Soylent: What Happened When I Stopped Eating For 2 Weeks • Hacker News Board

Re: Soylent: What Happened When I Stopped Eating For 2 Weeks

#21

Post by anigbrowl » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 2:10 AM UTC

graeme wrote: post #4

lingben wrote: post #3

More pseudo-science from Tim. Sigh.

Did you read Tim's comments at the bottom? He's hardly endorsing Soylent. From the post: ------------------ Among the Soylent claims Shane outlined, there are the below. I’ve added my comments: Soylent provides all the energy and nutrients the body needs. [TIM: I'm not convinced Soylent can prove this.] The body can absorb all the nutrients Soylent provides. [TIM: I'm not convinced Soylent can prove this.] Soylent ma…

No, he's just featuring it on his blog to draw traffic. It's the equivalent of the mainstream media staple 'Could X help you lose weight, avoid cancer, and enjoy better sex?'

Re: Soylent: What Happened When I Stopped Eating For 2 Weeks

#22

Post by billybob255 » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 2:10 AM UTC

alphaoverlord wrote: post #9

I'm all for people having the freedom to eat whatever they want and I really like the quantified self aspect of seeing how diet affects how they feel and metrics of health, but I have to say the author grossly does not understand the medical tests he had done and misinterprets the data. I'm not going to comment on the drink, but rather on his misunderstanding of medicine. First, EGFR is not "Epidermal Growth Factor R…

Just a little more on DEXA scans; it might be a little much for someone like the blogger, but they are valuable for measuring central adiposity.

Re: Soylent: What Happened When I Stopped Eating For 2 Weeks

#23

Post by cabinguy » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 2:10 AM UTC

alphaoverlord wrote: post #9

I'm all for people having the freedom to eat whatever they want and I really like the quantified self aspect of seeing how diet affects how they feel and metrics of health, but I have to say the author grossly does not understand the medical tests he had done and misinterprets the data. I'm not going to comment on the drink, but rather on his misunderstanding of medicine. First, EGFR is not "Epidermal Growth Factor R…

DEXA scans can be used to accurately measure body fat, too.

Re: Soylent: What Happened When I Stopped Eating For 2 Weeks

#24

Post by __xtrimsky » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 2:12 AM UTC

ekianjo wrote: post #10

You don't just do a test for 2 weeks and expect to find something significant out of it. Go for one year, 2 years and then let's find out what really happens then.

you die.

Re: Soylent: What Happened When I Stopped Eating For 2 Weeks

#25

Post by jerf » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 2:12 AM UTC

“Last night I had a dream that I ate a brownie, and halfway through the brownie realized that I was only supposed to be eating Soylent for the next two weeks.”

I'm 35, and I've known I have Celiac disease for about five years now. I still have that dream about every month or two, excepting of course that I realize I'm going to be very sick instead of being supposed to eat/drink/consume only Soylent.

Re: Soylent: What Happened When I Stopped Eating For 2 Weeks

#26

Post by oftenwrong » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 2:13 AM UTC

tocomment wrote: post #14

cup wrote: post #6

Soylent aside, im amazed at how terrible his traditional normal days meal is? I mean hes eating a processed breakfast subsitute in the morning, take away mexican food with a soft drink for lunch and more take away for dinner. You don't need to be a nutritionist to know thats going to have a terrible impact on his life later down the track. Postnote: Now that Ive read the whole article, I wonder if all the benefits he…

Is a protien shake for breakfast really that bad? I have not been able to find a breakfast food that's quick, tastes ok, and isn't high in carbs.

Is your definition of "breakfast food" too narrow? Any food can be a breakfast food.

Re: Soylent: What Happened When I Stopped Eating For 2 Weeks

#27

Post by joering2 » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 2:14 AM UTC

tocomment wrote: post #14

cup wrote: post #6

Soylent aside, im amazed at how terrible his traditional normal days meal is? I mean hes eating a processed breakfast subsitute in the morning, take away mexican food with a soft drink for lunch and more take away for dinner. You don't need to be a nutritionist to know thats going to have a terrible impact on his life later down the track. Postnote: Now that Ive read the whole article, I wonder if all the benefits he…

Is a protien shake for breakfast really that bad? I have not been able to find a breakfast food that's quick, tastes ok, and isn't high in carbs.

This is a good summary from someone credible (IMO): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExyNf3u7iQg

Re: Soylent: What Happened When I Stopped Eating For 2 Weeks

#28

Post by beering » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 2:15 AM UTC

cup wrote: post #6

Soylent aside, im amazed at how terrible his traditional normal days meal is? I mean hes eating a processed breakfast subsitute in the morning, take away mexican food with a soft drink for lunch and more take away for dinner. You don't need to be a nutritionist to know thats going to have a terrible impact on his life later down the track. Postnote: Now that Ive read the whole article, I wonder if all the benefits he…

Soylent fans would argue that this alone is a valid benefit of Soylent - reasonable, healthy nutrition that takes no planning or decision-making, and is cheap and easy.

Getting people to eat better is not an easy problem to fix.

(BTW, it's also easy to paint restaurant food as bad, without actually examining why. It's also easy to make unhealthy home-cooked organic food.)

Re: Soylent: What Happened When I Stopped Eating For 2 Weeks

#29

Post by mparlane » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 2:16 AM UTC

TillE wrote: post #20

bsbechtel wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That’s not a good reason to not try to innovate. Innovation only really works if you're solving a problem. I don't really see much of a problem with our food/nutrition system as is. Yes, there are parts of the world where people are starving, so maybe there is an application for this there, but if the aim is to test this product out in the Bay Area, I don't really see it going anywhere. I could be wrong, but that's…

Apparently the target market is lazy people who don't like food. And let's be honest, nearly everyone likes real food. Keto works great for weight loss, and moderation is usually sufficient for a healthy maintenance diet. Loaded with carbohydrates as it is, Soylent is particularly uninteresting for anyone trying to reduce body fat.

A lot of things were invented for "lazy" people so they could save time to do other more important things.

Like my electric razor, I have my safety razor too, but it's so much faster to use my electric.

A coworker has a beard so he can save 5 minutes in the morning, is it lazy to want time to do other things?

Re: Soylent: What Happened When I Stopped Eating For 2 Weeks

#30

Post by katbyte » Wed, Aug 21, 2013, 2:26 AM UTC

tocomment wrote: post #14

cup wrote: post #6

Soylent aside, im amazed at how terrible his traditional normal days meal is? I mean hes eating a processed breakfast subsitute in the morning, take away mexican food with a soft drink for lunch and more take away for dinner. You don't need to be a nutritionist to know thats going to have a terrible impact on his life later down the track. Postnote: Now that Ive read the whole article, I wonder if all the benefits he…

Is a protien shake for breakfast really that bad? I have not been able to find a breakfast food that's quick, tastes ok, and isn't high in carbs.

I for a while had this http://myvega.com/product/vega-one-nutritional-shake/ every morning for a while and i rather enjoyed the berry flavor after a few days. However it isn't exactly cheap.