8 ms·

Now Shipping Soylent 2.0

67 points by rsmith05 11y ago

Nickoladze 11y ago
I'm super excited. I was on Soylent consistently last summer/fall, but had to stop during the winter because living off chilled drinks in winter was hell. I've struggled all summer to get back into the groove and I think pre-bottled Soylent would be best for me. Now I'm just hoping it's good at room temperature.
hooo 11y ago
Does this one have as much lead and cadmium as the previous?
- clamprecht 11y ago
  How much lead & cadmium did the previous one have? (with source please)
  - zorpner 11y ago
    It's easy enough for you to Google up the details. The "issue" wasn't with the content but with their labeling -- they only included the California Prop 65 warning on their website, not on the product packaging (which they claimed was sufficient since the website was the only legitimate source of the product).
    - seiji 11y ago
      It's almost like people entering highly regulated industries should have domain experience and not just make it all up as they go along.
- jeff18 11y ago
  Less: https://faq.soylent.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/203065059/prop-65-meals.v2.rev_D.jpg https://faq.soylent.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/2030650...
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- tinco 11y ago
  Probably not. The powdered form (1.5) had protein from brown rice which has higher levels of lead and cadmium. 2.0 gets the protein from soy which has lower levels.
- adultSwim 11y ago
  If that is a genuine concern you have, I suggest monitoring your intake of rice and fish (sorry - don't have a good fish site to link to) http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/11/arsenic-in-your-food/index.htm http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/11/arsenic-... http://www.consumerreports.org/content/dam/cro/magazine-articles/2012/November/Consumer%20Reports%20Arsenic%20in%20Food%20November%202012_1.pdf http://www.consumerreports.org/content/dam/cro/magazine-arti...
bpodgursky 11y ago
At this point, I'm not sure how bottled Soylent can distinguish itself from other bottled dietary replacements like Ensure, aside from the name.
- seiji 11y ago
  This is where tech vs. business breaks down. Tech thinks everything has to be new, unique, novel, and the-best-in-the-world. Business is all about differentiation and marketing and getting inside customer minds. Even if Soylent was Ensure re-branded, they can still have a business by being "fuel for the tech crowd" instead of "feeding tube fuel" http://www.amazon.com/Nestle-Healthcare-Nutrition-85140100-Unflavored/dp/B00Q0RZGBK http://www.amazon.com/Nestle-Healthcare-Nutrition-85140100-U... It's all the same product. You're paying to belong to a brand/cult for a personal enjoyment experience (I drink the same sludge as VCs! I'm awesome!!), not because the products are substantially different. What's the end-game with Soylent anyway? Soylent will be sold to Nestle, the feeding tube people, not to Tesla or Apple or Microsoft or Adobe.
  - omouse 11y ago
    Are you serious? The products are substantially different. If you look at the nutritional info for Ensure[1] and Soylent[2] you'll see that Soylent has more calories, more fat, no cholesterol, more sodium, more potassium, less sugar, more protein. Most important, Soylent has a more even distribution of the daily % of vitamins and minerals. If you drink 3 bottles of Ensure you're up to 180% daily value of Vitamin C, 240% of Vitamin D, 180% Manganese. The even distribution makes it easier for it to act as a complete meal replacement not just a diet or sports supplement. My feeling is also that Soylent measures more and tweaks their formula more. Their goal is to be a good cheap meal for everyone: Soylent is a food product (classified as a food, not a supplement, by the FDA) designed for use as a staple meal by all adults. Each serving of Soylent provides maximum nutrition with minimum effort. In a paycheck or two I'll buy a bunch of these and they'll be my lunch and breakfast replacement. Things like Ensure don't cut it as a staple meal. [1] https://ensure.com/nutrition-products/ensure-plus#vanilla https://ensure.com/nutrition-products/ensure-plus#vanilla [2] http://files.soylent.com/pdf/soylent-nutrition-facts-2-0-en.pdf http://files.soylent.com/pdf/soylent-nutrition-facts-2-0-en....
deegles 11y ago
It seems like such a waste of plastic and cardboard. Makes me think of Keurig k-cups and how it's been deemed an environmental mess. I'm sure the Soylent bottles are recyclable but it's still a waste to be shipping all that weight around (including the water). I hope they make a vending machine that mixes it on the spot.
- omouse 11y ago
  The problem with Keurig k-cups is that you can't use them for anything else and you can't use them with other coffee machines. These bottles look like you could save them as water bottles in the worst case.
  - Someone1234 11y ago
    Being realistic, nobody is going to use these for water bottles either. And even if they did how many water bottles do you really need? K-Cups are wasteful, but at least they ship three months (90 K-Cups) at a time and there is very little wasted space during shipping (it is just packed coffee). Is it a waste of plastic/foil? Absolutely. But in terms of shipping waste, K-Cups aren't near the worst. These on the other hand are shipping around tap water. That uses up fuel, it uses up space, and it arguably wastes even more plastic. There's no reason this couldn't be shipped as a powder and sell you months and months of the stuff. The saddest part is that they USED to sell the product like that. They're moving to this method to increase the price (and let's not pretend: It is a marked increase).
    - tvanantwerp 11y ago
      As someone who has boxes of the powder sitting around, I'm thrilled to get it pre-mixed in a bottle. The entire convenience factor of Soylent was largely eroded by the mixing and cleaning process, and I'll be happy to have ready-to-drink bottles that I don't have to scrub down for tomorrow's meal.
      - adultSwim 11y ago
epenn 11y ago
I would love to try the pre-bottled version, but unfortunately I'm allergic to soy. I wish they would give an option of the type of protein used since soy is a fairly common allergy.
Scarbutt 11y ago
Looking at the nutrition facts, with 5 bottles (2000 calories) a day you get 60% daily value of fiber, is that percentage enough or I'm missing something here?
- fweespeech 11y ago
  More or less, No. Yes, it is a survivable diet. No, it isn't an optimal diet.
- bufordsharkley 11y ago
  I believe the response from Soylent is that fiber itself is not necessary; it's only needed to move along solid food through the digestive system. If you're only drinking Soylent, you should need far less fiber, if any at all. I am seeing a lot of criticism of this online [1], however. [1] http://discourse.soylent.me/t/reduced-fiber-in-1-5/21706/8 http://discourse.soylent.me/t/reduced-fiber-in-1-5/21706/8
  - collyw 11y ago
    Because a bunch of engineers is going to know best about that sort of thing. (It wasn't invented by gastroenteroligists was it?)
    - DanBC 11y ago
      They pay for dietician advice. The credentials of those dieticians are probably online somewhere. I'm not sure when in the process they got this advice, or if there's a dietician on staff full time.
- DarkTree 11y ago
  As a lot of people have mentioned in previous discussions, Soylent isn't about being the best, it's about tradeoffs like most things in life. 60% daily value of fiber isn't optimal, but it could be more than you are getting on average now.
- elif 11y ago
jkrejci 11y ago
who cares.
farnsworth 11y ago
If you buy the powder, it's easy to blend in some fruit or other flavoring, which gives it more variety and a better taste. Or by itself, it's pretty easy to prepare even in just a shaker bottle if you don't have a blender. I'm curious to see how the texture of 2.0 will compare to way it turns out when I make it at home, though. I assume we'll see the bottled form in stores whenever they're able to produce enough, and that's where they'll really start making money.
- Nadya 11y ago
  I've tried cinnamon, peanut butter powder, cocoa powder, Nesquik, banana, mango, chocolate syrup, vanilla extract, and even tried to mix coffee in after the initial mixing. Nothing has gotten rid of the horribly overpowering taste. I have 3 weeks of 1.5 sitting in my cabinets because I'm unable to stomach it. I don't have overly sensitive taste buds (I will eat almost anything) but simply cannot stomach Soylent. I feel like the odd-ball out as most compare it to a slightly off or flavorless protein shake or "easily better if you add ___ while mixing". I'm wondering what I'm tasting that others' aren't. I want to try 2.0 but am afraid it will still taste exactly like 1.5 and with no way to try and change the flavor by adding it during the mixing phase...as trying to add flavor after the mixing step is more difficult./diluted. Any suggestions from anyone? Am I not adding enough fruit perhaps?
  - jamii 11y ago
    I had the same reaction. I started buying http://www.mealsquares.com/ http://www.mealsquares.com/ instead. They are very dry if not warmed up but they taste like chocolatey oatmeal instead of rotten milk.
    - Nadya 11y ago
      I'm waiting for them to mature more before I give it a try. I waited a long time on Soylent for the same reason.
  - ryaneager 11y ago
    I had the same problem with 1.4, I found adding 2 tbsp of cocoa powder, and 2 tbsp of sugar, per pouch made it taste more like a chocolate protein shake, and way more bearable.
gboss 11y ago
This video is super bizarre. While assembly lines are impressive works of engineering in and of themselves, I don't know how this engenders excitement about the product. It looks super artificial and not like food. I know that's the point that it's "fuel" but it would be nice to see the ingredients that turn into that white liquid. Maybe we don't want to see those...
- thespace123 11y ago
  Jumped on here to say this as well, this does not make Soylent look appetizing or make me want to buy it. It does the exact opposite. It makes the product look bland, generic, manufactured and unappealing.
  - DanBC 11y ago
    They needed this video to overcome the beta testing video of people scooping powders out of various cardboard and plastic buckets from the floor. http://motherboard.vice.com/read/soylent-how-i-stopped-eating-for-30-days http://motherboard.vice.com/read/soylent-how-i-stopped-eatin...
dmm 11y ago
The soy content will be great for menopausal women.
bobwaycott 11y ago
Now we are going to create a ton of plastic waste?
beatpanda 11y ago
oh neat, did they get rid of the toxic heavy metals yet?
sigma2015 11y ago
My favorite argument for food being more than just a percentual composition of nutrients is the fact that your gut is effectively able to smell. > Olfactory receptor responding to gut microbiota-derived signals plays a role in renin secretion and blood pressure regulation [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3600440/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3600440/] Beyond my scepticism regarding the long-term benefit of a simplification of eating down to relying to a single designed food source - I am also worried about the mindset of a person who is motivated in doing so.
- Nickoladze 11y ago
  My mindset is that I live alone and I heavily dislike cooking food. When not consuming soylent, I live entirely off of take-out and delivery food. There is almost no way that Soylent isn't more healthy than the stuff I would otherwise eat.
  - sigma2015 11y ago
    Then you should reevaluate your eating options. There is more than cooked or take-away or Soylent. How about this: - Whole-wheat bread - Avocado - Smoked fish - a piece of feta - an apple - a banana Just one of many cold-dish very healthy meals. A good mix of everything - carbon hydrates, proteins, fats, ruffage, vitamins, minerals - enjoy.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
riebschlager 11y ago
Soylent truly is the food of the future! [1] [1] The joyless tech-utopian future for ascetics nerds who decided their humanity wasn't optimized for maximum productivity.
- bpicolo 11y ago
  I still don't understand the market segment at all. Super bizarre for me.
- adultSwim 11y ago
  Ha! I started using it because it's just so easy for me to skip breakfast and/or lunch. I'm not replacing food with it. Just works better than not eating.
  - collyw 11y ago
    You should try intermittent fasting. The first two or three weeks are hard, but after that its easy, and really seems to sort out insulin sensitivity (or thats my guess from reading the science and "gut" feeling - pun intended). No feeling tired after lunch.
timdeneau 11y ago
The plastic bottles are wasteful. This makes sense for retail locations, but not for home delivery. For someone who drinks a fair amount weekly, I have to mix soylent with something to stomach it. If you remove that option I'm not really sure who they are targeting this at. Also interesting the powder wasn't updated to the 2.0 formula.
zimbatm 11y ago
So.. what's the changelog for v2.0 ? There is no link in the text or in the video pointing to that info.
glesperance 11y ago
Really sad to read that this new batch isn't certified gluten free. Eating gluten free is often a struggle for ppl with celiac disease. I'm sure a gluten free soylent would be greatly appreciated by the celiac community! (as least I would!) The way I see it, a gluten free soylent would be my go-to lunch meal when I'm in a hurry or when there are no leftovers.
- DanBC 11y ago
  Ensure complete retail is gluten free so if you wanted a liquid feed you could try that. http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/products/ensure-complete-retail http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/products/ensure-complete-r... I'm not sure it's a great idea and you may want to check with a doctor first.
gbalint 11y ago
I wonder how bad is that for your teeth if you don't have to chew on your food.
- listic 11y ago
  Not very. Chewing gum would help.
cryoshon 11y ago
Please stop this culture of insanity, it is destructive. I get it, Soylent is targeting the "100X engineer" crowd who are supposed to be unflappably dedicated near-godlike ubermenschen. I get that people need to telegraph "how busy" they are by constantly talking about it to everyone with ears. I understand that people need to communicate high-value to each other, and do this by referencing how much responsibility they're given professionally or otherwise-- but long before the point of people eating nutrient paste instead of real food, this busyness fetish has gone too far. You don't need to be eating nutrient paste to convince me that you are important at your job and also good at it-- these concepts have nothing to do with each other, and the usage of Soylent as a prop for the persona of "being hardcore" is simply puerile. Nobody in the real world is so "busy" that they can't stop what they are doing for a few minutes and prepare and consume real food in order to meet their body's demands. Even special forces soldiers on combat missions in enemy territory carry food that needs to be quickly prepared, which they can then scarf down. Relatedly, quality food is a big boon for morale-- and Soylent sure aint. I guess if you're a meta-human weirdo who claims to have no inherent desire to consume tasty food and just wants to "get it out of the way", Soylent is for you. I don't believe you actually exist, though. I guess it's possible some brain pathology could cause a lack of desire for food, but come on, go to a doctor instead of eating Soylent. As a parting shot, I'll mention that Soylent probably doesn't have any kind of phytonutrients or anything similar. Soylent also doesn't have any of the numerous pharmacologically active ingredients of common food items-- the effects of not having these may be subtle, but noticeable over time. Look, just go to your local farm stand, and buy some fucking fruits and vegetables. Most of them can even be eaten raw if you're gonna be a jerk about "not being able to cook" or not having enough time.
- frewsxcv 11y ago
  'Nobody in the real world is so "busy" that they can't stop what they are doing for a few minutes and prepare and consume real food in order to meet their body's demands.' Compare the preparation time for preparing a meal that satisfies oneself nutritionally compared with Soylent. It's not just about spending more time working, it's about having time to do other things like reading or playing music. Also, why are you getting so upset about people who want to eat nutritious meals?
tunesmith 11y ago
I'd love to see less snark/hostility/FUD on these Soylent threads. 1. No, Soylent is not the same as Ensure with different packaging/marketing 2. No, Soylent does not have illegal levels of heavy metals, nor did it in the past. 3. People don't tend to eat nutritionally complete meals every meal of the day. Measuring Soylent against this ideal is beside the point. Soylent is inarguably better than coke and cheetos, though. I bet most people reading this can think of a meal they've had in the last 48 hours that was less healthy than 12 oz soylent.
- splawn 11y ago
  This isn't meant to be hostile snark FUD. Hopefully you know the answer or have a link that addresses my question. As far as your first point... I am asking because I know someone that sometimes has trouble keeping food down and their doctor recommended them to use Ensure, but they didn't like it. I was thinking about telling them about Soylent, of course I would have them ask their doctor first. Anyways, What makes it functionally different than Ensure?
  - tunesmith 11y ago
    If I were to try to give a complete answer, I'd probably spend fifteen minutes googling "Ensure vs Soylent" - there are some good matches there through discussion boards that analyze the ingredient breakdowns, also some replies from the soylent people too. Ensure is definitely more expensive in those analyses, and that's from before soylent's recent price drop. Beyond that, it appears to be a rather different ingredient list - looks like Ensure doesn't have much in the way of fiber, has more sugar, etc.
- DanBC 11y ago
  I'd love to see Soylent apologising for the untruthful misleading lies they told during fundraising. Until they apologise they deserve scorn. (Edit)
oliv__ 11y ago
I never realized how amazing packaging technology had become.

67 points by rsmith05 11y ago

I'm super excited. I was on Soylent consistently last summer/fall, but had to stop during the winter because living off chilled drinks in winter was hell. I've struggled all summer to get back into the groove and I think pre-bottled Soylent would be best for me. Now I'm just hoping it's good at room temperature.

hooo 11y ago

Does this one have as much lead and cadmium as the previous?

clamprecht 11y ago
How much lead & cadmium did the previous one have? (with source please)
- zorpner 11y ago
  It's easy enough for you to Google up the details. The "issue" wasn't with the content but with their labeling -- they only included the California Prop 65 warning on their website, not on the product packaging (which they claimed was sufficient since the website was the only legitimate source of the product).
  - seiji 11y ago
    It's almost like people entering highly regulated industries should have domain experience and not just make it all up as they go along.
jeff18 11y ago
Less: https://faq.soylent.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/203065059/prop-65-meals.v2.rev_D.jpg https://faq.soylent.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/2030650...
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
tinco 11y ago
Probably not. The powdered form (1.5) had protein from brown rice which has higher levels of lead and cadmium. 2.0 gets the protein from soy which has lower levels.
adultSwim 11y ago
If that is a genuine concern you have, I suggest monitoring your intake of rice and fish (sorry - don't have a good fish site to link to) http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/11/arsenic-in-your-food/index.htm http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/11/arsenic-... http://www.consumerreports.org/content/dam/cro/magazine-articles/2012/November/Consumer%20Reports%20Arsenic%20in%20Food%20November%202012_1.pdf http://www.consumerreports.org/content/dam/cro/magazine-arti...

bpodgursky 11y ago

At this point, I'm not sure how bottled Soylent can distinguish itself from other bottled dietary replacements like Ensure, aside from the name.

seiji 11y ago
This is where tech vs. business breaks down. Tech thinks everything has to be new, unique, novel, and the-best-in-the-world. Business is all about differentiation and marketing and getting inside customer minds. Even if Soylent was Ensure re-branded, they can still have a business by being "fuel for the tech crowd" instead of "feeding tube fuel" http://www.amazon.com/Nestle-Healthcare-Nutrition-85140100-Unflavored/dp/B00Q0RZGBK http://www.amazon.com/Nestle-Healthcare-Nutrition-85140100-U... It's all the same product. You're paying to belong to a brand/cult for a personal enjoyment experience (I drink the same sludge as VCs! I'm awesome!!), not because the products are substantially different. What's the end-game with Soylent anyway? Soylent will be sold to Nestle, the feeding tube people, not to Tesla or Apple or Microsoft or Adobe.
- omouse 11y ago
  Are you serious? The products are substantially different. If you look at the nutritional info for Ensure[1] and Soylent[2] you'll see that Soylent has more calories, more fat, no cholesterol, more sodium, more potassium, less sugar, more protein. Most important, Soylent has a more even distribution of the daily % of vitamins and minerals. If you drink 3 bottles of Ensure you're up to 180% daily value of Vitamin C, 240% of Vitamin D, 180% Manganese. The even distribution makes it easier for it to act as a complete meal replacement not just a diet or sports supplement. My feeling is also that Soylent measures more and tweaks their formula more. Their goal is to be a good cheap meal for everyone: Soylent is a food product (classified as a food, not a supplement, by the FDA) designed for use as a staple meal by all adults. Each serving of Soylent provides maximum nutrition with minimum effort. In a paycheck or two I'll buy a bunch of these and they'll be my lunch and breakfast replacement. Things like Ensure don't cut it as a staple meal. [1] https://ensure.com/nutrition-products/ensure-plus#vanilla https://ensure.com/nutrition-products/ensure-plus#vanilla [2] http://files.soylent.com/pdf/soylent-nutrition-facts-2-0-en.pdf http://files.soylent.com/pdf/soylent-nutrition-facts-2-0-en....

deegles 11y ago

It seems like such a waste of plastic and cardboard. Makes me think of Keurig k-cups and how it's been deemed an environmental mess. I'm sure the Soylent bottles are recyclable but it's still a waste to be shipping all that weight around (including the water). I hope they make a vending machine that mixes it on the spot.

omouse 11y ago
The problem with Keurig k-cups is that you can't use them for anything else and you can't use them with other coffee machines. These bottles look like you could save them as water bottles in the worst case.
- Someone1234 11y ago
  Being realistic, nobody is going to use these for water bottles either. And even if they did how many water bottles do you really need? K-Cups are wasteful, but at least they ship three months (90 K-Cups) at a time and there is very little wasted space during shipping (it is just packed coffee). Is it a waste of plastic/foil? Absolutely. But in terms of shipping waste, K-Cups aren't near the worst. These on the other hand are shipping around tap water. That uses up fuel, it uses up space, and it arguably wastes even more plastic. There's no reason this couldn't be shipped as a powder and sell you months and months of the stuff. The saddest part is that they USED to sell the product like that. They're moving to this method to increase the price (and let's not pretend: It is a marked increase).
  - tvanantwerp 11y ago
    As someone who has boxes of the powder sitting around, I'm thrilled to get it pre-mixed in a bottle. The entire convenience factor of Soylent was largely eroded by the mixing and cleaning process, and I'll be happy to have ready-to-drink bottles that I don't have to scrub down for tomorrow's meal.
    - adultSwim 11y ago

epenn 11y ago

I would love to try the pre-bottled version, but unfortunately I'm allergic to soy. I wish they would give an option of the type of protein used since soy is a fairly common allergy.

Scarbutt 11y ago

Looking at the nutrition facts, with 5 bottles (2000 calories) a day you get 60% daily value of fiber, is that percentage enough or I'm missing something here?

fweespeech 11y ago
More or less, No. Yes, it is a survivable diet. No, it isn't an optimal diet.
bufordsharkley 11y ago
I believe the response from Soylent is that fiber itself is not necessary; it's only needed to move along solid food through the digestive system. If you're only drinking Soylent, you should need far less fiber, if any at all. I am seeing a lot of criticism of this online [1], however. [1] http://discourse.soylent.me/t/reduced-fiber-in-1-5/21706/8 http://discourse.soylent.me/t/reduced-fiber-in-1-5/21706/8
- collyw 11y ago
  Because a bunch of engineers is going to know best about that sort of thing. (It wasn't invented by gastroenteroligists was it?)
  - DanBC 11y ago
    They pay for dietician advice. The credentials of those dieticians are probably online somewhere. I'm not sure when in the process they got this advice, or if there's a dietician on staff full time.
DarkTree 11y ago
As a lot of people have mentioned in previous discussions, Soylent isn't about being the best, it's about tradeoffs like most things in life. 60% daily value of fiber isn't optimal, but it could be more than you are getting on average now.
elif 11y ago

jkrejci 11y ago

who cares.

farnsworth 11y ago

If you buy the powder, it's easy to blend in some fruit or other flavoring, which gives it more variety and a better taste. Or by itself, it's pretty easy to prepare even in just a shaker bottle if you don't have a blender. I'm curious to see how the texture of 2.0 will compare to way it turns out when I make it at home, though. I assume we'll see the bottled form in stores whenever they're able to produce enough, and that's where they'll really start making money.

Nadya 11y ago
I've tried cinnamon, peanut butter powder, cocoa powder, Nesquik, banana, mango, chocolate syrup, vanilla extract, and even tried to mix coffee in after the initial mixing. Nothing has gotten rid of the horribly overpowering taste. I have 3 weeks of 1.5 sitting in my cabinets because I'm unable to stomach it. I don't have overly sensitive taste buds (I will eat almost anything) but simply cannot stomach Soylent. I feel like the odd-ball out as most compare it to a slightly off or flavorless protein shake or "easily better if you add ___ while mixing". I'm wondering what I'm tasting that others' aren't. I want to try 2.0 but am afraid it will still taste exactly like 1.5 and with no way to try and change the flavor by adding it during the mixing phase...as trying to add flavor after the mixing step is more difficult./diluted. Any suggestions from anyone? Am I not adding enough fruit perhaps?
- jamii 11y ago
  I had the same reaction. I started buying http://www.mealsquares.com/ http://www.mealsquares.com/ instead. They are very dry if not warmed up but they taste like chocolatey oatmeal instead of rotten milk.
  - Nadya 11y ago
    I'm waiting for them to mature more before I give it a try. I waited a long time on Soylent for the same reason.
- ryaneager 11y ago
  I had the same problem with 1.4, I found adding 2 tbsp of cocoa powder, and 2 tbsp of sugar, per pouch made it taste more like a chocolate protein shake, and way more bearable.

gboss 11y ago

This video is super bizarre. While assembly lines are impressive works of engineering in and of themselves, I don't know how this engenders excitement about the product. It looks super artificial and not like food. I know that's the point that it's "fuel" but it would be nice to see the ingredients that turn into that white liquid. Maybe we don't want to see those...

thespace123 11y ago
Jumped on here to say this as well, this does not make Soylent look appetizing or make me want to buy it. It does the exact opposite. It makes the product look bland, generic, manufactured and unappealing.
- DanBC 11y ago
  They needed this video to overcome the beta testing video of people scooping powders out of various cardboard and plastic buckets from the floor. http://motherboard.vice.com/read/soylent-how-i-stopped-eating-for-30-days http://motherboard.vice.com/read/soylent-how-i-stopped-eatin...

dmm 11y ago

The soy content will be great for menopausal women.

bobwaycott 11y ago

Now we are going to create a ton of plastic waste?

beatpanda 11y ago

oh neat, did they get rid of the toxic heavy metals yet?

sigma2015 11y ago

My favorite argument for food being more than just a percentual composition of nutrients is the fact that your gut is effectively able to smell. > Olfactory receptor responding to gut microbiota-derived signals plays a role in renin secretion and blood pressure regulation [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3600440/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3600440/] Beyond my scepticism regarding the long-term benefit of a simplification of eating down to relying to a single designed food source - I am also worried about the mindset of a person who is motivated in doing so.

Nickoladze 11y ago
My mindset is that I live alone and I heavily dislike cooking food. When not consuming soylent, I live entirely off of take-out and delivery food. There is almost no way that Soylent isn't more healthy than the stuff I would otherwise eat.
- sigma2015 11y ago
  Then you should reevaluate your eating options. There is more than cooked or take-away or Soylent. How about this: - Whole-wheat bread - Avocado - Smoked fish - a piece of feta - an apple - a banana Just one of many cold-dish very healthy meals. A good mix of everything - carbon hydrates, proteins, fats, ruffage, vitamins, minerals - enjoy.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

riebschlager 11y ago

Soylent truly is the food of the future! [1] [1] The joyless tech-utopian future for ascetics nerds who decided their humanity wasn't optimized for maximum productivity.

bpicolo 11y ago
I still don't understand the market segment at all. Super bizarre for me.
adultSwim 11y ago
Ha! I started using it because it's just so easy for me to skip breakfast and/or lunch. I'm not replacing food with it. Just works better than not eating.
- collyw 11y ago
  You should try intermittent fasting. The first two or three weeks are hard, but after that its easy, and really seems to sort out insulin sensitivity (or thats my guess from reading the science and "gut" feeling - pun intended). No feeling tired after lunch.

timdeneau 11y ago

The plastic bottles are wasteful. This makes sense for retail locations, but not for home delivery. For someone who drinks a fair amount weekly, I have to mix soylent with something to stomach it. If you remove that option I'm not really sure who they are targeting this at. Also interesting the powder wasn't updated to the 2.0 formula.

zimbatm 11y ago

So.. what's the changelog for v2.0 ? There is no link in the text or in the video pointing to that info.

glesperance 11y ago

Really sad to read that this new batch isn't certified gluten free. Eating gluten free is often a struggle for ppl with celiac disease. I'm sure a gluten free soylent would be greatly appreciated by the celiac community! (as least I would!) The way I see it, a gluten free soylent would be my go-to lunch meal when I'm in a hurry or when there are no leftovers.

DanBC 11y ago
Ensure complete retail is gluten free so if you wanted a liquid feed you could try that. http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/products/ensure-complete-retail http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/products/ensure-complete-r... I'm not sure it's a great idea and you may want to check with a doctor first.

gbalint 11y ago

I wonder how bad is that for your teeth if you don't have to chew on your food.

listic 11y ago
Not very. Chewing gum would help.

cryoshon 11y ago

Please stop this culture of insanity, it is destructive. I get it, Soylent is targeting the "100X engineer" crowd who are supposed to be unflappably dedicated near-godlike ubermenschen. I get that people need to telegraph "how busy" they are by constantly talking about it to everyone with ears. I understand that people need to communicate high-value to each other, and do this by referencing how much responsibility they're given professionally or otherwise-- but long before the point of people eating nutrient paste instead of real food, this busyness fetish has gone too far. You don't need to be eating nutrient paste to convince me that you are important at your job and also good at it-- these concepts have nothing to do with each other, and the usage of Soylent as a prop for the persona of "being hardcore" is simply puerile. Nobody in the real world is so "busy" that they can't stop what they are doing for a few minutes and prepare and consume real food in order to meet their body's demands. Even special forces soldiers on combat missions in enemy territory carry food that needs to be quickly prepared, which they can then scarf down. Relatedly, quality food is a big boon for morale-- and Soylent sure aint. I guess if you're a meta-human weirdo who claims to have no inherent desire to consume tasty food and just wants to "get it out of the way", Soylent is for you. I don't believe you actually exist, though. I guess it's possible some brain pathology could cause a lack of desire for food, but come on, go to a doctor instead of eating Soylent. As a parting shot, I'll mention that Soylent probably doesn't have any kind of phytonutrients or anything similar. Soylent also doesn't have any of the numerous pharmacologically active ingredients of common food items-- the effects of not having these may be subtle, but noticeable over time. Look, just go to your local farm stand, and buy some fucking fruits and vegetables. Most of them can even be eaten raw if you're gonna be a jerk about "not being able to cook" or not having enough time.

frewsxcv 11y ago
'Nobody in the real world is so "busy" that they can't stop what they are doing for a few minutes and prepare and consume real food in order to meet their body's demands.' Compare the preparation time for preparing a meal that satisfies oneself nutritionally compared with Soylent. It's not just about spending more time working, it's about having time to do other things like reading or playing music. Also, why are you getting so upset about people who want to eat nutritious meals?

tunesmith 11y ago

I'd love to see less snark/hostility/FUD on these Soylent threads. 1. No, Soylent is not the same as Ensure with different packaging/marketing 2. No, Soylent does not have illegal levels of heavy metals, nor did it in the past. 3. People don't tend to eat nutritionally complete meals every meal of the day. Measuring Soylent against this ideal is beside the point. Soylent is inarguably better than coke and cheetos, though. I bet most people reading this can think of a meal they've had in the last 48 hours that was less healthy than 12 oz soylent.

splawn 11y ago
This isn't meant to be hostile snark FUD. Hopefully you know the answer or have a link that addresses my question. As far as your first point... I am asking because I know someone that sometimes has trouble keeping food down and their doctor recommended them to use Ensure, but they didn't like it. I was thinking about telling them about Soylent, of course I would have them ask their doctor first. Anyways, What makes it functionally different than Ensure?
- tunesmith 11y ago
  If I were to try to give a complete answer, I'd probably spend fifteen minutes googling "Ensure vs Soylent" - there are some good matches there through discussion boards that analyze the ingredient breakdowns, also some replies from the soylent people too. Ensure is definitely more expensive in those analyses, and that's from before soylent's recent price drop. Beyond that, it appears to be a rather different ingredient list - looks like Ensure doesn't have much in the way of fiber, has more sugar, etc.
DanBC 11y ago
I'd love to see Soylent apologising for the untruthful misleading lies they told during fundraising. Until they apologise they deserve scorn. (Edit)

oliv__ 11y ago

I never realized how amazing packaging technology had become.