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This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

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Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#141

Post by base698 »

criley wrote: post #103
saidajigumi wrote: post #75

> a 24-year-old software engineer > ... > Soylent contains all of the nutritive components of a balanced diet What utter bollocks. We're (as in, scientists studying nutrition and how utterly wrong food industry has gotten that in the 20th and early 21st century) finally starting to get our collective heads around the benefits of whole foods vs. highly processed foods, and just how badly our bodies deal with the latte…

You sound like an industry-insider explaining why a new startup will fail. "They're too young!" "They don't have the experience" "We've devoted our LIVES to figuring this out, one kid in his basement didn't do it in a few weeks!" Etc etc No offense but we've heard the exact same thing about every successful idea. And what's more: People look at the human GI totally wrong anyway. They think, what can I put in to get t…

Here is a little summary of what he's saying: The only things we really know about nutrition are related to diets that cause obvious problems quickly. Ie, we know vitamin-c is needed because it causes scurvy. What we know now and are learning is that there are possibly thousands of other interactions and nutrients needed for diet that are more subtle. We do not yet have a complete model for this, and probably won't for a few more decades. Therefore, anything made now will be insufficient because we know our current model is flawed.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#142

Post by [deleted] »

unix-dude wrote: post #102
saidajigumi wrote: post #75

> a 24-year-old software engineer > ... > Soylent contains all of the nutritive components of a balanced diet What utter bollocks. We're (as in, scientists studying nutrition and how utterly wrong food industry has gotten that in the 20th and early 21st century) finally starting to get our collective heads around the benefits of whole foods vs. highly processed foods, and just how badly our bodies deal with the latte…

Though I dont share quite the same level of negativity towards the idea (Personally, I think it'd be amazing to be able to give up food for something that is nutritious and safe), I definitely share your concerns. It is possible that the nutrient powder (and similar) industry hasn't given much thought to this idea because its radical and potentially risky, especially as a business venture where legal liability might…

[deleted]

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#144

Post by rosser »

saidajigumi wrote: post #75

> a 24-year-old software engineer > ... > Soylent contains all of the nutritive components of a balanced diet What utter bollocks. We're (as in, scientists studying nutrition and how utterly wrong food industry has gotten that in the 20th and early 21st century) finally starting to get our collective heads around the benefits of whole foods vs. highly processed foods, and just how badly our bodies deal with the latte…

But that won't make up for the glop's likely deficiencies.

Exactly. Yeah, he seems to have done a pretty good job of making sure his glop includes all the things we know we need.

It includes exactly zero of the things we don't know we need.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#145

Post by baak »

zeteo wrote: post #134
baak wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon Musk designed the rocket? All by himself? Wow! What a renaissance man. I figured he had physicists, engineers, mathematicians, biologists, chemists, and you name it. But I guess he just read a few books on his weekends and that was enough to design and launch the rocket. This guy is a hobbyist who is claiming his diet has cured most of his ails. You aren't the least bit suspicious of that claim?

>I guess [Musk] just read a few books on his weekends and that was enough to design and launch the rocket Ah, I love it when people think they're sarcastic but they're correct: >"I was sitting behind [Elon Musk] on the flight back to London when he looked at me over the seat and said, 'I think we can build a rocket ourselves.'" He showed Cantrell the spreadsheet he'd been working on. "I looked at it and said, I'll be…

...didn't he have a Bachelor's in Physics? Either way, he didn't build/design the rocket himself. There was an enormous team.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#146

Post by grecy »

mathteacher1729 wrote: post #93
grecy wrote: post #53

Eating to me is a leisure activity, like going to the movies, but I don't want to go to the movies three times a day. For anyone that doesn't understand that statement, I recommend taking a few years off work, where you spend your time getting up early every day, doing something all day (hiking, walking, gardening, building, whatever) and go to bed late in the evening (i.e. Full days of activities you want to be doin…

> For anyone that doesn't understand that statement, I recommend taking a few years off work, where you spend your time getting up early every day, doing something all day (hiking, walking, gardening, building, whatever) and go to bed late in the evening (i.e. Full days of activities you want to be doing). I spent 2 years doing this [...] How did you afford this, financially? What was the before/during/after story of…

I saved for ~18 months, then spent two years driving from Alaska to Argentina, because I wanted to.

I blogged the whole time at http://theroadchoseme.com

All the financial details are at http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-adventure

You'll be interested to note I only spent $1200/mo on the road, which is almost exactly what I was spending month-to-month to go to work every day.

I'm currently back working as a Software Engineer, saving for the next adventure. This time I plan on saving up enough money, and maybe contracting a day every two weeks, that I can go traveling for at least 4-6 years next time. Current estimated departure is spring or fall 2014.

I'm extremely passionate about helping/encouraging other people to do the same thing. If you have any more questions, or I can help in any way, please don't hesitate to contact me (here, my blog, email, whatever)

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#147

Post by pilgrim689 »

JPKab wrote: post #106
saidajigumi wrote: post #75

> a 24-year-old software engineer > ... > Soylent contains all of the nutritive components of a balanced diet What utter bollocks. We're (as in, scientists studying nutrition and how utterly wrong food industry has gotten that in the 20th and early 21st century) finally starting to get our collective heads around the benefits of whole foods vs. highly processed foods, and just how badly our bodies deal with the latte…

Agreed. You said it all. One fair point (in defense of the Scrawny Pale Guy Diet he is advocating) is that the food industry in general devotes a large majority of its funding to making foods that TASTE really really good. If that gets in the way of nutrition, taste wins every time. But you are correct in the fact that this is crazy. Hell, I drank and smoked a lot when I was 24, and still looked healthier than this g…

> still looked healthier than this guy

What makes you think he's unhealthy? Because he has whiter complexion and he isn't bulky?

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#149

Post by Shorel »

yanowitz wrote: post #116
criley wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sound like an industry-insider explaining why a new startup will fail. "They're too young!" "They don't have the experience" "We've devoted our LIVES to figuring this out, one kid in his basement didn't do it in a few weeks!" Etc etc No offense but we've heard the exact same thing about every successful idea. And what's more: People look at the human GI totally wrong anyway. They think, what can I put in to get t…

I think that's a total misreading of the criticisms. This actually is a hard problem and the science well short of consensus. The surface area of the problem seems to grow every year as scientists publish new research. That seems like a good indication that the odds of this (relatively) uninformed approach being a great one is low.

Of course it is a hard problem.

It is a mix of politics and economics and ethics and a very small probability of doing any real experimentation on other people.

So far I have more faith in Internet communities doing self-experimentation than with big corporation-sponsored studies.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#150

Post by DanBC »

grhino wrote: post #130
zeteo wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>an impatient _software engineer_ comes along and claims to have [succeeded with a] task that specialists have so far failed at The guy who invented the spreadsheet didn't have to absorb all available accounting literature first, and Elon Musk didn't spend 30 years in the Apollo program before being allowed to send his own rocket to space. Nutrition is a field full of pseudoscience and highly susceptible to disruptio…

He could be one of the rare ones that doesn't enjoy food, so he doesn't understand why eating food is often a social experience. Even if it does turn out to be the perfect drink, though I would think you could find something similar as a meal substitute shake, MRE, or for people who can't chew. There's probably already a market for something like this that is being targeted.

It's a big market and it's being targeted pretty successfully.

It's a medical market, which means he's going to fail getting through the tricky regulatory problems.

See, for example, Ensure or Ensure Plus.

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