5 ms·

I'll just say this: I hate cooking, and ordering delivery every night, while easy, isn't ideal (cost, etc.). Eating delicious, real food every once in a while i

by md224 13y ago

I'll just say this: I hate cooking, and ordering delivery every night, while easy, isn't ideal (cost, etc.). Eating delicious, real food every once in a while is a great treat, but why the hell do I have to put so much energy into this ritual of choosing/preparing/acquiring meals every single day of my life? Sometimes I just don't want to be hungry, and I don't really care how I get not-hungry. I'm withholding judgement on this Soylent thing because there seems to be quite a bit of controversy, but I can't say I agree that it isn't solving a problem.

jacques_chester 13y ago
1. There are existing MRPs. 2. There are companies that will prepare and deliver meals for you. Usually lower in sodium than dining out / take-away. 3. Soylent is surrounded with controversy because of the deliberate avoidance of expert input leading to trivial but potentially life-threatening errors: http://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/1jvsie/the_man_who_thinks_he_never_has_to_eat_again_is/cbj5jw9 http://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/1jvsie/the_man_w...
- gaelian 13y ago
  I don't have a horse in this race one way or the other. I didn't back Soylent, I'm not for or against it, just an observer. But did you read that Herman guy's original comment[1]? He's borderline ranting from the outset. Amongst other ostensibly useful advice, he tells the Rob guy to include copper when he already did, the Rob guy gives a reply that seems to encourage further engagement but Herman does not respond. Herman then escalates and expands on his rant months later on reddit. Am I missing something that happened between Herman's orginal comment and his reddit rant? I'm not disregarding what Herman says, he seems knowledgeable. But if you act like a dick, it's less likely that most people will really warm to your advice. 1. http://robrhinehart.com/?p=424#comment-514 http://robrhinehart.com/?p=424#comment-514
  - jacques_chester 13y ago
    Yes, he's a dick and he missed copper. I'm going to assign the dickishness to passion and the missed copper to missing copper in the list. But his general point is still correct: a mix of foods trumps a formula, especially given population variations in requirement and uptake.
    - gaelian 13y ago
      I'm encouraged by your optimism. Being a little cynical myself, I could just as easily have attributed his dickishness to arrogance/elitism and the missed copper to the possibility that his arrogance/elitism lead him to not even bother to finish reading the whole post before passing judgement and writing his original comment. :P He also missed the opportunity to provide further input. Not that's he's required to do so, but it's a bit disingenuous to not do so and then complain months later that you were ignored. I do agree though that a mix of foods does seem to trump a formula, at least at our current level of understanding. And I can’t say I’d really be willing to make myself a guinea pig in this experiment at this juncture, but I’m still glad people are thinking about this issue and trying new things.
Volpe 13y ago
But that problem you are describing is solved. There are meal replacement shakes on the market already. There is fast food (cheap!) there are hot dog stands...
- nbouscal 13y ago
  None of your three solutions are healthy, generally speaking. There are a few meal replacement products that are reasonable, but most of them are full of sugar and don't provide many nutrients, because they expect you to only replace one meal. Fast food and hot dog stands are exactly the kind of food that Soylent is a good replacement for.
  - Volpe 13y ago
    Is soylent healthy?
    - nbouscal 13y ago
      The problem with the word 'healthy' is that if you're trying to discuss nutrition rigorously, you really can't call a given food (or substance) healthy. It really only works as an adjective for an entire diet. If someone already consumes way too much vitamin C, more vitamin C is definitely not healthy. And yet for a sailor who hasn't seen greens in months, it definitely is. So, nothing can really be seen as healthy in isolation, the context is essential. So then, the correct question is "Is a diet of only Soylent healthy?" Even here we run into some pretty significant trouble: nutrition is not a developed enough science to really answer that question yet. We don't have a good metric of healthiness, even for an entire diet. What we can do, though, is make comparisons. We can ask if a diet of only Soylent is healthier than a diet of only rocks. That one's a pretty easy yes. More meaningfully, we can ask if a diet of only Soylent is healthier than a diet of only fast food. I'm confident that it is, but this is where the disagreement begins. Unfortunately, this stuff is hard to test. Forcing someone to eat nothing but fast food for an experiment would be completely unethical, and observing people who already only eat fast food would be subject to some really significant sampling bias. This has all been a long-winded way of saying that there's no way to know, yet. I would strongly argue that adult consumers should be free to experiment with their diet as long as they do it responsibly. There are definitely some moral and legal gray areas here ('experimenting with your diet' by downing a bottle of pills is still attempted suicide). I think it's highly likely that a diet of only Soylent is quite a bit healthier than the diet I'm currently eating (way more fast food and take out than I should, for a variety of reasons). That being the case, I'm very happy to give it a try.
columbo 13y ago
Why wait for soylent? Bag of flaxmeal, Bananas ,Oats ,Yogurt Mixed Nuts, Raisins, Power bar Blend & drink the first four, munch on the nuts & raisins during the day, have the occasional power bar, take a multivitamin and toss in a nice diverse meal once a week to catch anything else and... profit?
- iopq 13y ago
  You probably won't hit 120g of protein like soylent does and it will be expensive for you
  - hatu 13y ago
    Buy your own bag of protein powder, mix in so you get as much as you want.
jlgreco 13y ago
Buy a crate of MREs.
- rdl 13y ago
  Converting a sealed MRE to food is actually more hassle than cooking ramen or opening a can/pouch of tuna or microwaving frozen food. The ration heaters are a huge pain if you're in a civilized environment; you don't really want to use them indoors due to H2 gas. (I only ever ate MREs in transit, and at most for ~10 meals in a row. My preferred strategy was to eat the main antree "cold" (I only got them in 90F+ weather, so they were plenty warm), maybe the candy (if it was the carmels, or I think M&Ms), pocket the little bottle of tabasco for future bloody mary use, and give away or trash the rest. Otherwise, far too much hassle. Given the choice, the tuna pouches from the PX were 10x superior, even if I had to pay for them, especially if I had some packets of mustard and relish and salt and pepper).
- gwern 13y ago
  MREs are pretty expensive. I saw some boxes of MREs at a commissary on a Navy base a little while back, and the per-unit cost was something staggering like $9 a piece.
- stcredzero 13y ago
  Good way to get constipated and bored at mealtimes.

by md224 13y ago

jacques_chester 13y ago

1. There are existing MRPs. 2. There are companies that will prepare and deliver meals for you. Usually lower in sodium than dining out / take-away. 3. Soylent is surrounded with controversy because of the deliberate avoidance of expert input leading to trivial but potentially life-threatening errors: http://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/1jvsie/the_man_who_thinks_he_never_has_to_eat_again_is/cbj5jw9 http://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/1jvsie/the_man_w...

gaelian 13y ago
I don't have a horse in this race one way or the other. I didn't back Soylent, I'm not for or against it, just an observer. But did you read that Herman guy's original comment[1]? He's borderline ranting from the outset. Amongst other ostensibly useful advice, he tells the Rob guy to include copper when he already did, the Rob guy gives a reply that seems to encourage further engagement but Herman does not respond. Herman then escalates and expands on his rant months later on reddit. Am I missing something that happened between Herman's orginal comment and his reddit rant? I'm not disregarding what Herman says, he seems knowledgeable. But if you act like a dick, it's less likely that most people will really warm to your advice. 1. http://robrhinehart.com/?p=424#comment-514 http://robrhinehart.com/?p=424#comment-514
- jacques_chester 13y ago
  Yes, he's a dick and he missed copper. I'm going to assign the dickishness to passion and the missed copper to missing copper in the list. But his general point is still correct: a mix of foods trumps a formula, especially given population variations in requirement and uptake.
  - gaelian 13y ago
    I'm encouraged by your optimism. Being a little cynical myself, I could just as easily have attributed his dickishness to arrogance/elitism and the missed copper to the possibility that his arrogance/elitism lead him to not even bother to finish reading the whole post before passing judgement and writing his original comment. :P He also missed the opportunity to provide further input. Not that's he's required to do so, but it's a bit disingenuous to not do so and then complain months later that you were ignored. I do agree though that a mix of foods does seem to trump a formula, at least at our current level of understanding. And I can’t say I’d really be willing to make myself a guinea pig in this experiment at this juncture, but I’m still glad people are thinking about this issue and trying new things.

Volpe 13y ago

But that problem you are describing is solved. There are meal replacement shakes on the market already. There is fast food (cheap!) there are hot dog stands...

nbouscal 13y ago
None of your three solutions are healthy, generally speaking. There are a few meal replacement products that are reasonable, but most of them are full of sugar and don't provide many nutrients, because they expect you to only replace one meal. Fast food and hot dog stands are exactly the kind of food that Soylent is a good replacement for.
- Volpe 13y ago
  Is soylent healthy?
  - nbouscal 13y ago
    The problem with the word 'healthy' is that if you're trying to discuss nutrition rigorously, you really can't call a given food (or substance) healthy. It really only works as an adjective for an entire diet. If someone already consumes way too much vitamin C, more vitamin C is definitely not healthy. And yet for a sailor who hasn't seen greens in months, it definitely is. So, nothing can really be seen as healthy in isolation, the context is essential. So then, the correct question is "Is a diet of only Soylent healthy?" Even here we run into some pretty significant trouble: nutrition is not a developed enough science to really answer that question yet. We don't have a good metric of healthiness, even for an entire diet. What we can do, though, is make comparisons. We can ask if a diet of only Soylent is healthier than a diet of only rocks. That one's a pretty easy yes. More meaningfully, we can ask if a diet of only Soylent is healthier than a diet of only fast food. I'm confident that it is, but this is where the disagreement begins. Unfortunately, this stuff is hard to test. Forcing someone to eat nothing but fast food for an experiment would be completely unethical, and observing people who already only eat fast food would be subject to some really significant sampling bias. This has all been a long-winded way of saying that there's no way to know, yet. I would strongly argue that adult consumers should be free to experiment with their diet as long as they do it responsibly. There are definitely some moral and legal gray areas here ('experimenting with your diet' by downing a bottle of pills is still attempted suicide). I think it's highly likely that a diet of only Soylent is quite a bit healthier than the diet I'm currently eating (way more fast food and take out than I should, for a variety of reasons). That being the case, I'm very happy to give it a try.

columbo 13y ago

Why wait for soylent? Bag of flaxmeal, Bananas ,Oats ,Yogurt Mixed Nuts, Raisins, Power bar Blend & drink the first four, munch on the nuts & raisins during the day, have the occasional power bar, take a multivitamin and toss in a nice diverse meal once a week to catch anything else and... profit?

iopq 13y ago
You probably won't hit 120g of protein like soylent does and it will be expensive for you
- hatu 13y ago
  Buy your own bag of protein powder, mix in so you get as much as you want.

jlgreco 13y ago

Buy a crate of MREs.

rdl 13y ago
Converting a sealed MRE to food is actually more hassle than cooking ramen or opening a can/pouch of tuna or microwaving frozen food. The ration heaters are a huge pain if you're in a civilized environment; you don't really want to use them indoors due to H2 gas. (I only ever ate MREs in transit, and at most for ~10 meals in a row. My preferred strategy was to eat the main antree "cold" (I only got them in 90F+ weather, so they were plenty warm), maybe the candy (if it was the carmels, or I think M&Ms), pocket the little bottle of tabasco for future bloody mary use, and give away or trash the rest. Otherwise, far too much hassle. Given the choice, the tuna pouches from the PX were 10x superior, even if I had to pay for them, especially if I had some packets of mustard and relish and salt and pepper).
gwern 13y ago
MREs are pretty expensive. I saw some boxes of MREs at a commissary on a Navy base a little while back, and the per-unit cost was something staggering like $9 a piece.
stcredzero 13y ago
Good way to get constipated and bored at mealtimes.