This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again • Hacker News Board

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#261

Post by jessaustin » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 10:07 PM UTC

Evgeny wrote: post #238

klipt wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it seems to me that the first problem with not giving your GI tract food is that it could make your GI tract atrophy. (His blog suggests he barely poops on this diet.) As much as I share the fantasy of perfectly balanced, easy to prepare "bachelor chow", I hope he doesn't damage himself.

I hope he doesn't damage himself Bad as it sounds, I hope he does. That would be the equivalent of "failing fast", I guess. Here's the worse outcome: he goes happily for some time, inspires some people to follow his lead, the group grows ... 5 or 10 years down the line - bam, they all end up with some irreparable damage to their health ...

What mechanism can you imagine that would produce such a nightmare scenario? Is there a fat-soluble (or otherwise stored) nutrient of which most human bodies contain a five to ten year supply?

No I didn't think so. If Soylent Dude and his merry band of poor cooks can prove our current nutritional understanding wrong by dying five to ten years from now, then they should.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#262

Post by christkv » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 10:10 PM UTC

This guy just reminds me of the book by Claude Lévi-Strauss called the culture code. The US (and northern european) code for food is fuel, while in southern Europe it's pleasure. The fact that he looks at drinking soylent as a way to save hundreds of dollars a month in food and energy probably means he views food as a fuel and an inconvenience instead of pleasurable highlight of the day.

I find it amusing but not for me. I for one consider food pleasure and even bigger pleasure when eaten with friends and family.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#263

Post by tn13 » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 10:14 PM UTC

randomchars wrote: post #131

tn13 wrote: post #79

Doesn't make sense to me at all. Yes, it is really good thing to be really busy with something in life. But are you really that busy that you dont have time to enjoy a good healthy meal? What abut sex ? What about girlfriend or wife ? Hey and is sleeping is also waste of time ? Well, there are always pathological cases like this particular man in question but I dont think anyone else should even try this sort of stuf…

You don't need sex to stay alive. As for sleeping there are attempts to hack that too. [0] Not everyone thinks that spending 30 minutes or more to prepare a meal is worth their time so they time to minimize it: from take-outs to microwave food. As many already said in this thread, this would be a step-up for many. You can't blame him for trying. That's more than most of us are doing. There are also many people who wo…

You are missing my point. My problem with this approach is that he thinks that food is only for "staying alive". Like many others here, even I love my work and I too constantly figure out ways to make myself lot more productive.

But giving up a regular meal for a formula sounds like over optimization for me.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#264

Post by Dylan16807 » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 10:16 PM UTC

acgourley wrote: post #216

criley wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Extraordinary claims, extraordinary proof, or GTFO." > "I see this guy's protocol as nothing but poisonous in the long run." You place a burden of evidence on him that you yourself in this very post violated on a number of occasions. You CANNOT call his diet poisonous simply because you disagree with it. You admitted it yourself: > "Current research is showing that we are only just beginning to gain understanding…

The burden of evidence should be on the person claiming to have a miracle drink. The burdon of evidence should be even greater when it's a non-natural source, as Nassim Taleb argues in Antifragile, "The "non-natural" has to prove its harmlessness." If you don't take this viewpoint, you end up with cigarettes, transfat and radium jewelry.

But he doesn't have a 'miracle drink'. He has a generic food mash and his only claim is 'contains basic nutrients and calories'.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#265

Post by jessaustin » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 10:20 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #167

pilgrim689 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> still looked healthier than this guy What makes you think he's unhealthy? Because he has whiter complexion and he isn't bulky?

> isn't bulky? What? He looks a bit chunky to me. Does he list his height / weight anywhere? (Yes, I'm aware that BMI is flawed. You have olympic athletes with almost no body fat but 'obese' BMIs. This guy? He's no athlete.)

Chunky? You should travel to the Midwest and Southern USA. It might blow your mind.

BMI is very flawed as a measure of any imaginable health outcome. You'd be better served to ask about blood pressure, pulse, blood glucose, albumin, etc.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#266

Post by taproot » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 10:21 PM UTC

> Revolutionizes eating

> Doesn't let anyone know ingredients

Besides the disturbing nature of this guy, I always like the idea of the matrix glop food.

Someone should really open source working on this, I understand it is a hard thing to get right but enough people working on this and using strictly whole foods as base ingredients would probably lessen any negative outcomes.

And really, it can't be much worse than my nightly chow down on fast food.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#267

Post by Dylan16807 » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 10:24 PM UTC

cgh wrote: post #260

gerad wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. Many elite athletes are not super scientific about their food choices [1]. Instead they eat what they crave. The human body is pretty good at figuring out what it needs nutritionally. That being said, there is a lot that is important off of the field (e.g. sleep, stretching, etc). Just nutrition is fairly low on that list. [1] http://www.active.com/triathlon/ironman/Articles/Nutrition-T...

As much respect as I have for triathletes, they aren't really representative. Food choices are incredibly important for athletes in weight class-limited sports (eg wrestling) or where muscular hypertrophy is important (eg powerlifting). Gymnastics is another one. Believe me when I tell you that coaches have diet absolutely dialed in for many classes of athlete.

Is this actually a disagreement, though? Doing a hyper-specific sport act like that is much less natural than being a triathlete.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#268

Post by acqq » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 10:25 PM UTC

roc wrote: post #241

criley wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the weakest defenses I've seen yet. It's complicated so we shouldn't try is basically the excuse. In my opinion: the use of supplemented food like this will only improve our understanding and increase the speed at which those models are made. By approaching the problem from BOTH sides we can create the most full expression of what is needed and why. Still I dislike this excuse because: you run the risk…

> "It's complicated so we shouldn't try is basically the excuse." I think the actual criticism is more along the lines of "It's so complicated that it's incredibly unlikely this guy has been truly successful." > "Let the pioneers have fun and play and learn, that's what I say!" Which is all well and good when they're merely experimenting on themselves. But this guy has gone from tinkering to claiming success and safe…

Or even "It's so complicated that it's certain this guy fails." We know for sure that he can't include all the stuff that we know that exists but for which we absolutely don't know how we can avoid eating the real things.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#269

Post by jessaustin » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 10:26 PM UTC

jgoney wrote: post #121

jgj wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First off, thanks for dampening the enthusiasm I was feeling after reading the OP. I would love to hear your thoughts on what, specifically, his formula is/may be missing. I can think of nothing more amazing than to consume a magic glass of nutrition a day and be done, and your post has given me pause.

Does he get enough fiber? I had always understood that the lower digestive system requires adequate fiber to function correctly. And less relevant, I had to chuckle at the "if I had any money or a girlfriend" part. He's not doing anything to break any stereotypes, there.

He has adjusted the fiber portion to meet his alimentary needs. That might not have been the most pleasant part of this experiment, but it wouldn't be difficult.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#270

Post by aetherson » Wed, Mar 13, 2013, 10:32 PM UTC

acqq wrote: post #186

criley wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Extraordinary claims, extraordinary proof, or GTFO." > "I see this guy's protocol as nothing but poisonous in the long run." You place a burden of evidence on him that you yourself in this very post violated on a number of occasions. You CANNOT call his diet poisonous simply because you disagree with it. You admitted it yourself: > "Current research is showing that we are only just beginning to gain understanding…

Please read this to understand: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5370816 If nobody has a right nutrition model today(1), including exeprts doing this whole life, somebody who just read a few books has no chance to cover everything that has to be covered long term. Or in other words, don't you think that military with practically infinite funds wouldn't already use his drink or equivalent for all extreme circumsta…

If human GI systems are so fragile that this shake could conceivably be considered "poisonous," how come people aren't dropping dead all over the world from such "poisons"?

The shake may well not be an optimal awesome diet -- I'd bet it won't be -- but billions of humans survive on non-optimal, awesome diets. The idea that the incredibly varied, constantly evolving, often appalling diets of the whole world all fulfill whatever criteria are necessary for human survival, but that this shake doesn't is magical thinking.

Especially when you consider that -- thread title notwithstanding -- the guy eats a few regular meals a week. What are these magical micronutrients that we don't know about, that are present in sufficient quantities to sustain humans in all traditional diets, but which are needed in such quantities that shake guy isn't going to get them?