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20,000 Customers Have Pre-Ordered Over $2,000,000 of Soylent
Daniel_Stuckey writes "Less than a year ago, Rob Rhinehart published a blog post explaining how he had stopped eating food and begun living entirely on a greyish, macro-nutritious cocktail. Today, he told Motherboard that he's sold more than $2 million worth of Soylent to tens of thousands of post-food consumers worldwide—and that it's on track to ship next month. 'We have crossed $2,000,000 in revenue from over 20,000 customers, with more every day,' Rhinehart told me. 'International demand is really picking up as well.' This despite the fact that Soylent isn't technically on the market yet, and has thus far only been available to beta testers. Rhinehart's company spent much of last year tinkering with the formula—the version he tried first was deficient in sulfur, and contained since-jettisoned ingredients like cow whey. But there's been a steadily building crescendo of publicity—both positive and negative—around the project since its inception."
thanks for the spoiler alert.
Considering that good food and cooking are some of the great pleasures in life, no thanks! I find the concept pretty depressing, actually.
Yes, I stole that from Futurama
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Go read his blog post about the "results" he experienced. He's giving the full-blown "I now have the body of a 12 year old and my brain increased in efficiency 400%" kind of crap under "qualitative". It's great to feel better after you start eating better, but unless his prior diet was >50% animal product and too much of it for his calorie needs, I'm calling bullshit.
Under quantitative, apparently his blood work improved quite a bit. Yeah, your blood work tends to improve when you eat a simple vegan diet, and that's all soylent contains. Vegan ingredients with a 2 oz mix of fish and vegetable oil per day.
I guess it's nice to have a supremely convenient and very healthy diet that makes you feel better, but he's laying it on pretty fucking thick. Not to mention you could create a diet of the same health benefits with maybe 15 raw ingredients. You could just put the shit in a blender if you wanted...
Did that years ago. Much less drama in your life that way, and way cheaper.
2) Steak ( bloody ) in green pepper sauce, no potatoes or whatever side dish
3) "Mohr im Hemd" ( Austrian chocolate dessert )
accompanied by Rhine wine. How does that compare to slurping some soylent ? The table conversation ? The joy of eating ? I simply don't get it, what the fun of soylent could be. Must be me.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Food isn't supposed to cause that much drama.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
Why would you never want to eat food again? I enjoy food. Taste is a sensation essential to enjoying life. Our bodies are made to naturally consume nutrients in the form of *food*, not powder.
You know why you get stomach cramps for a few days with this stuff? Because it's basically the same idea behind feeding tubes for patients who are unable to process food. I can tell you from personal experience that it's pretty miserable.
I can understand the use of this stuff for a malnourished population or maybe a field military operation where supplies are rationed and space is tight, but as some fashionable movement to create the "post-food man"? Why would you do that to yourself and deny yourself the essential pleasure of eating?
There's the remote possibility that eating soylent might be good for you.
If you look into nutrition studies, you find lots of little anecdote studies (meaning: one-off scientific studies) that look like a small piece of a larger puzzle. Beef and chicken contain antibiotics which can trigger mild allergic reactions, glutin (from wheat) is a mild poison made by the plant to discourage predators, bread is now made with Bromine instead of Iodine (which the body needs)...
There's just a zillion different ways in which our diet is non-optimal, and a zillion little ailments with no known cause.
(Vitamins typically use Magnesium Oxide as a supplement - but this form isn't bio-available. Is Fibromyalgia caused by low Magnesium?)
A diet consisting of a everything you need without all the additives might just cure some of these diseases; though, I wonder whether lack of roughage will cause problems.
Still, it might be an interesting impromptu experiment. The effects of eating Soylent will be something to watch.
This nitwit has borrowed the name, probably having seen the derivative film and never twigged to the fact that the word meant something.
Or, if you read the linked article, you'll see that he specifically corrects the interviewer, telling him "Actually, in the original book Make Room! Make Room! Soylent is made of soya and lentil."
we really understand nutrition well enough to hack it. We keep learning that things we'd overlooked were significant -- phytochemicals, resistant starch, and a practically un-ending parade of classes of fats.
Still, we *are* being nutritionally hacked by food companies all the time, so I suppose this can hardly be worse. But the food companies have a specific goal in mind -- to get us to eat more of their product while making that product cheap as possible. I don't think we're at the point where someone can look at a nutrition textbook and design a healthy synthetic diet.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I encourage all the "healthy People" and all of the "diet gurus" and all of the Activists to jump on this bandwagon.
The ones jumping off the "eat stuff" bandwagon will help me get cheaper foods to support my PETA habit... (People Eating Tasty Animals)
To toss a stab at the "oh god it takes so much effort to make food" whiner.
Open a crock pot, drop a slab of beef in it, open a jar of pepperoncinis and dump the contents in, turn on, walk away for a few hours, then consume. It takes less than a few minutes to prepare, and you won't get sick from mixing powders together.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
wait are you saying it's made OF people?
I'd like to toss out a healthy and tasty way of getting nutrients - I have a juicer that I use to juice up two medium tomatoes, a green pepper, a couple of carrots , and a beet.
I add a bit of vinegar and some salt.
It's tasty and has the carotene for the eyes, the beet contains nitrates so it's good for the circulatory system, and you've got all the good stuff from tomato and green veg.
Adding kale is a boost as well.
A lot more work goes into cleaning the juicer but I've had an improvement in eyesight and general health feel that may be psychosomatic, but could care less since I do feel better..
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
I don't care if you can live off his stuff; I want VARIETY from my food (and many other things in life as well). I cannot imagine having to eat the same thing every day, I'd much rather be already dead.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
... where's FDA ?
I mean, FDA (the Food and Drug Administration for the uninitiated) is supposed to have been tasked to oversee the safety over ***FOOD***.
This guy is selling his Soylent brand ***FOOD*** to 20,000 people to the tune of $ 2 Million, isn't it time FDA takes some samples and have them tested for safety ?
I am never for BIG GOVERNMENT, but there are times the government does need to step in to assure the safety of the food people buy and eat - especially when this guy use the word "Soylent" as his brand of food, which originally means Soy and Lentil, when his food doesn't even contain Soy.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
It's not green, so it doesn't have people in it yet.
I'm pretty sure the people-based version would taste better.
So what secret will we discover is the ingredient in Soylent Grey?
I'm not sure, but I think this is the stuff they were eating aboard ship in 'The Matrix'.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
I want Soylent Brown.. A tasty coffee/chocolate breakfast version! High in caffeine!
I hope that's what it tastes like.
Only in the film, which is a *terrible* adaptation of "make room, make room" by harry harrison.
Soylent was not made of people, and furthermore was almost irrelevant to the plot (of the book... the movie hardly has a plot, it's junk) other than being cheap, somewhat nutritious, and "what you got" if you weren't rich.
You want a truly great read, get the book. You want a horrible viewing experience, get the film.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
This "pre-ordering" thing has gotten out of hand when someone takes $2 million in pre-orders for a food product. Even worse, their current payment policy:
"When is my card charged?
Since we have already reached our fundraising goal, your card will be charged immediately."
Since they promised shipment in "early 2014", and it's early 2014, If they don't start shipping in volume within days, they're going to run into trouble with the FTC's Mail Order Rule. (The Mail Order Rule can be summarized as "ship within 30 days of promised delivery date or offer a refund; after 60 days, send a refund unless the customer explicitly gives you more time in writing").
no, it is more like a plant-based version of concrete. You take a little bit in a bowl, add water, add some cooked peas, and a cooked sugarbeet [cut in 1/2in cubes], mix it all together and eat before it hardens.
It winds up hardening to a solid in your stomach, and you lose weight because you can't physically eat as much. It's the cheap, home version of getting your stomach stapled.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
I poop a lot less
That should be something to worry about. What I've read doesn't say much about fibre, but our digestive systems have developed not only to deal with directly useful food to absorb, but also to process such 'indigestibles', and to deal with all the variation we get in a normal diet. Without this work there is every likelihood that long term harm to the guts will result. We already know that this happens to factory farmed animals fed on processed food rather than their normal diet.
wait are you saying it's made OF people?
I'm not sure. My pal Mitt told me Soylent Green is made of corporations.
Get over yourself,
I tried that once. Turns out it's quite painful to apply the Many Worlds interpretation locally.
You want a truly great read, get the book. You want a horrible viewing experience, get the film.
You want to make up your own mind instead of being told what to think by someone on the internet, do both.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
I've been drinking my homemade "soylent" (with a lowercase 's', because it's not his brand) most weekdays for about 2 months now. In fact, I'm drinking it right now, literally. Actually not literally, I set it down to type. I adapted it from various recipes I found online, all started by the ideas of the creator of Soylent. I'm also a competitive athlete, so I tweaked things quite a bit, particularly the macronutrients. So, as the (seemingly) only commenter who actually has experience with it, I'll point out a few things:
1. To those whining about lack of fiber...it has plenty of fiber (33.45 grams to be exact). More than that little bit of shredded lettuce in a Big Mac extra value meal. In fact, my bowel movements seem more regular on soylent than when I eat regular food.
2. I eat better on it than without it. Meaning: Okay, what if my recipe isn't perfect? What if I'm missing something? Well compare that to what I would otherwise normally eat on a weekday...maybe some toast for breakfast, a microwave chicken burrito for lunch, and a reasonably healthy but probably too large meal for dinner to make up for the slice of toast I had for breakfast. Then I have to try to work those meals around my workouts, which probably means downing some extra calories. Some days I ate well, some days not.
3. It's a timesaver. This is related to #2. If I wanted to take several hours to create the healthiest most ideal meals every day, then perhaps it would come out healthier than soylent. But let's face it, that just doesn't happen. I've tried that in the past, and it always falls by the wayside. I'd rather be out having fun...obviously if cooking was your version of play (e.g. it's your favorite hobby) then this isn't for you. I can hold my own pretty well in the kitchen and have always enjoyed making delicious meals once and a while, but 90% of the time it just seems like work.
4. I eat at better times. I spend 10 minutes in the morning mixing it up. Then it's right there, available to me anytime, all I have to do is go to the fridge and poor it into a glass, or take it with me in a water bottle, so I can eat at ideal times that are the healthiest, meaning my caloric distribution throughout is even and/or at proper times around my workouts, rather than having too few calories in the morning and too many late at night like most people do. Otherwise, I end up being too busy for awhile, then by the time it's my next meal I end up either just throwing something in the microwave and/or eating too much all at once, or I go too long before or after a workout without eating, or I eat right before a workout and my stomach isn't happy...you get the idea.
5. I never feel too hungry. I don't crave junk like I do otherwise. If I do have a thought like, "gee, some chips sound good," I don't feel compelled to eat them because I don't feel hungry, plus I know I can eat them on the weekend if I still want them.
6. I chose to eat normal on the weekends because that's when it becomes a social thing. Also, by knowing I'm going to eat other foods on the weekend it keeps me from craving junk, and also if I am missing something from my soylent recipe that only exists in regular food, then I'll still get some.
This nitwit has borrowed the name, probably having seen the derivative film and never twigged to the fact that the word meant something.
It's a metaphor. He's not saying it's the exact same stuff that's in the book. Maybe it's silly, but it's also catchy. If he didn't know what he was doing when he named it, then perhaps it would be reasonable to call him a nitwit, but that's clearly not the case. It's like Sex Wax surfboard wax. Did the creators really think it was actually intended to be used for sex? Of course not. They named it that because it's catchy and people buy it. It also happens to be the best wax on the market IMO.
You want a truly great read, get the book. You want a horrible viewing experience, get the film.
You want to make up your own mind instead of being told what to think by someone on the internet, do both.
For completeness:
You don't care about it: do neither.
Most of these comments are missing the point of Soylent and also the target customer.
I like eating home cooked food. I like time. These two goals are at odds with each other, because making home cooked food takes lots of time.
Some nights, I just don't feel like cooking or I don't have time to cook. I just want something quick to satisfy my hunger. I would probably end up eating fast food, which is terrible for me nutritionally.
Soylent is for those nights for me. When I don't feel like cooking and I just want to feel full. It would be nice to have something filling but also healthy, and that's where Soylent comes in vs just getting fast food.
I imagine that most people who preordered Soylent are similar to me in this sense. Very few people plan to stop eating altogether and subsist solely on Soylent.
It's not about replacing food, so please, get over that idea.
If you've ever come home from work, and hacked away at a project until the wee hours of the night, and thought "damn, I'm so hungry, but finishing what I'm working on is more exciting than eating right now. I wish I could just make my hunger go away so I could focus on what I want to work on." then you might be able to understand my desire for something like Soylent.
-Glitch "We all know Linux is great...it does infinite loops in 5 seconds." - Linus Torvalds
It's not green, so it doesn't have people in it yet. So what secret will we discover is the ingredient in Soylent Grey?
Old people
Soylent has better marketing, that's it.
The spoiler is: Soylent is cut with dog poop. High in nutrition, this substance is found everywhere. Dogs gobble it up like bon bons.
All natural, this, is the secret ingredient in Solyent.
Soylent Brown is poooooodle
I don't understand this. At all. Complete "solid food replacements" have been around since forever. As in, actual nutrition companies that have some clue what they are doing have sold this stuff for people with chewing problems, and for use with feeding tubes, for decades. Some of it even tastes pretty good and has a texture that won't make you gag.
Why the big hubbub about a complete amateur developing a nearly-unpalatable copy of what's already been done? Oh, I forgot! Crowdsourcing! Open Source! If the guy took BitCoins as payment, the Slashdot trifecta would be complete.
Go to your local drugstore. Go to the "Nutrition" isle. Purchase Ensure, Boost, Slim-Fast, or one of the store-brand generics. It has a smooth texture (unlike Soylent), a palatable tasted (unlike Soylent), and was developed by people that have some clue what they are doing (unlike Soylent.) If that's not enough calories for you, ask the Pharmacist to order Nutren or a similar product.
These are professionally-developed products that have been in use for years and years. The high-test stuff, such as Nutren, is used for people with feeding tubes (but it is flavored and can be drunk) and they live off this stuff for decades.
There is a simlar product on the market: BP-5. It's intended as short-term emergency food and pretty much does what Soylent does minus some calories and fine-tuning. Actually, Soylent might have a chance of competing with BP-5 if it can boast a similar shelf life but superior nutritional value.
If you want to buy BP-5 and can't buy it there's a similar product (virtually identical except in taste and packaging according to the German Wikipedia) called NRG-5 which might be easier to obtain.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
No, that would be Torgo's Executive Powder.
HSJ$$*&#^!#+++ATH0
NO CARRIER
They may have obtained $2 million in pre-orders, but just last week they revealed that the shipping version will contain Sucralose, an artificial sweetener. If they can't figure out a way to manage the PR issues besides just saying "You people are ignorant, sucralose is fine," then Soylent may not last long. Regardless of the pros or cons of artificial sweeteners, you have to give the customer what they want and not what they don't.
My argument against Soylent is that it is developed by somebody who is not a nutritionist by either experience or training. If a Nutrition PhD student developed this stuff, I'd consider it. If it wasn't nasty glop, I'd consider it (although I'd certainly hesitate to try and live off of it.)
When it comes to things that could poison me, I'm totally on board with that ideology.
However, I can't help but keep in mind that the aeroplane was invented in a shed by a couple of bicycle repairmen.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese