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Soylent Taste Test

nytimes.com

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Re: Soylent Taste Test

#31

Post by Turing_Machine »

oblique63 wrote: post #16
shaunol wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The eventual goal is not just as a meal replacement but a full diet replacement that eventually won't need to leverage crops, for areas with no arable land. Most meal replacement shakes I've seen (not including those used in the medical industry) aren't suitable to replace your entire diet with and are generally very expensive per meal because of this. Most also warn against using the product to replace every meal wi…

> Most meal replacement shakes I've seen (not including those used in the medical industry) aren't suitable to replace your entire diet with We literally do not know that. Similarly, we cannot know that about soylent either. Because we simply do not know enough about human nutrition to be making these kinds of statements yet. The government's "Recommended Daily Intake" system is just a veneer over our relatively prim…

Maybe when it comes to adults, but we do have a good idea for babies. Lots of them eat nothing but formula and do okay (though not as well as on as human milk, let me hasten to add).

There was a case a number of years ago where one of the formula makers didn't add enough chlorides, resulting in cases of chloride deficiency (previously unknown -- salt is everywhere in a normal diet, and is present in human milk).

So... while maybe we can't say that we have a maximally healthy artificial diet, we do have multiple instances of artificial diets that are good enough to survive on.

Re: Soylent Taste Test

#32

Post by [deleted] »

oblique63 wrote: post #16
shaunol wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The eventual goal is not just as a meal replacement but a full diet replacement that eventually won't need to leverage crops, for areas with no arable land. Most meal replacement shakes I've seen (not including those used in the medical industry) aren't suitable to replace your entire diet with and are generally very expensive per meal because of this. Most also warn against using the product to replace every meal wi…

> Most meal replacement shakes I've seen (not including those used in the medical industry) aren't suitable to replace your entire diet with We literally do not know that. Similarly, we cannot know that about soylent either. Because we simply do not know enough about human nutrition to be making these kinds of statements yet. The government's "Recommended Daily Intake" system is just a veneer over our relatively prim…

[deleted]

Re: Soylent Taste Test

#34

Post by coderzach »

fidlefodl wrote: post #24

Sometimes i have a hard time telling if the hostility towards Soylent is just normal HN flare, or something meaningful. Sometimes i think people assume we're going to force Soylent on them o_O

They are man, the illuminati one percent wants to force feed soylent to all the sheeple. /s

Re: Soylent Taste Test

#35

Post by Karunamon »

fidlefodl wrote: post #24

Sometimes i have a hard time telling if the hostility towards Soylent is just normal HN flare, or something meaningful. Sometimes i think people assume we're going to force Soylent on them o_O

Sadly, it's not just HN. The negative reactions to this stuff range from the misinformed to the head-scratching to the downright idiotic.

Check the comments section on the recent NYT or Ars Technica articles - it's much of the same.

Re: Soylent Taste Test

#36

Post by 001sky »

psychometry wrote: post #30
bignaj wrote: post #19

"The modern man does what he can so that he doesn't have to walk, doesn't have to lift heavy things, doesn't have to sweat, doesn't have to meet others in person, doesn't have to take responsibility, doesn't have to love, doesn't have to hate, doesn't have to care, doesn't have to cook and even doesn't have to eat! So in the end he doesn't have anything! He has no life left as it all has been artificially removed fro…

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Should humanity forsake all modern conveniences and return to the bush?

Hey, some people want take the elevator to the gym and work out on a stairmaster...or put their bike on their car to drive to the place where they can ride their bike...away from all the other cars...=D

Re: Soylent Taste Test

#37

Post by tekni5 »

I wouldn't mind a product that can replace food, if it's cheaper, more convenient, provides all necessary nutrition and eliminates the feeling of hunger.

However the biggest issue I have with Soylent is that I cannot trust it. It hasn't been tested long term and it doesn't sound like it's being developed by people who know what they are doing.

Also let's stop pretending it's something new, stuff like Plumpy'nut have existed for a while, used in developing nations for malnutrition treatment. I bet it would be as effective as Soylent as a food replacement for a few months. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumpy%27nut

Re: Soylent Taste Test

#38

Post by 001sky »

digitalpacman wrote: post #13

My biggest gripe, which has me real close to complaining to the times about it, is he didn't even talk about any of the other avenues of flavoring the product that the owners advertise themselves. Never once mentioned adding chocolate, or vanilla, or peanut butter. You can add anything you want. It helps, isn't great, but it makes it much better. Also he didn't mention if he left it in the fridge for a few hours to l…

These are good points for discussion. But the counter-arguments is that they add cost, complexity, and time.

I can readily buy 2000 calories of food that are shelf-stable for under the $9/day price of solent. That are equal in weight (500g), hit a target of 15% protein, are compact in volume... and far more palatable for long durations.

Soylent has going for it that its easy 1-step and always predictable with minimal preperation and packaging. Once I start having to mix or pre-soak, Soylent has no apparent advantage to the system I just highlighted above.

It basically becomes assemblage if not outright cooking. And the need for something like a fridge? Again I think it is capital intensive and sort of against yhe minimalist ethos/usp of soylent.

Re: Soylent Taste Test

#39

Post by evv »

tekni5 wrote: post #37

I wouldn't mind a product that can replace food, if it's cheaper, more convenient, provides all necessary nutrition and eliminates the feeling of hunger. However the biggest issue I have with Soylent is that I cannot trust it. It hasn't been tested long term and it doesn't sound like it's being developed by people who know what they are doing. Also let's stop pretending it's something new, stuff like Plumpy'nut have…

> However the biggest issue I have with Soylent is that I cannot trust it. It hasn't been tested long term and it doesn't sound like it's being developed by people who know what they are doing.

Totally valid point, but look at the alternatives for people without the time and money to buy nice ingredients and cook for themselves. I used to eat fast food nearly every day out of convenience and because I didn't know how to eat better. Frozen dinners are no better.

It's not that I think food executives don't know what they are doing. In fact, I believe they are knowingly lowering the nutritional quality of affordable food.

So while they might not have experience in the food industry, at least the soylent folks are focusing on the nutrition of their customers as opposed to pure profit.

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