[nether]

I think any Soylent thread would benefit from a summary of typical comments, to make way for new ideas. Pick yours.

1. Liquid diets aren't new

2. Cooking is easy and enjoyable, I don't see why people avoid it

3. Soylent is healthier than fast food even if it's inferior to well-made natural meals

4. It hasn't undergone rigorous, clinical testing

5. It's dystopic, dehumanizing

6. It's a dietary choice of others that makes me inexplicably angry

7. I've been trying it for 50-100% of my calories for X weeks and it's been great/terrible

8. It's based on outdated FDA recommended allowances

9. It ignores the social, cultural aspects of food

[serpentor]

  2. Cooking is easy and enjoyable

Okay, but what about washing dishes, and waiting in line at the grocery store, and taking out the garbage, and cleaning the refrigerator, and wasting food when you accidentally burn dinner, and when the recipe is bad, and when you botch the ingredients. And so on, and so on, and so on.

[redahs]

Maybe related to 6, inexplicable anger, but 10, bad marketing.

The product's namesake reminds me too much of cannibalism, coercive social engineering, industrial meat-processing with lax oversight, and neo-Malthusianism to produce any feeling other than nausea, regardless of whether or not the name was chosen ironically.

[codingdave]

I pick #1. My biggest problem with Soylent is not what they are doing, but that they have an attitude that they invented the idea.

[Retric]

There are a many meal replacements out there that are meant to supplement a diet. Ensure for example is easy to find, but it's not designed to be the only thing you eat.

There are some medical products that fit the goal, but I don't know of any that are marketed to the general public. Though, if you actually have a better alternative in mind I think a lot of people here would be interested.

[DanBC]

> Ensure for example is easy to find, but it's not designed to be the only thing you eat.

Untrue. Ensure has many different products, and many of them are complete meal replacements.

[Retric]

Link?

From there site: https://ensure.com/nutrition-facts-questions-answers

"Can Ensure products be used as a meal replacement or a snack? Yes, Ensure ready-to-drink shakes and drinks can be used as a snack and as an occasional meal replacement."

[DanBC]

The fact they don't market themselves to the general public as a complete meal replacement just means they're a) aware that they're operating in a litigious market segment and b) not fucking arseholes who recognise that they have a duty of care to people who use their products.

It's telling that Soylent kickstarted with a bunch of bullshit medical claims, and that while they've dropped those claims they continue to make borderline dishonest claims.

Ensure is used as a total meal replacement for people with severe illness and for people being fed through a naso-gastric tube (sometimes against their will).

But if you're a doctor you probably one of the other Abbott brands, which have licencing and testing to support them.

http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/abbott-brands

EG: http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/products/ensure-plus-thera...

> For interim sole-source nutrition.

[Retric]

Jevity one of the abbot brands you mention is clearly designed for long term use as 'sole-source nutrition'. And, I am sure someone has lived off of Ensure, but just because they also sell total nutrition products does not mean Ensure was designed for that role.

Design goals matter, Jevity/Oxepa/etc being designed for feeding tube use has little focus on taste.

Another example, Osmolite is sole-source nutrition but it's low-residue which is not good for healthy people who need more fiber.

PS: You can look through there brands, but there is a reason they sell so many different kinds as they each have different trade offs.

ED: I have had significant digestive issues in the past so I have done some research into this. And, talk to a nutritionist before going on any unusual diet, it's easy to mess things up long term.

[vox_mollis]

The most significant departure that Soylent takes from, say, Ensure, is that it's designed to be healthy, not simply keep you alive. e.g. Its primary fuel source is not sucrose.

Other than this, yes, it's just another liquid meal replacement.

[bordercases]

Like how Apple "invented" the GUI? The results speak for themselves.

[Crito]

> "Apple is successful, therefore your criticism of [unrelated company and their unrelated product] is irrelevant.

I see this a lot. It is ridiculous.

[bordercases]

It's usually put against the class of arguments that being derivative or being recombinant is in itself a valid criticism of a product. The company isn't going to give up any revenue just because it found a better target market for a similar good; and neither will accepting the existence of predecessors help the predecessors any. Not to falsely represent your point, but do you believe that changing industries makes this any less the case?

Plus the extent that Soylent is a substitute for Ensure or Boost or those peanut bars they give to starving earthquake victims isn't total: Soylent is based in consumer feedback while Ensure/Boost have stopped innovating; Soylent is aiming for use in perpetuity while Ensure/Boost are meant to be stopgap measures, etc.

I like the product a lot so I'm going to be speaking vehemently about it, but that doesn't mean I'm not open for criticism. I'm wondering what your thoughts are.

[DanBC]

> Ensure/Boost have stopped innovating;

Untrue. Ensure keep bringing new flavours and slight changes to formulation. That's tricky to do because regulation - the fact that Soylent appear to ignore all regulation is a bug not a feature.

> Soylent is aiming for use in perpetuity while Ensure/Boost are meant to be stopgap measures,

Soylent supporters need to stop spreading this lie. It's been debunked in every single Soylent thread. It's purely dishonest FUD by now.