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Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

discourse.soylent.me

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Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#31

Post by omouse »

seiji wrote: post #9
bpodgursky wrote: post #4

At this point, I'm not sure how bottled Soylent can distinguish itself from other bottled dietary replacements like Ensure, aside from the name.

This is where tech vs. business breaks down. Tech thinks everything has to be new, unique, novel, and the-best-in-the-world. Business is all about differentiation and marketing and getting inside customer minds. Even if Soylent was Ensure re-branded, they can still have a business by being "fuel for the tech crowd" instead of "feeding tube fuel" http://www.amazon.com/Nestle-Healthcare-Nutrition-85140100-U... It's all…

Are you serious? The products are substantially different.

If you look at the nutritional info for Ensure[1] and Soylent[2] you'll see that Soylent has more calories, more fat, no cholesterol, more sodium, more potassium, less sugar, more protein.

Most important, Soylent has a more even distribution of the daily % of vitamins and minerals. If you drink 3 bottles of Ensure you're up to 180% daily value of Vitamin C, 240% of Vitamin D, 180% Manganese. The even distribution makes it easier for it to act as a complete meal replacement not just a diet or sports supplement.

My feeling is also that Soylent measures more and tweaks their formula more. Their goal is to be a good cheap meal for everyone:

Soylent is a food product (classified as a food, not a supplement, by the FDA) designed for use as a staple meal by all adults. Each serving of Soylent provides maximum nutrition with minimum effort.

In a paycheck or two I'll buy a bunch of these and they'll be my lunch and breakfast replacement. Things like Ensure don't cut it as a staple meal.

[1] https://ensure.com/nutrition-products/ensure-plus#vanilla [2] http://files.soylent.com/pdf/soylent-nutrition-facts-2-0-en....

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#32

Post by seizethecheese »

deegles wrote: post #5

It seems like such a waste of plastic and cardboard. Makes me think of Keurig k-cups and how it's been deemed an environmental mess. I'm sure the Soylent bottles are recyclable but it's still a waste to be shipping all that weight around (including the water). I hope they make a vending machine that mixes it on the spot.

Each bottle replaces a traditional meal. How much water/plastic/cardboard is needed for most normal meals?

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#33

Post by Someone1234 »

RickS wrote: post #19
bpodgursky wrote: post #4

At this point, I'm not sure how bottled Soylent can distinguish itself from other bottled dietary replacements like Ensure, aside from the name.

Are ensure et al nutritionally complete? As in - you can live off ensure and nothing else? My understanding is that soylent (and clones) are able to be full replacements for food in general, whereas ensure, muscle milk, etc, are meant to be purely supplemental

The others are designed to do that, but the jury is still out on if any specific product and completely replace food with one shake/formula. Be it Ensure, or Soylent.

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#35

Post by tvanantwerp »

Someone1234 wrote: post #29
omouse wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with Keurig k-cups is that you can't use them for anything else and you can't use them with other coffee machines. These bottles look like you could save them as water bottles in the worst case.

Being realistic, nobody is going to use these for water bottles either. And even if they did how many water bottles do you really need? K-Cups are wasteful, but at least they ship three months (90 K-Cups) at a time and there is very little wasted space during shipping (it is just packed coffee). Is it a waste of plastic/foil? Absolutely. But in terms of shipping waste, K-Cups aren't near the worst. These on the other…

As someone who has boxes of the powder sitting around, I'm thrilled to get it pre-mixed in a bottle. The entire convenience factor of Soylent was largely eroded by the mixing and cleaning process, and I'll be happy to have ready-to-drink bottles that I don't have to scrub down for tomorrow's meal.

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#36

Post by jamii »

Nadya wrote: post #25
farnsworth wrote: post #15

If you buy the powder, it's easy to blend in some fruit or other flavoring, which gives it more variety and a better taste. Or by itself, it's pretty easy to prepare even in just a shaker bottle if you don't have a blender. I'm curious to see how the texture of 2.0 will compare to way it turns out when I make it at home, though. I assume we'll see the bottled form in stores whenever they're able to produce enough, an…

I've tried cinnamon, peanut butter powder, cocoa powder, Nesquik, banana, mango, chocolate syrup, vanilla extract, and even tried to mix coffee in after the initial mixing. Nothing has gotten rid of the horribly overpowering taste. I have 3 weeks of 1.5 sitting in my cabinets because I'm unable to stomach it. I don't have overly sensitive taste buds (I will eat almost anything) but simply cannot stomach Soylent. I fe…

I had the same reaction. I started buying http://www.mealsquares.com/ instead. They are very dry if not warmed up but they taste like chocolatey oatmeal instead of rotten milk.

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#38

Post by antsar »

seizethecheese wrote: post #32
deegles wrote: post #5

It seems like such a waste of plastic and cardboard. Makes me think of Keurig k-cups and how it's been deemed an environmental mess. I'm sure the Soylent bottles are recyclable but it's still a waste to be shipping all that weight around (including the water). I hope they make a vending machine that mixes it on the spot.

Each bottle replaces a traditional meal. How much water/plastic/cardboard is needed for most normal meals?

Almost none? Produce can be purchased in reusable bags, and the water comes from your faucet so it doesn't need to be shipped cross-country.

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#39

Post by omouse »

bpodgursky wrote: post #24
RickS wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are ensure et al nutritionally complete? As in - you can live off ensure and nothing else? My understanding is that soylent (and clones) are able to be full replacements for food in general, whereas ensure, muscle milk, etc, are meant to be purely supplemental

Yes, ensure is designed to be a sole-source nutrition. When someone is in the hospital and can't eat, they are given Ensure as a sole food source.

Not from what I saw, it looks like you can easily go over board on some of the vitamins and minerals if you have a few bottles of it.

Re: Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

#40

Post by seiji »

omouse wrote: post #31
seiji wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is where tech vs. business breaks down. Tech thinks everything has to be new, unique, novel, and the-best-in-the-world. Business is all about differentiation and marketing and getting inside customer minds. Even if Soylent was Ensure re-branded, they can still have a business by being "fuel for the tech crowd" instead of "feeding tube fuel" http://www.amazon.com/Nestle-Healthcare-Nutrition-85140100-U... It's all…

Are you serious? The products are substantially different. If you look at the nutritional info for Ensure[1] and Soylent[2] you'll see that Soylent has more calories, more fat, no cholesterol, more sodium, more potassium, less sugar, more protein. Most important, Soylent has a more even distribution of the daily % of vitamins and minerals. If you drink 3 bottles of Ensure you're up to 180% daily value of Vitamin C, 2…

meh, GNC did it first: http://www.gnc.com/GNC-Total-Lean-Lean-Shake-25-Pumpkin-Spic...

and it's even pumpkin spice. game, set, match, checkmate, yahtzee.

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