safe, health-promoting sources of polyunsaturated (O3/O6) fats like fish oil, they use algal sources, which have very little data supporting them as safe/effective sources of O3.

There are good quality studies on vegans showing pollutant free omega 3 algal source works extraordinarily well. [1]

Keeping the product vegan is an image choice that many similar companies take.

[1]: http://www.clinicalnutritionjournal.com/article/S0261-5614(1...

Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#270

Post by WillPostForFood »

M_Grey wrote: post #215
darawk wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ya, I agree. Long-term effects are important. But AFAIK there's no indication of any long-term harm from Soylent. There's only an indication that a particular batch may have been contaminated. This suggests not that they were careless in choosing their formulation or research, but that there was an error in the manufacturing process. This is something that can happen to any company, and has many times. Should they fi…

There's no indication of long-term anything from Soylent, just people screaming that it must be bad, or people screaming that it's the future. It's mostly a ton of anecdote, and no reason to believe that it's particularly harmful, or particularly healthy in the long-term. My feeling? You want to beta-test that with your health, I won't stop you, but I won't join you either.

All diet choices amount to beta testing with your health. There is no (known) correct way to eat, so we choose the best we can based culture/health class/news stories/diet gurus/doctors. It is very hard to make the case that eating Soylent (never tried it myself), is meaningfully different from choosing to go macrobiotic, or paleo, or following the food pyramid.
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