How Soylent Ships a Trillion Calories per Month • Hacker News Board

Re: How Soylent Ships a Trillion Calories per Month

#71

Post by a8da6b0c91d » Fri, Jun 05, 2015, 9:09 PM UTC

napoleond wrote: post #65

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dumb thing is it's really not hard to do fine nutritionally without cooking. You don't need to buy a weird powder, or whatever. Buy a case of canned, pasteurized orange juice and a lot of cheddar cheese. You're gonna be fine eating nothing but that for at least a couple months before you have a problem. There are dozens of easy combinations of food. This is simply not a hard problem that calls for a complicated n…

Uhh... "orange juice and a lot of cheddar cheese" for "at least a couple months" is not doing "fine nutritionally". You probably won't die...

You're wrong about this. Nutritional deficiencies only really crop up after years of a low quality diet. If you build a diet around a couple high quality foods like dairy and fruit you could go years. A weekly serving of calf's liver would probably cover absolutely anything else you might be short on. Eating what you biologically need is not the big, complicated problem people are pretending. The "tolerances" are not at all tight.

Re: How Soylent Ships a Trillion Calories per Month

#72

Post by mrcwinn » Fri, Jun 05, 2015, 9:10 PM UTC

I tried Soylent 1.4 for four days (one meal per day - eased into it). I had incredibly bad headaches. I felt weird, like my vision was impacted. It felt like I was getting a fever, even, although I wasn't. I've never had a "food" have such an immediate, negative impact on me. And it tasted pretty bad. Even if they describe it as "neutral," or like pancake batter, that's not exactly a good experience.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get myself to continue eating it. I would give 1.5 a shot, but only if they had a 1 or 3 pouch demo for cheaper. Not investing another $85.

Re: How Soylent Ships a Trillion Calories per Month

#73

Post by emmab » Fri, Jun 05, 2015, 9:20 PM UTC

jamii wrote: post #11

I tried soylent for a while and found the experience fairly unpleasant. I switched to http://www.mealsquares.com/ instead. Warmed up, they taste like a dense brownie. The thinking detailed on their website and the level of care that clearly went into choosing a safe recipe gives me a lot more confidence than soylent did eg > First, there's nothing especially risky or unusual in MealSquares; they're made from a broad…

I use soylent when I have appetite issues because drinking is easier than eating when I don't feel hungry.

Re: How Soylent Ships a Trillion Calories per Month

#74

Post by Vraxx » Fri, Jun 05, 2015, 9:25 PM UTC

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #71

napoleond wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhh... "orange juice and a lot of cheddar cheese" for "at least a couple months" is not doing "fine nutritionally". You probably won't die...

You're wrong about this. Nutritional deficiencies only really crop up after years of a low quality diet. If you build a diet around a couple high quality foods like dairy and fruit you could go years. A weekly serving of calf's liver would probably cover absolutely anything else you might be short on. Eating what you biologically need is not the big, complicated problem people are pretending. The "tolerances" are not…

Are you suggesting to make your dietary plans around something that will end in nutritional deficiency in some number of years? That doesn't sound like a good plan to me, not to mention the cost of doing something like soylent instead of OJ and cheddar cheese is pretty low. I think I'll take that sacrifice.

Re: How Soylent Ships a Trillion Calories per Month

#75

Post by samf » Fri, Jun 05, 2015, 9:30 PM UTC

mrcwinn wrote: post #72

I tried Soylent 1.4 for four days (one meal per day - eased into it). I had incredibly bad headaches. I felt weird , like my vision was impacted. It felt like I was getting a fever, even, although I wasn't. I've never had a "food" have such an immediate, negative impact on me. And it tasted pretty bad. Even if they describe it as "neutral," or like pancake batter, that's not exactly a good experience. Unfortunately,…

I've found that I have a tendency to not drink enough water with Soylent. Is it possible you were dehydrated?

Re: How Soylent Ships a Trillion Calories per Month

#76

Post by a8da6b0c91d » Fri, Jun 05, 2015, 9:33 PM UTC

Vraxx wrote: post #74

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're wrong about this. Nutritional deficiencies only really crop up after years of a low quality diet. If you build a diet around a couple high quality foods like dairy and fruit you could go years. A weekly serving of calf's liver would probably cover absolutely anything else you might be short on. Eating what you biologically need is not the big, complicated problem people are pretending. The "tolerances" are not…

Are you suggesting to make your dietary plans around something that will end in nutritional deficiency in some number of years? That doesn't sound like a good plan to me, not to mention the cost of doing something like soylent instead of OJ and cheddar cheese is pretty low. I think I'll take that sacrifice.

Soylent will kill you over the years, certainly before the dairy and fruit only diet I mentioned above. Soylent is loaded with oxidized cholesterols and rancid poly unsaturated fats, as well as toxic gumming agents. I'll also bet a lot of people don't do well on so much oats.

Re: How Soylent Ships a Trillion Calories per Month

#77

Post by oldmanjay » Fri, Jun 05, 2015, 9:34 PM UTC

raverbashing wrote: post #38

jamii wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their launch comments on hn explained why they believe that using whole foods is a lower risk way to get 'everything the body needs' to actually end up in the body - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7314183

"And that's the problem I see artificially constructed meal replacements running in to--if you do the best you can based on the science available, that still may not be enough." This is an excellent summary. It's not about a "fad" or being "organic" or something like it. Nutrition is a very complicated subject and while science has shone a lot of light on the subject we still don't know a lot . So sticking to the "tr…

When you don't actually know enough to make an honest assessment, then you can't come to an honest conclusion. Calling "whole food" safer is an emotional response not unlike that which make "non-GMO Himalayan sea salt" a thing people buy.

Re: How Soylent Ships a Trillion Calories per Month

#78

Post by primroot » Fri, Jun 05, 2015, 9:34 PM UTC

thisone wrote: post #20

I find it a bit frightening that some of these products are marketed as a way to work even more. Makes me wonder how many stadium pals are owned by the same type of people.

This remembers me of that last paragraph of the chapter about the "Stationary State" of J.S. Mill's Political Economy. The tragedy becomes ever more imaginative and, of course, innovative.

Re: How Soylent Ships a Trillion Calories per Month

#79

Post by cblock811 » Fri, Jun 05, 2015, 9:34 PM UTC

The value prop that people will save money is kind of funny to me. My diet:

Breakfast: Oatmeal, honey, cinnamon $0.20

Lunch: Large Salad(spinach, carrot, tomato, cucumber, mushroom, bell pepper, sometimes almonds) $2.50

Dinner: Steamed Veggies and Seared Tilapia (kale, carrot, tomato, capers, tilapia) $3.50

If people just budged properly they would be fine. That being said, I'm curious to try soylent and have purchased a week supply of it. Could be fun to play with.

Re: How Soylent Ships a Trillion Calories per Month

#80

Post by slinkyavenger » Fri, Jun 05, 2015, 9:40 PM UTC

jimrandomh wrote: post #45

I notice that the instructions for Soylent stopped mentioning salt problem somewhere between v1.3 and v1.5. How much sodium to eat is very controversial, but if you're eating sodium, you should know that they took the extreme low-sodium position. The current version contains 1640mg of sodium per pouch, which is about half the typical intake. This creates a risk of deficiency, especially when exercising or in hot weat…

Why would this create a risk of deficiency for most people? Excepting exercise - the maximum daily recommended amount is 2,300mg; for people who have problems with sodium (particularly those with high blood pressure), the recommendation is to limit sodium to 1,500mg/day.