Soylent 2.0 Comes Bottled and Ready To Drink

An anonymous reader writes: Soylent has announced today their latest product, Soylent 2.0. It comes premixed and ready to drink in recyclable bottles. Each bottle is one fifth of a scientifically balanced daily meal plan, will last up to a year unrefrigerated, and will cost you $2.42. A Soylent blog post reads in part: "Not only are its ingredients vegan, Soylent 2.0 reaches an unprecedented level of environmental sustainability with half of its fat energy coming from farm-free, algae sources. This next generation agricultural technology has the potential to reduce the ecological impact of food production by orders of magnitude, signifying a major step towards a future of abundance, a world where optimal nutrition is the new normal."

Comments

Oblicatory

[mitcheli]

I'm waiting for their Green formula.

Re: Oblicatory

[ArmoredDragon]

But that wouldn't be vegan.

Re:Oblicatory

[ITRambo]

With all due respect, I'd rather eat Ramen and take a vitamin pill than consume the current Soylent formulations and fart all night long.

Re:Oblicatory

[XxtraLarGe]

With all due respect, I'd rather eat Ramen and take a vitamin pill than consume the current Soylent formulations and fart all night long.

Why choose only one when you can do both?

Re:Oblicatory

[geekmux]

I'm waiting for their Green formula.

Regardless of company name, choosing to name a new oddball food product Soylent (as in Green) was the result of someone sitting in the marketing department wondering how they could possibly create more controversy than GMO has ever managed to muster...

Re:Oblicatory

[bev_tech_rob]

With all due respect, I'd rather eat Ramen and take a vitamin pill than consume the current Soylent formulations and fart all night long.

Either that or the screamin' shits......

Re:Oblicatory

[ArcadeMan]

This Soylent Green tastes funny... Oh look, the box says "May contain clowns".

Re:Oblicatory

[knightghost]

Or even better... start building GMO people! You can have the worst of both worlds when you bottle them.

Re:Oblicatory

[volkerdi]

I've had no issues with Soylent 1.4/1.5 producing the kind of room-clearing gas that earlier versions did. It's really rather disappointing.

Re:Oblicatory

[penguinoid]

I know that this is the website I visit to get all my soylent news.

Re: Oblicatory

[bjohnson]

Oh, I don't know; I was actually wondering what their business plan is once they run out of vegans to grind up and bottle...

Re:Oblicatory

[OrangeTide]

There is probably more nutrition in the ramen packaging than in the ramen itself. And vitamin supplements are somewhat controversial as many of them are not significantly bio-available, meaning when you're popping vitamins you're throwing your money down the shitter.

But who is to say that something like Soylent can't be done in a ramen form factor? It kind of defeats the philosophy of Soylent, but if you never bought into that philosophy then no real loss there. Top Ramen or someone ought to invest in some R&D so they can dominate this industry.

Re:Oblicatory

[fahrbot-bot]

Regardless of company name, choosing to name a new oddball food product Soylent (as in Green) ...

Not as in "Green". According to the FAQ Why is it named Soylent?

Our name was inspired by Harry Harrison's 1966 science fiction novel Make Room! Make Room!, which explores the impact massive population growth could have on world resources. In the book, "soylent" is made of soy and lentils and is a new food source used to accommodate overpopulation.

Re:Oblicatory

[jedidiah]

Don't kid yourself.

Both of those options are like "I'd rather sit at home and puke and vomit".

Although the Soylent option still fails based on price.

Re:Oblicatory

[SuricouRaven]

I've seen the film. The official explanation is that the Soylent product line was named as it was originally made from soy and lentils, though it was implied that marine algae farms were also required. At the end it is revealed that the new product Soylent Green is made from reprocessed human corpses - a desperate attempt to maximize production when environmental damage has crippled agriculture, which the government tries to hide from people out of concern there will be mass panic if it becomes known how close to starvation the world is.

Re:Oblicatory

[godel_56]

With all due respect, I'd rather eat Ramen and take a vitamin pill than consume the current Soylent formulations and fart all night long.

According to an Ars Technica review the extreme farts are gone with the latest versions.

If you don't like the real thing, there are a bunch of DIY recipes that you can try for yourself.

Re:Oblicatory

[fahrbot-bot]

I've seen the film.

Me too. I was just remarking that the developers (claim they) named it after the product in the book, not movie - the latter which many posters here seem to think (they having not read TFFAQ - shocker).

Re: Oblicatory

[St.Creed]

True. What I've read over the past few years is that fiber is actually much more important than previously considered, and not just a filler but quite essential in keeping healthy. Especially in preventing various sorts of darm cancer. So I'm wondering as much as you whether this soylent stuff is good for your health in the long term.

Re: Oblicatory

[St.Creed]

Okay, and then I went, read the review from Ars Technica and found this quote:

  "While most americans do not consume enough fiber, the amount present in 1.4 is well above the average intake," [the company president] elaborated, "and, given the elemental nature of the product, is ample to maintain a healthy digestive system while consuming Soylent along with other food."

Not sure how much is in there, but I read 30 grams. This is actually the recommended amount. And fiber never goes in "dry" anyway, the mouth chews it up and then mixes it with saliva. So I think that may be covered.

Re: Oblicatory

[reboot246]

Remember to take into account the two kinds of fiber, soluble and insoluble. You'd be surprised what foods have fiber, even coffee has some.

I keep up with all of it because of IBS.

Re:Oblicatory

[meerling]

Interesting.... Last year he claimed to have NEVER even heard of Soylent Green, and now he's saying it was inspired by it?!?!?!
He's full of it.

Re:Oblicatory

[Sponge Bath]

The Logan's Run film also had a bit about the population served by "protein from the sea" which turned out to be frozen people. The 70s was a weird time.

Re: Oblicatory

[KGIII]

They do make drinkable fiber. Maybe they could add that in? I have no idea but it may already contain it.

Re:Oblicatory

[dargaud]

If you think the movie was depressing, DON'T read the book !

Re:Oblicatory

[dunkelfalke]

Not really. There is nothing about "soylent green" in the actual book. All this "made of people" is only in the movie.

Re:Oblicatory

[Lord Bitman]

The explanation of it all being a way to maximize production to prevent panic sure makes a lot more sense as a reason to get upset than the one Charlton Heston's character nonsensically blurts out

Re:Oblicatory

[Jakeula]

Whats the pricing issue? It comes down to about $3 dollars a meal. Thats very cheap for getting a nutrient complete meal for every serving. I spend far more than $3 a meal and I eat way less healthy food per sitting. I also didn't find its taste to be vomit worthy. its not as good as pizza, but its not the worst tasting thing in the world. It tastes like uncooked oatmeal.

Re:Oblicatory

[SuricouRaven]

The movie also mentions that the global population is a classified number, again due to fear of inducing a panic.

The famously blurted line is in the context of the character exhausted and traumatised by their discovery. They aren't acting in the most rational way, just trying to scream their terrible finding to as many people as they can before the authorities catch up. The authories seek to surpress the truth about Soylent Green both because they know many people would react with instinctive disgust to the realisation that they have been unknowing cannibals, and because of what it implies about the sustainability of the food supply: The earth is farmed out, the oceans are dead, and the government has had to resort to the desperate measure of reprocessing the deceased to feed the living.

Re:Oblicatory

[Muad'Dave]

I'm not sure that was the implication. Box said that when the fish stopped coming he started preserving people instead. He kinda went nuts when his primary function was no longer needed - I don't think any of his corpsickles were actually eaten.

Re:Oblicatory

[SuricouRaven]

Which may be why the film is now a famous classic, and the novel is known only to fans of sci-fi novels.

Re:Oblicatory

[Sponge Bath]

That is possible. You don't see any processing facilities, just storage. The important thing in that movie is Jennifer Agutter got naked repeatedly.

Re:Oblicatory

[Muad'Dave]

The 11 year old me had the same idea when that movie came out. Also, Farrah Fawcett - what a magnificent smile.

Re:Oblicatory

[Cinnamon Beige]

There is probably more nutrition in the ramen packaging than in the ramen itself. And vitamin supplements are somewhat controversial as many of them are not significantly bio-available, meaning when you're popping vitamins you're throwing your money down the shitter.

But who is to say that something like Soylent can't be done in a ramen form factor? It kind of defeats the philosophy of Soylent, but if you never bought into that philosophy then no real loss there. Top Ramen or someone ought to invest in some R&D so they can dominate this industry.

My problem is that most measures given for nutritional content are, in fact, based on the total content of the substance and not the amount in a bioavalible form--and we're still revising every so often what is in fact a 'nutritionally complete diet' as we become more aware of just how subtle the signs of malnutrition can actually be. The traditional measures actually were based basically on when you saw the catastrophic signs--we didn't have the ability to detect or recognize some of the mildest forms.

Something like Soylent probably would be really good for getting a better idea of what's actually required for proper nutrition and for emergency food stocks, but overall I doubt it'll ever really be acceptable for everyday use by everybody because nutritional needs are, well, highly variable and can differ by age, sex, metabolism, and genetic heritage. For it to totally replace everybody's diet, you'd basically have to do a custom formula for every single human being and adjust it daily because what Bob needs today cannot be assumed to be the same as what Bob needed yesterday. (This is, in fact, why the body keeps stores: it allows on-the-fly readjustments, much like keeping on hand spare parts for doing emergency repairs is wise.)

Re:Oblicatory

[rtb61]

Taste is Soylent's biggest mistake. You really do need multiple compositions with varying flavours, as you need to be able to adjust you consumption to your current dietary needs ie sweeter in you need more energy, saltier for recovery. They should also steer clear of soy as the amount of chemical processing in that product is extreme and contaminants become a huge risk.

I'm waiting for the

[p51d007]

Soylent is people...

Re:I'm waiting for the

[thinkwaitfast]

Soylent is people.

Happy now?

Re:Obligatory

[Irate Engineer]

I'm waiting for their Green formula.

I've heard it tastes like ass.

They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[bistromath007]

Congratulations, soylent, on perfecting your middle class hipster chow. Wake me when a month's supply of your gross bullshit doesn't cost half again as much as my SNAP benefits.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Isarian]

There are a lot of complaints and replies to the announcements regarding pricing. Not only regarding the price hike of pre-mixed Soylent vs the powder, but regarding the fact that the base powdered form is going up in price a fair bit (especially because the subscription benefit for those who buy by the month is decreasing).

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Your steadfast determination to show everyone how unimpressed you are shows you're more of a hipster than you'll ever accuse anyone of being.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[bistromath007]

*rolleyes*

I remember looking into this stuff a while ago. It was already too expensive for what it was when it was only powder, and since you can only get it online anyway, it's always been unavailable to people who could genuinely benefit from something like it.

Part of their hype... Er, stated goals, is to change the way the world thinks about food supply, reduce environmental impact, and improve the affordability of nutrition. But their crap is only cheap if you customarily go to Starbucks every morning. They have made the Tesla of food: big promises about social goals that go nowhere and just give horn-rim wearing assholes another status symbol.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Isarian]

I wouldn't shove them into the same category as Tesla myself. Soylent's hype was about taking something existing (liquid food) and retooling it for the masses (basically liquid food but with a different nutrient balance for the non-bedridden). If they had met their promise and actually produced a product that would reduce food costs for the masses and be accessible to the general public on basic food benefits it would have been great, but hey, like you said - hype.

Tesla/SpaceX on the other hand are developing revolutionary technologies that didn't exist previously and building a massive electric vehicle infrastructure available to all EVs as well as opening up their tech to the competition. If they tip the automotive balance over to EVs and help to produce a market of affordable electric vehicles they'll have surmounted a significant environmental and social hurdle to the benefit of the entire planet.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Anonymous Coward]

In this case, he's got a fair complaint. The original concept of THIS soylent was to make a cheap food to get poor people their nutrients (especially those out in "food deserts").

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[cayenne8]

So, the important part.

What exactly does this stuff TASTE like?

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[aaaaaaargh!]

He just sounds like a reasonable guy to me.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[bistromath007]

Thank you for confirming that a vegan diet is fundamentally a middle class affectation that should offend anyone who actually understands global food supply problems at all.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Anonymous Coward]

, reduce environmental impact, and improve the affordability of nutrition.

These two goals are often contradicting. While there are ways to improve either independently, when you get down to making food as cheap as possible to compete with a lot of the mass market stuff, you will be increasing the environmental impact. Producing food without large externalities will cost more.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Isarian]

Well first I'd say that you have to have it for a few days before getting used to the taste. The closest thing I could use as an analogy is VERY thin pancake batter. Very little texture to speak of, just mostly drinks like water and is very slightly sweet. I enjoyed the taste but the liquid part of it set off my reflux :/

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not vegan, but you don't have to be eating smoothies to be vegan. In fact, for a long time I made curries for my lunch which were vegan; they were very cheap to make in a big batch once a week. Some brown rice, various beans & lentils, onions etc, and spices. Tasty, nutritious, and cheap.
A lot of the poorest people in the world are de facto vegan, because it's the cheapest (because most efficient) way to eat.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[bistromath007]

And they also frequently struggle with malnutrition. Because a vegan diet that is actually complete is unquestionably harder and more expensive than a non-vegan one. It is something you can only really reliably do in a first world country, where it is therefore an infuriatingly hypocritical exercise of privilege.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Anonymous Coward]

The only reason to take offense that vegans exist is that you're an insecure twat.

And that's coming from a carnivore.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[bistromath007]

I'm disabled, so the state pays that too! Tell me how much you hate it, capitalist. :^)

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Malnourished according to what guidelines? Who published those guidelines, and who funded the research? I've heard of doctors saying that one or two Diet Cokes a day is part of a healthy diet.

The thing is, say you eat enough grain/etc to not be malnourished. Now say you cut your grain intake down, but supplement your diet with beef. How much grain did that cow have to eat to grow large enough to slaughter for food? It'd be more than if you had just stuck with the grain yourself. It's a basic law of the universe: you lose energy when converting it. Since you're (rhetorical) not a first-worlder, why not just leave the cow out of it and save on that grain it wastes?

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[sabbede]

Or you've had to listen to them talk about how superior they are for not eating meat. Torquemada could take lessons...

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[mattack2]

... your middle class hipster chow. ...doesn't cost half again as much as my SNAP benefits.

Well, if you got off your food stamps, maybe you could become middle class and afford it too.

(BTW, I think it's overpriced too, but have still been vaguely interested in trying it. I wish there were a low(er) cal version though. I *know* that's not the point, but a version that provided all of the nutrition necessary but was ALSO low(er) calorie, could be a way to skip some meals..)

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[OrangeTide]

What exactly does this stuff TASTE like?

disturbingly neutral. Like scientifically engineered inoffensive blandness.

I think if I were too busy to care about eating, it would be a useful product. Imagine the weightloss if eating became a boring chore. I might even find other things to do instead to avoid eating, like clean the house.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[OrangeTide]

Because something requires education doesn't make it wrong. The expense is somewhat hard to measure, because we subsidize the meat and dairy industry in the US by $5B. With estimates of around $400B in cost to society (I'm a bit skeptical of that one, I have no done the research myself, relying on Google here).

If meat were more expensive, such that the poor could not afford it, then we as a society would be forced to educate everyone on how to get the necessary nutrition on a vegan diet. I don't think this is impossible, and there are other cultures that have huge sections of society that are meat-free and a few that are also dairy free.

ps - I had a meatball panni today. vegetarian/veganism is a scientific curiosity to me, I haven't adopted it as a religion.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[bistromath007]

That's a great idea. Starving myself will be a great motivator to solve the problem several doctors have been unable to do much about for years.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[HornWumpus]

There are _many_ good reasons not to associate with Vegans. But the fact they leave more meat for the rest of us is not a reason to be offended.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[rogoshen1]

on the other hand, a purely vegan food system would also destroy the environment. where do you get your fertilizer for example? (hint: it won't be from animals, and synthetic fertilizer from fossil fuels is also a non-winner in the long term.)

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[GLMDesigns]

So. Then you're in favor of de-regulating part of the agriculture business by removing subsidies?

Good. I agree, No more subsidies of any kind for farming. If beef prices go up. So be it.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[thinkwaitfast]

disturbingly neutral. Like scientifically engineered inoffensive blandness.

So English food?

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[jedidiah]

Ironically, something that looks like a cracker would probably be a much better option. That's a much more portable approach that doesn't require extra resources when eating in the field. Armies have even used this sort of concept for their field rations.

Something that requires mixing assumes infastructure and resources that may not exist.

Plus everyone knows that real Soylent looks like crackers...

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[thinkwaitfast]

I eat very well for ~$250/month/3 people. Granted I have a large garden, but it's not the primary sources of calories . The trick is to have youtube and be able to follow cooking directions.

The poorest people on Earth eat the best because they know how to cook.
It takes less time than going out to eat.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[AmiMoJo]

I'd be happy with a pill I could pop in the morning, or a drink I guess. Just something that means I have everything I need and don't need to eat again that day. I waste so much time eating.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[smooth wombat]

disturbingly neutral. Like scientifically engineered inoffensive blandness.

So it's essentially what they were eating in the movie, "The Matrix".

It's a single celled protein combined with synthetic aminos, vitamins, and minerals. Everything the body needs.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[ExekielS]

Not really. We would just let the poor replace the meat with pasta and develop even more severe obesity and malnurishment than they already experience. This is America, we don't give a fuck about the poor and we certainly aren't going to let ourselves be forced to help them. And even without subsidies, the meat would still be rounghly as affordabe, maybe a 5% increase at most.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[jedidiah]

Been there. Did that. Moved on. Grew Up.

We could also feed the world by simply distributing the food that we let rot because it isn't perfect enough or to prop up commodity prices.

Haitians don't want our feed corn.

Although I could see you forcing it on yourself strangely enough.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[BigDukeSix]

You're giving Soylent way too much credit. Nestle and Mead-Johnson have sold healthy-people formulas (along with a bunch of others for sick people) for decades. Soylent have reinvented these into what is, by all accounts, a shittier-tasting version.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Isarian]

Don't the variants from Nestlé, Mead-Johnson, etc come at even higher premiums and at much higher glycemic index/sugar content than Soylent though?

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[revaleis]

Well YOU are not technically conserving it.. most likely it is still being used and someone is still eating that meat.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Oligonicella]

PeeWee translation: "I know you are, but what am I?"

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[ponraul]

Mostly, like the protein powder they use.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Oligonicella]

No one is feeding you anything. You feed yourself. That makes you responsible, not a food supplier. I'd far rather live in a world where I watch some dumbass eat himself to death than live in one without Twinkies because some crusade removed everything dumbass could hurt himself by eating.

You suffer from that magical view of the past thing as well. Your list ("obesity, heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, and many many other serious medical issues") existed prior to modern foods. We just died of other stuff first and more often.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[koick]

Stated goals aside, I suspect they are beta testing on hipster consumers so they can make their real money with massive purchases via emergency support services (think pallets and pallets of this stuff delivered to disaster areas), and probably even patents/trademarks/market share so it's the go-to food for inner-planetary space missions.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[chill]

keeping in mind that they intentionally engineered it to be bland. the point is it takes on the flavor of whatever you mix it with.

for me, toss some in a blender with a handful of ice and a quarter cup of fresh or frozen fruit and it makes a great smoothie. the added benefit is it is nutritionally complete.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[meerling]

I had plenty of tasty food when I was in the UK. It would probably have made a modern nutritionist have an apoplectic fit, but still.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[cheesybagel]

There are all sorts of protein drinks you can buy in sports stores in case you are interested.

Or you could just drink milk. I bet it's cheaper. I think Tesla himself survived on milk and cookies. But who am I to know...

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've never been a vegetarian, and like BBQ too much to try any time soon. I've also seen two different assholes be self-righteous about being vegan. Although they were self-righteous about everything they did, and even the one that stopped being vegan would continue to act superior about his new diet. I've also seen more than a couple dozen cases following variations on:

Carn:"Why have you helped yourself to the wings?"

Veg: "I've had enough other food"

Carn: "Just try some, I insist, these are great"

Veg: "... I'm vegetarian"

Carn: "Why?"

Veg: "I don't feel like going into it."

Carn: "No, tell me"

Veg: "I don't like how animals are mistreated

Carn: "Well that's stupid, but more meat for me. You should check with a doctor if you're healthy, because you need nutrients found in meat... "

(10 minutes later after vegetarian leaves)

Carn: "Ugh, vegetarians are so self-righteous assholes who won't stop tell others what to eat and always talk about how superior they are."

Anyway, people in general are self-righteous, and a lot will talk about anything to feel superior. This includes food choices, whether vegetarian or not.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[cheesybagel]

Neither is Soylent. Notice the author doesn't make any claims that it can replace all meals.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[mjwx]

I had plenty of tasty food when I was in the UK. It would probably have made a modern nutritionist have an apoplectic fit, but still.

There's a reason why British TV chefs who refuse to eat junk food are still a bit chunky. British comfort food is typically carb or sugar loaded (or both).

But your diet is not meant to consist mainly of comfort foods but occasionally someone eats all the pies.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[mabu]

>No one wants to hear it, but we're healthiest eating raw vegetables, fruits, and nuts/seeds/legumes as well. Stop feeding us the wrong foods, and obesity, heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, and many many other serious medical issues basically go away.

[citation needed]

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[myowntrueself]

I'm not vegan, but you don't have to be eating smoothies to be vegan. In fact, for a long time I made curries for my lunch which were vegan; they were very cheap to make in a big batch once a week. Some brown rice, various beans & lentils, onions etc, and spices. Tasty, nutritious, and cheap.
A lot of the poorest people in the world are de facto vegan, because it's the cheapest (because most efficient) way to eat.

What you are describing isn't 'curry' its dhal.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[myowntrueself]

And they also frequently struggle with malnutrition. Because a vegan diet that is actually complete is unquestionably harder and more expensive than a non-vegan one. It is something you can only really reliably do in a first world country, where it is therefore an infuriatingly hypocritical exercise of privilege.

Try being vegan in Mongolia. Almost all of those fruit and vegetables have to be shipped from China. Not only are they heavily loaded with pesticides and herbicides they also cost quite a lot of energy to ship. And in winter... good luck with that.

First world people typically have zero idea of whats really involved in feeding most of the world.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[myowntrueself]

The only reason to take offense that vegans exist is that you're an insecure twat.

And that's coming from a carnivore.

Absolutely. I hear vegans are delicious.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Greyfox]

Heh. Yeah. I can squeek a six quart crock pot of lentil soup (Lentils, Chicken, Canned Tomatoes, Onion, Garlic, Carrots and Potatoes) under $10. Half that if I leave out the chicken. A bit more if I also add bacon and my home-ground curry mix. I can get cumin for practically free at the moment, though. And that'll keep me fed the entire week. It's damn good, too, just not something I'm in the mood for in the middle of August.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[KGIII]

Wait... I am paying to feed you?!?

Actually, I am okay with that. If you were hungry I would expect you to steal for food. I'd rather people not do that. If anything, I think they should make it more readily available and work to take the social stigma out of benefits. I suspect more people would apply if it were not embarrassing. Well, I am assuming it is embarrassing, I do not really know. It should not be, however. When I am supreme rule of the galaxy, I will make sure to change that.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[KGIII]

Yup. For every dead animal they do not eat - I will eat two. I am old and I still can not get much heavier than 170 pounds no matter how much I eat. I am exactly 172 pounds on my scale and I have been that exact weight for as long as I have owned the scale. I do not seem to lose or gain any weight. Strange, really.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Evtim]

Share and enjoy?

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[freeze128]

It would probably be cheaper if they just used Soy beans and lentils, like their name suggests.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Dr_Barnowl]

The guy lived on it exclusively for a few months and had regular blood tests to make sure his health was maintained.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Dr_Barnowl]

The EU equivalent, Joylent, costs about €6 a day.

Pre-prepared bottles are the real WTF here - they're heavier, more wasteful.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[phil.swansborough]

Wow, what a load of absolute crap! I've been a vegan for nearly a decade and I spend less than anyone I know, including all of my vegetarian friends, on food. Why talk about something you clearly know nothing about? And you get modded +5 insightful basically because it's an anti-vegan comment to go with the group think.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[bingoUV]

Oil the hinge of the needle of your scale.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[sabbede]

An excellent point.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Jakeula]

At around $3 dollars a meal, the pricing isnt so terrible. Find me another nutrient complete meal that has that low cost, and low prep time. Sure there is room for improvement in taste and cost, but I don't think this is overly expensive. I spend way more than $70 a week on food and its not nearly as healthy.

Re: They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[KGIII]

It is digital. I am not taking it apart anyhow. My doctor's scale says I weigh the same. His is digital too. I do not see the analog scales so often these days.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[TheTrueScotsman]

where do you get your fertilizer for example?

The Haber-Bosch process fixes nitrogen from the air. All it needs is power.

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[cbhacking]

Hey asshole, fun fact: there are jobs which requires a bachelor's degree in a scientific field (the specific example I'm thinking of is oceanography), and still only earn minimum wage (in the state with the country's highest state-set minimum wage, but still). You can work full time at that job (earning significantly more than federal minimum wage), and still qualify for SNAP.

Not everybody can break 6 digits (or even half of that) by age 25, and if everybody who had a shot at it made the attempt then your (and my) jobs would probably pay a lot less because there'd be a glut of people in the field.

Seriously, take that attitude of yours and shove it back in next to your head. We already know where you keep that...

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Vastad]

Do you even fat boy's brekkie? Even once?

English food tastes of delicious slightly-burnt bacon fat and lard-infused pastry topped off with mildly acidic tea and skimmed milk

Re:They aren't revolutionizing shit.

[Fieryphoenix]

I make mine with less water and it's like thick pancake batter. Chewing becomes involved; I find that more satisfying. I drink a lot of water through the day so I don't need it with my Soylent.

Bowl of snot

[TWX]

It's a single-celled protein combined with synthetic aminos, vitamins, and minerals. Everything the body needs.

Re:Bowl of snot

[preaction]

... It doesn't have _Everything_ the body needs...

Re:Bowl of snot

[Anonymous Coward]

It has electrolytes, and that's what a body craves.

Now stop talking like such a fag.

Re:Bowl of snot

[TWX]

No, but technically, neither did you.

I don't get it,... five a day?

[Selur]

"Each bottle is one fifth of a scientifically balanced daily meal plan, "
$2.42 per 400-calorie bottle so $12.08 a day,... cooking my self I can manage a (I hope) tastier alternative for less,...

Sorry, but I really don't get why this is interesting at all, for a short moment I thought: "Okay, may be for long term 'food' storage, then I read '"However, we counter that by the fact that the drink does not require refrigeration and also does not spoil until at least one year."

=> What is the gain in using this?

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[TWX]

I can only think of specific applications when this might be worthwhile, like where one has to remain mobile for some time and carry one's supplies in an area with very little water available, but that's a pretty unusual set of circumstances. You almost have to be a refugee or a forward-deployed soldier to involuntarily enter those conditions, and only militaries would have the supply capability to afford to intermittently replenish stock at that price.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[TWX]

I suppose I should add, even in those circumstances it would be demoralizing to rely entirely on this drink for complete nutritional sustenance, and at least one real, substantial, solid meal per day would be needed. Soldiers on-patrol or on-alert that simply can't stop to have a meal would probably be the only ones that would 'benefit' from this.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[Isarian]

The idea was to have foodstuff that is easy to prepare, low-cost, and includes all of your dV of various dietary needs. One of the promises/mission statements by Rob Rhinehart was to reduce the cost of Soylent over the time - there's some consternation in the Soylent community right now because with the announcement of 2.0 they are also increasing the cost of the base powder form of Soylent with no material change to the formula - your standard price hike, quite contrary to the promise of lower costs over time.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[Anonymous Coward]

=> What is the gain in using this?

Silicon Valley 1.0: Let's build something cool and make the world a better place.
Silicon Valley 2.0: FUCK YEAH DISRUPT ALL THE THINGS BECOME BILLIONAIRE!

The "benefit" of Soylent is you can make millions of dollars by convincing other wannabe-millionaires by giving them Life Hacks(tm) so they can Bro Down(tm) and Code(tm). Flavor is an impediment to Productivity(tm). Concern for presentation is an impediment to Agility(tm). Time that you spend cooking and eating food with flavor is time that could be spent Disrupting(tm).

You have time for eating something as pedestrian as food, and you further demand that your food have flavor? If you aren't spending every waking minute on your Startup(tm), you're obviously not Passionate(tm) about it. Bro, do you even Lyft(tm)?

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[pr0t0]

I don't think it's really meant to be a complete food replacement for most people. I make my own based off of what I saw on the DIY Soylent page. Mine's a bit more nutritionally complete than most DIY stuff, is a little cheaper, and is fewer calories than actual Soylent. It also contains no soy or oats (which can cause gas). I only consume it for breakfast and lunch, Monday through Friday. I really love it though. It's quick, easy, low cost, filling, and nutritionally complete. How much molybdenum do you get? How about Selenium? Enough?

My only worry is absorption. It's all well and good to say that I am putting the National Institute of Health's RDI of each vitamin, mineral, and macronutrient; but I don't really know if I'm absorbing all of that. Still, I feel great, I'm losing weight, and my bloodwork is good.

My guess is the bottled product is part of a long-term strategy to eventually push to sell the product in grocery stores. It will be meant for grab-and-go eating that some people will pay a higher price for given the convenience. Soylent will wholesale it to the stores who will then mark it back up to a price that Soylent can say people are already comfortable paying.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[FudRucker]

i can buy a pound of hamburger, one tomato, one onion, head of lettuce, loaf of bread, for about 20 bucks, and cook four hamburgers, and feed four people and it will taste a heck of a lot better, thats about 5 bucks each a day, a lot better than a liquid diet too

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[lbmouse]

Plus you can have bacon and chocolate chip cookies.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[lisaparratt]

Whereas everyone else who does this just buys protein shakes...

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[Anonymous Coward]

The idea is not to cook, not to enjoy food, and save time. I'm not joking, that's really the idea behind it from what I've gathered.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[sumdumass]

Soldiers typically need a lot more calories. Where it would interesting is an emergency food source or part of one for disasters ans such. I keep MREs around just because in the winter, it is possible i can get snowed in for two or three days without power or water (well run off electric )

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[mattack2]

=> What is the gain in using this?

I think it's the food equivalent of (the apparently apocryphal story that) "Albert Einstein had 7 of the exact same suit".

Some people apparently don't like food much, so they just want to get the nutrition and be on with their day.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[Jack9]

> cooking my self I can manage a (I hope) tastier alternative for less,...

I don't eat much (once a day). I routinely forget to eat. I do not cook (my home's kitchen is pristine). For me, it's been a chore to eat, for as long as I've been alive.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[OrangeTide]

I've lived through both 1.0 and 2.0 Silicon Valley. It eventually always becomes about money. Sellout Valley

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[fahrbot-bot]

Whereas everyone else who does this just buys protein shakes...

Perhaps, but protein shakes are not nutritionally complete and not intended to be a complete food replacement. Soylent is and you can literally live off it and nothing else - presumably the stuff GP makes based on the Soylent DIY pages is also or close. Granted Soylent is not very satisfying from a food enjoyment standpoint, but to each their own.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[OrangeTide]

we obsessive about food in out society, this attempts to solve that, but to me it looks like a different flavor of food obsession rather than the elimination of it.

Call me when I can get a photosynthesis upgrade.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[HornWumpus]

...that's a feature.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[HornWumpus]

Life is bittersweet. For every good thing their is a bad. The only thing that makes it worth going on is good food.

Paraphrased: B. Desraeli.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[HornWumpus]

Your mom was a bad cook. Seriously, there isn't one thing that tastes really good to you? Sympathies.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[SuricouRaven]

I've seen numbers crunched on photosynthesis. Not worth it. Even if you sunbathed naked most of the day, you're still not going to get enough energy to be worthwhile.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[jedidiah]

That's already covered. Someone managed to patent the idea of fortified Nutella.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[jedidiah]

I did this in the 70s with Milk and Nesquick.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[Shadow of Eternity]

Soldiers already have first strike rations which can be eaten on the move.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[jedidiah]

The real problem is the human hubris of believing that we have finally correctly figured this nutrition thing out. Based on the last few decades, we clearly have not. The modern West may not even understand it as well as some ancient cultures.

So the entire premise of a food pill is a bit premature.

They're probably missing something important less likely to be missed by eating "good food".

Even veganism is less daft.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[Anonymous Cow Ward]

Are you interested in sharing your recipe?

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[jedidiah]

I'm appalled at the idea that this person can't manage any basic rudimentary cooking even that which includes highly prefab ingredients. It really doesn't take much, despite what people may like to think.

Self-reliance is a really low bar here, especially in the age of the microwave oven.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[bill_mcgonigle]

cooking my self I can manage a (I hope) tastier alternative for less,...

Sorry, but I really don't get why this is interesting at all

You answered your question in the first word of that quote. Soylent buyers don't want to cook. Many of them don't know how to cook. Few of those are interested in learning. I spoke with a man who literally gets anxiety just walking into a grocery store and seeing all these things he has no idea what to do with.

I think it's nutritionally foolish ("science" has a moderate but incomplete conception of nutrition), and I think with my stomach, but that doesn't mean there's no use case.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[thinkwaitfast]

you can literally live off it and nothing else

Much like the sweet potato?

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[jedidiah]

The medical industry already has it's own variant of these just as the exercise industry does.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[Hognoxious]

The military have been using MREs and similar things for over half a century, which all taste awful but not as bad as your allies' ones. Similar items exist for disaster relief agencies & hikers.

This isn't a solution looking for a problem, it's a solution looking for a problem that's already been solved.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[Hognoxious]

Or as we used to say back in the 80's[1], lunch is for wimps. Still made me giggle.

Flavor is an impediment to Productivity(tm). Concern for presentation is an impediment to Agility(tm).

There's the basis of a rap in there somewhere.

1] 1980s, before any fixiejockeys chime in.

Re: I don't get it,... five a day?

[chill]

care to share your recipe?

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[93 Escort Wagon]

i can buy a pound of hamburger, one tomato, one onion, head of lettuce, loaf of bread, for about 20 bucks, and cook four hamburgers, and feed four people and it will taste a heck of a lot better, thats about 5 bucks each a day, a lot better than a liquid diet too

But that's not nutritionally complete.

You need to add bacon and cheddar cheese.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[thrig]

Yep. Grains, beans and (white) rice, millet, corn, etc. will keep unrefrigerated for a good year or two, toss in some sun-dried tomatoes for flavour (okay, I will admit to cheating and using store-bought ketchup). Ferment the beans or grains for extra flavour (e.g. some corn meal, water to cover, a bit of salt, wait a day or two, depending on ambient temperature). Dried kale also keeps well, mix it into various things. Or try Moroccan preserved lemons (yep, fermented) with rice or chickpeas (these are best sprouted). I am out of sauerkraut at the moment, but do have some fermented kohlrabi from some weeks ago that I should crack open...

I guess I should mention that I turned off the refrigerator at home years ago. It does a fine job holding up the sourdough starter.

> (Also, drinking nine of anything per day sounds horrible.)

Really? /me goes to check on how the huckleberry mead is doing.

(Mead, obviously, has a very poor glycemic index and a poor nutrient balance and is in all ways utterly unhealthy and thus unsuitable for consumption. Citizens should instead for their proper health only drink SteriBland(R) NutryDense(TM).)

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[nine-times]

$2.42 per 400-calorie bottle so $12.08 a day,... cooking my self I can manage a (I hope) tastier alternative for less,... What is the gain in using this?

Well, you don't have to cook a meal yourself, so that's one benefit. Also, if we can assume that it is actually a "balanced meal" it does mean that you don't have to figure out or plan a balanced diet. The fact that it's liquid means that you can just gulp it down-- no need to silverware, no crumbs, no need to chew even. The fact that it is in an individual bottle that doesn't need refrigeration means that you don't have to mix it, and you can just grab a bottle, throw it in a bag, and go.

In short, it's very convenient. It's not the cheapest option or the tastiest option. But if you're someone who doesn't have the time or inclination to think about meals, and just wants balanced nutrition without spending any time or energy on it, then you're the target audience.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[OrangeTide]

Not worth it. Even if you sunbathed naked most of the day...

The first part alone already makes it worthwhile.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[Dutch Gun]

Protein shakes, no. There are plenty of products that offer complete dietary nutrition in a shake, and have done so for a long time, like Metagenics' Ultrameal. These are often labeled as "medical food". There are specific variants for people that have various dietary restrictions, etc.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[TapeCutter]

Why would you deliberately remove a pleasurable experience from your life, are you Catholic?

Re: I don't get it,... five a day?

[pr0t0]

Recipe: https://docs.google.com/spread...

I realize after looking at it again (it's been awhile), that I was unintentionally a bit disingenuous about it being nutritionally complete. It's more so than most DIY...but not totally. I'm still trying to find a good source for Vitamin K and I'm a little short in iron, chloride, and carbs (I forgot about that). I do make that up those deficiencies by a sensible dinner, so please don't rely solely on my recipe for nutrition.

The bulk of the cost comes from the almond flour. I'm still trying to find a better source for that. The spreadsheet also contains links to information on how I calculated various aspects of the recipe.

Also, everybody's different so consult your doctor or have your blood work done before and after a trial run. This works well for me, but may not for you. That sounds like a legal disclaimer, but as a good netizen, I don't want anyone to get sick from something I posted on the web.

Re: I don't get it,... five a day?

[pr0t0]

Also, I cut those daily amounts in half and put each half in a Blender Bottle. I add water and shake them up; one for breakfast on the morning commute, and one at my desk for lunch. This also serves as my excuse for leaving work an hour early if I feel like it.

Like all Soylent, DIY or otherwise, they are better cold, but not at all bad room temp. The protein is unflavored Now Foods whey protein isolate and I liked that, but I've been experimenting with the flavored WPI from GNC. The cookies and cream was ok, but too much sugar. I'm recently on the vanilla and I like that much better from a flavor/nutritional standpoint, but I need to update the document to reflect that.

Re: I don't get it,... five a day?

[chill]

Thanks, I'll try it.

I add flavor by tossing a handful of blueberries, peaches or other fruit in and blend it. For hot days I throw in a handful of ice and use frozen fruit for a nice, chilled smoothie. I've found the plain soylent takes on the flavor of added fruit nicely.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[myowntrueself]

I can only think of specific applications when this might be worthwhile, like where one has to remain mobile for some time and carry one's supplies in an area with very little water available, but that's a pretty unusual set of circumstances. You almost have to be a refugee or a forward-deployed soldier to involuntarily enter those conditions, and only militaries would have the supply capability to afford to intermittently replenish stock at that price.

If this gunk also hydrates you, maybe. Otherwise carrying liquid food around is a fair bit of bulk. MREs can be eaten dry and would weigh a fraction of what this stuff would weigh.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[KGIII]

I am a hell of a cook, I just do not really like food. I eat once or twice (at most) a day. I have a neighbor that I pay to clean my house and she usually cooks a big meal which I eat over a few days. I sometimes cook my own food but, often, after I have cooked it there is something that makes me no longer really want to eat it. I was an opiate abuser for many years and that slows down the digestive system a great deal. When I quit my appetite was huge and I ate a lot but that did not last long. I just really do not like eating. I would most certainly not benefit from this drink, however. I would not consume it. If it were a pill? I might eat that. If it were a pill that got me high as all hell? I'd eat the fuck out of that - I'd shoot that shit.

I do have a sibling who has gastroperesis (I have no idea how to spell it, basically it means her stomach and intestines do not work - at all) and she lives because she gets her nutrients through a pick line in something called TPN and uses a strange computerized pump. I pay for some of her medical care and it is expensive - like $900/wk for the TPN alone. The tubing, computer, etc... That stuff is very costly. I do not know the exact figure but it probably works out to about $1500/wk with all of her TPN supplies. She is disabled so the government covers the majority of the stuff but the only company that was eligible to take care of her supplies was inept so it was simpler to get a different company, that does not accept government insurance, and does the job better. *sighs* Fortunately, I owned my own company and was able to sell it at a great price and retire. It is still a bit of a burden.

I could complain about all sorts of things in her area of life but it would do me no good. One prescription she was only allowed so much of (about half of what the doctor recommended) and, if she paid for any additional number of that med they would stop paying for what they were already covering. It is pricey... You do what you can, I suppose. Any insurance policy I could find that would actually cover even as much as is already covered is actually more expensive than what I am already paying. It reminds me that there really are cracks that people can fall through and, once they are there, there is little hope of getting anywhere. I imagine that there are many like her, she indicates that there are, but are unable to really do anything and have nobody to help.

But, enough digression...

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[DoctorFrog]

What I don't get is why a five-a-day product is sold by the dozen.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[Dr_Barnowl]

Presumably you'd tan with chlorophyll instead of melanin. Captain Kirk would have a field day.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[tehcyder]

"Each bottle is one fifth of a scientifically balanced daily meal plan, " $2.42 per 400-calorie bottle so $12.08 a day,... cooking my self I can manage a (I hope) tastier alternative for less,...

Sorry, but I really don't get why this is interesting at all, for a short moment I thought: "Okay, may be for long term 'food' storage, then I read '"However, we counter that by the fact that the drink does not require refrigeration and also does not spoil until at least one year."

=> What is the gain in using this?

I assumed they were going for a secondary market of "preppers"/survival nutjobs.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[tehcyder]

i can buy a pound of hamburger, one tomato, one onion, head of lettuce, loaf of bread, for about 20 bucks, and cook four hamburgers, and feed four people and it will taste a heck of a lot better, thats about 5 bucks each a day, a lot better than a liquid diet too

But that's not nutritionally complete.

You need to add bacon and cheddar cheese.

And if you're from the US, don't forget a cup of sugar. Somehow.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[tehcyder]

Why would you deliberately remove a pleasurable experience from your life, are you Catholic?

Eating is occasionally a pleasure, whereas alcohol is always.

Also, if you drink regularly, then you get less fussy about what food you can eat, and so a bowl of spicy lentils becomes almost as good a breakfast as a cold kebab.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[tehcyder]

I am a hell of a cook, I just do not really like food.

I like either cooking or eating but not both on the same occasion. Unless wine is involved.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[WallyL]

And if you're from the South, it's 2 cups of sugar!

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[coldsalmon]

Exactly: it's saving time on cooking, shopping, and deciding what to eat. I suppose the ideal food would be cheap, tasty, healthy, and fast. Soylent is not the cheapest, tastiest, healthiest, or fastest, but it aims to do very well on all of those metrics. There are many ways to eat cheaper food that tastes better, but these are either less healthy (candy bars) or slower (shopping and cooking). The older I get, the more I get fed up with the time and effort it takes to make and consume a decent meal. I have always seen food as a necessary annoyance, made even more annoying by the fact that the market caters to people who enjoy food. If I could save 1 hour a day on food, I would jump at the chance.

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[cbhacking]

Even those who like food are sometimes busy. Soylent makes it possible to, for example, have your breakfast on the bus and your lunch without leaving your desk, and then go home to a leisurely evening with a home-made dinner. Drinking soylent takes almost no time - even mixing it, for those who don't get it pre-mixed, is faster than most meal preparations - and produces minimal dishes. You don't need any more space for it (at work, say) than you need for a water bottle, so you can have lunch without needing to "go to lunch".

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[Vastad]

I'm interested in what your recipe is. Is it available on diy.soylent.com?

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[beathach]

"=> What is the gain in using this?"

Well, put it this way. Consider yourself lucky that you have skill in cooking and enjoy all the work that goes with it (spending time and gas driving back and forth from the grocery store, standing in line, working over the stove, cleaning up afterward, keeping an inventory of ingredients).

Personally I detest all those things, and rather spend my time playing games or musical instruments, or working out, or riding a bike. Or anything else, really. And I think that's perfectly okay, and Soylent fits my lifestyle nicely, and complements well the times when I do decide to eat for pleasure, out with friends and such.

Here is a webcomic.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/c...

Re:I don't get it,... five a day?

[oldmac31310]

I can buy the same as you listed for a bit over $10. I thought my supermarket was expensive, but maybe not...

Who wants to drink pureed vegans?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> Not only are its ingredients vegan

Who the f*** wants to drink pureed vegans?

If I'm going to get my liquid cannibal on, I want the taste of real hamburger-fed 'muricans!

Re:Who wants to drink pureed vegans?

[Nidi62]

>> Not only are its ingredients vegan

Who the f*** wants to drink pureed vegans?

If I'm going to get my liquid cannibal on, I want the taste of real hamburger-fed 'muricans!

Too fatty. Besides, vegans are grass-fed. Gives better flavor than grain-fed.

Re:Who wants to drink pureed vegans?

[HornWumpus]

If that's true than people are different from cattle. Because grain fed beef is much better.

Re:Who wants to drink pureed vegans?

[steelfood]

Who the f*** wants to drink pureed vegans?

Personally, I find them a bit too gamy.

Re:Who wants to drink pureed vegans?

[mjwx]

>> Not only are its ingredients vegan

Who the f*** wants to drink pureed vegans?

If I'm going to get my liquid cannibal on, I want the taste of real hamburger-fed 'muricans!

Too fatty. Besides, vegans are grass-fed. Gives better flavor than grain-fed.

Yes but there is very little actual meat on a vegan, most of it has broken down due to lack of protein as well.

OTOH the sedentary lifestyle of the hamburger fed 'murican means that the meat is very tender and the excess fat can be used in the cooking process (for both greasing and cooking fuel).

Re:Who wants to drink pureed vegans?

[Ziacles]

I can't eat a vegan in one sitting, usually I have to split one with a friend.

Not A Slashvert for the Competition...!

[Hardness]

I forgot about Soylent. I read the headline and thought, "Wow, Soylent News' new business model is pretty interesting!"

"...Wait, why is this on Slashdot..?" //reads more carefully:

"Oh."

Sustainable?

[hondo77]

...an unprecedented level of environmental sustainability with half of its fat energy coming from farm-free, algae sources.

Because plant sources of fat are not environmentally sustainable?

Re:Sustainable?

[drinkypoo]

Because plant sources of fat are not environmentally sustainable?

Not as modern agriculture is practiced.

Re:Sustainable?

[OrangeTide]

Turkey fat is industrial waste, putting it in cars and milkshakes would be more environmentally sustainable than continuing to ignore the reality.

Re:Sustainable?

[drinkypoo]

Turkey fat is industrial waste, putting it in cars and milkshakes would be more environmentally sustainable than continuing to ignore the reality.

Well, I don't know how you got onto turkeys in particular, but Tyson Chicken (the world's largest producer of waste animal fat) has a chicken-fat-to-biodiesel plant...

Re:flavor

[ledow]

Don't know if you noticed but "flavour" is one of those things that, by mass, contributes almost nothing to your meal. As such, it doesn't really matter about the flavour as you can add it later with a tiny "essence" of the original flavour.

You can complain as much as you like, but flavour is a secondary option to the majority of the world when it comes to food.

Re:Obligatory

[drinkypoo]

I've heard it tastes like ass.

You're thinking of Soylent Brown.

"farm-free, algae sources"

[Nutria]

What's wrong with farmed algae?

Re:"farm-free, algae sources"

[Anonymous Coward]

It's easier if you catch it in the wild than try to get it to go through all those turnstiles to be slaughtered.

Re:"farm-free, algae sources"

[gaudior]

Well, there's not much wrong with free-range, locally-sourced algae, but the real problems come from the container-bred, factory-farmed algae.

Re:"farm-free, algae sources"

[psyclone]

And how is wild algae more sustainable than farmed?

Re:"farm-free, algae sources"

[Junta]

farmed algae is inhumane. Constrained to live in limited vats I eat only free range algae. They get to exercise you see.

Re:"farm-free, algae sources"

[nytes]

It's more fun to shoot the wild algae as it runs through the forest.

Re:Uh oh

[Deadstick]

Since TFA refers to it as "oddly named", perhaps the connotation is fading into old-fart memories...

At $363/month per person, not sustainable

[EmagGeek]

How are urban hipsters supposed to come up with $363/month PER PERSON, in addition to the rent on their industrial loft, $15/day coffee habits, and fixed-gear bicycles?

Re:At $363/month per person, not sustainable

[gaudior]

Patreon.

Re:At $363/month per person, not sustainable

[pjt33]

$15/day coffee habits? They're either drinking seriously overpriced coffee or at high risk of intoxication.

Re:At $363/month per person, not sustainable

[SuricouRaven]

I believe that's the joke.

Re:At $363/month per person, not sustainable

[CODiNE]

I've seen worse. Knew a guy who'd hit up Starbucks on the way to work in the morning, then again at morning break, lunch, afternoon and usually one or 2 in the evening. Always with an extra shot or two added. This is EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK.

I figured out he had to be spending $600-900 a month on his insane coffee habit.

Re:At $363/month per person, not sustainable

[Blaskowicz]

I saw a supermarket selling a fixed gear bicycle at 100 euros. There are fewer parts, afterall!

Darn

[Geste]

" signifying a major step towards a future of abundance"

Too late.

A world where optimal nutrition is the new normal?

[lbmouse]

A world with out medium rare prime rib and good quality cheeses is no world for lbmouse. When does the next rocket leave?

Space Food Sticks v2.0

[smoothnorman]

"let'see everyone who was alive in the 1960s is dead now, right? so it's time again to sucker them into the 'Bachelor Chow' 'Meal in a Pill' scam" : "non-frozen balance energy snack in rod form containing nutritionally balanced amounts of carbohydrate, fat and protein" (yep "rod form", that's exactly missing here)

Re:Space Food Sticks v2.0

[Lodlaiden]

...non-frozen balance energy snack in rod form ...(yep "rod form", that's exactly missing here)

They couldn't get a cafeteria full of grown adults to start gnawing on their rods for lunch.

Re:Space Food Sticks v2.0

[thinkwaitfast]

Hey, I remember those! I always wondered what they were called and where they went. Had them a few times in the 70's.

Re:Space Food Sticks v2.0

[Oligonicella]

But they got a cafeteria full of grown adults to mix their formulas and drink them with looks on their faces of people drinking something they must than what they'd rather?

Re:Space Food Sticks v2.0

[Muad'Dave]

That product was featured on an episode of Unwrapped that I just happened to watch.

Far too expensive

[medv4380]

$2.42 for a single meal that lasts up to a year. Sounds like it's market is survivalist hipsters planning for the end of the world. I'll stick to a pound of split peas or lentils. Heck if I'm going full on Apocalypse survivalist I'll just take the discount and buy in bulk getting them at far less than a dollar per pound. They last 4 to 5 years so much better as a survival meal. With O2 absorbers they're supposed to last forever. I could even stock up on freeze dried veggies and make a better meal.Why would I buy this 'Soylent' in light of better alternatives?

Re:Obligatory

[ThatsNotPudding]

I've heard it tastes like ass.

Dunno, but from what I've read, it will *sound* and *smell* as such.

That's Crazy Expensive

[drinkypoo]

Ensure is 1/3 of a daily meal plan and costs $1.19/unit. In order to be successful, a new product has to be cheaper and better. If your definition includes sustainability then it might be "better", but at literally twice the price of the entrenched competition, it's got to be twice as good. But it's little more than half the food value... So it's got to taste almost four times as good as Ensure to be compelling. Guess what?

Re:That's Crazy Expensive

[quantaman]

Ensure isn't really designed for long-term, one-food use like Soylent.

So if you have a long term medical condition that prevents you from eating anything non-liquid what do they give you and why wouldn't they want to make it suitable for long-term one-food use?

My guess is it's because it's really hard and they don't know how to do that. If Soylent thinks they've done it they're probably just shooting at a lot easier target.

They may have other advantages over Ensure such as taste or market image, but I'm really dubious it's a medically superior drink.

Re:That's Crazy Expensive

[phantomfive]

So it's got to taste almost four times as good as Ensure to be compelling.

The nutritional value is better than Ensure. It has less corn syrup, generally favoring complex carbohydrates over simple carbohydrates.

The biggest problem is they keep changing the formula, making it worse. In the latest formula, they doubled the amount of fat from 20% of the total to 40% of the total.

Who wants 40% of their diet to be fat? That's ridiculous.

Re:That's Crazy Expensive

[ExekielS]

You are kidding, right? If anything, that isn't enough. It has over 230 carbs in the present recipe, when a healthy range is 50-150. Anything higher starts to cause insulin resistance high blood triglycerides, high blood sugar, and numerous problems throughout the body. If anything, more of the carbs need to be removed and replaced with fat. They had more protein initially, but lowered the amount because it was causing very smelly farts because people eat so little protein generally, but it should still be higher to keep up with those who live more active lifestyles. The only reason I'm not already on soylent is because of it's extremely high carb levels. At least they brought it down from over 300 carbs per day, but they still have a long way to go.

Re:That's Crazy Expensive

[Daetrin]

$2.47 * 5 a day = $12.35 a day.

Alternatively, go to your local supermarket and you will find a shelf full of various kinds of energy bars, most of them for $1 each. The ones i get range from 180 calories to 250 calories. Which means that depending on which you select you could get 2000 calories anywhere from $11.11 to $8. It doesn't sound like an ideal diet to me, but i think eating 8-11 energy bars every day, presumably of a variety of flavors, would beat subsisting entirely on a single liquid formula, regardless of whether it was the slightly more expensive Soylent or the slightly cheaper Ensure.

Also, i find it amusing to be having a discussion about the virtues, or lack thereof, of Ensure and liquid Soylent with someone going by the handle "drinkypoo" :)

Re:That's Crazy Expensive

[Any Web Loco]

"In order to be successful, a new product has to be cheaper and better"

No it doesn't. It just needs to meet a need. Pretty much any luxury good defies this description.

Re:That's Crazy Expensive

[Dr_Barnowl]

Ensure is designed as a supplement. There are various groups who find it difficult to consume enough calories - as odd as that sounds. Loss of appetite, or recovery from surgery, or mental disorders that mean you dislike food (I strongly suspected the inventor of Soylent to have one of these but I think it's unfounded). It's not a complete nutritional replacement.

They've even used it for force-feeding hunger strikers at Guantanamo.

Re:That's Crazy Expensive

[drinkypoo]

"In order to be successful, a new product has to be cheaper and better"

No it doesn't. It just needs to meet a need.

No, if it's not cheaper and better than the competition, then there needs to be no competition: it needs to fill an unmet need.

This product does not fill a significant unmet need, so it needs to be cheaper and better than the competition, which does already fill this need. Remember, there's lots of meal replacements out there.

Yes, there are a small handful of people who want this product. It's clearly not enough to make a profit on volume, because they're raising their prices.

Re:That's Crazy Expensive

[RyoShin]

I was told there wouldn't be a math test today.

Screw Soylent!

[ArcadeMan]

It doesn't even have ELECTROLYTES!

Re:Screw Soylent!

[Nutria]

Damn, you beat me to it!

Re:flavor

[ArcadeMan]

Le p'tit paquet d'biscuits sans sel, sans sucre, sans agents et sans goût, c'est 100 piasses! -François Pérusse

Too expensive

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm seeing a lot of people complaining about the price. $12 to feed myself seems pretty dam reasonable TBH, especially if it's zero-prep and stops me ordering pizza if I happen to get in abnormally late.

Either food in America is super cheap, or the typical "IT-pro" posting on /. is at the "front-line telephone support" stage of their career.

Re:Too expensive

[Nutria]

Either food in America is super cheap

Must be, since we feed a family of 4 on $900, and that's on the high side...

Re:Too expensive

[pjt33]

Maybe you think food in Spain is cheap as well, but I don't know how I'd manage to spend 11€ on food in one day unless I go to a restaurant. And I cook for one, so I don't get much by way of economies of scale.

Maybe it's just me...

[Chris Mattern]

...but I wouldn't name a food "Soylent" and then brag about how green it is...

Re:flavor

[Noah Haders]

-1 disagree. every single person on earth will tell you that flavor is important and that things that taste gross are bad. name one who doesn't.

Context

[jdavidb]

Soylent has announced today their latest product, Soylent 2.0

Some explanation of Soylent 1.0 might be nice for those of us who might not have seen previous reporting on the subject. Otherwise, I might just assume it's people.

Re:Context

[Attila Dimedici]

That is what the person who came up with the idea for this product wanted you to do...and is why I will never purchase it.

Re:$409 for a month on Amazon for powder

[Noah Haders]

wat? explain again, is $4.86 per shake, or $4.86 per day of living only on shakes, or $4.86 on thrice day, is that three times a day or every three days? wat?

Re:flavor

[Chris Mattern]

Well, gee, I always wanted live in a game of Shadowrun. It may only be soy, chummer, but at least I got a full set of flavor faucets!

Everything

[FreeUser]

What's wrong with farmed algae?

It's not people.

Re:Obligatory

[LordSkippy]

Actually, the taste varies from person to person.

Water is heavy and expensive to ship

[Theovon]

I'm not sure that pre-mixed is the most economical move. Water is very heavy by volume and makes the nutrients takes up a lot more space. This is why dried beans, concentrated fruit juice, and powdered supplements are cheaper. (Powdered milk is dirt cheap, but it tastes spoiled, so there are exceptions.) With the powdered formula, they could keep the costs down. With the liquid formula, shipping is going to wreck the economics of it. I could see having some liquid formula in the fridge for when you're occasionally in a hurry in the morning, but I wouldn't make it a staple.

I'd be eating Soylent now were it not for the oats. I have a genetic sensitivity to gluten. Although pure oats are technically gluten free, it's often contaminated, and some very sensitive people react to a similar gluten-like protein in oats. I'm not taking the risk.

Re:Water is heavy and expensive to ship

[Attila Dimedici]

I have a genetic sensitivity to gluten.

So, you suffer from Celiac's Disease?

Re:Water is heavy and expensive to ship

[Theovon]

I don't think so. However, I did 23andme and imported the data into Nutrahacker. It reported a homozygous defect that is correlated with gluten sensitivity. Also, I have urticaria, and years ago, an allergist told me to get off of gluten.
Since I've been off, the itching hasn't changed, but my concentration and energy have been gradually but noticably improving (I have chronic fatigue).

Re:Water is heavy and expensive to ship

[Attila Dimedici]

The scientist who did the original study which "discovered" non-celiac disease gluten sensitivity did a more thorough study which indicated that there was no such thing. In his second study he discovered that all non-celiac disease cases of "gluten sensitivity" were caused by something other than gluten, which he had failed to control for in his original study. You may want to look into that second study to see what other than gluten may be causing your symptoms.

Re:Water is heavy and expensive to ship

[Theovon]

That wouldn't surprise me. I don't suppose you'd remember the name of the scientist. I've done some googling on this and will continue reading. We're already familiar with FODMAPs and are eating a low-FODMAP diet to see what happens.

My wife is another interesting case. When she gets gluten, her thyroid goes into a rage, within an hour. Celiacs typically have GI effects from gluten, like immediate vomiting, diarrhea, etc. She doesn't. Instead, she has a massive thyroid rage. We assumed all this time that it was celiac, because it's not that uncommon for celiacs to have these symptoms too. However, gluten doesn't cause the GI problems for her.

One hypothesis we have is that it's not celiac. Instead it's a combination of leaky gut and some other auto-immune disease. She tests positive for the Hashimoto's antibodies. So the idea is that her immune system recognizes some food protein (possibly gluten) and produces antibodies that also attack the thyroid. It's kinda like celiac, but attacks the thyroid instead of the gut lining.

Something else could also be stimulating the antibody production, but it's probably a food protein, and wheat contains it. She reacts badly to the tiniest amounts of cross-contamination.

We've not rules out celiac, however. When she first got off of gluten, she had major nutrient deficiencies. She tested low for a variety of vitamins and minerals and didn't absorb them well. After being off gluten for like a year, there seemed to be a significant improvement in her nutrient absorbtion. Some aspect of her digestive system healed. Did villi grow back? Was her mucosal lining restored? Not sure about any of that.

Re:Water is heavy and expensive to ship

[Theovon]

Yes. And the genetic markers we're seeing may actually be related to FODMAP sensitivity instead. Either way, my wife and I have to avoid wheat. Interestingly, she does NOT have the genetic markers for gluten sensitivity, so why her throid goes into a rage when she has the tiniest amount of gluten is something we're still trying to figure out. Hashimoto's antibodies are involved.

Does it taste

[sabbede]

as bad as it sounds? Because it sounds like it will taste horrific.

I thought it was all vegan

[future assassin]

and not made from Donkeys?

Re:Obligatory

[Applehu Akbar]

Obviously, the vegans it's made from. This is revenge of the best kind - environmentally sensitive vengeance.

Soylent , I would suggest following this up with a solid, sweetened product, in a variety of flavors, called Just Desserts

Actually, an old recipe

[PPH]

Handed down from visiting aliens in a book titled "To Serve Man".

Terrible name

[Al Al Cool J]

They should have called it "Po Pi Po" - then they'd at least get a catchy theme song :-P

Food for people who think eating is a chore.

[denzacar]

Basically the culinary equivalent of body integrity identity disorder.
Why should I cook and eat tasty food when I can just slurp a shake and be done with the whole eating thing?

I would not be surprised if Rob Rhinehart is actually just a guy with an extreme case of a restrictive food intake disorder.

Re:$409 for a month on Amazon for powder

[peter303]

409 = 28 * 3 * 4.86

Re:A quite unfortunate choice of a brand

[fahrbot-bot]

Is it for real? Does their product go by the distasteful name of SOYLENT, like that gimmick in a movie that was made of people?

As I posted earlier: According to the FAQ Why is it named Soylent?

Our name was inspired by Harry Harrison's 1966 science fiction novel Make Room! Make Room!, which explores the impact massive population growth could have on world resources. In the book, "soylent" is made of soy and lentils and is a new food source used to accommodate overpopulation.

farm-free, algae sources

[thinkwaitfast]

That explains why it's green. Or does it?

Nonsense

[dlenmn]

Because a vegan diet that is actually complete is unquestionably harder and more expensive than a non-vegan one.

I'm not a vegan (or a vegetarian), but that's total nonsense. Just because some people make it "harder" (whatever that means) or more expensive doesn't mean it inherently is. Back up you claim. WHY is a vegan diet intrinsically "harder" and more expensive?

Rice and beans make a cheap, complete protein. There are all sorts of vegetable oils for fats (no need for extra virgin olive oil), or eat some peanuts (or real nuts if you want to splurge). You get your carbs from grain/bread/etc. If you can't stand veggies for vitamins, then pop a vitamin pill.

Those are some basics; fill in the blanks on your own.

And they also frequently struggle with malnutrition.

And? Poor people are malnourished because they can't afford to eat. News at 11.

Re:Nonsense

[jedidiah]

Just the necessary clue to eat your greens with some fat puts even the "low fat" non vegan dietary fad into the "too hard to be sustainable" category. Anything that requires the consumer to have any sort of clue is doomed to increase the general malnutrition level of the population.

It doesn't even have to be a diet for rich political extremists.

People write entire books about this kind of problem.

The heuristic "eat a little bit of everything in moderation" is a much more viable approach.

Viable diets exist within an entire cultural framework that takes the guesswork and research out of not hurting yourself. Anything else is just another variation on fad diets we were told to avoid in our youth.

Re:Nonsense

[Cinnamon Beige]

Because a vegan diet that is actually complete is unquestionably harder and more expensive than a non-vegan one.

I'm not a vegan (or a vegetarian), but that's total nonsense. Just because some people make it "harder" (whatever that means) or more expensive doesn't mean it inherently is. Back up you claim. WHY is a vegan diet intrinsically "harder" and more expensive?

As a vegetarian: Because some nutrients simply can't be gotten from plants, and your body can't make 'em. Vegetarians usually get this gap filled via dairy, but vegans usually need nutritional yeast or the like to fill these gaps. A few are mixed bags--you can theoretically get your entire required amounts from plants, but the bioavailability is lousy enough that the sheer volume required is an impracticality. (Some are also weird in that if you're veg* your body is actually going to process it a lot more efficiently, so exactly how much you need to be getting from your diet daily is different.)

More importantly, the availability of some of the supplements you might need--especially if you're insisting they be vegan and/or have one of the stricter definitions of vegan--can be pretty lousy, and force you to go to stores like Whole Foods (AKA Whole Paycheck).

Rice and beans make a cheap, complete protein. There are all sorts of vegetable oils for fats (no need for extra virgin olive oil), or eat some peanuts (or real nuts if you want to splurge). You get your carbs from grain/bread/etc. If you can't stand veggies for vitamins, then pop a vitamin pill.

Those are some basics; fill in the blanks on your own.

Bioavailability order is: made by your body (perfect bioavailability), comes from food (good to lousy), vitamin pill (usually lousy). And on the last, it can be a pain if you need it I helped my Mom go searching for the correct type of iron supplement when she needed to raise her iron quickly after cancer surgery--there is a form with excellent bioavailability, but the only way to get it was to have a pharmacist order it specially for us, and it had to be picked up from the pharmacy.

That said, it sounds like Soylent is aiming for going nonGMO gluten-free organic [add more buzzwords here] vegan, so yeah, it'll be more expensive because you will be avoiding some of the cheap, common sources of nutrients and what would actually be the ideal solution of an edible algae that does it all 'in house' and possibly could be even grown as a stage in water processing. (Short term, this would be incredibly expensive, but once you've made the algae all you need to do is keep some alive somewhere so you can seed and reseed tanks as needed, making it incredibly cheap.)

Nutri-Matic Drink Synthesizer.

[xenotransplant]

Is this product available from my Nutri-Matic system? And if so, how close to the original product will the synthesized version be?

Or, just buy something that isn't awful for less $

[sirwired]

Soylent (which unless things have changed a lot, still doesn't have somebody with actual training in nutrition looking over the formula... the best they claimed before was that they verified the macronutrient ratios with somebody with a clue) is amateurish, nasty, with a horrible texture.

You can get a can of Nestle Nutren 2.0 (500 kcal/can) for $1.75 a can, delivered, from Amazon. It is developed by an actual nutrition company, working with actual doctors who know what they are doing, and it (and related beverages) have been used for literally decades by people with digestive issues and, in many cases, as their sole source of calories for years and years (this is usually with people that have feeding tubes, but it is flavored and can be drunk.)

Or, I suppose you can take this crap...

Errr... no. This isn't more nutritious.

[sirwired]

People live off of Ensure, Boost, Nutren, et al., as their sole source of calories for years on end and don't seem to develop nutritional deficiencies. Maybe Soylent is more "natural" (whatever that means), but the established alternatives (which, in addition to being sold by people that know what they are doing, are cheaper) have a proven track record. At best, Soylent meets basic requirements, but frankly I have my doubts, given how they (last time I checked) STILL didn't have an actual nutritionist checking on the micronutrients.

(Nutren, which although drinkable and flavored, is specifically advertised as being feeding-tube compatible... people have lived for decades off the stuff.)

And, as you point out, the Soylent people keep making major changes to the formula, demonstrating that they still don't really have any idea what they are doing. They should have started with an established nutritional drink and worked to develop an "open source" equivalent. Starting from scratch out of utter ignorance was the exact wrong approach.

Re:Uh oh

[Tyger]

If you go to the original source (Make Room! Make Room!) not the movie adaptation (Soylent Green) it's not sarcastic at all. In the book, soylent is merely just a way to feed the overgrown population.

Re:$409 for a month on Amazon for powder

[Noah Haders]

from what I've seen, the shakes are intended to be supplements and not a whole meal replacement. so you wouldn't eat 2000cal worth of shakes each day. also, no such thing as a kcal, what ever that is. 1 cal = the amount of energy it takes to heat a liter of water by 1 degree Celsius.

Re:Obligatory

[OakDragon]

It's eat or be eaten... Just the kind of world we live in now!

Why MRE ?

[perpenso]

Soldiers typically need a lot more calories. Where it would interesting is an emergency food source or part of one for disasters ans such. I keep MREs around just because in the winter, it is possible i can get snowed in for two or three days without power or water (well run off electric )

Unless you are hiking out what is the point of MREs? If you are staying put in your home eat stuff from the refrigerator on day 1, stuff from the freezer on day 2, stuff from the pantry there after. So disaster preparedness for a couple of weeks on your own -- yeah the gov says three days but Katrina and Sandy suggest two weeks is a better plan -- is basically not letting your fridge, freezer and pantry go empty. By some particular item when you use half half of your supply rather than all of it.

For water get a couple of cases (30-35L per case usually) of bottled water per person. When one case gets used up through normal usage buy a replacement.

For toilets have a couple of boxes of large plastic trash bags to line empty toilets with. Again, when one of the two boxes is used up buy a replacement.

Bathing ... baby wipes. Hand washing ... bottle of hand sanitizer. Batteries ... have spare in the drawer, replace when spares used.

Getting the idea ... you don't need anything exotic if you are straying in your home. Just some extras of the things you normally have around.

You don't need the MREs until you plan on becoming mobile. Even then you may not need the MREs. If water is plentiful and you have a filter or purification tablets then dehydrated backpacking food may be a better idea. MREs are not dehydrated, they are heavy because they already include "water". Depending on the environment and circumstances it might be a waste to carry that "water". Ounces feel like pounds on a long hike.

Re:Why MRE ?

[jedidiah]

Much like the new Soylent, an MRE is fuss free. I can just pull a packet out of my pocket and just start eating. This even goes for the dehydrated fruit and the kool-aid powder.

I don't have to worry about whether or not I have a suitable water source or power source.

Except even the worst MREs don't taste as bad as Soylent.

It's almost as if the Army had some idea of what it was doing...

Re:Why MRE ?

[perpenso]

No, its not that the Army knew what it was doing. It was that the Army was designing for an entirely different situation. One where troops were mobile and possibly unable to build a fire.

Not very relevant to backpacking. Not relevant at all to waiting out a storm and its aftermath at home.

I've used MREs on overnight backpacking trips where water supplies were iffy. They make sense for that. They don't make sense for home emergency supplies. A can of chili, a can or foil bag of tunafish, etc -- things probably already around the home -- are just as no-fuss in the home and require no cooking.

Again, unless you are mobile and water is iffy MREs don't make much sense.

Fried Chicken King

[PopeRatzo]

Let me know when they make a Soylent that tastes like Harold's Fried Chicken (One Bite and We Got'Cha).

https://farm6.staticflickr.com...

Seriously, let me know.

[By the way, if you're ever in Chicago and looking for some terrific, delicious chicken or cat fish - and I mean really really good - try Harold's. Stuff is amazing. But be careful the really hot sauce is really hot. There are a bunch of Harold's around town for your late-night post Hawks/White Sox/Bulls game enjoyment.]

Recipe for Vegan Pie

[Irate Engineer]

Soylent , I would suggest following this up with a solid, sweetened product, in a variety of flavors, called Just Desserts

This reminds me of the recipe for Vegan Pie. Step 1: Peel, core, and slice one vegan....

Re:Recipe for Vegan Pie

[Opportunist]

Is that like being a "Vegan of the second degree", when you eat nothing but vegans?

Re:Recipe for Vegan Pie

[Irate Engineer]

Eating vegans can be quite pleasant until you take her out to dinner.

Re:Recipe for Vegan Pie

[KGIII]

Vegan is an old Micmac word meaning, "Piss poor hunter." Anyhow, eating them exclusively will mean you want to take a vitamin supplement. We can't have you being malnourished.

Re:Recipe for Vegan Pie

[Opportunist]

Unlikely. Sex with a vegan is never good. No piece of meat may ever satisfy her.

Re:Recipe for Vegan Pie

[lucien86]

Actually vegans are pretty good eating... You've eaten cow haven't you? essentially vegan (eats grass).

Re:Recipe for Vegan Pie

[KGIII]

Cows eat bugs and other stuff in their feed. They would probably eat hamburger if someone was strange enough to feed it to them mixed in with their food. Cows are not too bright, really. Well, none of the cows I have met were bright. I am kind of glad they are fenced in. Can you imagine them in the road? Moose and deer are bad enough. I have almost hit a cow in the road on a blind corner - I stopped and helped it back into it's yard and the owner took care of it from there.

Where does the other "half of the fat" come from?

[Irate Engineer]

Soylent 2.0 reaches an unprecedented level of environmental sustainability with half of its fat energy coming from farm-free, algae sources.

The other half comes from dumpster diving in the biohazard bin behind the nip & tuck liposuction office. SOYLENT 2.0 IS PEOPLE!

Re:Uh oh

[ConceptJunkie]

I'm pretty sure the movie introduced the other varieties of Soylent (red and yellow), with the green kind being a new version with the surprising secret feature.

I haven't seen the movie in decades and don't recall if I finished the book, though.

Farm-free?

[Trogre]

Doesn't sound like it will scale very well, in any sustainable manner anyway.

Re:Obligatory

[AmazingRuss]

Old ass.

Re:flavor

[Oligonicella]

You mean, aside from helping you determine if something is edible?

Re:flavor

[Oligonicella]

I've heard of this movie involving two girls.

Is it April 1 again already?

[mmell]

Just askin'.

I'm getting a kick

[Snotnose]

Got 1 lb lamb loin chops marinating with garlic, rosemary, thyme, and salt in my microwave right now (I have a cat, it's either the fridge or the microwave). A potato is in the oven, I gots my mint jelly, butter, and sour cream, and I'll laugh through mouthfulls of tastyness at the Soylent drinking hipsters.

Re:flavor

[myowntrueself]

-1 disagree. every single person on earth will tell you that flavor is important and that things that taste gross are bad. name one who doesn't.

Also 'The first bite is with the eye and the second with the nose.'

http://www.brainyquote.com/quo...

Re:flavor

[myowntrueself]

You can complain as much as you like, but flavour is a secondary option to the majority of the world when it comes to food.

Mongolians dine on joints of meat thats been boiled for about 5 minutes. Give them the same 'meal' prepared with US meat and their reaction is 'this is tasteless!'.

Re:Obligatory

[Greyfox]

Leela: Eeh. It varies from person to person.

Farm free algae sources?

[GrantRobertson]

How can "farm free" algae have a reduced ecological impact? If they are harvesting algae from the ocean then they are having an ecological impact.

Hell, in the movie, they started using people because they had overharvested algae and plankton from the oceans.

Re:Obligatory

[Soylent Beige]

Hello!

Re:1,6-Dichloro-yadayadayada

[Dr_Barnowl]

Yeah, I bought some of the EU variant, Joylent, and noted that it has that sickly sweet aftertaste I associate with artificial sweeteners. I'd really be entirely happy with them leaving that out.

Re:$409 for a month on Amazon for powder

[matfud]

1 Cal = 1 kcal = 1000 cal. And yes kcal does exist

Perverse?

[jandersen]

Isn't there something slightly perverse about this kind of vegetarianism? I mean, not just this, but the whole idea of taking vegetables and somehow try to make it taste almost like some sort of meat? Vegetables taste great as they are - you become vegetarian because of that, not because you think it is sad for the poor animals, I would have thought. Otherwise, you are just another 'holier-than-thou' fool.

Food Ideas

[foods ideas]

Good. Food Ideas - http://foodsideas.com/

Re:Obligatory

[ObiWanKenblowme]

It varies from person to person

not complete and not enough

[nten]

That hamburger isn't enough calories for a day. Even two wouldn't be. You wouldn't be getting enough choline or fiber and the fat content and types would be a bit off. You can get close to soylent for 3 a day using subsidized products like corn and milk along with a multivitamin. But getting enough choline without getting too much of something else is quite hard without lots of soy lecithen. We can't even define what a natural diet is. It varies from region to region but what doesn't vary is that none of those diets were optimal. They were just what we could get in the area we lived in. I like this project because unlike sugar bomb meal replacements that were already out there it is all about what your body needs long term. We don't know what that is yet but experimentation will get us closer than looking at historical diets due to the aforementioned reasons.

Re:Obligatory

[kmoser]

No, vegans are what they use to make Vegemite.

Re:Obligatory

[Bugamn]

You have waited your whole life for this, haven't you?

Re:Obligatory

[Applehu Akbar]

A common misconception, but Australia doesn't have vegans. Vegemite is brewers' yeast that gets its unique flavor from workers who fall into the vats.

Different people are different.

[danaris]

No one wants to hear it, but we're healthiest eating raw vegetables, fruits, and nuts/seeds/legumes as well.

It's not that no one wants to hear it, it's that it's crap.

Sure, those things are generally healthy for us to eat, but different people's bodies need different nutrients, based on everything from what their evolutionary heritage is to what their gut flora are like to the kind of work they do all day. Some people need significant amounts of meat in their diets. Others need a lot of rice.

There is no One True Diet that's perfect for everyone and will solve all people's health and weight problems, and the sooner the world realizes this, the better off we'll all be.

Dan Aris

Re:1,6-Dichloro-yadayadayada

[Dahan]

Using sucralose doesn't imply that they don't know what they're doing. If you can't eat sucralose, OK--it's not supposed to be for everyone. But the sucralose is there for a reason (masking the bitterness of some other ingredients), and it's not a problem for the vast majority of people who can take sucralose.

Direct feed

[ebvwfbw]

From Planned parenthood?

Ok, if you didn't see the movie this is probably lost on you.

Re:1,6-Dichloro-yadayadayada

[metrix007]

You are a misinformed quack. There is no evidence that Sucralose is harmful to humans. None what so ever. And numerous evidence to the contrary.

Re:$409 for a month on Amazon for powder

[Blaskowicz]

I'm tired of the kcal vs kilojoule issue, so I would rather have it counted as kilowatt-hours.

food

[foods ideas]

healthy food ideas - http://foodsideas.com/healthy-... | Quick food ideas - http://foodsideas.com/quick-fo...