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Soylent Campaign

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Re: Soylent Campaign

#401

Post by dragonwriter »

tinco wrote: post #228
jckt wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mind explaining why Soylent is the solution for metabolically disadvantaged people as opposed to a "traditionally balanced diet"?

Because the idea of being being metabolically disadvantaged is that you can't eat a traditionally balanced diet. Soylent has none of the complex/unnecessary/unhealthy chemical substances tradional diets (milk,bread,nuts,fish) have that are the frequent object of intolerances.

> Soylent has none of the complex/unnecessary/unhealthy chemical substances tradional diets (milk,bread,nuts,fish) have that are the frequent object of intolerances.

One of the key "milk" allergies is allergy to whey, which from what has been posted in this thread is the protein source for Soylent..

Re: Soylent Campaign

#402

Post by bhitov »

w1ntermute wrote: post #160
Afforess wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, it's like the "Hacker News Is Depressing" Article didn't happen. I trust the Soylent folks more than I trust myself purchasing frozen meals in a grocery store. It's hard to be worse than that benchmark.

> trust the Soylent folks more than I trust myself purchasing frozen meals in a grocery store. That's a strawman. You're ignoring the fact that those frozen meals are made by companies who have more experience in the food industry than these 4 clowns combined a million times over. I am MUCH more afraid of the Soylent guys' sheer ignorance than I am of any profit-motivated negligence on the part of large frozen meal c…

> thorough breakdown of Rob Rhinehart's claims regarding Soylent by a health expert and nutritionist

I've seen this posted a few times and I'm having trouble seeing it as thorough. Her complaint on his caloric restriction claims contained a link to relevant research, that was adequate. Her other complaint, which was about his understanding of protein digestibility, contained little detail. These were the only claims she addressed with more than denial.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#403

Post by jimmar »

btbuildem wrote: post #37

Yes, because a handful of smiley tech nerd kids know nutrition better than professional researchers with decades of experience, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

I'd put more stock in nutrition researchers if their advice was remotely consistent from decade to decade.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#404

Post by jckt »

blhack wrote: post #369

Wow there is a lot of hate in this thread... A lot of the arguments here seem to boil down to "Much smarter people are working on this and they haven't solved it, who the hell does this KID think he is?!?" That's pretty depressing for a website that, at least originally, was to help startups talk to one another. Shame on you, hacker news. You're smarter than this. By this logic, never ever trust your data to anybody…

"Finally: this is being presented within the context of "an experiment". If you start eating soylent, and you get sick, STOP EATING IT!"

If you ate a McDonald's said their food was nutritionally complete, and you ate it everyday for a week, and then got sick, who is to be blamed? Of course, given McD's reputation I'd say you're to be blamed. But in this case Soylent is untested, and so far doesn't even substantiate its claims very well. And even McD's doesn't go so far as saying that their food can replace your meals (or maybe they have? I do not get that vibe though), while Soylent here is supposed to do that (the vibe I got from his blogs, at least -- this is supposedly revolutionary, no?).

Although I love cooking to bits I do find Soylent interesting as a concept, but the way they've gone about doing things isn't what I'd approve of myself.

And as I see it, a majority of the arguments here do not boil down to "Much smarter people are working on this and they haven't solved it, who the hell does this KID think he is?!?" or "He's violating ALL KINDS of FDA regulations! [none of which I can name]". For the former, Soylent is simply making unsubstantiated claims, to which much smarter people have not even come up yet. If Soylent is indeed that smart, then they better have good claims to back it up. For the latter, I only saw one commenter talk about breaking FDA rules, and he was only speculating about them, and to be honest it's very likely that there's something about false advertising that they broke.

But then again the FDA probably didn't expect some company claiming that they'd come up with a food to end all foods...

Re: Soylent Campaign

#405

Post by jimmar »

zeroexzeroone wrote: post #299
scottjad wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite green smoothie (lacks protein, I'll have to try the pea protein): 2 large handfuls of fresh spinach or kale, 1 apple or 6 strawberries, 1 banana, 1 tbsp ground flaxseed, 1 large handful of ice, 1-2 cups of water, 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk I prefer to drink it with a straw.

Damn that sounds good - completely natural - save for possibly the emulsifiers in the almond milk.

Replace almond milk with almonds & water. Blend well.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#406

Post by DanBC »

scythe wrote: post #374
milesf wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really think this is some revolutionary, new idea? Do you?! Do you think of all the thousands of students who go to University for 4-7 years to learn about one subject - Food - haven't thought "hey? why don't we just mix the basic chemicals together and solve the world's food crisis?". This is pure hubris! This idea has been pursued for decades by people who have dedicated themselves to scientific rigour. I'll…

>Do you think of all the thousands of students who go to University for 4-7 years to learn about one subject - Food - haven't thought "hey? why don't we just mix the basic chemicals together and solve the world's food crisis?". Surely you are intelligent enough to realize that this is not a serious attempt at fixing anybody's "food crisis", and rather it's a convenience product aimed at affluent Westerners? I mean, d…

> This isn't in the category of "feed the world" products,

From the linked article:

50% of the food produced globally is wasted, and food makes for the largest component of municipal garbage. If not for this waste there would be plenty of food to adequately nourish everyone alive. 2 million people are killed annually by smoke inhalation from indoor cooking stoves alone. 70% of americans are overweight or obese. 1 in 7 people globally are malnourished, and 1 in 3 in the developing world suffer from deficiency. Countless others are living hand-to-mouth, subsistence farming, hindering economic development. Even in the developed world, agriculture is the most dangerous industry to work in by occupational injuries and illnesses, and obesity is on the rise.

By taking years to spoil, dramatically reducing cost, and easing transportation and storage, soylent could have a dramatic effect on hunger and malnutrition.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#407

Post by defen »

thezoid wrote: post #393
tree6014 wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To anyone seriously considering doing something like this, you will find that the carbs are challenging to get into a shake. You can get all the right vitamins and minerals. On that note, don't use calcium carbonate like he does unless you want kidney stones; use calcium citrate. You can get high quality CFM whey protein assuming you're okay with getting all your protein from whey (grilled chicken is still a better i…

Whey protein only works if you don't already have some kind of dietary restriction like lactose intolerance, which I do. Mind you, I really enjoy eating my food and am not looking for a shortcut to "just get nutrients".

Look into whey protein isolate...it's very low in lactose - less than 1g per 28g serving of the stuff I have...I'm not lactose intolerant though so I'm not sure if even that would be too much (compare to 12g lactose in an 8oz cup of milk).

Re: Soylent Campaign

#408

Post by gwern »

w1ntermute wrote: post #315
anonymoushn wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rather than have everyone in this thread call someone from your list of food scientists at UBC, perhaps you could call one and post the conversation for us. This would be a bit less time consuming for the food scientists.

No need, here's a perfectly good breakdown from 2 months ago: http://www.businessinsider.com/rob-rhinehart-food-substitute...

That's not perfectly good, that's embarassingly and cringingly bad, and you should be ashamed of yourself for spamming it all throughout this page as if it were anything like a real rebuttal to Rhinehart. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5615708

Re: Soylent Campaign

#409

Post by genwin »

knowtheory wrote: post #364
genwin wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then let the population double again. Make larger Soylent factories. Repeat until all joy in life is gone.

This post adds nothing to this conversation, and additionally makes some very controversial assumptions. Pretty disappointing.

It makes an important point actually. Using joyless Soylent to alleviate lack of good diet leads to a larger population joylessly depending on Soylent. The situation is worsened.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#410

Post by tinco »

dragonwriter wrote: post #401
tinco wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the idea of being being metabolically disadvantaged is that you can't eat a traditionally balanced diet. Soylent has none of the complex/unnecessary/unhealthy chemical substances tradional diets (milk,bread,nuts,fish) have that are the frequent object of intolerances.

> Soylent has none of the complex/unnecessary/unhealthy chemical substances tradional diets (milk,bread,nuts,fish) have that are the frequent object of intolerances. One of the key "milk" allergies is allergy to whey, which from what has been posted in this thread is the protein source for Soylent..

Oh I thought people were mostly lactose intolerant. I guess you're right, but the nice thing about Soylent is that you can actually replace ingredients rather easily.

In his blogs he mentioned that in his head this could ultimately be a drink tailormade for your specific needs, so someone with whey allergy could swap the whey proteins for meat or fish proteins (if those are readibly available at all)

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