6 ms·

This is very interesting and strange to me. Cooking and eating tasty and new food in the company of other people is a major source of enjoyment in my life. I un

by jules 11y ago

This is very interesting and strange to me. Cooking and eating tasty and new food in the company of other people is a major source of enjoyment in my life. I understand that most people may not enjoy cooking, but surely most people enjoy eating tasty food. Why would you give that up for Soylent?

a8da6b0c91d 11y ago
The dumb thing is it's really not hard to do fine nutritionally without cooking. You don't need to buy a weird powder, or whatever. Buy a case of canned, pasteurized orange juice and a lot of cheddar cheese. You're gonna be fine eating nothing but that for at least a couple months before you have a problem. There are dozens of easy combinations of food. This is simply not a hard problem that calls for a complicated nerd powder.
- napoleond 11y ago
  Uhh... "orange juice and a lot of cheddar cheese" for "at least a couple months" is not doing "fine nutritionally". You probably won't die...
  - knodi123 11y ago
    *probably
  - a8da6b0c91d 11y ago
    You're wrong about this. Nutritional deficiencies only really crop up after years of a low quality diet. If you build a diet around a couple high quality foods like dairy and fruit you could go years. A weekly serving of calf's liver would probably cover absolutely anything else you might be short on. Eating what you biologically need is not the big, complicated problem people are pretending. The "tolerances" are not at all tight.
    - Vraxx 11y ago
      Are you suggesting to make your dietary plans around something that will end in nutritional deficiency in some number of years? That doesn't sound like a good plan to me, not to mention the cost of doing something like soylent instead of OJ and cheddar cheese is pretty low. I think I'll take that sacrifice.
      - a8da6b0c91d 11y ago
        Soylent will kill you over the years, certainly before the dairy and fruit only diet I mentioned above. Soylent is loaded with oxidized cholesterols and rancid poly unsaturated fats, as well as toxic gumming agents. I'll also bet a lot of people don't do well on so much oats.
        iyn 11y ago
        [citation needed]
bane 11y ago
You don't. You just drink it instead of meals when you don't expect to have a a culinary and social experience. Surely not every meal you eat is such a delight. An awful lot of food is just calorie stuffing to maintain energy. Replace those with Soylent and you're also probably getting better nutrition. Then when you want to have a regular old meal experience just don't drink the Soylent. It's not a lifestyle choice, it's just a convenient meal replacement.
- jules 11y ago
  > Surely not every meal you eat is such a delight. An awful lot of food is just calorie stuffing to maintain energy. It is? Not really for me and people I know. You can still make calorie stuffing enjoyable. Even if I'm alone I can whip up a 10 minute meal that tastes damn nice compared to what Soylent is supposed to taste like. E.g. heat a wok with a bit of oil, dump in a package of pre sliced wok vegetables and a handful of cashew nuts. While that is going soak some noodles. After a couple of minutes add soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger syrup and the noodles, and you are done. With some practice you can make this in 5 minutes. I don't understand why somebody would rather save 3 minutes (roughly 1/500 of a day) and drink Soylent. Can't you sleep 3 minutes less instead? I've always thought of food like sex. It keeps you healthy, but that's not why we do it. Optimizing food (or sex) to minimize the time spent while ignoring the enjoyment completely misses the point for me, so that's why I find it interesting and incomprehensible that Soylent is so successful.
  - nether 11y ago
    > Even if I'm alone I can whip up a 10 minute meal that tastes damn nice compared to what Soylent is supposed to taste like. E.g. heat a wok with a bit of oil, dump in a package of pre sliced wok vegetables and a handful of cashew nuts. Your lack of empathy for others' lifestyles is outstanding. Not everyone has access to a kitchen at lunch, or wants to deal with the grocery buying and washing dishes that come with cooking from scratch (which you excluded from your time calculation). Soylent replaces shitty convenience eating like McDonalds, not home cooked meals. Your argument can (and should) be aimed more at fast food, which is both pricier and less healthy than Soylent.
piato 11y ago
The target audience for Soylent is people for whom the pleasure of "eating tasty food" is weaker than it is for you. If you think of a use of time that you theoretically approve of but rarely feel inclined to choose over other activities (looking at paintings is an example of this for many people), you have a good approximation of what "eating food" feels like for many people.
seanflyon 11y ago
For what percentage of your meals do you cook and eat tasty new food in the company of other people?
- jules 11y ago
  All 3 together? Not that much. At least one of those 3? 99% of the time.
crusso 11y ago
Seriously, what percentage of your meals are "tasty new food in the company of others" vs mundane fare eaten to get a meal in? Are you missing that much if you don't have your scrambled eggs most mornings or skip that mediocre sandwich from the deli down the street for lunch? People drinking Soylent typically replace those boring meals that waste time with a bunch of food prep and cleanup while still enjoying new food in the company of others. Once you have a jug of Soylent in the fridge, it's your choice whether to pour yourself a hassle-free meal or make the extra effort to consume other foods. When you're used to Soylent, you have more choices in life. It's a tremendous tool to have in your meal toolbox.

by jules 11y ago

a8da6b0c91d 11y ago

The dumb thing is it's really not hard to do fine nutritionally without cooking. You don't need to buy a weird powder, or whatever. Buy a case of canned, pasteurized orange juice and a lot of cheddar cheese. You're gonna be fine eating nothing but that for at least a couple months before you have a problem. There are dozens of easy combinations of food. This is simply not a hard problem that calls for a complicated nerd powder.

napoleond 11y ago
Uhh... "orange juice and a lot of cheddar cheese" for "at least a couple months" is not doing "fine nutritionally". You probably won't die...
- knodi123 11y ago
  *probably
- a8da6b0c91d 11y ago
  You're wrong about this. Nutritional deficiencies only really crop up after years of a low quality diet. If you build a diet around a couple high quality foods like dairy and fruit you could go years. A weekly serving of calf's liver would probably cover absolutely anything else you might be short on. Eating what you biologically need is not the big, complicated problem people are pretending. The "tolerances" are not at all tight.
  - Vraxx 11y ago
    Are you suggesting to make your dietary plans around something that will end in nutritional deficiency in some number of years? That doesn't sound like a good plan to me, not to mention the cost of doing something like soylent instead of OJ and cheddar cheese is pretty low. I think I'll take that sacrifice.
    - a8da6b0c91d 11y ago
      Soylent will kill you over the years, certainly before the dairy and fruit only diet I mentioned above. Soylent is loaded with oxidized cholesterols and rancid poly unsaturated fats, as well as toxic gumming agents. I'll also bet a lot of people don't do well on so much oats.
      - iyn 11y ago
        [citation needed]

bane 11y ago

You don't. You just drink it instead of meals when you don't expect to have a a culinary and social experience. Surely not every meal you eat is such a delight. An awful lot of food is just calorie stuffing to maintain energy. Replace those with Soylent and you're also probably getting better nutrition. Then when you want to have a regular old meal experience just don't drink the Soylent. It's not a lifestyle choice, it's just a convenient meal replacement.

jules 11y ago
> Surely not every meal you eat is such a delight. An awful lot of food is just calorie stuffing to maintain energy. It is? Not really for me and people I know. You can still make calorie stuffing enjoyable. Even if I'm alone I can whip up a 10 minute meal that tastes damn nice compared to what Soylent is supposed to taste like. E.g. heat a wok with a bit of oil, dump in a package of pre sliced wok vegetables and a handful of cashew nuts. While that is going soak some noodles. After a couple of minutes add soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger syrup and the noodles, and you are done. With some practice you can make this in 5 minutes. I don't understand why somebody would rather save 3 minutes (roughly 1/500 of a day) and drink Soylent. Can't you sleep 3 minutes less instead? I've always thought of food like sex. It keeps you healthy, but that's not why we do it. Optimizing food (or sex) to minimize the time spent while ignoring the enjoyment completely misses the point for me, so that's why I find it interesting and incomprehensible that Soylent is so successful.
- nether 11y ago
  > Even if I'm alone I can whip up a 10 minute meal that tastes damn nice compared to what Soylent is supposed to taste like. E.g. heat a wok with a bit of oil, dump in a package of pre sliced wok vegetables and a handful of cashew nuts. Your lack of empathy for others' lifestyles is outstanding. Not everyone has access to a kitchen at lunch, or wants to deal with the grocery buying and washing dishes that come with cooking from scratch (which you excluded from your time calculation). Soylent replaces shitty convenience eating like McDonalds, not home cooked meals. Your argument can (and should) be aimed more at fast food, which is both pricier and less healthy than Soylent.

piato 11y ago

The target audience for Soylent is people for whom the pleasure of "eating tasty food" is weaker than it is for you. If you think of a use of time that you theoretically approve of but rarely feel inclined to choose over other activities (looking at paintings is an example of this for many people), you have a good approximation of what "eating food" feels like for many people.

seanflyon 11y ago

For what percentage of your meals do you cook and eat tasty new food in the company of other people?

jules 11y ago
All 3 together? Not that much. At least one of those 3? 99% of the time.

crusso 11y ago

Seriously, what percentage of your meals are "tasty new food in the company of others" vs mundane fare eaten to get a meal in? Are you missing that much if you don't have your scrambled eggs most mornings or skip that mediocre sandwich from the deli down the street for lunch? People drinking Soylent typically replace those boring meals that waste time with a bunch of food prep and cleanup while still enjoying new food in the company of others. Once you have a jug of Soylent in the fridge, it's your choice whether to pour yourself a hassle-free meal or make the extra effort to consume other foods. When you're used to Soylent, you have more choices in life. It's a tremendous tool to have in your meal toolbox.