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This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

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Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#161

Post by ScotterC »

grecy wrote: post #53

Eating to me is a leisure activity, like going to the movies, but I don't want to go to the movies three times a day. For anyone that doesn't understand that statement, I recommend taking a few years off work, where you spend your time getting up early every day, doing something all day (hiking, walking, gardening, building, whatever) and go to bed late in the evening (i.e. Full days of activities you want to be doin…

This really hit home for me one winter vacation when I decided to fast for 5 days straight. I had absolutely nothing to do so I mainly played video games and read. I couldn't believe how not hungry I was and how utterly bored I was because I wasn't occupying my days with procuring, preparing, eating, cleaning.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#162

Post by scott_s »

criley wrote: post #103
saidajigumi wrote: post #75

> a 24-year-old software engineer > ... > Soylent contains all of the nutritive components of a balanced diet What utter bollocks. We're (as in, scientists studying nutrition and how utterly wrong food industry has gotten that in the 20th and early 21st century) finally starting to get our collective heads around the benefits of whole foods vs. highly processed foods, and just how badly our bodies deal with the latte…

You sound like an industry-insider explaining why a new startup will fail. "They're too young!" "They don't have the experience" "We've devoted our LIVES to figuring this out, one kid in his basement didn't do it in a few weeks!" Etc etc No offense but we've heard the exact same thing about every successful idea. And what's more: People look at the human GI totally wrong anyway. They think, what can I put in to get t…

They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

- Carl Sagan

Sure, he could be on to something. But we also need an enormous amount of skepticism when evaluating it, just as we do when evaluating any large claim. What pings my radar is that we're still trying to understand how our body processes "whole food" as opposed to vitamins in supplement form.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#163

Post by DanBC »

I don't get it.

There are plenty of liquid feeds already in existence. These contain fibre and all the other nutrients you need to survive, and they come in a variety of flavours.

And you can have a naso-gastric tube fitted, to eat while you're doing just about anything else.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#164

Post by Shorel »

criley wrote: post #136
yanowitz wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's a total misreading of the criticisms. This actually is a hard problem and the science well short of consensus. The surface area of the problem seems to grow every year as scientists publish new research. That seems like a good indication that the odds of this (relatively) uninformed approach being a great one is low.

I don't, I have a BS in Biology and these kind of disruptive ideas are exciting to me. After spending years studying biochemistry and nutrition, I realize that a lot of evidence is out there is crap. Nutrition isn't some old-guard field with a hundred years of solid decided science weighing it down. In my opinion it's like genetics, a fast moving, exciting field full of interesting ideas and disruptive possibility. Q…

The common wisdom of 100-150 years ago is not as bad as common wisdom from 1980.

Anna Karenina, Part Two, chapter 19:

"He had no need to be strict with himself, as he had very quickly been brought down to the required light weight; but still he had to avoid gaining flesh, and so he eschewed farinaceous and sweet dishes."

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#165

Post by checker »

planckscnst wrote: post #55
kscaldef wrote: post #49

Setting aside the question of whether the subject is actually feeding his body everything he needs (a question that he appears to readily acknowledge as "good skepticism"), I have to wonder about the consistency of statements like these: we'll have to give up many traditional foodstuffs like fresh fruits and veggies, which are incompatible with food processing and scale. Soylent can largely be produced from the produ…

The "fresh" part comes into play here. We can be more efficient if we can immediately process the agriculture to render the ingredients of Soylent, then store those ingredients for a longer time or in more forgiving conditions.

Freeze-drying does this, and the end result better resembles the original food.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#166

Post by ZoFreX »

grecy wrote: post #53

Eating to me is a leisure activity, like going to the movies, but I don't want to go to the movies three times a day. For anyone that doesn't understand that statement, I recommend taking a few years off work, where you spend your time getting up early every day, doing something all day (hiking, walking, gardening, building, whatever) and go to bed late in the evening (i.e. Full days of activities you want to be doin…

If I could afford to give up work, I could afford to not cook. The actual eating takes up very little of my time.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#167

Post by DanBC »

pilgrim689 wrote: post #147
JPKab wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. You said it all. One fair point (in defense of the Scrawny Pale Guy Diet he is advocating) is that the food industry in general devotes a large majority of its funding to making foods that TASTE really really good. If that gets in the way of nutrition, taste wins every time. But you are correct in the fact that this is crazy. Hell, I drank and smoked a lot when I was 24, and still looked healthier than this g…

> 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.)

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#168

Post by saidajigumi »

baak wrote: post #118
criley wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sound like an industry-insider explaining why a new startup will fail. "They're too young!" "They don't have the experience" "We've devoted our LIVES to figuring this out, one kid in his basement didn't do it in a few weeks!" Etc etc No offense but we've heard the exact same thing about every successful idea. And what's more: People look at the human GI totally wrong anyway. They think, what can I put in to get t…

Did you read his blog? He's claiming it cured his skin disease, gave him mental superpowers, has him in the best shape of his life, it gives him more energy, it tastes great, and costs $150 a month. Reads like a sleazy wonderpill ad.

I'll observe that virtually all of that can be accounted for by eliminating known problematic elements in the standard american/western diet. Whether it promotes long-term health or doesn't cause other problems is a very different matter.

Despite what else I've written in this thread, I'm not against the idea of healthy, cheap, time efficient nutrition options. But I don't think we know enough yet to nail the "healthy" part, and the human cost of our failures to date has been truly terrible.

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#169

Post by VLM »

tassl wrote: post #96
grecy wrote: post #53

Eating to me is a leisure activity, like going to the movies, but I don't want to go to the movies three times a day. For anyone that doesn't understand that statement, I recommend taking a few years off work, where you spend your time getting up early every day, doing something all day (hiking, walking, gardening, building, whatever) and go to bed late in the evening (i.e. Full days of activities you want to be doin…

Whilst I understand your point, that's a matter of choice (or needs). You can perfectly buy, cook and eat 3 times/day without wasting too much time. Of course, if you want to have a gourmet experience in every meal it would be complicated. I have had different phases in my life (currently I eat mostly paleo), and even though now it is the moment of my life when I spent more time cooking, I used to cook only once per…

"How much time is needed to ensure this method of feeding is viable for humans?"

Yes ha ha.

(For those who don't get the joke there's long been available a liquid meal replacement called "Ensure(tm)" as with many "tech" novelty stories a supposed inventor is actually just walking on very well trodden ground rather than inventing anything.)

Re: This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

#170

Post by Shorel »

unix-dude wrote: post #102
saidajigumi wrote: post #75

> a 24-year-old software engineer > ... > Soylent contains all of the nutritive components of a balanced diet What utter bollocks. We're (as in, scientists studying nutrition and how utterly wrong food industry has gotten that in the 20th and early 21st century) finally starting to get our collective heads around the benefits of whole foods vs. highly processed foods, and just how badly our bodies deal with the latte…

Though I dont share quite the same level of negativity towards the idea (Personally, I think it'd be amazing to be able to give up food for something that is nutritious and safe), I definitely share your concerns. It is possible that the nutrient powder (and similar) industry hasn't given much thought to this idea because its radical and potentially risky, especially as a business venture where legal liability might…

> It is possible that the nutrient powder (and similar) industry hasn't given much thought to this idea because its radical and potentially risky, especially as a business venture where legal liability might be very, very high.

The stuff bodybuilders consume is not as well controlled as anything called 'food'. In fact, bodybuilding forums are full of 'I bought brand X and it was mostly filler, better stick to brand Y'.

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