[DanBC]

The article mentions, many times, the other soylent company. It's true, you can wait for them to ship. But if you're desperate to try a liquid feed there are many brands already in existence. These are produced by multinational companies in quality environments with known, tested, ingredients.

Ensure is one well known brand. Fortisip is another.

This recipe seems to be carefully worked out - they show the working and at least have some links to proper research. And they're not making extravagant claims.

[zachalexander]

>there are many brands already in existence.

Yes, and this may work for some, but I think you're missing a few points.

Soylent is largely about taking control of your nutrition. Making your own soylent gives you complete control, like some of the more hardcore versions of Linux perhaps. Buying Rob's premade mix is like installing Ubuntu – it's lazy, but at least it's open source (or will be soon). Making your own from someone else's recipe (like mine) is perhaps somewhere inbetween.

By contrast, buying Ensure is like buying literal Unix (if you can even do that anymore). I mean, it's similar to using Linux, but... who does that?

[colinshark]

I think the difference here is that the goal is more ambitious (100% diet replacement). Ensure is explicitly a dietary supplement. The marketing, cost, flavor, and nutrient profile reflect that.

It's like wanting to enter a high end auto race and you just buy a sports car off the lot. It will be expensive and slow. The fast cars are custom built because the market is small and the requirements are unique.

[DanBC]

Ensure can be a meal replacement. It is a complete food. It is one of the products used to force feed people who are on hunger strike (and also anorexics detained under section of the mental health act in English psychiatric hospitals).

I'm not sure what you mean by the cost, flavour, and nutrient profile. It's a complete food. If you want more calories you use Ensure plus. If you need more protein you use the high protein product. If you want savory versions you use one of the savory varieties - here's chicken (http://www.chemistdirect.co.uk/ensure-plus-savoury-chicken_1...).

The reason Ensure is sweet or highly flavoured is to encourage people to eat - these people are ill and need the nutrition.

A person eating only Ensure is not going to be any iller than someone eating either 'official Soylent' or 'open source Soylent' - and probably not as ill, because Ensure is created by people who know what they're doing, using quality assured ingredients and sealed in suitable packaging. This is important for Soylent to work on - I hope they include good packaging.

All the existing products tell you not to survive on a liquid diet without medical supervision. I take that be be a big sign that living on liquid feed is sub-optimal and needs to be done cautiously. Other people say it's a sign of an industry that can be disrupted.

My posts in this thread are trying quite hard to be constructive. I admit I find it difficult because I have strongly negative opinions about some of the Soylent product.

[fudged71]

>one of the products used to force feed people who are on hunger strike

Whoa, pardon my ignorance... got a link?

[ValentineC]

I got curious: http://www.examiner.com/article/guant-namo-hunger-strike-to-...

> the government’s so-called act of kindness toward the Guantánamo prisoners is not just the gift of being force-fed, but forcefully fed with none other than Abbott Laboratories’ enteral formula, Ensure.

It's just one article but Ensure doesn't sound like a complete meal replacement.

[DanBC]

Ensure is a complete meal replacement.

(http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/products/ensure)

> For interim sole-source nutrition.

If you're tube-feeding someone you might want one of the more medical versions such as Jevity (http://abbottnutrition.com/brands/products/jevity-1-cal)