| HN Mirror

Kale by itself exceeds that list of nutrients for almost every nutrient that I could find data for. For many nutrients it blows it out of the water. It also likely includes many unknown beneficial phytonutrients that are not included in Soylent.

Also, from what I understand many of the benefits of these nutrients are diminished or not observed when they are injested from industrial refined supplements like those used in Soylent as when they are eaten in whole plant foods like Kale.

The five nutrients where Kale had less were Sodium, Selenium, Pantothenic acid, Vitamin D, and Vitamin B12. Kale's Sodium was still 127% of the RDA, Selenium was 82% of the RDA, and Pantothenic acid was 91% of the RDA. Not bad for a single plant. I suspect that in a well-rounded whole plant diet these deficiencies would be resolved. If you grow your own Kale then you will make plenty of Vitamin D :) If you don't make enough then you can supplement Vitamin D like millions of animal-eating humans do. B12 is not included in plants, so obviously if you eat only plants you need to supplement it. It costs less than US$0.01/day so I don't see that as a major problem.

I'm highly suspicious that you will find many nutritionists who would say that Soylent is more nutritious than a diet of whole plant foods.

Notes: the USDA data for nutrient amounts in foods are not always very accurate. I believe the nutrient amounts linked by the parent represent an old Soylent recipe, since they have only 5g of fiber which is less than RDA of 25g (female) and 38g (male). "-" in the table indicates I don't have data for this. (+ (* 4.1 400) (* 50 4.1) (* 65 9.3)) => 2449.5 calories for the Soylent data you linked [edit: I'm not sure if carbs included fiber so it's possible that the Kale diet has 1% more calories than the Soylent diet]

Obviously I'm not recommending people eat 74.6 cups of Kale each day, but you can get all you need of these nutrients from a much more tasty diet of a variety of whole plant foods.

  |                     | Soylent | Kale     |
  |---------------------+---------+----------|
  | Calories            | 2449.5  | 2449.1   |
  | Carbohydrates       | 400 g   | 437 g    |
  | Protein             | 50 g    | 213 g    |
  | Fat                 | 65 g    | 46 g     |
  | Sodium              | 2.4 g   | 1.9 g    |
  | Potassium           | 3.5 g   | 24.5g    |
  | Chloride            | 3.4 g   | -        |
  | Fiber               | 5 g     | 179 g    |
  | Calcium             | 1 g     | 7.4 g    |
  | Iron                | 18 mg   | 73 mg    |
  | Phosphorus          | 1 g     | 4.5 g    |
  | Iodine              | 150 μg  | -        |
  | Magnesium           | 400 mg  | 2349 mg  |
  | Zinc                | 15 mg   | 28 mg    |
  | Selenium            | 70 μg   | 45 μg    |
  | Copper              | 2 mg    | 74 mg    |
  | Manganese           | 2 mg    | 32 mg    |
  | Chromium            | 120 μg  | -        |
  | Molybdenum          | 75 μg   | -        |
  | Vitamin A           | 5000 IU | 83220 IU |
  | Vitamin B6          | 6 μg    | 13.5 mg  |
  | Vitamin C           | 60 mg   | 5997 mg  |
  | Vitamin D           | 400 IU  | 0        |
  | Vitamin E           | 30 IU   | 77 mg    |
  | Vitamin K           | 80 μg   | 35227 μg |
  | Thiamin             | 1.5 mg  | 5.5 mg   |
  | Riboflavin          | 1.7 mg  | 6.5 mg   |
  | Niacin              | 20 mg   | 50 mg    |
  | Folate              | 400 μg  | 7047 μg  |
  | Biotin              | 300 μg  | -        |
  | Pantothenic acid    | 10 mg   | 4.5 mg   |
  | Lycopene            | 500 μg  | -        |
  | Omega-3 fatty acids | 750 mg  | 9000 mg  |
  | Ginseng             | 50 μg   | -        |
  | Ginkgo biloba       | 100 μg  | -        |
  | Lutein              | 500 μg  | -        |
  | alpha-Carotene      | 140 μg  | -        |
  | Vanadium            | 100 μg  |          |