

Interview with Rob Rhinehart about Soylent - jp_sc
http://www.vice.com/read/rob-rhinehart-interview-soylent-never-eat-again?utm_source=vicetwitterus

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jmduke
On one hand, I really really want Soylent to be successful; it would solve so
many problems if we had a ubiquitous, cheap, and above all else _effective_
meal replacement option.

On the other hand, I can't shake the feeling that it's not going to. Even
reading this article, my suspicions flared up a few times (I thought invoking
McDonalds was strange, and most of his points about nutrition and consumption
seemed off-base.) Maybe it's years and years of pseudoscience taking its toll
on me, I dunno.

At the very least, I'm interested to see where things are headed.

~~~
angdis
I think it is an interesting product idea if the market is either:

a) People who are starving. If the price is right and it has the right
properties as far as shelf life and nutrition, sure, it would make an
excellent ration for feeding populations in food emergencies or natural
disasters.

b) People for whom eating and food preparation is an undesirable chore. A good
example would be combat soldiers who need to eat something and don't care what
it is as long as it satisfies hunger and provides nutrition.

For many (most?) other people food is intimately tied in with culture and
epicurean tradition. This product won't go over well in places like Italy and
France, for example.

~~~
gmays
b) is interesting. In 2008/2009 I spent a year in Iraq on a small military
advisor team. We went out in teams of 6-9 and lived with the Iraqis. Most of
our MREs were expired (they expire quickly in 100+ degree heat) so we ate a
lot of Iraqi food. I also brought tubs of True-Mass to mix with water. It
worked pretty well, even over 1-2 weeks ops.

From this experience, I've always been interested to see how soylent turns
out. Even back here in the rear nutrition is a chore. I eat to stay alive, not
for the experience. Heck, I go to Costco and pay $3.77 for a slice of pizza,
hotdog, and a drink whenever I can.

My major question about soylent is its nutritional value. I work out 2x a day,
5-6 days a week. I have a Syntha-6 protein shake after each workout with some
fruit and orange juice. I'm curious if soylent will provide the same level of
nutrition I currently get.

If it does, it'd be excellent under demanding physical conditions like combat
operations and high performance athletes. I'd eventually like to see different
mixes, i.e.: weight loss, weight-gain, distance athlete, etc. Hell, I'd pay a
premium for it. My wife pays around $200/wk. for Bistro M.D. meals because she
doesn't have time to cook. I'd pay something similar if I could get a high
performance meal replacement that I could eat every day, for every meal (maybe
different flavors to mix it up), and didn't taste like shit.

So how long until we see the ultra-lean startup that forgoes the in-house
gourmet chef for a soylent dispenser?

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noonespecial
_Sounds pretty wild. What 's next for the smoothie that Gawker said "looks
just like semen"?_

The color is a bit problematic in that respect. He should just put in a little
coloring. I suggest green.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Blue maybe, but probably not green which is often associated with algae growth
in fluids.

One of the most interesting thing about this whole campaign is seeing who is
afraid of it. Now _that_ provides some interesting insights.

~~~
dasil003
I'm scared of it.

Well let me qualify that. I wouldn't trust my health to eating primarily an
engineered food solution as he is doing. In the grand scheme of things it's a
lot less scary than the majority of "food" that you see for sale everywhere in
the developed world. At least he is trying to create a healthy food rather
than something that addicts people and maximizes margins. So I think it's
better than the status quo, far less scary than Coca Cola for instance.

But the part that scares me is the idea that a healthy diet can be engineered.
As far as I've seen, our understanding of diet and human metabolism is in the
dark ages. I wouldn't trust a nutritionist to engineer a diet any more than I
would trust a medieval "doctor" to cure me by bloodletting.

So what insight does that provide about me?

~~~
Afforess
But you do trust your health to the distracted 16 year old flipping burgers at
McDonalds?

~~~
vectorpush
This line of reasoning drives me crazy. Who cares if it's _maybe_ healthier
than just about the shittiest food available for consumption? Honestly, can
you think of anything that wouldn't pass the test of "healthier than
McDonalds"?

Beyond that, the distracted 16 year old is not suggesting that you consume
McDonalds as your sole source of nutrition (in fact, he doesn't care at all
what you eat); pretty much everyone agrees that eating only McDonalds is a
terrible idea, how that gets twisted into a defense of Soylent is just
baffling.

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pallandt
An overlooked consequence of long-term replacement of solids with liquids for
nutrition is the fact that dentition is going to most likely change, I'm
referring especially to teeth position.

Daily chewing is applying pressure to teeth and keeping them 'set' in the
position you're familiar with.

While researching some wisdom tooth extraction possible long-term side
effects, I was surprised to find out how much can teeth migrate, start
receding etc. if one is not able to chew on both sides for example.

I don't remember the source(s), but I saw real pictures of people with this
problem. There were multiple causes too, not just as a consequence of
extractions gone wrong.

A lot of people are focusing on the issue of meeting nutritional requirements,
but I'm curious on seeing a real dentist's opinion on the possible long-term
effects of such a diet as well.

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chrisduesing
There is a big gap between "all the ingredients are safe to eat" and "the
ingredients comprise everything your body requires".

~~~
ChuckMcM
True, one does not imply the other. But if you've read Rob's blog and other
material you see that his process was identify "the ingredients your body
requires" and then "find _those_ ingredients in safe to eat form." So in this
case the list of ingredients is a dependent variable on what your body
requires.

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bjourne
Doesn't someone already own the trademark for Soylent? Here is Rob's trademark
application dated February 21, 2013:
[http://www.markhound.com/trademark/search/sBxK5WeM7](http://www.markhound.com/trademark/search/sBxK5WeM7)
It seems (to me) incredibly unlikely that someone hasn't already at least
tried to trademark it for use in protein shakes or other foodstuffs. And
whoever owns the rights to the movie Soylent Green might want to have a word
with him if his food supplement ever becomes popular.

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reggieband
It's interesting to see an industry traditionally dominated by
marketing/advertising being taken on from the perspective of engineering. I
have a strong suspicion that the management team isn't right for the long term
and if they really hope to compete in the food industry or supplement industry
they will have to get bought out.

I was a bit surprised when I tracked down the price - $65-$75 for a weeks
supply means $10+ per day. Although I cannot imagine replacing my entire diet
with this I could see supplementing or replacing the occasional individual
meal. IMO, the price would have to come down from $10 for that to be
reasonable.

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xutopia
I think the digestive track adapts to what you eat. If you eat only this for a
while you may have issues digesting other things down the road. At least this
is my anecdotal experience with eating the same damn thing as a student.

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kevbin
I don't get the appeal to those of us w/ easy access to a wide variety of
inexpensive, high-quality foods stuffs. Eating a varied diet is one of life's
great joys, not a problem that needs to be solved.

Even if you want to avoid the joy of eating, isn't Ensure Complete Vanilla
already a sufficient meal-replacement-that-looks-like-seminal-fluid drink?

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deletes
Nobody noticed this but Soylent actually made its debut in the matrix.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oEnJfZ9joY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oEnJfZ9joY)

Truly the food of the future. (controlled by machines.)

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jmuguy
I'm sure this stuff will be just as successful as baby formula. And I mean
that in the most sarcastic way possible.

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robbiet480
Another up and coming Oakland based company!

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parnas
soy causes man boobs

~~~
Blaaguuu
I'm not sure if you are serious, or trying to make a joke... But last I heard,
consuming the Phytoestrogens in soy were found to have no measurable effect on
a human male's estrogen/testosterone levels, or otherwise make them appear/act
more feminine.

~~~
simplethird
Sure, but I'm pretty sure the reason xenoestrogens are "bad" is because they
affect the same cellular receptors as naturally occurring hormones, not
because they affect estrogen/testosterone levels. Just because we've measured
that something isn't the case, doesn't necessarily mean something (else) isn't
happening. It could be doing something we just can't measure yet. Who knows
what the long-term effects of greater phytoestrogen intake is for an
individual? Or for their future offspring?

As others in this thread have alluded to, we're far from having a correct
model that we can believe in with high confidence when it comes to nutrition.

