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Soylent can no longer ship to Canada

faq.soylent.com

171–180 of 208 posts

Re: Soylent can no longer ship to Canada

#171
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the problem is that "animal" was not the most common food anyway, overshadowed by plants, not that it doesn't contain enough fat. EDIT: I'm also not sure about this western culture bias you're talking about, I am italian and we eat innards, blood and marrow. I am fairly sure every culture in europe does.

> overshadowed by plants When? Only in the last 10,000 years of agriculture, I guarantee you hunter gatherers did not get the bulk of their calories from plants. Also, it's heavily dependent on what culture you're talking about. Some cultures relied heavily on animals, others on plants.

well, sure, but we were talking before '1970, rather than "before agriculture", and cultures in which the sugar lobby might have affected consumptions, not inuit.

Re: Soylent can no longer ship to Canada

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the problem is that "animal" was not the most common food anyway, overshadowed by plants, not that it doesn't contain enough fat. EDIT: I'm also not sure about this western culture bias you're talking about, I am italian and we eat innards, blood and marrow. I am fairly sure every culture in europe does.

Not every culture in Europe, I'm afraid. English people have a pretty strong aversion towards "offal" (innards). I live in the UK (I'm originally from Greece) and it's impossible to find any trachea or lungs, let alone small intestines for some traditional dishes I really miss (g. kokoretsi, gardoumba). You can find hearts, livers, kidneys and stomachs, but except for chicken livers, pretty much only in halal (i.e. m…

there are a lot variations (hungarians seem to consume a lot of chicken liver which I have _never_ seen in a supermarket in Italy, while beef liver is very common in Italy and seldom sold in Budapest), I just felt the blanket statement towards "the west" was wrong.

Re: Soylent can no longer ship to Canada

#173
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you have any examples of products that are meant to be a meal replacement, and that contain all necessary nutrients? The tube feeds [0] are pretty much exactly that. Those Fresenius ones are not flavored but other manufacturers, like HiPP/Abbot, even have flavored tube feed, as some tube patients like having the flavor come up when they have to burp. A step closer are the "nutritional supplements", which is a we…

Where can I buy a tube feed exactly? Do you have any examples of Trinknahrung?

Pharmacies, Amazon, even eBay. Afaik Fresubin 2Kcal DRINK is the highest calorie Trinknahrung from Fresenius. Amazon.com doesn't offer that many, what's there is quite expensive [0]. Never realized this stuff is so rare outside Germany, until now.

In contrast, Amazon.de has a wide selection of different high caloric Trinknahrung, the Fresenius stuff even has Prime delivery [1].

[0] https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Da...

[1] https://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_17?__mk_de_DE=%C3%8...

Re: Soylent can no longer ship to Canada

#174
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm Canadian and drink Soylent regularly, maybe like 2-4 times per month. Random aside: Once every week or two is considered "regular" consumption to you? Isn't this product supposed to be the end-all and be-all of meal replacements? What has curtailed your consumption?

> Isn't this product supposed to be the end-all and be-all of meal replacements? I don't know why so many people think this is the case and then hate on the product. Taking too much of any one thing is bad for you. People were doing only-soylent as an experiment. But for the most part 90% of the time I've read people only using it for a single meal each day, or on days they dont have time to cook, and eating regular…

I don't know why so many people think this is the case and then hate on the product.

Because that's how it's positioned in the market?

Like, literally what they claim it's for, and supposedly the reason they went into business?

Heck, Rhinehart once claimed "I have not set foot in a grocery store in years. Nevermore will I bumble through endless confusing aisles like a pack-donkey searching for feed while the smell of rotting flesh fills my nostrils and fluorescent lights sear my eyeballs and sappy love songs torture my ears."

Re: Soylent can no longer ship to Canada

#175
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fermentable fibers aren't just important, they're one of the key determinants of how healthy your diet is. Mood, memory & cognitive function, immune function, inflammation and leanness are all strongly influenced by your microbiome. Not only does a high fiber diet promote an optimal microbiome, the byproducts of fiber fermentation are actually the mechanism for most of the benefits. Soylent also fails due to a lack o…

Do you have any sources for how important fiber is? I usually eat keto, and when I tried adding fiber to my diet I got stomach cramps, felt like I was hungry all the time (which never happens), and grew extremely irritable. Over the next few days I had two or three massive, green bowel movements, which was also unusual since I generally only go twice a week. Previous times I've tried taking some psyllium husk and eve…

I'm not surprised you suffered gastro-intestinal upset when you added fiber to a keto diet. Your gut biome was adapted to a low fiber, high fat diet. Rapid changes in dietary composition will frequently cause this issue. One solution to this problem is to consume your fiber along with a probiotic supplement, or preferably a live culture fermented food such as unpasteurized sauerkraut/kimchi/greek yogurt. Beans (particularly lentils) are the most nutritious fiber source, but if you want to stick with the keto diet, you should use inulin instead of psyllium husk, as there is more research demonstrating its efficacy. You may still encounter some GI upset even with a probiotic, but it should decrease as your gut biota adapts over the course of a week or two.

For references, there are plenty. Specifically want to look for material related to short chain fatty acids, particularly butyrate, and their role in modulating the immune system, and as histone deacetylase inhibitors. Here are a few reviews to get you started:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4259177/ http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v39/n9/full/ijo201584a.htm...

Additionally, I should note that blue zone diets are all high in fermentable carbohydrates, and increased concentrations of short chain fatty acids have been observed in the stool of centenarian populations:

http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/8/9/564/htm

Which supports evidence in model organisms such as yeast and fruit flies that butyrate (a short chain fatty acid) extends average lifespan:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S2079057013010153

Re: Soylent can no longer ship to Canada

#176
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are popular amongst people that don’t know of other options. Meal replacements have been around since forever. Every grocery store out there carries Slimfast, for example. Abbott and Labrada Labs, amongst many others, also make them. IMO Soylent tastes gross, too. Kind of like soggy cereal.

Slimfast (and many of the alternatives) are diet tools, I drink Soylent for the opposite reason, so I get calories. As someone that doesn't really take pleasure in eating on my own, cooking, cleaning, and even eating is a chore that I'll skip if I'm busy or stressed. Soylent lets me easily grab something that won't have too strong of a taste and isn't as bad for me as skipping a meal, or eating half a bag of goldfish…

There are “mass gainers” (basically diet drinks with more carbs and protein) that accomplish the same thing and are more cost efficient if you’re looking for alternatives. Lean Body is one.

Re: Soylent can no longer ship to Canada

#177
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he meant American bias when he said “western culture”. “Meat”, where I was raised, definitely didn’t include those (very tasty!) parts of the animal.

Mostly true. Beef liver was pretty common diner-type food though.

And it was the most awful tasting stuff too. It wasn't until later in life that I learned liver could actually taste good if it was prepared right.

Re: Soylent can no longer ship to Canada

#178
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cost savings. Corn subsidies have dropped the real cost of corn so much that it’s cheaper to use it for almost anything. HFCS (and corn syrup in general) is more harmful health wise than normal sugars and one of the leading causes of obesity in the US. One of thousands of sources on the health impacts: http://m.ajcn.nutrition.org/content/79/4/537.full

I wouldn't say HFCS is more harmful than regular sugar, it is chemically about the same (at least the kind of HFCS used in most foods and sugary beverages). Both are equally bad. When we talk about the leading causes of obesity in the US, we shouldn't differentiate HFCS from sugar, because that just gives food manufacturers an easy out: they can add labels saying "No High Fructose Corn Syrup!" and use sugar instead,…

> I wouldn't say HFCS is more harmful than regular sugar, it is chemically about the same

A quick Google search will disprove that commonly held myth. Sugar is bad, but HFCS is worse. Scientists didn't bother researching it for years, but once they did, they learned that despite obvious similarities chemically, the body processes it differently.

Re: Soylent can no longer ship to Canada

#179
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One important fact to add is that corn is the #1 subsidized commodity in the US, so it’s artifically inflated to being over produced. The subsidies are like 2:1 to the next most subsidized commodity.

I thought most of the corn is used for Ethanol fuel and corn for anything else would be expensive. Why sell it to someone for corn syrup when you can sell it to someone to make engine fuel?

Only about 40% is used for ethanol and that's a very recent (as in this past decade) change.

The argument you make though explains why we aren't using algae to produce biofuel. Far more valuable for other purposes as called out in this Forbes post[0]. Here's a choice quote:

> An acre of algae can produce almost 5,000 gallons of biodiesel. It does not compete with food crops for arable land or potable water and could produce over 60 billion gallons/yr that would replace all petroleum-based diesel in the U.S.

[0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2014/04/20/its-final...

Re: Soylent can no longer ship to Canada

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the problem is that "animal" was not the most common food anyway, overshadowed by plants, not that it doesn't contain enough fat. EDIT: I'm also not sure about this western culture bias you're talking about, I am italian and we eat innards, blood and marrow. I am fairly sure every culture in europe does.

Not every culture in Europe, I'm afraid. English people have a pretty strong aversion towards "offal" (innards). I live in the UK (I'm originally from Greece) and it's impossible to find any trachea or lungs, let alone small intestines for some traditional dishes I really miss (g. kokoretsi, gardoumba). You can find hearts, livers, kidneys and stomachs, but except for chicken livers, pretty much only in halal (i.e. m…

Black pudding is a central component of the "full English breakfast" that seems to be readily available all over London. Someone's gotta be eating it, and probably not just tourists like me.

There's a huge class component in eating offal, though. It might be that you're associating mainly with middle class people who find eating offal to be beneath them, or looking for it in middle class areas. Small intestines (chitterlings or "chitlins" in the US) is a good example - I'm a middle class white person in the northeastern US and I've never had them and no one I know has ever admitted eating them to me, but they're popular among poor people of all races in the rural south and among black Americans in northern cities.

I do enjoy kiska, though, along with a number of my friends - a Polish blood sausage flavored with marjoram. A lot of people here have Polish ancestors who came here for work in the steel mills, and it's a very working class sort of food.

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