
Announcing Soylent 1.2 - jack-r-abbit
http://blog.soylent.me/post/102285900727/announcing-soylent-1-2-development-of-the-soylent
======
colinbartlett
I am not a Soylent fan but I do like this food-versioning idea. What if all
consumer food products were required to have versions numbers and a change log
to detail out modifications?

Oreos version 2.3: Reduced count from 36 to 34. Increased price by 15 cents.

Pepsi version 3.0: Swapped sugar for high-fructose corn syrup.

~~~
aleem
GitHub could be leveraged to do this so easily and it would make for an
awesome repo. Each product could get it's own file allowing easy tracking of
revisions, PR and issue tracking. A standardised file naming convention and
formatting are all that's needed to get started.

EDIT:

There is also DIY Soylent [1] with some popular recipes, detailed nutritional
information and versioning of each formula. People Chow v3.0.1 [2] seems to be
one of the favourite recipes.

[1] [http://diy.soylent.me/recipes](http://diy.soylent.me/recipes) [2]
[http://diy.soylent.me/recipes/people-chow-301-tortilla-
perfe...](http://diy.soylent.me/recipes/people-chow-301-tortilla-perfection)

~~~
lamby
> GitHub could be leveraged to do this so easily and it would make for an
> awesome repo

I don't think you are wrong per-se but whenever I see, let's take a more
illustrative example, statutes and laws added to GitHub I can't help but think
they are introducing a rather misleading narrative to the information. In this
example, developers--especially on HN--have a cultural quirk anyway where they
believe that the legal system can somehow be reduced or modelled as some sort
computer program (when the reality is quite different) and having levers such
as pull requests, review systems and diffs encourages this kind of thinking to
some degree.

------
JoshTriplett
Leaving aside the ongoing discussions about Soylent itself as a foodstuff,
when was the last time you saw food of _any_ kind with a version number and a
changelog? I'd love to see more of that in the market.

~~~
ch4s3
Tangelo 2.01 Changelog: -Lowered pith seed value from .9 to .73 -Various bug
fixes -Now ripens 1.2x faster

~~~
stronglikedan
Only organic tangelos have bugs.

------
geoelectric
Hopefully this isn't followed by yet another "hey, six+ more weeks for your
order placed in June" email like the last couple of announcements were.

It all sounds wonderful, but I'd like the chance to actually try it.

~~~
ChrisLTD
No kidding. I ordered back in May, Soylent told me they were "shipping soon"
in September, and I still don't have anything.

~~~
gtaylor
I ordered June 19th, haven't got anything yet either. Was starting to wonder
if that was abnormal, but if you have been waiting since May...

~~~
kxo
March here - All quiet on the Western front.

------
sethbannon
Very happy to see that Soylent will now be free of animal products.

I had no idea that you could produce oil rich in Omega-3 fatty acids from
algae. And looking it up lead me to learn that you can also product more
traditional fuels from algae as well:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_fuel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_fuel)

~~~
mikeyouse
I formerly worked for a company where our primary line of business was
producing Omega-3s from algae (nannochloropsis). Our company didn't work out
(for unrelated reasons), but the economics and realities regarding the global
fish stock ensure that a non-insignificant portion of Omega-3s/7s will come
from algae in the not-too-distant future!

For those who do care though, definitely examine the origin of your algae
products. Most of the spirulina / haematococcus (for astaxanthin) /
nannochloropsis by volume is grown in rather disgusting conditions in China
and India. The US, Japan, and European products are much cleaner but are often
GMO if that kind of thing matters to you.

------
gburt
I see Soylent is now completely vegan. This is interesting and will appeal to
a new community for a range of ethical and environmental reasons, especially
if it can deal with many of the common nutritional issues (B12, iron). I think
another interesting marketing angle for the future of Soylent would be a
measure of its carbon emissions[1,2] especially considering the somewhat
unique distribution mechanism.

[1] For example,
[http://www.foodemissions.com/foodemissions/Calculator.aspx](http://www.foodemissions.com/foodemissions/Calculator.aspx)
[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_carbon_diet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_carbon_diet)

~~~
imanaccount247
>if it can deal with many of the common nutritional issues (B12, iron)

What do you mean "if"? Those aren't really common nutritional issues
specifically because they are so easy to "deal with". Vegans take a b12
supplement. The end. Obviously soylent also contains b12.

------
DanHulton
Great and all, but I really wish they'd work on making it available outside of
the US, as well. I'd love to be able to order some up in Canada, and have
three other friends looking to try it.

~~~
fallat
You should look into creating one of the DIY soylent recipes. I found this one
particularly simple: [http://diy.soylent.me/recipes/people-chow-301-tortilla-
perfe...](http://diy.soylent.me/recipes/people-chow-301-tortilla-perfection)

Sure it isn't THE soylent, but tons of people are collaborating on that one
too.

~~~
dmix
This is great, the only problem is all of those Amazon links next to the
ingredients are for amazon.com, food products aren't available on amazon.ca.
It's impossible to buy all of those with one click in Canada. I'd have to hunt
down Canadian shipping sites or visit 3 different grocery stores to find most
of those.

Edit: Nevermind, read this comment: [http://diy.soylent.me/recipes/people-
chow-301-tortilla-perfe...](http://diy.soylent.me/recipes/people-
chow-301-tortilla-perfection#comment-1385374298)

The amount of vitamins are dangerously higher than 100% recommended daily
intake. Unlike Soylent which has mid-range
[http://diy.soylent.me/recipes/people-chow-301-tortilla-
perfe...](http://diy.soylent.me/recipes/people-chow-301-tortilla-
perfection#comment-1385374298)

I'd stay away from this recipe.

~~~
imanaccount247
>The amount of vitamins are dangerously higher than 100% recommended daily
intake

No they are not. Your comment link doesn't work, but the only comments I saw
complaining about excessive micronutrients were baseless fearmongering. None
of the micronutrients are even close to the TUL. All of the very high ones
there are B complex vitamins that simply do not have an upper limit on intake.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin)

~~~
dmix
If you sort the comments by votes, it's #2, here is a quote:

> subjects taking vitamin A supplements were more likely to die from lung
> cancer than subjects taking a placebo. A third trial, SELECT, found that
> dietary supplementation with vitamin E (400 IU/d of all rac-α-tocopheryl
> acetate) in healthy men significantly increased their risk of prostate
> cancer. When I see recipes that contain micronutrient levels that are orders
> of magnitude higher than the recommended daily intake"

> This recipe has off-the-charts values for some nutrients, including 3000%
> DRI of thiamin, 2483% DRI of riboflavin, and 2583% DRI vitamin B6. Here’s a
> fun quote from the NIH office of dietary supplements (link below): “taking
> high levels of vitamin B6 from supplements for a year or longer can cause
> severe nerve damage, leading people to lose control of their bodily
> movements.”

He backed his claims up with citations.

~~~
imanaccount247
Yes, that's the one I thought you meant. It is exactly what I described. 3000%
of those water soluable B vitamins is perfectly fine, and people routinely get
that in their diets already. There is no upper limit on them, excess is simply
passed.

His vitamin A study is completely irrelevant. Those studies are people taking
100 times the daily intake, which is well above the TUL. That is literally
studies saying "if we poison people they get sick". 2.2x the daily intake is
not 100x.

B6 is still way below the TUL, which is set at 10% of the amount that has been
shown to cause damage. You would need to eat 30 times what this provides to be
at risk. As I said, that is all fearmongering nonsense.

~~~
dmix
Interesting, thanks for clearing that up. Nutritional science is such murky
waters.

------
Siecje
Does it still take 3 months to arrive?

~~~
emverest
I ordered mine about 4 months ago and still waiting

~~~
srj
Ordered mine 6 months ago and it hasn't arrived yet.

------
nickbauman
Considering how little we truly understand about nutrition, I would not
willingly eat this stuff.

~~~
baddox
That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Do you have some reason to suspect
that the diet you're currently eating is based on a more correct understanding
of nutrition than a diet that includes Soylent?

~~~
nickbauman
Good question. I take a conservative view. I consider how our understanding of
nutrition is limited, I look at the evolutionary morphology of our species and
take a look at what we've adapted to eat for nearly a million years and favor
that sort of food over something synthesized _this year._ I allow that Soylent
may be better quality than this food. But the odds are it's not.

~~~
baddox
I don't mean to offend, but that sounds like irrational risk aversion, unless
you have more information about nutrition and the development process of your
usual diet vs. Soylent. My usual diet is fairly unorganized and not
particularly well-researched (by me). I'm sure a huge amount of engineering
and "artificial" processes have gone into most of it, just like with Soylent.
I don't really see a dichotomy between a diet "naturally" formed by evolution
over millions of years and a Soylent diet.

~~~
nickbauman
When you consider the iceman, a nearly 6,000 year old preserved corpse of a
man pushing-50-years-old suffering from Lyme disease who was crossing the alps
ON FOOT when he was murdered as irrationally healthy, I see your point.

------
forrestthewoods
Let's say in a few years time Soylent is successful enough to have multiple
product lines. I wonder what, if any, advantages there would be to a variation
that did include animal products.

~~~
baddox
I would assume it's cheaper and/or logistically easier to fulfill nutritional
requirements with animal products. Presumably that's why Soylent used fish oil
initially.

~~~
jack-r-abbit
FTA: _A perfect example of the inefficiency of animal-based nutritional
compounds is fish oil_

That sounds like getting the fish oil is more costly than getting it straight
from the algae.

~~~
baddox
I assumed that referred to environmental efficiency rather than cost
efficiency.

~~~
jack-r-abbit
Possibly. Adding this part " _turned into fish oil through an energy-intensive
process_ " makes me think of cost. But I can see it both ways.

------
jordanpg
> Our name was inspired by Harry Harrison's 1966 science fiction novel Make
> Room! Make Room!, which explores the impact massive population growth could
> have on world resources.

According to WP [1], this somewhat (?) obscure book was the inspiration for
the name, not the extremely well-known movie that I need not name here. I
assume this is sanitization by the marketing department?

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Room!_Make_Room](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Room!_Make_Room)!

~~~
jack-r-abbit
In the book, the name applies to some manufactured food stuffs. But all the
people that try to make the joke about it being made of people miss one
important fact. In the movie, only the Green was made from people. There
existed other variants that were not made of people. If _this_ one was from
the movie, it would likely be called Soylent Grey. :)

~~~
geoelectric
Well, now that it's vegan...

(Though that goes to the age-old question of whether human is vegan or not :)
)

------
jack-r-abbit
For the people that are concerned about the taste of Soylent: I personally
don't think it tastes bad at all. It isn't super awesome either, but certainly
not gross. I drank plenty of it straight and it was just fine. Having said
that... I've had great success with adding a squirt or two of Mio[1] to it
before I drink it. Easy to do and gives you a decent variety of flavors
(however, they are all fruity).

[1] [http://www.makeitmio.com/](http://www.makeitmio.com/)

------
jack-r-abbit
> _All shipments leaving our facilities now contain the updated formula._

I just ordered another 30 day supply last week. I've not yet received a
shipping notice for that order. So I am hoping that it will be 1.2 rather than
1.1. I wasn't too fond of the idea of the added enzymes in 1.1.

And, while I'm not vegan, it sounds like the oil blend change will make things
simpler on their end by no longer needing a separate sku and/or packaging
process to eliminate the fish oil blend for vegans.

------
b1twise
I tried Soylent 1.0 and had severe gastrointestinal issues with it. In doing
research I came across 100%FOOD--a Soylent alternative. The texture is a lot
less appealing than Soylent at first, but I got used to it. My body agrees
with it much more. They shipped within hours, not months. It's produced at a
vegan facility and uses a lot more 'natural' products as components. Chocolate
is definitely recommended. Oh, and they ship internationally.

------
tiffanyh
I've never understood why Soylent get's so much attention on Hacker News given
that it's a food product.

A simple google search indicates 488 mentions of Soylent on Hacker News, to be
precise [1].

[1] [https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-
instant&ion=1&e...](https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-
instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com%20soylent)

~~~
pbreit
Never understood? Really?

For starters, it's a Y Combinator company (host of Hacker News).

Secondly, it was developed by hackers.

Third, it is one of the foremost examples of hacking diet.

Fourth, the HN audience is a key audience of early adopting efficiency
seekers.

Finally, people in the community have strong opinions about it both ways.

Never understood? Really?

~~~
DanBC
> Third, it is one of the foremost examples of hacking diet.

> Fourth, the HN audience is a key audience of early adopting efficiency
> seekers.

There is _nothing_ new about Soylent, apart from the unethical crowd-
funding[1] and easy access to the public.

Liquid total meal replacements are common and have existed for a log time and
are available from Amazon. They don't always push the total replacement aspect
because lawyers and I guess because they never expected anyone to want to do
so, but people live off existing products and have done so for years.

[1] "puts you in perfect health" and other unethical claims which seem to have
been quietly dropped.

~~~
pbreit
"don't always push the total replacement aspect"

That is the main thing that is quite new. And also that extended meal
replacement has not typically been marketed to this audience. Both of these
are pretty huge, IMO.

------
karamazov
I'd like to try Soylent. Is there a way to order, say, $10 worth to check it
out?

~~~
baddox
If you can make it to downtown San Francisco I can sell you one day's worth of
v1.0 or v1.1 for $12.

~~~
codezero
Hey, would you be willing to swap a few bags of 1.0 or 1.2 (when they arrive)
for some 1.1? I'd like to try it out to see if the digestive enzymes are worth
dropping in to the 1.2 brew.

~~~
baddox
Sure. I've noticed that 1.1 is less sweet than 1.0, but I'm not particularly
partial to either, and I haven't encountered any digestive issues with either
version.

~~~
codezero
Did you notice the issue with the thickness in 1.1? For me, I get a lot of
pretty epic farts with 1.0, so I was hoping the enzymes in 1.1 would address
that :)

~~~
baddox
I've only had 1,000 calories of 1.1 so far. I didn't notice the thickness
difference at the time, but when I saw the 1.2 blog post I thought "oh, maybe
it was thinner."

------
Mandatum
1.2 and still no international shipping provider.. USPS/UPS all have API's and
deliver pretty much everywhere. Just implement it and charge for it. Those who
don't want to pay will use a reshipper.

------
cheshire137
So should I keep a bag of Soylent 1.1 and hope to sell it on eBay years from
now as the rare Soylent that came with an enzyme blend?

------
arthurcolle
I have some and really just don't like the taste... Have 5 bags unopened if
anyone has any tricks to make it edible

~~~
caublestone
Blend it with peanut butter. It's quite delicious this way to me. Apologies if
you are allergic.

~~~
freshyill
Nobody's allergic in my house, but the kids can't bring any peanut stuff to
school, so they take this…
[http://www.wowbutter.com](http://www.wowbutter.com)

This stuff absolutely nails the taste although the texture is more in line
with a Skippy or Jif than with better peanut butter.

~~~
jack-r-abbit
We currently use SunButter but the taste is not the same. It is not bad but it
is certainly not like peanut butter. I was interested in your link but I see
it is made from soy. My youngest has an intolerance to soy. :( We would love
to find "a nut-free, soy-free spread the tastes like peanut butter."

~~~
freshyill
We had this one recently too: [http://www.thesneakychef.com/free-recipe-no-
nut-butter.php](http://www.thesneakychef.com/free-recipe-no-nut-butter.php)

It's made from peas. It's not quite as close to the real thing as the one
that's made from soybeans, but it's pretty good.

~~~
jack-r-abbit
Thanks for that! I've added it to my Amazon cart for a future order. I'll try
anything once. (Obviously... since we're in a Soylent thread)

------
adamwong246
As long as we are extending the software metaphor, under what software license
should Soylent be classified?

------
auvi
i'm just wondering, before each version of Soylent is released, do they get
FDA approval?

~~~
ghshephard
No - Soylent is comprised of products that are Generally Recognized as Safe by
the FDA -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generally_recognized_as_safe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generally_recognized_as_safe)

------
grandalf
I'd try this if the time to shipment were remotely reasonable.

------
moeedm
Food is so much more appealing when it has a version number, right?

~~~
georgemcbay
Not if the update is due to a bug that would cause a system crash.

------
rb2k_
I can't seem to find a changelog.

I would love a "what's new"

------
slashnull
I'm hungry

------
Siecje
Why is _centrifugal_ force still a thing?

~~~
darkstar999
What about it?

~~~
Siecje
Makes you wonder what else is wrong.

