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Soylent Campaign

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Re: Soylent Campaign

#561

Post by whaevr »

wavefunction wrote: post #421
jckt wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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 i…

I doubt that even McDonalds would advocate that you only consume McDonalds as a healthy diet

http://goo.gl/b1dXA Seems to suggest slightly otherwise, I remember seeing it on a commercial and just going slack jawed...WHAT?

Re: Soylent Campaign

#562

Post by ozim »

atdrummond wrote: post #435
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…

Even if they're already approved for human consumption, the end production process needs to occur in a cGMP approved facility to cover themselves legally. This isn't a cheap or quick process.

Do you really think that they will start some approval process? I think they will licence this stuff to some company that already has such approval. Other way they can probably order ready mix based on their recipe in some company. I don't think they will mix it by hand in kitchen.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#563

Post by scott_s »

dntrkv wrote: post #495
scott_s wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Study Finds No Benefit From Daily Multivitamin, http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/study-finds-no-bene... Is This the End of Popping Vitamins?, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020464450457665...

From your link: “From a practical standpoint, this study does not change the fact that the majority of consumers could benefit from taking an affordable multivitamin,” said Andrew Shao, vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs with the council. “It is better to meet these recommendations than not, and consistently taking a multivitamin over the long term could help fill these nutrient gaps and may help con…

Yes, I saw that. But that was from the vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the Council of for Responsible Nutrition, which is a vitamin industry trade group.

The article ended with a conclusion from the study's author:

Dr. Neuhouser said she realizes that many people who are devoted vitamin users will be skeptical of the finding that they are receiving no benefit from a daily multivitamin.

“I don’t want to disparage people who take multivitamins — it’s their choice as a consumer,” Dr. Neuhouser said. “What we’re presenting is the science showing it’s neither beneficial nor harmful. If they want to choose to spend their dollars elsewhere this might be a good place to do so. Perhaps they can buy more fruits and vegetables.”

My take-away from these studies is that unless you have a vitamin deficiency, taking multivitamins does nothing. And if you have a specific vitamin deficiency, then you may be better off just taking supplementation of that vitamin; a general multivitamin will only help because it happens to contain what you are deficient in.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#564

Post by minimize_me »

create_account wrote: post #167

While their high level goals (eliminate hunger, reduce stress on agricultural and environmental resources) are laudable, this project suffers from the same arrogance of doctors in the 1960s who said mother's milk was primitive and could be replaced by artificial formula. Now, in hindsight, we know what a mistake that was, as natural breast milk contained compounds which decreased various cancer and health risks. I ca…

Those doctors were probably on the Nestle payroll, after the money from Camel dried up.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#565

Post by javert »

cmccabe wrote: post #518
javert wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Read The Jungle[0] if you want to know how things were before the FDA existed. Yeah, because before 1906, people were constantly dying from bad food. There wasn't any safe food to eat. In the whole world. For all of history. Until the FDA came along to save us in 1906. I mean, it's demonstrably true that people aren't capable of caring for themselves. We need the government for force us to take care of ourselves. P…

Wow, the depths of ignorance in this post are truly shocking. Even holocaust deniers or creationists have more of a leg to stand on than you do. Grow up a little, read some history, and learn what people used to put in food back when they could. And in some parts of the world, still do... melamine in baby formula is nothing compared to what used to go on.

There are viable solutions to food safety that don't involve government men with guns.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#566

Post by papsosouid »

cscurmudgeon wrote: post #450
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…

Except that those hippies don't raise $100k+ on the web. "Soylent is perfectly balanced and optimized for your body and lifestyle, meaning it automatically puts you at an optimal weight, makes you feel full, and improves your focus and cognition" The techniques and the wording seem snake oilish. Also, if anything those dumb hacker kids build breaks (email, web app, game) etc, they won't hurt you physically. The body…

The big flaw with this line of reasoning is that 90% of people are already eating diets that we know, 100% for certain, are worse than soylent. Yes, it could be missing something. You are almost certainly already missing or short on several things. For the vast majority of people, this is going to be a significant improvement.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#567

Post by Anderkent »

Andrenid wrote: post #550
goostavos wrote: post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a totally sure what would be a control. I typed that last section with quite a bit of haste, but I assume that it could be tested against a traditional food based meal that has similar nutritional value. The meal replacement idea is not entirely new, though, they've always been more in the area of supplement, rather than outright replacement. Things like ensure, slim fast, and a host of other meal in a can th…

There's Sustagen. A medically-certified full meal replacement powder, used by hospitals and medical facilities in Australia. I've talked about it in an old thread about Soylent: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5399994

Is it available outside australia? Seems like trying to mail it to europe would be quite expensive.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#568

Post by papsosouid »

vecinu wrote: post #197
iandanforth wrote: post #88

I really enjoy this campaign because it gave me an excuse to compare it with snake oil labels. ( https://www.google.com/search?q=snake+oil+label&tbm=isch... ) The characteristic of this kind of marketing that I enjoy the most is the presence of what I call 'linguistic asymptotes.' These are words that imply a product has unparalleled or infinite properties. On the soylent page we have "ubiquitous", "perfectly", "opti…

That's a very good point and very observant. I too am highly skeptical of ALL of these claims. My main gripe with Soylent (ever since I first saw it here on HN a month ago) is that they are making cooking seem like a horrible chore that nobody wants to do. Shopping is convenient because I go whenever I have time and only buy exactly what I need. At the same time, I also ensure I only buy the best ingredients I can at…

You aren't required to buy it or use it. Cooking and shopping is a horrible chore for lots of people. Those are the people this is marketed for. "I am not the target market for this product" is not a problem with the product.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#569

Post by papsosouid »

kamakazizuru wrote: post #543
nitrogen wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can eating Soylent do more long-lasting damage to oneself than eating any other food?

just off the top of my head - if the nutrient powders in there are contaminated (which isnt impossible - a lot of the things he has in there arent your typical over the counter Centrum - but rather rare metals / their compounds - manufactured in some factory somewhere)

He specifically said compared to eating any other food. Every food can be contaminated. In order to sell this, he has to meet the same requirements every other food producer does.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#570

Post by papsosouid »

DanBC wrote: post #291
garry wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people would regard riding a horse as a pleasant thing to do in leisure time, but most today would also balk at the idea of having to care, feed, and maintain a horse to get to work every single day. I realize this is anathema (I love food as much as anyone else) but there are moments in my life where I'd like to code or create things rather than worry too much about my next meal.

What do you find appealing about Soylent compared to a bag of salad and a ready meal? Is it just the "nutritionally complete" bit?

A bag of salad goes bad very quickly, I can't keep it on hand for whenever I need it. Frozen crap meals are clearly less healthy than soylent, and are also more effort to prepare.
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