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Indeed. To sum up some of the basic issues with his research so far: Sample size is 1. He's still eating, just much less often. Some nutrients are only requir

Indeed. To sum up some of the basic issues with his research so far: Sample size is 1. He's still eating, just much less often. Some nutrients are only required in very small amounts, which he may still be getting from his occasional meal. Three months is a very short time frame on which to evaluate a diet. Even something as simple and well-understood as scurvy can take three months to develop. In other words, he could have forgotten something as basic as Vitamin C and still lived this long. He has something to gain (even if just recognition) from this diet working. He also wants it to work. The effects he reports could be psychosomatic.

jaggederest 13y ago
> In other words, he could have forgotten something as basic as Vitamin C and still lived this long. Survived, yes, but he'd have had bleeding gums and a host of other serious issues. Just fwiw. You're right about many nutritional deficiencies, though, for example lack of niacin causes pellagra which takes longer than 3 months to appear.
- threedaymonk 13y ago
  Some of them take a very long time to appear: the human liver can store up to five years' worth of vitamin B12! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12_deficiency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12_deficiency
sowhatquestion 13y ago
>Sample size is 1. No. He has a group of volunteers who are testing it with him, see the second post: http://robrhinehart.com/?p=474 http://robrhinehart.com/?p=474 Not to mention the community that's sprung up around it, on http://discourse.soylent.me http://discourse.soylent.me and elsewhere
- TheCapn 13y ago
  I haven't followed very closely because I don't really have interest in it (I like food, cooking, etc.) but I have to ask, if he's pushing this as a product after such low levels of reliability does he garner any liability should it prove to be damaging long term?
  - orclev 13y ago
    He isn't pushing it as a product, he asked for volunteers to help test its suitability as a food substitute. This is research, not marketing.
    - corresation 13y ago
      He isn't pushing it as a product Everything has been pivoting into a kickstarter campaign. He is trying to turn this into a business. Which is all very weird. There are a number of "nutritionally complete" meal supplements on the market. I do not understand why this particular one, with rather quackish supporting claims, gets attention here.
      - kaens 13y ago
        It's probably more like he's trying to turn it into something that can sustain himself while he works on something he's passionate about, which happens to take the form of a business because there aren't many other choices at the moment. Could be a sham. He's (as far as anyone can tell) dogfooding though, which is, in this case, behavior you'd expect from either a very dedicated sham, or someone who wants to make sure something that they think is a potentially very good idea isn't going to make people terribly sick in three months time.
      - NuZZ 13y ago
        I think if you thought about it for a moment you would realize that he is appealing to the concept of hacking. In this case, hacking diet, something everyone on this site can relate to. This is why it gets attention. I'm on the fence as to whether I'll to wait and see how this turns out, with his volenteer base or to even hit up the Kickstarter to try it myself, as I personally am at a pivot point where I could change my diet significantly and benefit. If Soylent proves the easy route, so be it. I also believe a lot of us are just curious.
        corresation 13y ago
        I think if you thought about it for a moment you would realize that he is appealing to the concept of hacking Absolutely. Timothy Ferriss has made good bank doing something similar, hacking various aspects of his life. What earns criticism, though (this is a discussion board, and we aren't here to blanket applaud everything), is the pseudo-science: The "I ate a normal meal and my cognitive process degraded, etc". There is zero scientific validity to those claims, and they give it the rank stench of snake oil (again, exactly like energy bracelets, good aura, or the tactics of the anti-immunization crowd). It may be entirely well-meaning, but such are a million quack remedies and claims.
orclev 13y ago
If you read the article you'd see he did miss something important, sulfur, which he has corrected. He's tweaking the formula as he goes, carefully monitoring his health and vital statistics (at a level I might add that seems way more involved than just about any "health nut" I've ever heard of), and doing research on various health and nutritional studies that are ongoing. Give him another year and a reasonable selection of volunteers to help test a wider audience with and I'm convinced he'll have something that will blow every other "diet" or nutrition shake out of the water.

jaggederest 13y ago

> In other words, he could have forgotten something as basic as Vitamin C and still lived this long. Survived, yes, but he'd have had bleeding gums and a host of other serious issues. Just fwiw. You're right about many nutritional deficiencies, though, for example lack of niacin causes pellagra which takes longer than 3 months to appear.

threedaymonk 13y ago
Some of them take a very long time to appear: the human liver can store up to five years' worth of vitamin B12! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12_deficiency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12_deficiency

sowhatquestion 13y ago

>Sample size is 1. No. He has a group of volunteers who are testing it with him, see the second post: http://robrhinehart.com/?p=474 http://robrhinehart.com/?p=474 Not to mention the community that's sprung up around it, on http://discourse.soylent.me http://discourse.soylent.me and elsewhere

TheCapn 13y ago
I haven't followed very closely because I don't really have interest in it (I like food, cooking, etc.) but I have to ask, if he's pushing this as a product after such low levels of reliability does he garner any liability should it prove to be damaging long term?
- orclev 13y ago
  He isn't pushing it as a product, he asked for volunteers to help test its suitability as a food substitute. This is research, not marketing.
  - corresation 13y ago
    He isn't pushing it as a product Everything has been pivoting into a kickstarter campaign. He is trying to turn this into a business. Which is all very weird. There are a number of "nutritionally complete" meal supplements on the market. I do not understand why this particular one, with rather quackish supporting claims, gets attention here.
    - kaens 13y ago
      It's probably more like he's trying to turn it into something that can sustain himself while he works on something he's passionate about, which happens to take the form of a business because there aren't many other choices at the moment. Could be a sham. He's (as far as anyone can tell) dogfooding though, which is, in this case, behavior you'd expect from either a very dedicated sham, or someone who wants to make sure something that they think is a potentially very good idea isn't going to make people terribly sick in three months time.
    - NuZZ 13y ago
      I think if you thought about it for a moment you would realize that he is appealing to the concept of hacking. In this case, hacking diet, something everyone on this site can relate to. This is why it gets attention. I'm on the fence as to whether I'll to wait and see how this turns out, with his volenteer base or to even hit up the Kickstarter to try it myself, as I personally am at a pivot point where I could change my diet significantly and benefit. If Soylent proves the easy route, so be it. I also believe a lot of us are just curious.
      - corresation 13y ago
        I think if you thought about it for a moment you would realize that he is appealing to the concept of hacking Absolutely. Timothy Ferriss has made good bank doing something similar, hacking various aspects of his life. What earns criticism, though (this is a discussion board, and we aren't here to blanket applaud everything), is the pseudo-science: The "I ate a normal meal and my cognitive process degraded, etc". There is zero scientific validity to those claims, and they give it the rank stench of snake oil (again, exactly like energy bracelets, good aura, or the tactics of the anti-immunization crowd). It may be entirely well-meaning, but such are a million quack remedies and claims.

orclev 13y ago

If you read the article you'd see he did miss something important, sulfur, which he has corrected. He's tweaking the formula as he goes, carefully monitoring his health and vital statistics (at a level I might add that seems way more involved than just about any "health nut" I've ever heard of), and doing research on various health and nutritional studies that are ongoing. Give him another year and a reasonable selection of volunteers to help test a wider audience with and I'm convinced he'll have something that will blow every other "diet" or nutrition shake out of the water.