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I hated how most of the critiques on HN were centered around "loving to cook" or "loving food." I think that's a moot point. I love the idea of Soylent and mea

I hated how most of the critiques on HN were centered around "loving to cook" or "loving food." I think that's a moot point. I love the idea of Soylent and meal replacements in general. The critique I had for it was that everywhere I looked for the recipe, I saw references to maltodextrin. I don't want to fill my diet with maltodextrin instead of whole weat bread/oats. I hope in the future there are varieties where I can have more control over the carb source I consume a lot of in my daily meals.

stcredzero 13y ago
You can already find such recipes on the DIY Soylent sites. There was one based on Chia seeds, peanut butter, and a few things you can find in the grocery store.
- jonathanjaeger 13y ago
  Well if it's DIY then it's taking all the time to get the ingredients and put it in a blender. I can make a DIY meal replacement now -- I was just talking in context of Soylent's merits. However, if Soylent can be cheap enough to help solve some issues in terms of world hunger, then I'm all for it.
  - DanBC 13y ago
    The World Food Program has several nutrition foods. The problem tends not to be cost (which is already very low) but distribution and awareness. One of the problems of Soylent is the need for water. About one billion people don't have access to clean drinking water. Problems with water cause very many infant deaths. It's exciting seeing this get some awareness in tech culture. Maybe people can design and develop easier cheaper better methods of water purification or desalination; or cooking; or whatever. You can imagine that the cost of the product from this huge NGO is going to have been driven down as far as possible. https://www.wfp.org/nutrition/how-wfp-fights-malnutrition https://www.wfp.org/nutrition/how-wfp-fights-malnutrition http://www.irinnews.org/report/83124/malawi-cheaper-recipe-for-treating-hungry-children http://www.irinnews.org/report/83124/malawi-cheaper-recipe-f... https://www.wfp.org/nutrition/special-nutritional-products https://www.wfp.org/nutrition/special-nutritional-products http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/communications/wfp255508.pdf http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/co... Here's the WFP in a Syrian camp for refuges http://youtu.be/Ej0vAUsn_o8 http://youtu.be/Ej0vAUsn_o8 About 1 in 8 people are chronically hungry https://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/world-food-day-wfp-says-investment-nutrition-key-unlocking-better-future-0 https://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/world-food-day-wfp-say... Here's some nice feel good photos of children getting school meals. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2013/jun/06/global-school-feeding-programmes-in-pictures http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2013/j...
    - cpeterso 13y ago
      > One of the problems of Soylent is the need for water. About one billion people don't have access to clean drinking water. Why does Soylent need water? Could the same ingredients be prepared as a Soylent power bar? That is a crowded product market, but Soylent might have an interesting pitch. A cashier at Trader Joe's told me that power bars were the store's best selling items.
  - scottjad 13y ago
    In combatting world hunger, are you thinking of a factor other than price, like transportability, perishability, predictability, controlability, preparationability? Given that the cheapest DIY soylent appear to be primarily based traditional staples like rice, oats, peas, soy, and flax seeds, it doesn't seem very likely to be cheaper. The initial price for the official one is $9/day, while the cost of the cheapest DIY based on traditional foods is $2/day.
    - stcredzero 13y ago
      You can get DIY soylent down to between $5-$6 a day without too much effort. There are some that are a bit lower, but you're not going to beat DIY traditional cooking by any means. It's meant to be a time optimization.
      - 001sky 13y ago
        It's meant to be a time optimization. Who are these destitute people in such a hurry? WTF
        stcredzero 13y ago
        Programmers trying to become Ramen-profitable?
        deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
    - jonathanjaeger 13y ago
      That's a good point, I should have calculated the daily price. I was just thinking of the convenience of an all-in-one nutrient rich meal replacement being easier to transport and not go bad.
  - stcredzero 13y ago
    > Well if it's DIY then it's taking all the time to get the ingredients and put it in a blender. It's practical to do certain stuff with Soylent that's a little more difficult with traditional food. With the appropriate containers, I can, for example, very easily "package" a week's worth of breakfast and lunch. The only operation involved is measuring dry powders and cleanup is very minimal in comparison to traditional cooking. I can do the same thing with ordinary cooked meals, containers, and a freezer, but that's quite a bit more involved.

stcredzero 13y ago

You can already find such recipes on the DIY Soylent sites. There was one based on Chia seeds, peanut butter, and a few things you can find in the grocery store.

jonathanjaeger 13y ago
Well if it's DIY then it's taking all the time to get the ingredients and put it in a blender. I can make a DIY meal replacement now -- I was just talking in context of Soylent's merits. However, if Soylent can be cheap enough to help solve some issues in terms of world hunger, then I'm all for it.
- DanBC 13y ago
  The World Food Program has several nutrition foods. The problem tends not to be cost (which is already very low) but distribution and awareness. One of the problems of Soylent is the need for water. About one billion people don't have access to clean drinking water. Problems with water cause very many infant deaths. It's exciting seeing this get some awareness in tech culture. Maybe people can design and develop easier cheaper better methods of water purification or desalination; or cooking; or whatever. You can imagine that the cost of the product from this huge NGO is going to have been driven down as far as possible. https://www.wfp.org/nutrition/how-wfp-fights-malnutrition https://www.wfp.org/nutrition/how-wfp-fights-malnutrition http://www.irinnews.org/report/83124/malawi-cheaper-recipe-for-treating-hungry-children http://www.irinnews.org/report/83124/malawi-cheaper-recipe-f... https://www.wfp.org/nutrition/special-nutritional-products https://www.wfp.org/nutrition/special-nutritional-products http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/communications/wfp255508.pdf http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/co... Here's the WFP in a Syrian camp for refuges http://youtu.be/Ej0vAUsn_o8 http://youtu.be/Ej0vAUsn_o8 About 1 in 8 people are chronically hungry https://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/world-food-day-wfp-says-investment-nutrition-key-unlocking-better-future-0 https://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/world-food-day-wfp-say... Here's some nice feel good photos of children getting school meals. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2013/jun/06/global-school-feeding-programmes-in-pictures http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2013/j...
  - cpeterso 13y ago
    > One of the problems of Soylent is the need for water. About one billion people don't have access to clean drinking water. Why does Soylent need water? Could the same ingredients be prepared as a Soylent power bar? That is a crowded product market, but Soylent might have an interesting pitch. A cashier at Trader Joe's told me that power bars were the store's best selling items.
- scottjad 13y ago
  In combatting world hunger, are you thinking of a factor other than price, like transportability, perishability, predictability, controlability, preparationability? Given that the cheapest DIY soylent appear to be primarily based traditional staples like rice, oats, peas, soy, and flax seeds, it doesn't seem very likely to be cheaper. The initial price for the official one is $9/day, while the cost of the cheapest DIY based on traditional foods is $2/day.
  - stcredzero 13y ago
    You can get DIY soylent down to between $5-$6 a day without too much effort. There are some that are a bit lower, but you're not going to beat DIY traditional cooking by any means. It's meant to be a time optimization.
    - 001sky 13y ago
      It's meant to be a time optimization. Who are these destitute people in such a hurry? WTF
      - stcredzero 13y ago
        Programmers trying to become Ramen-profitable?
        deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
  - jonathanjaeger 13y ago
    That's a good point, I should have calculated the daily price. I was just thinking of the convenience of an all-in-one nutrient rich meal replacement being easier to transport and not go bad.
- stcredzero 13y ago
  > Well if it's DIY then it's taking all the time to get the ingredients and put it in a blender. It's practical to do certain stuff with Soylent that's a little more difficult with traditional food. With the appropriate containers, I can, for example, very easily "package" a week's worth of breakfast and lunch. The only operation involved is measuring dry powders and cleanup is very minimal in comparison to traditional cooking. I can do the same thing with ordinary cooked meals, containers, and a freezer, but that's quite a bit more involved.