2 ms·

I personally avoid "new" food and "meal replacements" in general, because they look like garbage in a bar/mix sold by a profit-seeking company with their own be

I personally avoid "new" food and "meal replacements" in general, because they look like garbage in a bar/mix sold by a profit-seeking company with their own best interests at heart. The only difference between Soylent and Coca Cola or other junk food is that Soylent promises time/convenience, Coca Cola promises happiness, and most other junk food relies on appealing to its taste or popularity. I'd be happy to be wrong if it turns out Soylent is the first manufactured food that ends up beating nature, but I would never bet my health on it.

WalterBright 10y ago
> sold by a profit-seeking company with their own best interests at heart. All the food you eat is sold by profit-seeking companies.
- cloudjacker 10y ago
  yeah, but they've all been through the congressional hearings where they lie through their teeth, capitulation and settlement by the time I'm eating it.
- ericdykstra 10y ago
  I'm just making the point that they're not manufacturing garbage in a factory for altruistic reasons. They're just like Coca-Cola, or Kraft, or Nabisco, or any other trash-compacting company that sells their waste on grocery store shelves. All the food I eat is sold by profit-seeking companies, but at least it's food.
  - SquareWheel 10y ago
    >All the food I eat is sold by profit-seeking companies, but at least it's food. Why exactly are meal replacements not "food"?
nilkn 10y ago
Comparing Soylent to soda just because both companies seek to make a profit seems very disingenuous (every company selling you food of any kind seeks to make a profit). It's fine to be on the critical side, but this feels more like completely writing off the very idea rather than just being critical. You're basically defining from the outset, prior to any real consideration, that Soylent is "junk food", despite its nutritional and taste profiles being wildly different from that of any junk food I've ever seen. When you start from such an assumption, you effectively shut down your ability to reason about this new thing in any meaningful way; you will always be inexorably led back to your own premature conclusion.

WalterBright 10y ago

> sold by a profit-seeking company with their own best interests at heart. All the food you eat is sold by profit-seeking companies.

cloudjacker 10y ago
yeah, but they've all been through the congressional hearings where they lie through their teeth, capitulation and settlement by the time I'm eating it.
ericdykstra 10y ago
I'm just making the point that they're not manufacturing garbage in a factory for altruistic reasons. They're just like Coca-Cola, or Kraft, or Nabisco, or any other trash-compacting company that sells their waste on grocery store shelves. All the food I eat is sold by profit-seeking companies, but at least it's food.
- SquareWheel 10y ago
  >All the food I eat is sold by profit-seeking companies, but at least it's food. Why exactly are meal replacements not "food"?

nilkn 10y ago

Comparing Soylent to soda just because both companies seek to make a profit seems very disingenuous (every company selling you food of any kind seeks to make a profit). It's fine to be on the critical side, but this feels more like completely writing off the very idea rather than just being critical. You're basically defining from the outset, prior to any real consideration, that Soylent is "junk food", despite its nutritional and taste profiles being wildly different from that of any junk food I've ever seen. When you start from such an assumption, you effectively shut down your ability to reason about this new thing in any meaningful way; you will always be inexorably led back to your own premature conclusion.