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Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

blog.soylent.com

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Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#441

Post by NathanCH »

Soylent as a company has been run terribly. They've had numerous recalls and the recent price increase for Canadian customers is highway robbery.

That said, Soylent has improved my diet significantly. My entire life I have struggled to consume enough calories. Adding one serving of Soylent per day has allowed me to do two things:

1. Increase the number of calories I consume so I am in a daily surplus (I've gained a healthy 13 pounds since 2015 thanks to Soylent).

2. More importantly Soylent has accustomed me to eating larger meals. I can actually go to a restaurant and eat a full meal. I'm sure you can understand how much that has improved my social life.

Prior to Soylent I was consuming Ensure daily for more than five years but it's not enough calories to make a difference plus it's way more expensive.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#442

Post by bkanber »

icelancer wrote: post #175
bkanber wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it has a large amount of protein, it's not an actual meal replacement -- it's a supplement.

Yeah, just like ketogenic dieting and no-carb diets are supplements. What?

If you're a sedentary person, and you were to drink 3 of those protein shakes per day you'd end up with 2x your recommended protein intake and only but only 1/2 your recommended calorie intake. That's not a balanced replacement. It's a protein supplement.

Even on keto or no-carb, you still only get 30% of your calories from protein (same ratio as a non-keto diet, BTW). If you were to drink protein shakes all day you'd get 70% of calories from protein. The keto diet does not change the ratio of protein you consume. It only replaces carbs with animal and vegetable fats.

Too much protein is not good for you. It can damage your kidneys. It also causes weight gain, digestive issues, bad breath, and other things.

So again, I say that those shakes are a supplement, not a meal replacement, because they're not balanced. They're great for athletic and active people, because the more active you are the higher your protein requirement is. But a typically sedentary person should not use high-protein shakes as a meal replacement.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#443

Post by stale2002 »

deeth_starr_v wrote: post #256
giaour wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The founder of Soylent has repeatedly pushed his product as a solution for world hunger, unhealthy diets in the first world, and poor time management. I think critiquing the product on those terms is fair.

Agreed, while the intentions of Soylent are probably sincere, when I first heard about it my response was "nope nope nope". My parents were hippies and we grew/raised most of our food when I was a kid. But my grandparents had embraced the new space-age diet: margarine in place of butter, tang instead of orange juice, kraft instead of cheese, etc. I thought it tasted awful compared to real food. As we have found out,…

Your grand grand parents probably died of polio or something, so I am not sure if taking their advice on health is a good idea.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#444

Post by tormeh »

Questron wrote: post #375
sushid wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you not eat at all during work?

If I'm as busy as OP (claims to be), then no way. EDIT: Think about marathon runners: they drink water and electrolytes. I'm pretty sure I can handle a workday fully concentrated without eating every three hours.

Well, you're better able to digest when you're not constantly running, and you're less reliant on concentration for a marathon.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#445

Post by SilasX »

reilly3000 wrote: post #200
rubatuga wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eating is a complex process, usually intertwined with social interactions, stimulation of multiple sensory organs, and activation of jaw muscles and blood flow. I think by short circuiting many of those processes, along with possibly the negative nutritional aspects of Soylent and my mental state back then, I was suffering as a result.

Spot on. I don't know why we would apply reductionism something as pleasurable and healthful as food.

Reductionism is a problem when the system is too complex for you to have modeled all relevant dynamics [1]; it has nothing to do with how healthful or pleasurable something is. If you could model all its dynamics, you could make it more fun and healthy.

[1] which may actually be the case here

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#446

Post by angusb »

Judgmentality wrote: post #237
dmix wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook causing depression when used too much? What were the alternative groups doing? Correlation is a tricky thing to measure. I'm not sure how I feel about these types of studies or what utility they really provide. Other than maybe giving the reader some perspective on their life. Anything used in a poor context, for example not combined with the right attitude, environment, etc can cause issues. Often we just f…

So I actually decided to look for the source and you're right - the results are a lot more complicated than I thought. I guess I'm a victim of confirmation bias. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/09/07/49287102...

Kudos to you for fact-checking!

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#447

Post by ambrice »

ambrice wrote: post #423
DanBC wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree Soylent used irresponsible marketing. But many of those other products can be used as sole source of nutrition. EG fortisip: http://www.nutricia.ie/products/view/fortisip > Fortisip is a Food for Special Medical Purposes for use under medical supervision. Fortisip is a nutritionally complete, 1.5kcal/ml, ready to drink, milk shake style nutritional supplement, for the management of disease related malnutritio…

How is it irresponsible marketing?

Oh right, we already had this discussion. At least they got upgraded from "unethical marketing" to "irresponsible marketing". But how long can you continue to claim that the company engages in irresponsible marketing based on (allegedly) exaggerated claims during a Kickstarter?

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#448

Post by aetherson »

stale2002 wrote: post #443
deeth_starr_v wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, while the intentions of Soylent are probably sincere, when I first heard about it my response was "nope nope nope". My parents were hippies and we grew/raised most of our food when I was a kid. But my grandparents had embraced the new space-age diet: margarine in place of butter, tang instead of orange juice, kraft instead of cheese, etc. I thought it tasted awful compared to real food. As we have found out,…

Your grand grand parents probably died of polio or something, so I am not sure if taking their advice on health is a good idea.

Polio is not a disease caused by malnutrition. Also, your ancestors probably did not die of it -- it mostly affected young people, so people who died from it usually didn't have descendants.

Quibbling aside, health in general was certainly much worse in our great-grandparents' days, but for those who weren't straight up underfed, nutrition was probably not worse. I'm not sure it was as magically better as some would have you believe, but there is decent evidence that traditional diets were more-or-less fine, and that the modern diet has something wrong with it.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#449

Post by easilyBored »

jsjohns2 wrote: post #159
johnfn wrote: post #5

Soylent gets a lot of hate (I'm looking forward to skipping out on this thread before the inevitable negative comments from people who assume that Soylent consumers will eat nothing but Soylent for the rest of their lives), but to me, it's solved a large problem in my life: what to eat when I'm hungry but I don't have enough time to prepare a full meal. It can happen every now and then when I'm rushing around, and so…

Soylent is great, but you should check out Joylent if you get a chance. Similar nutritional profile to Soylent, but cheaper, better tasting, and cooler branding. I've been getting 90% of my calories from Joylent for about 5 months.

I've been getting 90% of my calories from Joylent for about 5 months.

90% for 5 months? Any specific situation or just prefer it that way?

Personally, I'd prefer to get out of the home /office, stretch, clear my head and eat the (kinda) old fashion way. Everyone has the same 24 hours...

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#450

Post by protomyth »

malnourish wrote: post #273
Questron wrote: post #263

Weird. You need food during an eight hour shift?

Lots of people prefer eating smaller servings more frequently, some people need a snack to get through the day. Yet others have varying schedules that cause may fall between meals in a way that makes them hungry.

Knew a weight lifter that was doing 5 to 8 small meals per day. She was pretty darn fit. I wonder if anyone has done an actual study on the subject?
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