Live data from Hacker News

Soylent Campaign

campaign.soylent.me

391–400 of 608 posts

Re: Soylent Campaign

#391

Out of curiosity, if Soylent really does provide every nutrient the body requires, would that mean a user would no longer have to defecate? My reasoning is if every nutrient is absorbed and used, there is no physical waste left, and all toxins and byproducts would be expelled through urine.

Having done pure liquid diets (with significantly reduced caloric loads) on numerous occasions (not by choice, unlike these fellows) this is mostly true. One will typically see bowel movement frequency drop dramatically, although not entirely to zero in my case.

That said, I am missing a significant length of digestive tract, so my experience may be atypical. I would also note that that as calories increase, to or above your metabolic needs, that this effect would likely diminish.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read his blog posts leading up to this and liked the idea. So, I decided to try it myself. After many revisions, I finally figured out a good way of doing it and it ended up being more expensive than just eating regular grilled chicken, sweet potatoes, etc. He is using Maltodextrin for carbs. It likely contains Glutamic Acid and has a horrible glycemic index. You might as well eat sugar. I don't know what he is usi…

To anyone seriously considering doing something like this, you will find that the carbs are challenging to get into a shake. You can get all the right vitamins and minerals. On that note, don't use calcium carbonate like he does unless you want kidney stones; use calcium citrate. You can get high quality CFM whey protein assuming you're okay with getting all your protein from whey (grilled chicken is still a better i…

Whey protein only works if you don't already have some kind of dietary restriction like lactose intolerance, which I do.

Mind you, I really enjoy eating my food and am not looking for a shortcut to "just get nutrients".

Re: Soylent Campaign

#395
post #369

Wow there is a lot of hate in this thread... A lot of the arguments here seem to boil down to "Much smarter people are working on this and they haven't solved it, who the hell does this KID think he is?!?" That's pretty depressing for a website that, at least originally, was to help startups talk to one another. Shame on you, hacker news. You're smarter than this. By this logic, never ever trust your data to anybody…

The irony of this HN discussion literally hours after the "Hacker News Is Depressing" article is so thick I could cut it with a knife.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#397
post #267
post #239

[deleted]

It's just _food_, it's not like any other food product in modern history was ever extensively tested before it was put in the market as a part of our daily diet.

It's not just _food_. It's a bunch of the stuff that this random programmer thought was important, out of the set of things we know of that we get from food, tossed into a blender.

It's none of the things that we get from food that we haven't identified as important, or that this dude didn't think were sufficiently important to include, or anything else along those lines. He's repeatedly had to adjust his formula to account for deficiencies he's discovered in his glop along the way.

Do you honestly think he's done ironing [1] out the kinks in his forumla?

[1] Deliberate phrasing: one of the things he missed was iron. Can you even begin to trust the nutritional knowledge of someone who missed something as basic as iron?

Re: Soylent Campaign

#399
What does Soylent taste like? What does "the body doesn't have to get rid of unused waste" mean? I'm reminded of the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer goes on an all-yogurt diet for a week. :\

Also, it's a little disconcerting when the only founder with any food or biotech background is the sales guy.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#400
post #104

Is Soylent better for me than carrot juice, oatmeal and eggs? Now I just chose three random foodstuffs, but at least I know what they are and what they contain.

Part of the appeal of Soylent is that you don't have to juice the carrots, cook the oatmeal, or scramble the eggs.
Post reply on HN