[simonsarris]

Serious questions for people that drink this stuff:

My breakfast is often Siggi's 4% skyr (thick yogurt): http://siggisdairy.com/product/plain-whole-milk-24oz/

Plus Organic valley heavy cream: https://www.organicvalley.coop/products/cream/

Ususally about 300g + 100g, then sometimes some granola (oats, almonds, sometimes honey), for body.

Soylent is:

* 37g carb

* 21g fats

* 20g protein

What I'm eating is much healthier by my estimation:

* 16g carb

* 49g fats

* 35g protein

(Before granola, which you can use to moderate the carbs if you want.)

It is not hard to mix two things together, sometimes three. If you really want to custom flavor it, buy a jam (I suggest Mymoune rose petal jam, from Lebanon, but there are millions of flavors when you pick your own jam!)

What is so good about soylent? Why not just mix skyr and heavy cream if that's the kind of meal you want?

Why eat a strange synthetic meal from a company that has trouble with rats and mold when you could eat a couple simple whole foods? What problem is Soylent solving, exactly?

And aren't you worried about the unfavorable omega 3:6 ratio in this stuff? Just going off the ingredients they list, I can't find any literature they give on the ratio. (If you're not up to speed, the latest: http://openheart.bmj.com/content/openhrt/3/2/e000385.full.pd... )

(Diet Note: I'm 5'10 and 146 lbs male, 12-13% body fat. In my diet I aim for ~60-70% calories from fat, but don't always hit it.)

[ThrowawayR2]

> Why not just mix skyr and heavy cream if that's the kind of meal you want?

Requires refrigeration, not shelf stable, contains lactose, which not everyone can tolerate, contains cholesterol, less convenient than bottles, not vegan, for those who it matters to, and more expensive than the equivalent amount of Soylent to top it all off. And that's without even trying particularly hard to think of reasons.

And, for the record, I don't even drink Soylent anymore.

[simonsarris]

I didn't know anyone was afraid of dietary cholesterol in 2017. Remember, I'm advocating:

> Pasteurized Whole Milk, Pasteurized Cream, Live Active Cultures

Over:

> Filtered water, soy protein isolate, maltodextrin, high oleic sunflower oil, isomaltulose, canola oil, rice starch, oat fiber, isomaltooligosaccharide, soy lecithin, potassium chloride, calcium phosphate, magnesium phosphate, natural & artificial flavors, dipotassium phosphate, salt, choline chloride, gellan gum, sodium ascorbate, dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate, ferrous gluconate, zinc sulfate, d-calcium pantothenate, niacinamide, sucralose, thiamine hydrochloride, copper gluconate, manganese sulfate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin a palmitate, riboflavin, chromium chloride, biotin, folic acid, sodium molybdate, sodium selenite, phytonadione, potassium iodide, vitamin b12, vitamin d. contains: soy

I guess it is less convenient.

> more expensive than the equivalent amount of Soylent to top it all off

Somehow I don't think penny pinchers are Soylent's target audience, but maybe I'm wrong.

[ThrowawayR2]

That's the best counterargument you have? "Scary" chemical names? I mean, ... really?

I quite assure you that if I listed all of the compounds of "Pasteurized Whole Milk, Pasteurized Cream, Live Active Cultures, Cream" using standard chemistry nomenclature, the list would look far more intimidating to the average layperson.

[simonsarris]

My argument isn't scary chemical names. It's that you face a bad omega 3:6 ratio. I already said that in the first comment.

[ThrowawayR2]

> My argument isn't scary chemical names.

Isn't it? You're the one bandying about phrases like "...strange synthetic meal..." and touting the ingredient lists of one meal over another.

As for bad omega 3:6 ratio, that's easily solved by eating something else that contains omega-3. Nobody says that Soylent is the only thing a person is permitted to eat.

[DiThi]

> Nobody says that Soylent is the only thing a person is permitted to eat.

But it's supposed to be able to be used that way, if one wants. AFAIK it doesn't warn to get omega-3 from time to time.

[DanBC]

> Nobody says that Soylent is the only thing a person is permitted to eat.

It has been marketed as a sole source of nutrition, and every conversation about Soylent on HN has people claiming it can be used as a sole source of nutrition.

[ovao]

To be fair to Soylent, many of the ingredients listed are simply vitamin and mineral sources. They have scary-sounding names, but are not scary things.

I'm not convinced your alternative is actually more healthful, nor do I believe it contains the vitamins or minerals you'd need for it to act as a reasonable meal replacement. From a macro perspective at least, I don't see anything particularly wrong with Soylent's product.

[tree_of_item]

> I didn't know anyone was afraid of dietary cholesterol in 2017.

You didn't know, or you don't think they should be? The jury is still out on dietary cholesterol, and there are plenty of people, some on this very forum, who consider it a health hazard.

I'm aware of recent research suggesting it isn't all that bad, but there's no telling if that's going to be reversed as well in a couple of years.

[CuriouslyC]

The truth here is actually a bit more nuanced. Dietary cholesterol isn't universally bad/ok. Some people have defective cholesterol metabolism, and dietary cholesterol can cause them issues. Most people have a cholesterol metabolism that achieves homeostasis even in the presence of dietary cholesterol. As a result, you can create a study where dietary cholesterol looks bad/good just by tweaking your study population.

For reference, dietary cholesterol is most often a problem for people of certain African, south Asian, Mesoamerican and Mediterranean populations that historically consumed limited animal products, or low fat animal products such as warm-water fish. People of central/northern European/Asian descent are typically fine.

[DiThi]

Is there any study that shows any adverse effects of dietary cholesterol in a ketogenic diet?

[mcguire]

AFAIK, the jury is still out on high far does, too.

[grzm]

> I copied and pasted from their website, they capitalized everything, not me

Feel free to lowercase it yourself. HN readers will appreciate it!

[flukus]

Here you go:

filtered water, soy protein isolate, maltodextrin, high oleic sunflower oil, isomaltulose, canola oil, rice starch, oat fiber, isomaltooligosaccharide, soy lecithin, potassium chloride, calcium phosphate, magnesium phosphate, natural & artificial flavors, dipotassium phosphate, salt, choline chloride, gellan gum, sodium ascorbate, dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate, ferrous gluconate, zinc sulfate, d-calcium pantothenate, niacinamide, sucralose, thiamine hydrochloride, copper gluconate, manganese sulfate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin a palmitate, riboflavin, chromium chloride, biotin, folic acid, sodium molybdate, sodium selenite, phytonadione, potassium iodide, vitamin b12, vitamin d. contains: soy

Vim v$~ FTW!

[simonsarris]

Ah you're right. Sublime text can do it in a second anyway.

[grzm]

Thanks!

[kawsper]

If you aren't a baby cow, is lactose intolerant or is a vegan you might not want all that dairy that you are proposing.

[always_good]

Why did you write that comment instead of doing 20 pushups and burpees? Granola isn't that great for you either, why not just eat raw oats? Best to mix it with water so that you can hopefully ween off your dairy addiction.

-- Just seems like empty one-upmanship on the internet.

[pumpaction]

I suspect that long-term acolytes of Soylent are victims of marketing, rather than having made rational nutritional choices. Their product does seem to be targeted toward a particular psychological niche.

[kazagistar]

Soylent replaces pb&js, dominos and eating out. Continuing to attempt to overcome my inability to care enough to sink more time into nutrition is the irrational choice. A moving to a product with both a superior nutrition and effort profile seems pretty rational to me.

[quickben]

Few of my co-workers went partially or fully on it, and they all look less healthy. But that's just a small random sample. Idk, who am I to tell them what to eat and that they actually need way more finer to dodge potential colon cancer/other nasty stuff.

[Lyle-Cantor]

God forbid if people were allowed to make their own choices.

[quicklime]

There's more to good nutrition than just the ratios of carbs/fats/protein - you also have to think about getting the right amounts of each micronutrient. Once you do, it becomes a lot harder to get a good balance than just mixing 2 or 3 ingredients.

[simonsarris]

This is because Soylent is making up for deficiencies in its ingredients. They need to add Vitamin D, calcium, and vitamin a palmitate, for instance, because there is no Vitamin A or D or calcium in the canola oil and sunflower oil. These nutrients are already abundantly present in Skyr and cream.

I wonder if the bioavailability is even good in Soylent. I know some of these nutrients are much more bioavailable in animal sources than plant sources (though I can't recall which), so the vegan-friendly label on Soylent is a mark against it, if health is your goal.

[quicklime]

Just looking through the nutrition info in the links you gave, there's zero iron and vitamin C in Skyr and cream. Yes you can get those nutrients from other sources, but it's a lot harder than just mixing two ingredients into a drink.

[josinalvo]

I allways wondered why soylent bothered with micronutrients...

Isn't it much easier and safer to just find the right mix of carbs/fats/protein and take a vitamin pill?

I recall hearing of the soylent creator having somewhat serious problems with micronutrients dosage...

[munro]

If you're truly interested in objectively comparing your breakfast's nutritional profile, you can punch in your recipe on http://completefoods.co/. And if you disagree with the nutritional profile, you can customize that too. Please share it!