
Soylent: Manufacturing Update - ph0rque
http://blog.soylent.me/post/65063846024/today-we-are-pleased-to-announce-that-we-have
======
gojomo
I would like to see a controlled trial of Soylent against the all-raw-and-
rotting-meat diet:

[http://www.vice.com/read/this-guy-has-eaten-nothing-but-
raw-...](http://www.vice.com/read/this-guy-has-eaten-nothing-but-raw-meat-for-
five-years)

~~~
aharrison
One of my favorite things about Soylent is that it provides a "reasonable" but
consistent _baseline_ for doing these sorts of tests. Until Soylent there
wasn't a non-medical meal replacement that at least theoretically tried to be
everything you need. Once Soylent has been battle tested for awhile, we can
start doing actual experiments with controlled variables around diets. If we
can get that far without throwing the baby out with the bathwater, we will
potentially upend how we do nutritional testing.

~~~
freshhawk
> Until Soylent there wasn't a non-medical meal replacement that at least
> theoretically tried to be everything you need

As far as I understand it that's because the knowledge to make such a thing
does not exist and everyone in the field is confident trying to make such a
product would fail. They are waiting for the pure research folks to learn more
about human nutrition (either a bit more or a hell of a lot more depending on
who you ask).

Ensure/Jevity/etc would certainly market their products for non-medical
purposes if they could. But they are only used as last resort options during
medical interventions precisely because of the results they've seen during
those medical interventions.

A bunch of volunteers self experimenting is an interesting way to get around
this (the ethics of this level of experimentation on human subjects that is).
While the data will be too uncontrolled and biased to judge any positive
effects you will probably get some very interesting data when someone gets
sick (as long as they at least keep a detailed enough log of their diet).

Considering the ingredient list now includes snake oil like Ginseng and Ginkgo
Biloba I don't trust the makers enough to include myself in those tests but I
am interested in how it turns out.

------
crisnoble
As a former Process Engineer in the Food Industry, I never thought I would see
the day RFI would be mentioned in an article linked from HN.

------
nazgulnarsil
why make your own from real food when you can have powders mixed by an idiot
for twice the price?

[http://lesswrong.com/lw/h2h/soylent_orange_whole_food_open_s...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/h2h/soylent_orange_whole_food_open_source_soylent/)

~~~
aharrison
I tried this, and here was my experience:

1\. I am gluten intolerant, so swap out oat flour for almond flour. Swap out B
complex supplement for marmite. Also, calling marmite "real food" is a bit of
a stetch in my estimation.

2\. After the first week, realized I was probably mildly allergic to casin,
swapped to coconut milk.

3\. After the first week after that change, noticed I am probably also mildly
allergic to banana. Cut it completely.

So what I ended up with was a high fat low carbohydrate equivalent that isn't
too bad. I actually drink this pretty regularly, and it is extremely filling.
However, calling this guy an idiot is disingenuous to say the least; his work
is going through considerably more scrutiny than Soylent Orange, and it
contains considerably less allergens. Depending on who you talk to, up to 15%
of people are gluten intolerant[1] and so, when keeping risks in mind, we
should be cognizant of the dangerous of various proposals.

All in all, I actually do like (my modified) Soylent Orange, but ad hominem
attacks are unnecessary and "real food" is a suprisingly slippery concept.
Hell, coconut and almonds are common allergies too!

~~~
nazgulnarsil
Oats do not contain appreciable enough amounts of gluten to bother anyone
except those with celiac disease. Even some celiac sufferers eat oatmeal that
has been processed to remove that last .01% of gluten. Doesn't regular soylent
use oat flour anyway? also this: [http://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-
Gluten-22-Ounce/dp/B003L...](http://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-
Gluten-22-Ounce/dp/B003LPKETS/)

~~~
aharrison
I don't have a citation either way, so I will just say that I noticed a
reaction to oats just like a reaction to gluten. Could be that mine were
contaminated, could potentially be that I am allergic to oats as well.

------
intelliot
"Our number-one priority is that every person who has received their Soylent
is able to reorder more for immediate delivery."

Odd. I'd expect their number-one priority to be "ensure Soylent is healthy and
safe".

~~~
nostromo
That's unfair.

The comment is made within the context of a manufacturing update. Besides, you
could respond to anyone that says they have a priority, "I'd expect your
number-one priority to be feeding orphans."

------
alex_doom
Dammit! Now it's January? I hope it doesn't keep slipping. It was supposed be
August in the beginning but then popularity pushed it down to November, then
December...I want wanna drink some fancy science!

~~~
adamwong246
I feel your pain every time I go to the grocery store.

~~~
alex_doom
I've even been trying various powder things that nutritional shops sell. They
all leave me feeling hungry after an hour and I end up eating a sandwich
anyway. :/

------
caycep
this is actually nice in how it gives a picture of what the ops/regulatory
side of this sort of business is like...totally alien from my nerd side of the
world...

------
quasque
I'm baffled as to why anyone would want to live off what is essentially tube-
fed hospital food. But without even the benefit of medical expertise and
monitoring to ensure safety.

------
derekp7
Does anyone know if Soylent actually makes you feel full / satisfied after
consuming it? Would the effect be similar to eating a bowl of soup or
something? I recall many years ago I used to get something called Instant
Breakfast, but I still needed an apple or a couple slices of toast to feel
like I actually ate something (might be that psychologically, I need the
recent memory of chewing action in order to be convinced that I actually just
ate a meal).

On a related note, for those that are looking at this class of products due to
lack of time / skills to cook at home, would anyone be interested in my list
of "bachelor chow" recipes? Basically, this includes anything that can be
easily prepared (minimal active preparation time, even if it has to cook all
day in a slow cooker), along with the ability to be good leftovers for
multiple days. Examples include chicken fried rice, ham/noodle/cheese
casserole, "skillet" breakfasts, beef stew, etc.

~~~
alanctgardner2
The stuff that I've mixed up (not real Soylent, but from the HackerSchool
recipe) has a significant amount of flour, which makes it very thick. The way
I mix it it's more like a milkshake, and it feels very hearty. Whether or not
I get hungry after mostly depends on how bored I am - I would have snacked
anyways.

------
yitchelle
This is just nuts to me. Why aren't people doing one of the simple joys of
life - cooking and eating delicious food, even simple recipes can result in
really delicious food. Come on people, get back to basics!

------
danjayh
I might eat this as snack food, or to replace an occasional meal, but the idea
of eating exactly the same thing every single meal scares me a little bit. I
guess I just don't have confidence that modern science has fully quantified
everything that's needed in a complete human diet. Don't get me wrong - I'm
sure Soylent is great stuff - I just think that I wouldn't want to completely
give up 'normal' food for it (besides the worry factor, it also seems really
boring).

~~~
j2d3
Not sure, but I think this is the expected use case. Soylent is supposed to be
something you _can_ eat exclusively, but also, I don't think even soylent
creators expect their users to eat it and nothing else ever. I plan to replace
"mindless" meals with it, but eat delicious, healthy non soylent meals when I
have time and inclination. Many times I eat stuff I dont want that isn't
healthy due to time constraints.

------
majurg
Its kinda expensive, $255 for a month?

~~~
tghw
Which equals $2.83 per meal.

------
rfnslyr
As a bodybuilder/powerlifter, I would kill to have packages geared towards my
sport with the proper macronutriets. Would be cool if you could customize as
well based on meal frequency and macro-nutrient requirements.

For example, I need to eat 6 meals a day @ 40g protein / 40g carbs / 20g fat
in each meal.

~~~
papa_bear
Making it easy to do this is my goal with Eat This Much
([http://www.eatthismuch.com](http://www.eatthismuch.com)), and before that,
with [http://www.Swole.me](http://www.Swole.me) (the name being more
bodybuilding focused before I added recipes and improved the algorithm to make
something that would appeal to a normal, well adjusted person :)

If Soylent got popular enough, it would pretty much make my service obsolete.
I doubt that'll happen anytime soon, but I'm still a huge supporter of what
Soylent is trying to accomplish with taking the thinking out of what I should
eat. You can actually use the two in conjunction pretty well by adding Soylent
as a "custom food" on Eat This Much, making it take up about 80% of your daily
calories, locking it in place, and then running the meal plan generator to
fill in the last 20% of your calories with real food.

Here's an example where I added Soylent similar to one of their initial
recipes, each serving being 1/4 of their daily recommendation (and a higher
calorie target so I don't atrophy into nothing):
[http://www.eatthismuch.com/diet/802429276](http://www.eatthismuch.com/diet/802429276)

~~~
anthonycerra
_If Soylent got popular enough, it would pretty much make my service
obsolete._

Don't count yourself out just yet. Some people will always prefer to eat real
food.

~~~
papa_bear
Haha of course, hence the "I doubt that'll happen anytime soon." Though I
wouldn't be surprised if it became commonplace for people to swap out their
breakfasts for something like Soylent in the near future. I already do
something similar by throwing milk, protein powder, ground up oatmeal, and
flax seeds into a blender every morning. The convenience is pretty
overwhelming, and it has a much better nutrition profile than a bowl of
cereal.

~~~
anthonycerra
I do the same for breakfast, but I feel more comfortable doing so because
_most_ of those foods are regulated. I don't believe protein powder is, which
is a little scary considering how often it's consumed. If Soylent is to be
treated as a supplement (lack of regulation) that is consumed exclusively,
it's even more unnerving.

PS - Are you Louis? We had a quick email convo last year. If you need help
implementing some of the marketing aspects of EatThisMuch, let me know.

~~~
papa_bear
Yep, that's me - I'll send you a follow up email in a couple minutes

