
Freedom from Food - benbreen
http://aeon.co/magazine/health/would-we-opt-out-of-food-if-given-the-chance/
======
mga226
With products like this, the concern is always that we "don't know what we
don't know" about human nutrition. Our mechanical understanding of how
nutrients do what they do is in its infancy, and human metabolism is mind-
bogglingly complicated. This is the thinking behind the (pretty good, in my
opinion) advice to "eat real food."

I've been toying with the idea of developing a "real food soylent" \-- an
easy-to-prepare-in-bulk stew or chili, with a base of real-food ingredient
options that can be interchanged based on season, availability, and taste. The
idea would be to develop a real food framework that could (in theory)
constitute once's entire diet. I think of this idea as Soylent minus the
hubris.

~~~
autarch
I agree. I think anyone who lives on an all (or nearly all) Soylent diet is
very likely setting themselves up for some sort of long-term health problems.

That said, I can see a strong argument for replacing one meal a day with
Soylent. It's unlikely to be _worse_ than what most people eat, and as part of
an overall varied diet I'd be much less concerned about the unknown missing
ingredients.

~~~
Afforess
> some sort of long-term health problems.

The leading cause of cancer is life. Everything causes long-term health
problems, eventually. People are too risk-averse, How can you enjoy anything
if you are perpetually concerned about long-term health risks?

~~~
jacalata
One end of the spectrum is being too careful, the other end is not taking any
kind of precautions. Both are probably a bad way to live. (ie: if everything
is equally dangerous, why not let children smoke a pack a day while working in
a coal mine? They'll all die eventually anyway).

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TheSisb2
I've received my shipment of Soylent. I read many negative and positive
reviews. I've been on it for three weeks now and am loving it so far. In fact,
I find myself craving it sometimes. It hasn't replace my meals completely, but
as someone who has been skipping breakfast for most of my life I now get the
nutrition I need in the mornings and my life has considerably improved as a
consequence.

The concept of Soylent is wonderful. No one is saying it should completely
replace all meals, but it should be able to do so, otherwise it wouldn't work
as a single meal either. The joy of cooking still exists, you choose whether
you want a quick meal or a longer one. I would still never turn down a well
cooked meal for Soylent, but I'm happy to know I have some in my cupboard for
when I need it.

~~~
DanBC
> The concept of Soylent is wonderful. No one is saying it should completely
> replace all meals,

That's exactly the claim they made when they were raising funds. Along with
the dubious health claims.

> "What if you never had to worry about food again?"

> "For anyone that struggles with allergies, heartburn, acid reflux or
> digestion, has trouble controlling weight or cholesterol, or simply doesn't
> have the means to eat well, soylent is for you."

> "Soylent frees you from the time and money spent shopping, cooking and
> cleaning, puts you in excellent health,"

> "By taking years to spoil"

>"there is much evidence that it is considerably healthier than a typical
diet."

This is fraudulent horseshit and it's kind of surprising they got away with
it.

The new website avoids making medical claims, but still says that you can live
off it entirely.

~~~
Afforess
>>"there is much evidence that it is considerably healthier than a typical
diet."

>This is fraudulent horseshit and it's kind of surprising they got away with
it.

Considering that more people are overweight in the USA than not, it's not
fraudulent at all. The average American diet is atrocious.

~~~
DanBC
They had no evidence at all when they wrote that statement.

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jrells
I'm surprised so many people engage in a Soylent vs cooking debate as if there
are two sides and you have to choose one. Recently I was cooking an elaborate
dinner, starting early in the afternoon, and I found myself wishing my Soylent
shipment had arrived so I could have lunch without interrupting my dinner
preparation.

~~~
devindotcom
Yeah, I see no problem with this being a more complete version of a granola
bar. Hungry? Got no time? Here's a complete meal you can fit in a glass. Keeps
you alert and powered up for now, though no one in their right mind would want
to live solely on clif bars.

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DIVx0
As someone who also loves food and preparing it, I am also a consumer of
Soylent.

While it takes away the joy of a well prepared meal it gives that back in time
and convenience. I can't help but spend too much time in the kitchen when I'm
making something. I go overboard and over do it to a fault.

With a food like Soylent I can get in and out in minutes. Eating Soylent does
not mean you can't spend time making a great meal when you have the
opportunity too. After several weeks on this new food I appreciate my home
cooked meal much more than I had in the past. Win-Win as far as I'm concerned.

~~~
nodata
What do you do with your extra time?

~~~
Nevermark
DIVx0 (yes, that is his/her natural name) is my neighbor and I wondered the
same thing so I began a period of systematic surveillance. Basically I just
tapped into the NSA's feed so I can't really take any credit for that.

DIVx0 spends a lot of time reading about Soylent, posting on /r/Soylent,
Facebooking and Twitting his experiences, and otherwise communicating and
mentoring other Soylent users or prospects. The conclusion he and all his
Soylent colleagues have come to is that they really do save a lot of time.
Occasionally DIVx0 stays up till 1:00am or later writing poetry and odes to
Soylent.

I thought all of this was really ironic until I checked the NSA's archives and
found that in fact DIVx0 used to spend about twice that amount of time
preparing, eating, and discussing salsa dip.

------
zwieback
To each their own - there may be people who convert to Soylent but I love
spending time in the kitchen or at the dinner table and I suspect I'm not the
only one. If I think about what I would do with extra spare time it would
include a lot of cooking and baking.

------
VLM
1) Something always glossed over in the PR is we've been feeding "sick" people
nutritionally complete liquids out of a can for decades with no real problem.
Baby formula, and old people and cancer patients drinking Ensure and the like.
Its really old stuff and heavily studied. What is new, is marketing it to
people who are more or less healthy (as healthy as you can be on the standard
American diet of junk food, anyway). I've tried left over cans of ensure.
Personally not my cup of tea. Like a melted mcdonalds shake, kind of. Also
tried baby formula, not impressed, like super heavy cream, sorta. This
previous experimentation does not encourage me to try soylent.

2) Like it or not, admit it or not, we're mammals just like livestock or pets.
It seems that feeding housepets scientifically designed food, every day, for
decades, really does boost their lifespan compared to a diet of mice and bugs
in the wilderness. This gets the anti-evolutionary people all found up, the
mere suggestion that us people are animals too or that their god didn't create
us separately from the animals ... Also if you talk to a livestock rearing
farmer about what he feeds his hogs / cows / whatevers to fatten them up for
slaughter, and then compare what he fattens his livestock with, to the
ingredients on the food aisles at walmart, and then look at how round the
shoppers are, I'm just saying you won't be too surprised. You can dislike it
all you want, but we are mammals.

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atonse
As someone who truly enjoys eating (and lovingly assembling each bite and
taking my time, the social aspects, etc), I don't think I could fully move
over to something like Soylent.

But during the weekday, I find thinking about lunch (packing it or deciding
which restaurant to go to, etc) to be a real waste of time. In other words,
are you guys exploring a formula that would work well for just "Monday to
Friday lunches" combined with a regular diet for dinners and weekends?

~~~
IamThePherocity
I entirely expect to have both breakfast and lunch as soylent (like) meals and
then enjoy suppers. I end up eating less healthy because I don't have time to
make a good lunch every day, it's just not possible. Breakfast is usually
skipped. I don't even care if it's disgusting, as long as I'm getting enough
nutrients to sustain me.

~~~
atonse
Same here - It's also a cost thing. Because I'm often too tired/lazy to pack
lunch for the next day, I end up eating out. At $10 a meal or more, these add
up quickly.

I'd be curious to see how that use case pans out health-wise with Soylent.

------
fluxist
I was so excited to finally get my Soylent and give it a go. I really wanted
to like it. Unfortunately by the second day I found it aversively unpalatable,
almost sickening to drink. Along with intense gastrointestinal distress (think
food poisoning-level liquefaction) I gave up and now its sitting in the box
under my desk collecting dust. I wouldn't even put it in a bomb shelter, I
think it would decrease my chances of survival.

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jimrandomh
I'm a big fan of this as a product category, but less so of Soylent itself.
Recently, I've mostly eaten MealSquares, which have the same premise, but
(imo) better execution. They're nutritionally better; they're solid, so people
don't look at them strangely; they shipped at reasonable speed, unlike Soylent
which keeps falling behind; and, because they're dry instead of liquid,
they're more portable.

~~~
eropple
Those look really interesting. How do they taste?

How about feeling of fullness? (Most breads or other carb-based foods leave me
feeling hungry again shortly thereafter, which sucks.)

~~~
mquander
I eat a couple a week. The taste is hard to characterize -- it's sort of like
some pretty rich slightly fruity bread -- but they have dark chocolate which
dominates the flavor when you bite into a chocolatey bit (I suggest
microwaving a little before eating to melt it.)

~~~
eropple
Interesting. Might give it a try. Thanks!

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laxatives
"Another study (also in Japan, which seems to lead this obscure field of
research) in 2007 found that eating hard-to-chew foods results in a smaller
waist size, but not a lower body-mass index overall."

Doesn't this contradict the commonly held belief that its not possible to
redistribute the fat around your body (ie, you can't gain abs by just doing
core workouts and ignoring nutrition) ? Is that belief just broscience
garbage?

~~~
lnanek2
With the rats in the same study, the body weight difference was only 6%, while
the different amount of white fat tissue in the belly was 22%. So it is pretty
clear the body is changing composition (more muscular, less fatty).

BMI is worthless in such a case because it penalizes muscle, which is heavier
than fat. I know countless very fit friends who have bad BMIs just because
they have a lot of heavy muscle. BMI only allows you to be a certain weight at
a certain height, it doesn't allow you to carry muscle instead of fat.

------
chipsy
I think the biggest immediate benefit of a product like Soylent is that people
can pick it up in order to try _eliminating_ other foods. There are numerous
symptoms that correlate to a food intolerance, but aren't immediately life
threatening and don't manifest with the typical "swell up and get inflamed"
allergic reaction.

These are the secret enemies of our diet, as they tend to also involve
everyday foods that are integral to the food culture of the household, and
their removal can't be so easily justified when the symptoms aren't obvious.
Individuals attempting an elimination by changing cooking strategy face
conflict, misunderstanding, and to a large extent, their own self-defeating
habits. A product like Soylent reduces the cost of experimentation, which is a
really big deal.

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niix
Interesting idea. I often find eating sort of a task that is required rather
than enjoyed. With that said, my wife has helped me really enjoy the process
of sitting down with others and enjoying their company whilst eating. In
addition, I've been learning how to cook as well and it's helped me really
enjoy the entire process of sitting down and having a meal.

------
oe
Every Soylent article will have a bunch of comments from people who actually
like to spend time on preparing and consuming food. Good for you, I guess?
There are still a lot of people who would gladly skip some meals and use the
time for something more important. What could be more important? It's not
really your problem.

------
fleitz
I guess for some people it works, however, for myself the more I devote to
enjoying life the better I feel (and perform, though I no longer have the
spreadsheets to prove it).

------
jonzjia
There's a solid version called MealSquares:

[http://www.mealsquares.com/](http://www.mealsquares.com/)

Unfortunately all these foods just remind me of NutraLoaf:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutraloaf](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutraloaf)

Which is used as a form of punishment for inmates.

