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Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

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Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#281

Post by emmab »

emodendroket wrote: post #273
darawk wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can say the same thing about the food in any restaurant. I really don't understand the hate that's directed towards this product. Nobody was seriously injured, it was a relatively small number of people that got sick. Soylent is trying to do something more ambitious than other packaged food manufacturers. It's not unreasonable to expect there to be some small hiccups. If you can't tolerate that, then don't buy it…

> Soylent is trying to do something more ambitious than other packaged food manufacturers. It's not unreasonable to expect there to be some small hiccups. If you can't tolerate that, then don't buy it. Really? It seems to me like it's Ensure for computer programmers.

Have you tried ensure?

It's intolerably sweet (comes in chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and butter pecan). There's no option for people who want a meal replacement, not dessert.

It gives me indigestion every time I drink it.

I switched to Soylent because it's a better product than Ensure.

Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#282

Post by Pitarou »

mstodd wrote: post #262
Pitarou wrote: post #222

Inexcusable. The only reason Soylent have gotten away with it for so long is that the FDA rules for this category of product haven't been written yet. A product shouldn't make people sick when used as intended. So if a product is intended to be consumed as 100% of your diet, it MUST: - contain all known macro- and micro-nutrients necessary for human health - contain nothing that makes you sick when you eat it all the…

Gotten away with it? Have they been lying about something? If people don't buy their products, they'll leave the market. If people continue to buy them, they'll stay. I really hope the FDA doesn't get involved. As it is a low cost source of nutrition, more regulation will raise the price with no corresponding added benefit to the consumer; affecting the people who may be the most vulnerable to price increases.

There are people who believe that market forces are the only product safety regulation we need. If that's your philosophy, we're clearly never going to agree.

But if you DO believe that some level of consumer protection beyond honest labelling is appropriate, then I think I can make a case that a product like Soylent should be regulated a little more than other foodstuffs. Please see the other threads of this discussion if you'd like to pursue that idea further.

Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#283

Post by darawk »

trprog wrote: post #276
darawk wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can say the same thing about the food in any restaurant. I really don't understand the hate that's directed towards this product. Nobody was seriously injured, it was a relatively small number of people that got sick. Soylent is trying to do something more ambitious than other packaged food manufacturers. It's not unreasonable to expect there to be some small hiccups. If you can't tolerate that, then don't buy it…

>Soylent is trying to do something more ambitious than other packaged food manufacturers. I have never understood why people think Soylent is doing something so interesting. It is essentially baby formula for adults. And its not like the nutritional requirements of infants are any simpler than adults. The formula industry has existed for decades and has generally done a good enough job of producing products that are…

It's not that interesting from a scientific perspective. They're not doing anything that any doctor or biology grad student couldn't do. It's the concept that's interesting.

Food is a pretty inefficient thing. In terms of the time we spend consuming it and the resources expended in its production. Soylent is a first step towards a solution to those problems. The theoretical efficiency gain is very high. Of course, Soylent won't achieve that, but the idea is alluring.

Personally, I don't want to drink Soylent for all or even most of my meals. I drink it 1-2x per week. I generally feel better after drinking it than after eating a meal, and i'd say say Soylent is healthier than the average meal i'd make for myself otherwise.

Aside from that, it's fast, cheap, stays good for a long time and requires no cleanup. All that doesn't mean it's going to change the world, but it is a nice addition to my palette of available foodstuffs.

Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#284

Post by M_Grey »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #275
M_Grey wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about just... eating food? I know, I know... so unpopular, but "Paleo, Macro..." all of that crap? Let it go. Outside of people trying to sell you shit, including books, the best advice you'll ever get is just to eat a relatively balanced diet, keep up fiber intake, and maintain a healthy weight. Whether you prefer or personally thrive more on meaty diets, or eating a lot of barley isn't really that hard to figur…

There is no such thing as just "eating food" - you are making diet choices, consciously and/or subconsciously in everything you choose to eat. Your comment is loaded with all sorts of diet judgement (fiber good, salt bad, balanced good, processed bad). We could find out barley causes cancer, or even though you thrive on a meaty diet, it causes heart disease. Or diet doesn't matter and it is all genetic or micro-biome…

The odds of finding out that something like barley and chicken are especially carcinogenic are a lot less than the odds that Soylent or Paleo or some other fad is frankly unhealthy.

Ignore the bulk of nutrition "research" which is after all, crap, and focus on the few things that are relatively sound. High fiber, healthy weight, good blood levels, get your nutrients. It's not that hard.

Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#285

Post by geofft »

sidlls wrote: post #223
mstodd wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're busy regulating life saving drugs. If we got rid of the FDA all together, there would be more competition for products like this, and companies would need to win the trust of consumers by providing real health study information.

Please read about "The Jungle". (Wiki: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle ). Relying on companies to compete on the basis of maximizing customer health is... short-sighted at best.

Right, I was gonna say, didn't we literally try this? And decide that it was a mistake? And come up with the FDA in response?

Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#288

Post by baddox »

Alupis wrote: post #225
baddox wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How might they acquire that knowledge, other than through the process they seem to currently be executing?

> How might they acquire that knowledge, other than through the process they seem to currently be executing? Well, a lot of folks would like to see a bit more care paid attention to the entire process. This isn't the first time Soylent has shipped potentially dangerous product. Not long ago, they shipped their new bottled formula to folks, and it arrived covered in mold! Their snack bars have made people violently il…

I agree with most of your criticisms, but they don't actually apply to the claim that the algae-derived ingredient, while legal and safe, causes allergic reactions or digestive issues with a very small portion of people.

Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#289

Post by macspoofing »

andrewpi wrote: post #229
Pitarou wrote: post #222

Inexcusable. The only reason Soylent have gotten away with it for so long is that the FDA rules for this category of product haven't been written yet. A product shouldn't make people sick when used as intended. So if a product is intended to be consumed as 100% of your diet, it MUST: - contain all known macro- and micro-nutrients necessary for human health - contain nothing that makes you sick when you eat it all the…

>. So if a product is intended to be consumed as 100% of your diet Soylent isn't marketed as being intended to replace every meal anymore. I know some of their earlier press focused on the founder replacing all of his food with Soylent, but they've transitioned from that approach more recently.

>I know some of their earlier press focused on the founder replacing all of his food with Soylent

I'm pretty sure it was marketed as a 100% meal replacement. It's nice to see they came to their senses.

Re: Soylent Thinks It Found What Was Making People Sick: Algae

#290

Post by macspoofing »

DanBC wrote: post #111
baby wrote: post #103

I love what Soylent is doing, I have wished for such a meal replacer all my life. I've drank something like 40 bottles of Soylent (which are, so far presumably safe) and they have helped me replace a lot of fast food. Never had problems with them until I started getting nauseous and now I can't drink it anymore. With all these news about people getting sick, I feel a bit silly having beta tested stuff with my own bod…

> I have wished for such a meal replacer all my life. why aren't any of the very many other products that have existed for years been good enough?

The magic ingredient is SV tech culture. You need the placebo effect of a food product with release notes (https://www.soylent.com/notes/).
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