8 ms·

Update on Soylent Bar

41 points by misframer 10y ago

kaishiro 10y ago
It's tangential to the contents of the post, but as a lover of good food (I consider it my one real vice), I've always liked the idea of Soylent. A vast majority of the time I just need something to fill me up. And it's a neat idea to know you're getting everything you need from a single foodstuff (a la the Matrix's gruel). I feel like, if anything, it may make the times you sit down to a nice meal that much more enjoyable.
- CivilianZero 10y ago
  As someone who has, in the past, lived on Soylent for months at a time when it was most convenient, I can vouch for your feeling. Every "normal" meal I had while living off Soylent tasted amazing and in between great tasting meals I didn't have to stress about food if I didn't want to. To me, Soylent is gaining control over a thing that gives me great anxiety, that thing being food. And having that control allows me to put even more effort into cooking great meals when I want to.
  - kaishiro 10y ago
    Man, you nailed what I was trying to say. I never would have described it as anxiety - because off the cuff it actually sounds pretty silly to be anxious about food - but that is absolutely what it is.
colept 10y ago
This is the response I have been waiting for - this kind of decisive action is a step in the right direction. The timing however is not. This is not a preventative measure, it's reactive. Would Soylent have taken the same action if they had not been put on blast on Reddit and other sites? If not for the bad publicity I don't think they would have done anything at all. Until they are ensuring the quality of their product from batch to batch I'm out. That means properly mixed bars, testing each batch to ensure the 100% nutritional values they claim.
bertiewhykovich 10y ago
The Platonic form of "too little, too late."
jtchang 10y ago
Solid response much like the one with Tynenol: http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall02/susi/tylenol.htm http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall02/susi/tylenol.htm
- perardi 10y ago
  And unlike Samsung.
- joering2 10y ago
  Interesting read, you learn something new every day... I like the part about $2.50 off. Gee this product killed people but its on sale now with $2.50 off... oh well I'll take a chance!
  - jedmeyers 10y ago
    It was not Tylenol that killed people. Someone put cyanide capsules inside Tylenol bottles. I am saying "someone" because as far as I know they never found the person who did this.
    - joering2 10y ago
      They did. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders
      - henriquemaia 10y ago
        From the article introduction: > No suspect was ever charged or convicted of the poisonings.
- rspeer 10y ago
  That doesn't seem like an appropriate comparison. Tylenol was killing people because it was deliberately tampered with by an anonymous murderer. That's a much more serious issue than a new experimental food that makes some people throw up. Even though I'm a fan of real food and a skeptic of Soylent, I'll say that the Soylent Bar issues sound overblown already, and comparing this to cyanide-tainted Tylenol is blowing it even more out of proportion.
tedmiston 10y ago
The title "Update on Soylent Bar" is pretty vague, so here's the gist: > It has recently come to our attention that a small number of our customers have experienced gastrointestinal issues after consuming Soylent Bars. As a precautionary measure, we are halting all Soylent Bar purchases and shipments and are advising our customers to discard any remaining bars in their possession. > After hearing from our customers, we immediately began investigating the cause of the issue and whether it was linked to a problem with the Bars. So far we have not yet identified one... > We will be reaching out via e-mail to all Bar customers to offer a full refund. Wow. I have a box of Soylent Bars from a few weeks ago I've been eating on occasion. I haven't had any issues, and they seem fine to me. Kudos to the Soylent team for covering the issue so quickly, especially after the incident last month [1] where Coffiest wasn't meeting its prescribed nutritional content. It seems like they're struggling with production quality and consistency at scale. (That said, I am a happy Soylent customer.) [1]: http://blog.soylent.com/post/149763512312/update-on-coffiest-and-powder http://blog.soylent.com/post/149763512312/update-on-coffiest...
- themodelplumber 10y ago
  Maybe they are fine. I saw people online raving about Quest bars, so I bought five different flavors to try. Result: Gastrointestinal issues I haven't experienced with other protein bars. And I didn't even like the taste. Even with that experience in mind, I'd probably try a Soylent Bar. Everybody's different.
  - perardi 10y ago
    It's probably one of the sugar alcohols, which tend to draw water into the bowels. As for anecdotes: Quest bars usually don't upset my system, but other protein bars (MetRX protein bar, that was a memorable time…) and a lot of "diet" foods, like Weight Watchers desserts, cause, well, lower GI upset.
    - jschwartzi 10y ago
      A lot of "diet" bars and sugar-free protein mixes are sweetened with sugar alcohols like Xylitol or Sorbitol. Your upper GI tract can't actually digest these sugars, but there's plenty of bacteria in your lower GI tract which digest them readily and produce a large quantity of gas. Sugar free gum has the same effect for the same reason, at least if you chew enough of it.
overcast 10y ago
Ever since its first very first release, anytime I've read about Soylent, there is always some type of gastrointestinal response associated with it. What's the deal with their formulas? I've used other Soylent type products, and researched a ton more, and I never get the impression that they have similar issues.
- lvs 10y ago
  If they've really put so much science into the formulation, shouldn't crop-dusting index (CDI) be one of the metrics by which the formula is optimized?
- skybrian 10y ago
  Hard to say, but I'd guess that partially it's availability bias. Problems with other niche foods aren't usually posted on Hacker News. They also don't have their own Reddit group and fans who post about each others' experiences (sometimes negative).
  - overcast 10y ago
    Plausible.
- jaggederest 10y ago
  The honest answer is probably that most people are not used to having substantial amounts of fiber in their diet, and being in the form of a liquid makes it much more noticeable if you do have any issues. The basic issue is that, while you may have gas as a result of eating a burrito, it's spread out over a day. With Soylent or any liquid nutrition really, it hits you over 1-4 hours. Ditto any other sort of gastrointestinal upset - what would be subclinical with solid food and a day or two long timeframe becomes an immediate crisis where you'd better find a restroom in the next 10 minutes.
  - bpicolo 10y ago
    This article is referring to solid food, to be fair
burger_moon 10y ago
Looks like they've been having additional issues with QC recently. http://blog.soylent.com/post/149763512312/update-on-coffiest-and-powder http://blog.soylent.com/post/149763512312/update-on-coffiest...
misiti3780 10y ago
I'm probably going to get downvoted for this ... but honestly why do people want to eat Soylent? One of the great joys of life is food, Soylent taste like shit, eating it every day is boring, and no one knows the long term affects of eating it for long periods of time. I'm a big fan-boy of a lot of stuff SV produces, Soylent does not impress me.
- jdavis703 10y ago
  I wake up on many days at 5am to head out for work. I go from butt naked in bed to out the door in ten minutes. Before Soylent I just skipped breakfast, now I can swig it down really quick. My lunches and dinners OTOH tend to be much nicer, but nothing beats the quick rush of nutrients.
  - tluyben2 10y ago
    What a life... you enjoy this?
- api 10y ago
  Soylent doesn't replace good food. It replaces the crappy food we eat when we're in a hurry and just need some fuel.
- nilkn 10y ago
  My SO and I have a stockpile of bottled Soylent. It's great. There's always a nutritious meal available. Sometimes neither of us feels like cooking. Sometimes we don't feel like going out. Sometimes you're hungry, need some reasonably healthy food, but don't care if it's gourmet or tastes great as long as it's acceptable. Soylent does the job really well. I also don't agree that it tastes like shit. The bottled Soylent tastes like soy milk to me, which I find delicious. I'd say I personally only drink one bottle per week, maybe two. My SO uses it for breakfast fairly often (which previously she was in the habit of just skipping).
- jclos 10y ago
  I am as puzzled as you, especially if the taste is as bad as you say. There is one industry that has already been focusing on making "healthy" stuff taste good for the past decades: the fitness industry. Why not just go for a good old protein shake? Or a protein bar? It costs almost nothing (except maybe the protein bars, which are comparable in price to soylent ones) and are nutritious enough.
logicallee 10y ago
Sorry - I'm going to say it. These guys need to change their name already. It's just too much. (their name is derived from a dystopian film called Soylent Green, which I won't give away and other replies shouldn't either. It's really really famous.) I thought it was bad enough when everything was going dandy but when we read about this kind of PR / damage control, it's just too much. They have a choice about it. This is a conscious joke on their part. They need to take the next step, please. I got downvoted but I'm going to keep this (it's quickly heading to -4). Go watch the film, in the canon of filmmaking, and then come back and tell me I'm wrong.
- mrsteveman1 10y ago
  I've seen the movie, yes. I think the overwhelming majority of their potential customer base is going to associate it with Soy instead.
  - logicallee 10y ago
    That's fine, a variation would be fine. I'm not a branding expert but any variation ("Soyful" as an example) would be fine by me, even if later they moved away from soy for whatever reason. I object just to their specific name.
- kaishiro 10y ago
  You're wrong. I've seen it, and I guess I understand why you think it's a legitimate gripe, but it's just a name.
- elmin 10y ago
  You're wrong because we all get the joke, and are over it. It's a very conscious branding choice to label themselves as counterculture and edgy. It won't appeal to everyone, but it clearly is a conscious marketing choice, and you'd have a hard time saying their marketing isn't going well. I think your time would be better spent telling MetRx or Ensure to change their names, considering they are brands which are not very successful at capturing the market Soylent is dominating (the bottled-nutrition-by-choice market). As far as I can tell their only issue is quality control and customer communication, changing their name wouldn't fix either.
SpikeDad 10y ago
Guess they recycled this from the emails they sent out about Soylent causing intestinal problems. Can't believe I backed them originally.
safeandsound 10y ago
I don't like spending time on cooking and I hate when my house smells like food from cooking. I also don't like spending money on eating out that doesn't taste extremely good. Soylent tastes good enough, healthy enough, and cheap enough for me.
brandonmp 10y ago
I've been a soylent customer for 2 years or so, and have always found the flavor to be alright. The latest formulation, 1.6,changes this. It's far and away the best flavor yet. Very different, and very good. The only formulation so far for which my mouth waters when I'm hungry.

41 points by misframer 10y ago

It's tangential to the contents of the post, but as a lover of good food (I consider it my one real vice), I've always liked the idea of Soylent. A vast majority of the time I just need something to fill me up. And it's a neat idea to know you're getting everything you need from a single foodstuff (a la the Matrix's gruel). I feel like, if anything, it may make the times you sit down to a nice meal that much more enjoyable.

CivilianZero 10y ago
As someone who has, in the past, lived on Soylent for months at a time when it was most convenient, I can vouch for your feeling. Every "normal" meal I had while living off Soylent tasted amazing and in between great tasting meals I didn't have to stress about food if I didn't want to. To me, Soylent is gaining control over a thing that gives me great anxiety, that thing being food. And having that control allows me to put even more effort into cooking great meals when I want to.
- kaishiro 10y ago
  Man, you nailed what I was trying to say. I never would have described it as anxiety - because off the cuff it actually sounds pretty silly to be anxious about food - but that is absolutely what it is.

colept 10y ago

This is the response I have been waiting for - this kind of decisive action is a step in the right direction. The timing however is not. This is not a preventative measure, it's reactive. Would Soylent have taken the same action if they had not been put on blast on Reddit and other sites? If not for the bad publicity I don't think they would have done anything at all. Until they are ensuring the quality of their product from batch to batch I'm out. That means properly mixed bars, testing each batch to ensure the 100% nutritional values they claim.

bertiewhykovich 10y ago

The Platonic form of "too little, too late."

jtchang 10y ago

Solid response much like the one with Tynenol: http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall02/susi/tylenol.htm http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall02/susi/tylenol.htm

perardi 10y ago
And unlike Samsung.
joering2 10y ago
Interesting read, you learn something new every day... I like the part about $2.50 off. Gee this product killed people but its on sale now with $2.50 off... oh well I'll take a chance!
- jedmeyers 10y ago
  It was not Tylenol that killed people. Someone put cyanide capsules inside Tylenol bottles. I am saying "someone" because as far as I know they never found the person who did this.
  - joering2 10y ago
    They did. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders
    - henriquemaia 10y ago
      From the article introduction: > No suspect was ever charged or convicted of the poisonings.
rspeer 10y ago
That doesn't seem like an appropriate comparison. Tylenol was killing people because it was deliberately tampered with by an anonymous murderer. That's a much more serious issue than a new experimental food that makes some people throw up. Even though I'm a fan of real food and a skeptic of Soylent, I'll say that the Soylent Bar issues sound overblown already, and comparing this to cyanide-tainted Tylenol is blowing it even more out of proportion.

tedmiston 10y ago

The title "Update on Soylent Bar" is pretty vague, so here's the gist: > It has recently come to our attention that a small number of our customers have experienced gastrointestinal issues after consuming Soylent Bars. As a precautionary measure, we are halting all Soylent Bar purchases and shipments and are advising our customers to discard any remaining bars in their possession. > After hearing from our customers, we immediately began investigating the cause of the issue and whether it was linked to a problem with the Bars. So far we have not yet identified one... > We will be reaching out via e-mail to all Bar customers to offer a full refund. Wow. I have a box of Soylent Bars from a few weeks ago I've been eating on occasion. I haven't had any issues, and they seem fine to me. Kudos to the Soylent team for covering the issue so quickly, especially after the incident last month [1] where Coffiest wasn't meeting its prescribed nutritional content. It seems like they're struggling with production quality and consistency at scale. (That said, I am a happy Soylent customer.) [1]: http://blog.soylent.com/post/149763512312/update-on-coffiest-and-powder http://blog.soylent.com/post/149763512312/update-on-coffiest...

themodelplumber 10y ago
Maybe they are fine. I saw people online raving about Quest bars, so I bought five different flavors to try. Result: Gastrointestinal issues I haven't experienced with other protein bars. And I didn't even like the taste. Even with that experience in mind, I'd probably try a Soylent Bar. Everybody's different.
- perardi 10y ago
  It's probably one of the sugar alcohols, which tend to draw water into the bowels. As for anecdotes: Quest bars usually don't upset my system, but other protein bars (MetRX protein bar, that was a memorable time…) and a lot of "diet" foods, like Weight Watchers desserts, cause, well, lower GI upset.
  - jschwartzi 10y ago
    A lot of "diet" bars and sugar-free protein mixes are sweetened with sugar alcohols like Xylitol or Sorbitol. Your upper GI tract can't actually digest these sugars, but there's plenty of bacteria in your lower GI tract which digest them readily and produce a large quantity of gas. Sugar free gum has the same effect for the same reason, at least if you chew enough of it.

overcast 10y ago

Ever since its first very first release, anytime I've read about Soylent, there is always some type of gastrointestinal response associated with it. What's the deal with their formulas? I've used other Soylent type products, and researched a ton more, and I never get the impression that they have similar issues.

lvs 10y ago
If they've really put so much science into the formulation, shouldn't crop-dusting index (CDI) be one of the metrics by which the formula is optimized?
skybrian 10y ago
Hard to say, but I'd guess that partially it's availability bias. Problems with other niche foods aren't usually posted on Hacker News. They also don't have their own Reddit group and fans who post about each others' experiences (sometimes negative).
- overcast 10y ago
  Plausible.
jaggederest 10y ago
The honest answer is probably that most people are not used to having substantial amounts of fiber in their diet, and being in the form of a liquid makes it much more noticeable if you do have any issues. The basic issue is that, while you may have gas as a result of eating a burrito, it's spread out over a day. With Soylent or any liquid nutrition really, it hits you over 1-4 hours. Ditto any other sort of gastrointestinal upset - what would be subclinical with solid food and a day or two long timeframe becomes an immediate crisis where you'd better find a restroom in the next 10 minutes.
- bpicolo 10y ago
  This article is referring to solid food, to be fair

burger_moon 10y ago

Looks like they've been having additional issues with QC recently. http://blog.soylent.com/post/149763512312/update-on-coffiest-and-powder http://blog.soylent.com/post/149763512312/update-on-coffiest...

misiti3780 10y ago

I'm probably going to get downvoted for this ... but honestly why do people want to eat Soylent? One of the great joys of life is food, Soylent taste like shit, eating it every day is boring, and no one knows the long term affects of eating it for long periods of time. I'm a big fan-boy of a lot of stuff SV produces, Soylent does not impress me.

jdavis703 10y ago
I wake up on many days at 5am to head out for work. I go from butt naked in bed to out the door in ten minutes. Before Soylent I just skipped breakfast, now I can swig it down really quick. My lunches and dinners OTOH tend to be much nicer, but nothing beats the quick rush of nutrients.
- tluyben2 10y ago
  What a life... you enjoy this?
api 10y ago
Soylent doesn't replace good food. It replaces the crappy food we eat when we're in a hurry and just need some fuel.
nilkn 10y ago
My SO and I have a stockpile of bottled Soylent. It's great. There's always a nutritious meal available. Sometimes neither of us feels like cooking. Sometimes we don't feel like going out. Sometimes you're hungry, need some reasonably healthy food, but don't care if it's gourmet or tastes great as long as it's acceptable. Soylent does the job really well. I also don't agree that it tastes like shit. The bottled Soylent tastes like soy milk to me, which I find delicious. I'd say I personally only drink one bottle per week, maybe two. My SO uses it for breakfast fairly often (which previously she was in the habit of just skipping).
jclos 10y ago
I am as puzzled as you, especially if the taste is as bad as you say. There is one industry that has already been focusing on making "healthy" stuff taste good for the past decades: the fitness industry. Why not just go for a good old protein shake? Or a protein bar? It costs almost nothing (except maybe the protein bars, which are comparable in price to soylent ones) and are nutritious enough.

logicallee 10y ago

Sorry - I'm going to say it. These guys need to change their name already. It's just too much. (their name is derived from a dystopian film called Soylent Green, which I won't give away and other replies shouldn't either. It's really really famous.) I thought it was bad enough when everything was going dandy but when we read about this kind of PR / damage control, it's just too much. They have a choice about it. This is a conscious joke on their part. They need to take the next step, please. I got downvoted but I'm going to keep this (it's quickly heading to -4). Go watch the film, in the canon of filmmaking, and then come back and tell me I'm wrong.

mrsteveman1 10y ago
I've seen the movie, yes. I think the overwhelming majority of their potential customer base is going to associate it with Soy instead.
- logicallee 10y ago
  That's fine, a variation would be fine. I'm not a branding expert but any variation ("Soyful" as an example) would be fine by me, even if later they moved away from soy for whatever reason. I object just to their specific name.
kaishiro 10y ago
You're wrong. I've seen it, and I guess I understand why you think it's a legitimate gripe, but it's just a name.
elmin 10y ago
You're wrong because we all get the joke, and are over it. It's a very conscious branding choice to label themselves as counterculture and edgy. It won't appeal to everyone, but it clearly is a conscious marketing choice, and you'd have a hard time saying their marketing isn't going well. I think your time would be better spent telling MetRx or Ensure to change their names, considering they are brands which are not very successful at capturing the market Soylent is dominating (the bottled-nutrition-by-choice market). As far as I can tell their only issue is quality control and customer communication, changing their name wouldn't fix either.

SpikeDad 10y ago

Guess they recycled this from the emails they sent out about Soylent causing intestinal problems. Can't believe I backed them originally.

safeandsound 10y ago

I don't like spending time on cooking and I hate when my house smells like food from cooking. I also don't like spending money on eating out that doesn't taste extremely good. Soylent tastes good enough, healthy enough, and cheap enough for me.

brandonmp 10y ago

I've been a soylent customer for 2 years or so, and have always found the flavor to be alright. The latest formulation, 1.6,changes this. It's far and away the best flavor yet. Very different, and very good. The only formulation so far for which my mouth waters when I'm hungry.