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Seems like the people who *aren't* using Soylent are far more vocal than those who *are*. Which seems to be par for the course, I've found.
I'm going to keep using it because 1) I enjoy it, and 2) It has been helping with my fatigue and inflammation issues.
It's simple...if you don't want to use Soylent, well, then...don't.
If you need documentation on proof of health benefits, here you go:
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/01/soylent-gets-tested-scores-a-surprisingly-wholesome-nutritional-label/
Arstechnica is a great place to discuss android, programming, hacks, etc. It's the last place you should be going to for nutrition advice. And all the link shows is a nutrition label. Sure, it has a decent macro profile, but nutrition is much more complex than than just that.
I asked for feedback on people's experiences with Soylent, not an anti-Soylent diatribe. I suggest starting an anti-Soylent thread for you to share your platform?
For everyone else, thank you so much for contributing! Catching up on posts. Good stuff - happy to find so many people on here!
I'm sorry if you don't like what I'm saying. Feel free not to read my posts. But there are other people reading this thread who may not be aware of Soylent's drawbacks. If you're fine with getting most of your nutrition from maltodextrin and liquid vitamin supplements then go for it.
We'll have to wait for actual research to be performed to know if Soylent is actually "healthy." Although I'm not aware of any respectable research studies that are currently being conducted on it.0 -
happygalah wrote: »
I never tried Soylent. I dislike their assertion that it is healthy to replace all food with it. Sure you might not get malnutrition. But you'd have to be out of your mind to think that eating just soylent and nothing else is as healthy in the long run as eating a well balanced diet.
Why wouldn't it be?
Pet food is made and sold as complete nutrition and if a dog eats the same food its entire life, it certainly isn't malnourished; and they seem to be healthy.
What about people in a coma? Obviously they are fed intravenously or fed some how to keep them alive. Of course it isn't healthy to be just lying around all the time.
I hope that the Soylent would come in a solid kibble form like a Purina People Chow.
I think your pet food comparison is wonderful. Dogs don't become malnourished and neither will people using Soylent. But that's really all we can say about Soylent at this point.
In regard to people in a coma, they get feeding tubes. Patients that are fed intravenously, aka "total parenteral nutrition" tend not to live very long. You need to get food via your GI tract.0 -
No I have not used Soylent as a dietary supplement. Why would I want to switch from a healthy varied diet that I enjoy eating to liquid diet of primarily maltodextrin and rice protein???
BTW, I'm glad that you're having good results from starting Soylent. My only concern is that it's not a permanent fix. It's a bandaid for your lack of a healthy diet. Are you really going to eat soylent for most of your calories for the rest of your life? And even if you somehow never got sick of it do you really think that would be good for your longevity?
And please don't give me the old "healthy foods are too expensive" garbage. Fruit, veggies, nuts, legumes, chicken, and many types of fish are all very cheap provided you don't have to buy organic. Once you put some effort into learning to cook it becomes pretty easy.
ahamm002 you bring up some valid points for people to consider, but you are also assuming Soylent has no long-term value. The convenience factor of Soylent really cannot be overlooked. As an example, breakfast for most Americans was bacon, eggs, toast, and maybe some hashbrowns or grits. Over time, the time necessary to prepare such meals were replaced with other responsibilities and demands and those meals became Pop Tarts and cereals. Considering the alternatives available today for convenience, Soylent is a pretty nutritious alternative.
I realize part of my example is based upon people no longer prioritizing their own health and the time it takes to prepare healthy meals. I should know as I have been one of those people for most of my life and am trying to make the changes necessary for a more healthy life, but change comes slowly and demands in life are constant. Soylent may be as you say, just a bandaid, but if it helps me rediscover the person I once was I will gladly welcome it. It may become a staple in my life or just a passing bandaid, but to poo poo its potential or its ability to help me find my path or the path of others is short sighted and lacking of the positive motivations many of us hope to find in this community.0 -
happygalah wrote: »
I never tried Soylent. I dislike their assertion that it is healthy to replace all food with it. Sure you might not get malnutrition. But you'd have to be out of your mind to think that eating just soylent and nothing else is as healthy in the long run as eating a well balanced diet.
Why wouldn't it be?
Pet food is made and sold as complete nutrition and if a dog eats the same food its entire life, it certainly isn't malnourished; and they seem to be healthy.
What about people in a coma? Obviously they are fed intravenously or fed some how to keep them alive. Of course it isn't healthy to be just lying around all the time.
I hope that the Soylent would come in a solid kibble form like a Purina People Chow.
Pet food is your standard?In addition "taurine deficiency" has been found in dogs and cats fed commercial diets intended to be "complete and balanced". Not usually considered an essential nutrient in dogs, taurine is plentiful in most whole meats whether raw or cooked, but is reduced in extruded diets. Cats require sufficient taurine in their diets due to their increased rate of protein metabolism; taurine is usually synthesized in the body from methionine and cysteine, but cats' increased use of these amino acids in normal bodily functions mean that taurine itself must also be provided in the diet.
The above observations could also be explained by the rendered, highly processed source of meat being less rich in taurine and by the fact that some of the taurine is denatured during extrusion. Cats are obligate carnivores and their natural diet would consist of high amounts of whole meat - thus what has been termed "taurine deficiency" causing dilated cardiomyopathy in cats, is more likely to be a deficiency in the production of commercial feed diets. Taurine is now artificially supplemented back into the diet after processing in the production of most commercial pet food. A similar dynamic occurred in the first half of the twentieth century with an epidemic of Pellagra in humans living in the Southern United States. This cause was determined to be niacin deficiency, and essential vitamin, which was being destroyed in the mass processing of corn. Niacin was supplemented back into Southern diets and the disease was eradicated.
One of the criticisms of Soylent has been that taurine is insufficient in the formulation and while we don't have a specific RDA since we can synthesize it, it is likely necessary when when our diet isn't sufficiently rich in the precursors. Is this the case, I don't know, but it is a reasonable question.
The point is that as a product being touted as a single source of nutrition by the makers and the community it really is insufficiently evaluated to assure a correct nutrient profile. The information that we have today on RDAs assumes a varied diet, and science isn't advanced enough to consider fully the needs or negative effects of totally removing such things as phytonutrients. It is playing sorcer's apprentice with your own body.
But carry on, hopefully a large enough number of Guinea pigs will latch on to this fad in Portlandia and we can see if disease clusters arise. I'm always fascinated by the willingness of people to blindly become an experimental statistic around their nutrition.
Crowd sourced marketing is fantastic - but really, why place your entire diet on something that doesn't have either strong historical or clinically evaluated evidence?
Soylent is probably missing a few things science isn't yet aware the human body needs. But it's also likely that it isn't particularly bad for you. Humans have survived on worse in many places.
I do hope to read some long term studies some day. I just don't plan to blindly submit myself to the experiment.0 -
I wonder how much of the increased energy is actually due to increased hydration. Since two people who reported this were on separate liquid diets - juice cleanse and soylent.0
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Well, it certainly sounds like a great time...
http://discourse.soylent.me/t/this-box-is-making-me-sick/18057
http://discourse.soylent.me/t/still-sick-on-2nd-day-after-trying-only-1-glass-of-soylent/16064
http://discourse.soylent.me/t/sick-from-soylent-1-2-stringy-consistency/18398
http://discourse.soylent.me/t/is-soylent-making-me-sick/19240
http://discourse.soylent.me/t/offical-soylent-should-it-be-producing-mustard-gas/126600 -
Soylent, like anything, is not one size fits all. For instance, my SO and I went into this together, but after a time he determined that it was not meeting his caloric needs (he is a powerlifter) so he uses it as a late-night calorie supplement but not as a general meal replacement. I, on the other hand, am trying to lose weight and also have inflammation and food allergy issues (mostly dairy), so Soylent affords me the convenience of having my caloric and nutritional needs met while avoiding any unpleasant side effects typically triggered my my diet historically.
And as far as perceived risks as stated in the posts above, my physician has no concerns about my dietary shift and has expressed curiosity about my experience with it. I tend to prioritize the advice and opinions of my physician over those delivered on the internet. No offense...0 -
@chivalryder I too originally chose Soylent as a cost saver. The convenience and nutritional makeup of Soylent was just a bonus for me. Nothing quite like being able to mix a pitch up the night before and drink it throughout the day for your nutritional needs. I haven't been willing to invest the time to research DIY recipes, but it sounds like you found one that is working for you.
I know that ahamm002 has been really dogging Soylent, but with no experience using it I just don't know how much weight I would put behind his words. Obviously there is great benefits to eating a diet based upon fresh fruits, vegetables and fish but is that something that all of us can implement into our daily routine or afford on our current budgets? No one is questioning that. What they are questioning and sort of the reason I thought this thread was created was how it stands up compared to those ideal convention sources of nutrition. As far as cost, I know where I live I would be hard pressed to consume those types of foods and keep my food bill under the $255/month that month's supply of Soylent cost.
I have been using Soylent pretty steadily now for over a month and while it isn't the only food I consume, it does make up a large portion of my diet. (Usually for breakfast and lunch with a good dinner.) I can tell you from first hand experience that I have noticed a significant increase in overall energy, improved sleep, and just an overall increase in my sense of well-being. I am clearer headed and find myself able to focus much better on difficult or complex issues as well.
Does this mean that everyone should run out and start drinking Soylent exclusively or that this is the only reason I feel this way? Hell no. Even those who created it recommend finding a balance that works for you. (Plus I don't want too much competition over my source of processed humans.) What I can tell you from my experience so far is I feel significantly better using it as a source for nutrition and caloric intake than when I did not use it. I also find that when I have an extended weekend away and eat like a normal foods that I begin to crave Soylent come Monday morning. My body is telling me that it wants it as a food source.
No I have not used Soylent as a dietary supplement. Why would I want to switch from a healthy varied diet that I enjoy eating to liquid diet of primarily maltodextrin and rice protein???
BTW, I'm glad that you're having good results from starting Soylent. My only concern is that it's not a permanent fix. It's a bandaid for your lack of a healthy diet. Are you really going to eat soylent for most of your calories for the rest of your life? And even if you somehow never got sick of it do you really think that would be good for your longevity?
And please don't give me the old "healthy foods are too expensive" garbage. Fruit, veggies, nuts, legumes, chicken, and many types of fish are all very cheap provided you don't have to buy organic. Once you put some effort into learning to cook it becomes pretty easy.
I find this quite funny. How much do you spend on food every month? I used to cook everything I ate from scratch, being very careful of what I bought and ate. I never bought organic and took advantage of sales as often as I could.
The absolute lowest I got my grocery bill was $450/month. If I'm not anal-retentive about sales and penny-pinching, it's over $500/month. I've been trying for three years to get it lower and it's impossible for me to do so.
My DIY soylent is costing me less than $200/month.0 -
EvgeniZyntx wrote: »Well, it certainly sounds like a great time...
http://discourse.soylent.me/t/this-box-is-making-me-sick/18057
http://discourse.soylent.me/t/still-sick-on-2nd-day-after-trying-only-1-glass-of-soylent/16064
http://discourse.soylent.me/t/sick-from-soylent-1-2-stringy-consistency/18398
http://discourse.soylent.me/t/is-soylent-making-me-sick/19240
http://discourse.soylent.me/t/offical-soylent-should-it-be-producing-mustard-gas/12660
Any food has the potential to give people bad reactions. It happens.0 -
mumblemagic wrote: »I wonder how much of the increased energy is actually due to increased hydration. Since two people who reported this were on separate liquid diets - juice cleanse and soylent.
I drink as much water now as I did before I started drinking my DIY soylent. I have more energy now than I did then.0 -
EvgeniZyntx wrote: »happygalah wrote: »
I never tried Soylent. I dislike their assertion that it is healthy to replace all food with it. Sure you might not get malnutrition. But you'd have to be out of your mind to think that eating just soylent and nothing else is as healthy in the long run as eating a well balanced diet.
Why wouldn't it be?
Pet food is made and sold as complete nutrition and if a dog eats the same food its entire life, it certainly isn't malnourished; and they seem to be healthy.
What about people in a coma? Obviously they are fed intravenously or fed some how to keep them alive. Of course it isn't healthy to be just lying around all the time.
I hope that the Soylent would come in a solid kibble form like a Purina People Chow.
Pet food is your standard?In addition "taurine deficiency" has been found in dogs and cats fed commercial diets intended to be "complete and balanced". Not usually considered an essential nutrient in dogs, taurine is plentiful in most whole meats whether raw or cooked, but is reduced in extruded diets. Cats require sufficient taurine in their diets due to their increased rate of protein metabolism; taurine is usually synthesized in the body from methionine and cysteine, but cats' increased use of these amino acids in normal bodily functions mean that taurine itself must also be provided in the diet.
The above observations could also be explained by the rendered, highly processed source of meat being less rich in taurine and by the fact that some of the taurine is denatured during extrusion. Cats are obligate carnivores and their natural diet would consist of high amounts of whole meat - thus what has been termed "taurine deficiency" causing dilated cardiomyopathy in cats, is more likely to be a deficiency in the production of commercial feed diets. Taurine is now artificially supplemented back into the diet after processing in the production of most commercial pet food. A similar dynamic occurred in the first half of the twentieth century with an epidemic of Pellagra in humans living in the Southern United States. This cause was determined to be niacin deficiency, and essential vitamin, which was being destroyed in the mass processing of corn. Niacin was supplemented back into Southern diets and the disease was eradicated.
One of the criticisms of Soylent has been that taurine is insufficient in the formulation and while we don't have a specific RDA since we can synthesize it, it is likely necessary when when our diet isn't sufficiently rich in the precursors. Is this the case, I don't know, but it is a reasonable question.
The point is that as a product being touted as a single source of nutrition by the makers and the community it really is insufficiently evaluated to assure a correct nutrient profile. The information that we have today on RDAs assumes a varied diet, and science isn't advanced enough to consider fully the needs or negative effects of totally removing such things as phytonutrients. It is playing sorcer's apprentice with your own body.
But carry on, hopefully a large enough number of Guinea pigs will latch on to this fad in Portlandia and we can see if disease clusters arise. I'm always fascinated by the willingness of people to blindly become an experimental statistic around their nutrition.
Crowd sourced marketing is fantastic - but really, why place your entire diet on something that doesn't have either strong historical or clinically evaluated evidence?
Soylent is probably missing a few things science isn't yet aware the human body needs. But it's also likely that it isn't particularly bad for you. Humans have survived on worse in many places.
I do hope to read some long term studies some day. I just don't plan to blindly submit myself to the experiment.
I'm not doing this as an "experiment." I'm primarily doing it as a cost-cutting measure from now until I get into a more financially friendly situation (move to a less expensive city and get a higher paying job). It'll be two years at most. At that point, I'll re-evaluate my situation and decide whether or not I'll switch back to real food.
Also, I have bad food sensitivities that have messed up my digestive system. The only way to fix it is to completely avoid soy for 1-2 years. Unless I literally make everything I eat from scratch, then this is an impossible task. Soylent makes this easier because I don't have the time to always cook every little bit of food I eat.
I will be keeping my health regularly monitored by a doctor in case anything comes up. I'm not doing this blindly.0 -
EvgeniZyntx wrote: »chivalryder wrote: »EvgeniZyntx wrote: »How much bioavailable sulforaphane and indole-3-carbinol is in your diy or this guy's original formulation?
Yeah, woopsy.
Minimum essential isn't most beneficial. Eat your veggies.
"Basic research on sulforaphane indicates potential for effects on mechanisms of human disease, including neurodegenerative disorders and cancer; however, results to date are contradictory, requiring clarification by future studies.[3][4] In animal models sulforaphane appears to have a protective effect against diabetes-related kidney damage.[2]
Sulforaphane may have a neuroprotective effect that can aid recovery from spinal cord injury, though the effect is not as strong as that of interleukin-10.[5]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulforaphane
Looks irrelevant and certainly not proven to be necessary, so I'm not worried.
As for Indole-3-carbinol:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indole-3-carbinol
Also look like it's unnecessary for survival, just suggested that it might be good for keeping away disease.
Oh, and it's in kale, which I put in my DIY recipe, so I'm getting some.
So a DIY version is just blended food? Ok then.
The dIY can be whatever you make it from. You can source all the ingredients from bulk vitamin and mineral suppliers, or you can source it from your local grocery stores. As long as your hitting all of your micros and macros, you're good to go.
Most recipes are made up from 8-12 ingredients. I try to get as much of it from real food as possible.0 -
I'd also like to add: The creators of Soylent have never said "You should drinking this, and only drink this." They still recommend having a real meal at least once a week.
I remember reading up on Soylent when it was still in the preliminary stages of development. The creator was talking about how it would be amazing to be able to produce a complete (as much as we know) powdered solution you could ship to famined countries for significantly less cost than packaged food. They sell it for $255 USD for a months supply, but if they were producing it for third world countries, it would be significantly less as I'm sure they will be putting less markup on it.
All of this "incomplete nutrition" and "replacing real food" nonsense aside, if you look at it from this perspective: not as a replacement for well-nourished countries, but as something that can be developed and eventually used for countries in need, this is an excellent product that should be supported and encouraged.0 -
chivalryder wrote: »I'd also like to add: The creators of Soylent have never said "You should drinking this, and only drink this." They still recommend having a real meal at least once a week.
I remember reading up on Soylent when it was still in the preliminary stages of development. The creator was talking about how it would be amazing to be able to produce a complete (as much as we know) powdered solution you could ship to famined countries for significantly less cost than packaged food. They sell it for $255 USD for a months supply, but if they were producing it for third world countries, it would be significantly less as I'm sure they will be putting less markup on it.
All of this "incomplete nutrition" and "replacing real food" nonsense aside, if you look at it from this perspective: not as a replacement for well-nourished countries, but as something that can be developed and eventually used for countries in need, this is an excellent product that should be supported and encouraged.
I get your personal reasons.
As someone who has actually worked for a company that produces powdered formulation sold in the developing world there are all sorts of issues with sourcing and distribution that this type of solution will raise but that's another subject.
One real meal once a week? Yep, that doesn't sound like an attempt at a complete solution.
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wasnt that a movie where they would eat people?0
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My son has been using soylent for a while now. He likes the convenience, says it tastes nice, is helping him maintain his weight. He appears healthy and happy which is all you need know.
I don't fancy it, but I never liked shakes. If there was a tea (or pepsi max cherry) that I could drink that tasted like tea (or pepsi max cherry) and gave me all the nutrition I needed I might drink that.
Different strokes for different folks?
(On a different tack - I saw the film and spent a couple of years trying to track down the boook. The book was not a patch on the film.)0 -
johnnylakis wrote: »wasnt that a movie where they would eat people?
They say "You are what you eat." Clearly, eating fit, healthy people is the direct path to becoming fit and healthy.0 -
EvgeniZyntx wrote: »chivalryder wrote: »I'd also like to add: The creators of Soylent have never said "You should drinking this, and only drink this." They still recommend having a real meal at least once a week.
I remember reading up on Soylent when it was still in the preliminary stages of development. The creator was talking about how it would be amazing to be able to produce a complete (as much as we know) powdered solution you could ship to famined countries for significantly less cost than packaged food. They sell it for $255 USD for a months supply, but if they were producing it for third world countries, it would be significantly less as I'm sure they will be putting less markup on it.
All of this "incomplete nutrition" and "replacing real food" nonsense aside, if you look at it from this perspective: not as a replacement for well-nourished countries, but as something that can be developed and eventually used for countries in need, this is an excellent product that should be supported and encouraged.
I get your personal reasons.
As someone who has actually worked for a company that produces powdered formulation sold in the developing world there are all sorts of issues with sourcing and distribution that this type of solution will raise but that's another subject.
One real meal once a week? Yep, that doesn't sound like an attempt at a complete solution.
Soylent is supposedly designed as a "complete" solution. Basically, they were saying that you can still maintain flexibility. If you drink Soylent, you don't only have to drink Soylent. I believe that's what they were getting at.
Oh, another thing I'd like to add: When eating real foods, I was always crazing different things. Chocolate, candy, pizza, burgers. I always wanted something that I shouldn't necessarily be eating at that time (too many calories for my daily allotment. Not saying you should never eat any of the above). Since I started drinking Soylent, ALL of my cravings have vanished. It's easier to control my intake.
ETA: Cravings, from what I have read, are your bodys way of telling you that you're deficient on certain micronutrients. I'm certain I no longer have cravings because I'm now getting all of the (known) necessary micronutrients.0 -
chivalryder wrote: »
Soylent is supposedly designed as a "complete" solution. Basically, they were saying that you can still maintain flexibility. If you drink Soylent, you don't only have to drink Soylent. I believe that's what they were getting at.
Oh, another thing I'd like to add: When eating real foods, I was always crazing different things. Chocolate, candy, pizza, burgers. I always wanted something that I shouldn't necessarily be eating at that time (too many calories for my daily allotment. Not saying you should never eat any of the above). Since I started drinking Soylent, ALL of my cravings have vanished. It's easier to control my intake.
ETA: Cravings, from what I have read, are your bodys way of telling you that you're deficient on certain micronutrients. I'm certain I no longer have cravings because I'm now getting all of the (known) necessary micronutrients.
@chivalryder you above statements are the exact same for me as well. Very rarely, and I do mean rarely, do I get a craving for foods that are in the "bad for you" category. In fact, I have found that if I eat just regular food over a weekend with no Soylent I will start craving Soylent by the time Monday morning comes around. This tells me that my body is missing the steady intake of the nutrients found in Soylent that otherwise would require multiple foods to accomplish the same thing. (I think I read that the daily intake of Potassium that our body needs would require us eating 10 bananas a day. I like bananas, but I don't like them that much.)0 -
chivalryder wrote: »
Soylent is supposedly designed as a "complete" solution. Basically, they were saying that you can still maintain flexibility. If you drink Soylent, you don't only have to drink Soylent. I believe that's what they were getting at.
Oh, another thing I'd like to add: When eating real foods, I was always crazing different things. Chocolate, candy, pizza, burgers. I always wanted something that I shouldn't necessarily be eating at that time (too many calories for my daily allotment. Not saying you should never eat any of the above). Since I started drinking Soylent, ALL of my cravings have vanished. It's easier to control my intake.
ETA: Cravings, from what I have read, are your bodys way of telling you that you're deficient on certain micronutrients. I'm certain I no longer have cravings because I'm now getting all of the (known) necessary micronutrients.
@chivalryder you above statements are the exact same for me as well. Very rarely, and I do mean rarely, do I get a craving for foods that are in the "bad for you" category. In fact, I have found that if I eat just regular food over a weekend with no Soylent I will start craving Soylent by the time Monday morning comes around. This tells me that my body is missing the steady intake of the nutrients found in Soylent that otherwise would require multiple foods to accomplish the same thing. (I think I read that the daily intake of Potassium that our body needs would require us eating 10 bananas a day. I like bananas, but I don't like them that much.)
I'm not in the "bad for you foods" group, but that's a totally different discussion.
Last night was the first time I was craving pizza, but it was because I was very tired, hangry (I had been busy all afternoon, so I hadn't eaten anything for 5 or 6 hours), and everything was going wrong all at once. I just wanted to sit down with comfort food.0
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