Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

SupermealX, India’s Soylent

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 51 posts

Re: SupermealX, India’s Soylent

#21

Post by x5n1 »

infinotize wrote: post #8
DanBC wrote: post #2

> Ever since an American electrical engineer invented a food that abolishes the inconveniences of foraging and cooking, and contains all the nutrition a human body is known to require but is devoid of the substances that harm, there has been talk that it can end not only the problems of the overfed but also the underfed. After all, it is in the tradition of Silicon Valley-blessed projects to invent a solution for the…

There's another thing people forget, too: you're made to chew things. Chewing helps break down food for digestion, and probably more importantly generates saliva, which is also very important for initial digestion as well as oral health.

Not to mention the gut is a muscle, and muscles need exercise. Eating liquid food is probably not good in the long run for your digestive system and probably causes other problems that will be evident 5-10 years down the line or more. People were not meant to eat liquid supplement.

Re: SupermealX, India’s Soylent

#22

Post by DanBC »

Retric wrote: post #18
DanBC wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ensure for example is easy to find, but it's not designed to be the only thing you eat. Untrue. Ensure has many different products, and many of them are complete meal replacements.

Link? From there site: https://ensure.com/nutrition-facts-questions-answers "Can Ensure products be used as a meal replacement or a snack? Yes, Ensure ready-to-drink shakes and drinks can be used as a snack and as an occasional meal replacement. "

The fact they don't market themselves to the general public as a complete meal replacement just means they're a) aware that they're operating in a litigious market segment and b) not fucking arseholes who recognise that they have a duty of care to people who use their products.

It's telling that Soylent kickstarted with a bunch of bullshit medical claims, and that while they've dropped those claims they continue to make borderline dishonest claims.

Ensure is used as a total meal replacement for people with severe illness and for people being fed through a naso-gastric tube (sometimes against their will).

But if you're a doctor you probably one of the other Abbott brands, which have licencing and testing to support them.

http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/abbott-brands

EG: http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/products/ensure-plus-thera...

> For interim sole-source nutrition.

Re: SupermealX, India’s Soylent

#23

Post by darkmighty »

infinotize wrote: post #8
DanBC wrote: post #2

> Ever since an American electrical engineer invented a food that abolishes the inconveniences of foraging and cooking, and contains all the nutrition a human body is known to require but is devoid of the substances that harm, there has been talk that it can end not only the problems of the overfed but also the underfed. After all, it is in the tradition of Silicon Valley-blessed projects to invent a solution for the…

There's another thing people forget, too: you're made to chew things. Chewing helps break down food for digestion, and probably more importantly generates saliva, which is also very important for initial digestion as well as oral health.

If this is the only problem maybe it has a solution too? It shouldn't be too hard to make a nutrient-poor spongy substrate to carry Soylent.

Re: SupermealX, India’s Soylent

#24

Post by discardorama »

darkmighty wrote: post #23
infinotize wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's another thing people forget, too: you're made to chew things. Chewing helps break down food for digestion, and probably more importantly generates saliva, which is also very important for initial digestion as well as oral health.

If this is the only problem maybe it has a solution too? It shouldn't be too hard to make a nutrient-poor spongy substrate to carry Soylent.

Or, you know, just spit into the soylent as you're constituting it?

Re: SupermealX, India’s Soylent

#25

Post by kushti »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #7
gotrecruit wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

god, thank you! as an entrepreneur who has been bodybuilding for more than a decade, i have a really weird love-hate relationship with soylent. i really love the idea because its actually something i've done for myself (custom mixing meal replacement powder formulas) and considered marketing and selling, and i really hate that the soylent guy went ahead and just did it. the worst part for me is that this guy started…

Soylent is a mediocre product with great marketing. That is unfortunately the curse of capitalism - it isn't the best product that wins, rather the best _promoted_ product that is at least barely acceptable. On the plus side, given Soylent is mediocre, I suspect that it can only expand the market for functional foods.

"the curse of capitalism" - I guess it's the curse of the media-driven society.

Re: SupermealX, India’s Soylent

#26

Post by molecule »

> Also, society is conditioned to believe there is something objectionable about the poor being made to drink a tasteless subsidized potion because they cannot afford the other kind of good food. There are movies in which people consuming tasteless but utilitarian nutrition is depicted as evidence of dystopia.

It seems conspicuous that it wasn't mentioned that Soylent is the namesake of one of those movies. Is it assumed that most NYT readers will make / have already made the association?

Re: SupermealX, India’s Soylent

#27

Post by adrianN »

fsiefken wrote: post #11

All this talk about liquid food as a holy grail to pursue is intruiging but I wonder, what harm does it do to the teeth, oral flora and digestive system if they have nothing to 'chew' on? Just like our body slowly atrophies when we sit to much and move to little, perhaps our body needs the traditional 'holistic' form of food (not necessarily including raw food)?

We know so little about nutrition that it's risky to deviate too far from traditional cuisines. I would bet that Soylent has some detrimental effect if it's not part of a varied diet.

Re: SupermealX, India’s Soylent

#28

Post by Crito »

fsiefken wrote: post #11

All this talk about liquid food as a holy grail to pursue is intruiging but I wonder, what harm does it do to the teeth, oral flora and digestive system if they have nothing to 'chew' on? Just like our body slowly atrophies when we sit to much and move to little, perhaps our body needs the traditional 'holistic' form of food (not necessarily including raw food)?

Probably best for Soylent drinkers to regularly chew gum. It'd be pretty awkward to discover after a few months that your jaw muscles have atrophied so severely that you have trouble chewing even the softest dry foods.

Re: SupermealX, India’s Soylent

#29

Post by Crito »

bordercases wrote: post #12
codingdave wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I pick #1. My biggest problem with Soylent is not what they are doing, but that they have an attitude that they invented the idea.

Like how Apple "invented" the GUI? The results speak for themselves.

> "Apple is successful, therefore your criticism of [unrelated company and their unrelated product] is irrelevant.

I see this a lot. It is ridiculous.

Re: SupermealX, India’s Soylent

#30

Post by ChuckMcM »

Crito wrote: post #28
fsiefken wrote: post #11

All this talk about liquid food as a holy grail to pursue is intruiging but I wonder, what harm does it do to the teeth, oral flora and digestive system if they have nothing to 'chew' on? Just like our body slowly atrophies when we sit to much and move to little, perhaps our body needs the traditional 'holistic' form of food (not necessarily including raw food)?

Probably best for Soylent drinkers to regularly chew gum. It'd be pretty awkward to discover after a few months that your jaw muscles have atrophied so severely that you have trouble chewing even the softest dry foods.

Perhaps its counter acted by them telling me all the time how much better it is than solid food :-).

But more seriously you do have a valid (if taken to an extreme) point. But similar arguments are made by people on segways losing walking endurance (or cars even). Actual atrophy seems to require complete non-use.

Post reply on HN