4 ms·

why make your own from real food when you can have powders mixed by an idiot for twice the price? http://lesswrong.com/lw/h2h/soylent_orange_whole_food_open_so

why make your own from real food when you can have powders mixed by an idiot for twice the price? http://lesswrong.com/lw/h2h/soylent_orange_whole_food_open_source_soylent/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/h2h/soylent_orange_whole_food_open_s...

sneak 13y ago
That's a lot more ingredients than "1", and many of those things spoil very quickly. Soylent is exactly one thing to buy, and keeps for >6 months, meaning that you can stockpile it and not worry about running out. I already basically live on milk-based shakes now, and it's a pain having to replenish my milk supply twice a week. Soylent would solve that nicely.
- nazgulnarsil 13y ago
  You are incapable of buying more milk? Bananas can be frozen, everything else has a shelf life of months.
  - sneak 13y ago
    I buy more milk twice a week, so no. I am capable of buying every single item in soylent individually and combining them. I am also capable of going to a farmer's market every single morning and cleaning, preparing, and cooking three fresh, square, delicious, healthy, nutritious meals every single day. I just don't fucking want to. Optimizing is saying no to things. I think the creator of soylent put it best: "less time cooking and cleaning means more time for music and math".
shtylman 13y ago
Glad to hear you have never bought anything that was pre-made and can live your entire life assembling everything you need from parts yourself.
baddox 13y ago
You're asking why anyone would pay money to have a service performed for them?
aharrison 13y ago
I tried this, and here was my experience: 1. I am gluten intolerant, so swap out oat flour for almond flour. Swap out B complex supplement for marmite. Also, calling marmite "real food" is a bit of a stetch in my estimation. 2. After the first week, realized I was probably mildly allergic to casin, swapped to coconut milk. 3. After the first week after that change, noticed I am probably also mildly allergic to banana. Cut it completely. So what I ended up with was a high fat low carbohydrate equivalent that isn't too bad. I actually drink this pretty regularly, and it is extremely filling. However, calling this guy an idiot is disingenuous to say the least; his work is going through considerably more scrutiny than Soylent Orange, and it contains considerably less allergens. Depending on who you talk to, up to 15% of people are gluten intolerant[1] and so, when keeping risks in mind, we should be cognizant of the dangerous of various proposals. All in all, I actually do like (my modified) Soylent Orange, but ad hominem attacks are unnecessary and "real food" is a suprisingly slippery concept. Hell, coconut and almonds are common allergies too!
- nazgulnarsil 13y ago
  Oats do not contain appreciable enough amounts of gluten to bother anyone except those with celiac disease. Even some celiac sufferers eat oatmeal that has been processed to remove that last .01% of gluten. Doesn't regular soylent use oat flour anyway? also this: http://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Gluten-22-Ounce/dp/B003LPKETS/ http://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Gluten-22-Ounce/dp/B003L...
  - aharrison 13y ago
    I don't have a citation either way, so I will just say that I noticed a reaction to oats just like a reaction to gluten. Could be that mine were contaminated, could potentially be that I am allergic to oats as well.
asdfs 13y ago
The insult seems a little snide and uncalled for, IMO.
scdoshi 13y ago
Okay, so you don't agree with the approach. Doesn't mean you have to resort to name calling. All you are pointing to is an alternative solution which basically has all the same issues in getting the right mix of nutrients, and more work on the consumers part. Convenience is at least part of the appeal of Soylent. Fine, you prefer that approach, fair enough, there's no data that says it's the better one.
- nazgulnarsil 13y ago
  The guy misdosed himself due to ignoring stuff that could be found on the wikipedia page on human nutrition multiple times already. The fact that he has radically changed his stance on inclusion criteria with each iteration gives me little confidence in his decision making process.
galuggus 13y ago
Why bother eating at home when you can have an idiot conveniently cook your food in a restaurant at twice the price?

sneak 13y ago

That's a lot more ingredients than "1", and many of those things spoil very quickly. Soylent is exactly one thing to buy, and keeps for >6 months, meaning that you can stockpile it and not worry about running out. I already basically live on milk-based shakes now, and it's a pain having to replenish my milk supply twice a week. Soylent would solve that nicely.

nazgulnarsil 13y ago
You are incapable of buying more milk? Bananas can be frozen, everything else has a shelf life of months.
- sneak 13y ago
  I buy more milk twice a week, so no. I am capable of buying every single item in soylent individually and combining them. I am also capable of going to a farmer's market every single morning and cleaning, preparing, and cooking three fresh, square, delicious, healthy, nutritious meals every single day. I just don't fucking want to. Optimizing is saying no to things. I think the creator of soylent put it best: "less time cooking and cleaning means more time for music and math".

shtylman 13y ago

Glad to hear you have never bought anything that was pre-made and can live your entire life assembling everything you need from parts yourself.

baddox 13y ago

You're asking why anyone would pay money to have a service performed for them?

aharrison 13y ago

I tried this, and here was my experience: 1. I am gluten intolerant, so swap out oat flour for almond flour. Swap out B complex supplement for marmite. Also, calling marmite "real food" is a bit of a stetch in my estimation. 2. After the first week, realized I was probably mildly allergic to casin, swapped to coconut milk. 3. After the first week after that change, noticed I am probably also mildly allergic to banana. Cut it completely. So what I ended up with was a high fat low carbohydrate equivalent that isn't too bad. I actually drink this pretty regularly, and it is extremely filling. However, calling this guy an idiot is disingenuous to say the least; his work is going through considerably more scrutiny than Soylent Orange, and it contains considerably less allergens. Depending on who you talk to, up to 15% of people are gluten intolerant[1] and so, when keeping risks in mind, we should be cognizant of the dangerous of various proposals. All in all, I actually do like (my modified) Soylent Orange, but ad hominem attacks are unnecessary and "real food" is a suprisingly slippery concept. Hell, coconut and almonds are common allergies too!

nazgulnarsil 13y ago
Oats do not contain appreciable enough amounts of gluten to bother anyone except those with celiac disease. Even some celiac sufferers eat oatmeal that has been processed to remove that last .01% of gluten. Doesn't regular soylent use oat flour anyway? also this: http://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Gluten-22-Ounce/dp/B003LPKETS/ http://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Gluten-22-Ounce/dp/B003L...
- aharrison 13y ago
  I don't have a citation either way, so I will just say that I noticed a reaction to oats just like a reaction to gluten. Could be that mine were contaminated, could potentially be that I am allergic to oats as well.

asdfs 13y ago

The insult seems a little snide and uncalled for, IMO.

scdoshi 13y ago

Okay, so you don't agree with the approach. Doesn't mean you have to resort to name calling. All you are pointing to is an alternative solution which basically has all the same issues in getting the right mix of nutrients, and more work on the consumers part. Convenience is at least part of the appeal of Soylent. Fine, you prefer that approach, fair enough, there's no data that says it's the better one.

nazgulnarsil 13y ago
The guy misdosed himself due to ignoring stuff that could be found on the wikipedia page on human nutrition multiple times already. The fact that he has radically changed his stance on inclusion criteria with each iteration gives me little confidence in his decision making process.

galuggus 13y ago

Why bother eating at home when you can have an idiot conveniently cook your food in a restaurant at twice the price?