Soylent Green is...dinner?

[destrekor]

Just reading through the specs to see practical application....an adult male needs about 2,400 calories a day, so you'd need to drink 6 of these if you wanted to do an all-Soylent diet. So about $15 a day (roughly $2.42 per drink, times six). Either do 2 drinks for a meal, or space it out into 6 smaller meals.

Cost would be approximately $450 a month for a single person for a 100% Soylent 2.0 diet. That's basically 100% of your nutritional needs, at least according to the FDA. I'd be interested in doing a 30-day cut on the 2.0 mix just to see how a whole month of not eating real food would be like. The commercial is pretty good too:

http://blog.soylent.com/post/125754565787/soylent-20-use-less-do-more

I hope, for their sake, that 2.0 isn't only available in liquid pre-mixed forms. That increases shipping costs and, as noted, end-use cost when serving as a full meal replacement option.

If 2.0 is only liquid, then it is not intended to replace the v1.5 powder as a "replace as much of your diet as you want" option, as that remains much cheaper in comparison, and less costly to ship in bulk and, for that matter, easier to carry around with you.

 

[Ruptga]

I hope, for their sake, that 2.0 isn't only available in liquid pre-mixed forms. That increases shipping costs and, as noted, end-use cost when serving as a full meal replacement option.

If 2.0 is only liquid, then it is not intended to replace the v1.5 powder as a "replace as much of your diet as you want" option, as that remains much cheaper in comparison, and less costly to ship in bulk and, for that matter, easier to carry around with you.

The powdered Soylent mix won't be going anywhere, but expect to see the company touting this easier to use version more over time. If anything, it's a smart way for Soylent to get its product into stores so anyone can try it out.

Makes sense, why flip off your entire existing customer base if there's nothing to gain from it? This premixed option is a good addition. I doubt I'll use it much, but customers in other segments will probably love it.

 

[destrekor]

Makes sense, why flip off your entire existing customer base if there's nothing to gain from it? This premixed option is a good addition. I doubt I'll use it much, but customers in other segments will probably love it.

Yeah. I just wonder if they'll take the new recipe for the pre-mixed 2.0, and have that serve as the powder mix as well.

In time, I'll be giving the idea a go but I'll be making my best effort to create a truly complete blend with the nutrients profile I consider superior. Not quite Keto, and definitely a superior fatty acid profile with a Mediterranean Omega 3/Omega 6 ratio compared to the heavy Omega 6 levels found in America (and in Soylent).

 

[Kaido]

I've got a 12-pack on order, I'll see how it compares to the previous powdered versions. If it doesn't kill me, I'll probably order a big pack for my desk at work (working lunches FTL) & for an emergency home supply for when storms & stuff hit. I had to make an emergency run into work last weekend & was stuck there most of the day with nothing but a vending machine available, bah! This stuff would be great in a pinch!

 

[Kaido]

Another competitor, Bertrand:

http://bertrand.bio/

KetoSoy is another neat startup based on Soylent, only chocolate-flavored & contains milk ingredients:

http://www.ketosoy.com/

Also, Soylent 1.5 is available in powdered form, ships within 48 hours - no pre-order or waiting period anymore. I've read that some people are getting gas from the new formula, so I bought some sampler bags off eBay to try out before committing to a truckload of it. Still interested in the liquid mix, but October 15th is forever away!

 

[JSt0rm]

1.5 has been good for me. To the person who said you would drink 6 of those in 2 sittings, no you won't. You will be full off one. I do 2000 calorie fills of soylent (1 bag) and 500 calories is enough at a time. The 400 calorie options are going to be nice at work.

 

[Kaido]

1.5 has been good for me. To the person who said you would drink 6 of those in 2 sittings, no you won't. You will be full off one. I do 2000 calorie fills of soylent (1 bag) and 500 calories is enough at a time. The 400 calorie options are going to be nice at work.

Got my 1.5 in today. Most mild flavor out of all the revisions I've tried, very easy to drink. Not having to add oil is nice too. Definitely looking forward to trying the bottled kind, going to keep a stash in my work desk & home desk for sure! :thumbsup:

 

[JSt0rm]

I would say 1.5 is a little more salty then the rest but thats because they have the recommended dosage of sodium now. Before they kept it under but its fine.

 

[tnt118]

KetoSoy is another neat startup based on Soylent, only chocolate-flavored & contains milk ingredients:

http://www.ketosoy.com/

I found KetoSoy to be quite unpalatable compared to others I've had, but a lot of folks do seem to like it. It was certainly more filling than most others but the texture was quite... rough.

 

[Kaido]

High levels of lead & cadmium found in two samples of Soylent 1.5:

http://news.yahoo.com/sow-files-notice-legal-action-against-soylent-super-200000801.html

Test results commissioned by As You Sow, conducted by an independent laboratory, show that one serving of Soylent 1.5 can expose a consumer to a concentration of lead that is 12 to 25 times above California's Safe Harbor level for reproductive health, and a concentration of cadmium that is at least 4 times greater than the Safe Harbor level for cadmium. Two separate samples of Soylent 1.5 were tested.

...

Lead exposure is a significant public health issue and is associated with neurological impairment, such as learning disabilities and lower IQ, even at low levels. Chronic exposure to cadmium has been linked to kidney, liver, and bone damage in humans.

Edit: The plot thickens:

http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Ma...k-at-legal-threat-We-display-Prop-65-warnings

Looks like they're basically going after a legalized blackmail route. However, this is not comforting:

However, Carol Brophy, an attorney at Sedgwick LLP, who has helped defend clients against scores of Prop 65 lawsuits, said the As You Sow press release re. Soylent was “alarmist” and misleading, given that its figures appeared to be based on the assumption that people eat “nothing but Soylent every day, 365 days a year, forever”.

From a toxicology perspective, she said, what mattered was a person’s estimated exposure to Prop 65 chemicals based on the “reasonably anticipated use of the product by the average consumer”, a position confirmed in March by California’s First District Court of Appeal in a case brought by Environmental Law Foundation vs Beech Nut Nutrition Corp**.

“If you average it out among users, meal replacements are typically eaten once every nine days.”

So a Prop 65 defense attorney says no big deal because people usually only eat this stuff once every couple of weeks Discussion thread here:

http://discourse.soylent.me/t/question-about-proposition-65-warning-in-faq/22132/52

 

[Howard]

It sucks that there's that much lead in it, but I also wonder how much lead we unknowingly ingest throughout the course of our day, from foods that when measured individually don't throw up any alarms for lead content.

 

[destrekor]

High levels of lead & cadmium found in two samples of Soylent 1.5:

http://news.yahoo.com/sow-files-notice-legal-action-against-soylent-super-200000801.html



Edit: The plot thickens:

http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Ma...k-at-legal-threat-We-display-Prop-65-warnings

Looks like they're basically going after a legalized blackmail route. However, this is not comforting:



So a Prop 65 defense attorney says no big deal because people usually only eat this stuff once every couple of weeks Discussion thread here:

http://discourse.soylent.me/t/question-about-proposition-65-warning-in-faq/22132/52

Well, in this case, I hope Soylent gets hit hard and has to clean up their act. They advertise as the means to replace your entire means of sustenance, and then they want to get by on a loophole based on the idea that their product is only consumed once in awhile, not on a regular basis?

 

[Crono]

I'm glad I went the juicing route after looking at doing my own DIY soylent. Not perfect RDAs - not that I believe the FDA's guidelines are gospel, anyway - but at least the fruit and veggies I use are relatively heavy metal free.

 

[destrekor]

I'm glad I went the juicing route after looking at doing my own DIY soylent. Not perfect RDAs - not that I believe the FDA's guidelines are gospel, anyway - but at least the fruit and veggies I use are relatively heavy metal free.

I'm still slowly investigating a DIY Soylent route, but I am looking to create perfection, but also trying to keep the cost down. At the same time, I'm trying to avoid any need for additional supplement pills.

Trying to find not only the best powder additives, but also ones with the vitamin sources that are the most absorbable by the body (folates vs folic acid, Vitamin K2 vs K1, etc). I figure in terms of vitamins, the best method to a DIY Soylent is to obtain a high-quality natural vitamin blend and then create a complete Fatty Acid and Amino Acid blend along with quality slow-digesting carbohydrates.

I think it's very doable if I remember my research into this a month or so ago, but I think I got stuck trying to bring the cost down. It wasn't much different from the current Soylent prices, which I consider too high. I can easily spend more than that on daily meals, but I can also easily have cheap days, so I think Soylent would cost more in the end, especially because I would never give up good food or going out with friends/family from time to time.

 

[destrekor]

It sucks that there's that much lead in it, but I also wonder how much lead we unknowingly ingest throughout the course of our day, from foods that when measured individually don't throw up any alarms for lead content.

Lead has been around us in large numbers for a long time.

In terms of meal content, it must be fairly low in total, because of efforts to reduce total consumed amounts for a long time now.

But yeah, it is worth worrying about lead. Back in the 70s and 80s, there were high environmental levels of lead, and those numbers are strongly correlated with high levels of criminal activity and mental health concerns in the late 80s and early 90s (when the youth and young adults exposed earlier in the womb and as children became old enough to act out). Leaded gasoline was one of the worst things we ever came up with, still impacting generations of youth today due to lasting genetic effects.

 

[destrekor]

Here is some interesting info on Lead content in food, and Soylent's response:

https://perpelle.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/supergreens_clctesting.pdf

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/aug/17/soylent-unsafe-levels-lead-cadmium

In short - Soylent simply needs a standard Prop 65 warning label, because California has what is basically the strictest chemical levels in the entire world.

The stuff is in the soil all around us, thankfully in levels that are slowly lowering in time. Pregnant women should be careful, but for everyone else, it isn't even something to worry about.

 

[Kaido]

Soylent's response:

http://blog.soylent.com/post/126888496882/soylent-is-compliant-with-california-proposition

Soylent Is Compliant With California Proposition 65

Last week the organization As You Sow filed notice that they would be pursuing litigation against Soylent based on the warning requirement of the controversial California Proposition 65 law. As You Sow has been involved in scores of Proposition 65 lawsuits and collected millions in revenue from legal settlements. As You Sow also recently filed Proposition 65 lawsuits against a half dozen chocolate companies including Hershey’s, Godiva, and Ghirardelli.

Soylent does not have unusual or unsafe levels of lead, cadmium, or any metal. As You Sow’s legal claim is that we do not display the required Proposition 65 notice, which is incorrect.

Soylent’s levels of heavy metals are entirely safe and sustainable, even for people using Soylent as a complete food substitute. Trace amounts of lead and cadmium are present everywhere, including drinking water, which is why the FDA and EPA set strict exposure limits. The FDA’s limits for lead in infant formula, which is especially stringent, is 0.5ug/mL.

Our testing is done by Covance, an independent third-party lab, using the ultra sensitive and precise method ICP-MS. Testing protocols are standardized by AOAC International. Lead in Soylent 1.5 is 0.009982ug/mL, less than 1/50th of the FDA requirements for infant food. See the full certificate of analysis of Soylent 1.5 for details.

The FDA does not set cadmium limits for food, but even the highest cadmium levels we have seen in testing, 21ug per serving, is thousands of times lower than the level of any observed effect in Proposition 65 toxicology data. We also test for arsenic, which at 0.7525ug per serving is well below the Proposition 65 limit.

The heavy metal levels specified by California Proposition 65, which were cited in As You Sow’s press release, are much more stringent than those set by the FDA, the EPA, and the WHO. As a result, many packaged foods sold in California, as well as restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, convenience stores, and theme parks are required to display the boiler-plate warning. We are not required to change the product, but we are required to display the Proposition 65 text where we sell our products, which we do.

Soylent is completely safe and 100% compliant with all national (US, Canada, and EU) and state regulations, both in labeling and in levels of heavy metals.

TL;DR:

1. Soylent is safe
2. As You Sow is a troll company
3. Soylent meets FDA, EPA, and WHO safety requirements
4. If you buy in California, there is a label that pops up when you check out for Prop 65
5. This whole thing was basically bogus

 

[destrekor]

Well, I got some Soylent 1.5 powder.

What are some ways to dress it up that y'all have found to be best? I saw the basic suggestions of berries, banana, nut butters, etc.

I'm also curious about suggestions for vitamin management. If you consumed Soylent all day, you'd supposedly get 100% of your nutritional AIs and RDAs.

But say you did 1000kcal of Soylent, that's 50%. If you take multivitamins, that's 150% for some vitamins. Many vitamins you can take however much you can tolerate, but others, you don't want to go too crazy on.

Now, 150%, is surely fine. But what if you are adding in highly-nutritious food into the blend, such as certain greens or other "superfoods"?

Also, I was thinking about some Amazing Grass Green SuperFood. Different flavors may or may not mix in well depending on what blend I want to make for a two-day period.

Key vitamins I'd be worried about are copper and manganese, which you should not get that much of at all. In multivitamins, they are already more than enough, but you get some in normal food... usually. And you get some in Soylent, though I don't know the amount, they just say 100%.

For most other vitamins, I guess the total isn't a grave concern, because most of the specific vitamin variants in both Soylent and multi-vitamins are not nearly as easily absorbed as natural variants found in the food supply, so 200% for the day might actually turn into a little over 100%, though that's just a guess pulled out of my ass. I don't know HOW much is absorbed for a cheap version versus the natural version.

Part of this is not just to help make sure I'm not going against my attempts to better my overall nutrition and health, but to also help determine how I might approach a DIY Soylent blend should I continue to pursue that. I've attempted to, but ones I've used in my early calculations, which use some moderately expensive nutrient blends with whole-food vitamin sources versus cheap versions, good oil blends for a more Mediterranean-style Omega 3:6 ratio (far less Omega 6s than in Soylent or most of the DIY blends I see, not just adding more Omega 3), and then good protein sources and whole grain flours... I usually end up seeing them reach about the same daily cost for Soylent. And I don't like that, I want it cheaper.

Soylent might be cheaper for me than going out to lunch, but if I really tried I'd save with breakfast and lunch. On average I like to make some good lunches, or go out and spend anywhere from $5-12, so 2 Soylent meals a day isn't bad. I'd like a good Soylent that would come in handy for dinners or weekends too, saving some time with prep or cleanup or just being totally lazy. But most days, especially weekend days if I don't leave the house or on days where I just want a quick cheap dinner and pack a lunch... I think I'd spend less than $10/day. So I'd like a DIY blend that is cheaper AND more wholesome than Soylent. That's one hell of a challenge, eh? I was able to get some blends maybe a buck or so cheaper...

For a good blend I wouldn't mind a weekly pre-prep, and I think I could do the same trick of adding oil to maltodextrin to skip that step for daily prep. Even if it saves a few bucks, I'm curious if I could do better than relying on some of the expensive whole-food multivitamin blends.

Considering my current approach to multivitamins is a pack that includes other things that aren't just about micronutrient counts, I'm not sure how easily I'd actually work around that. Perhaps I might make a blend that doesn't even address vitamins and just add a bunch of things together? If I'm already spending $1/day on that vitamin pack (and then adding a host of other things that just aren't possible to add to a blend without completely ruining the flavor), if I keep that up and skip trying to make a perfect 100% blend, I could make it a hell of a lot cheaper.

I keep eyeing
http://www.lifeextension.com/Vitamins-Supplements/item01955/Life-Extension-Mix-Tablets
and
http://www.lifeextension.com/Vitamins-Supplements/item01956/Life-Extension-Mix-Powder

I still need to do some more math, but I am pretty sure I calculated the powder's price (it can be found on Amazon IIRC) into my blend, which is how I was getting to around the same price as Soylent for my blend. Either with the powder or caplets I could definitely drop my vitamin pack, but either version is twice as expensive as my $30/month packs. But the quality of ingredients is phenomenal.

Much work to do... lol

 

[Ns1]

So without reading all the replies in this thread....wtf does soy lent taste like? Soulless nutrition?

 

[destrekor]

So without reading all the replies in this thread....wtf does soy lent taste like? Soulless nutrition?

Basically. lol

It tastes like bland unflavored oat flour, or unflavored and unsweetened dry cereal mash mixed with water. It's utterly boring but entirely unoffensive. It's enjoyable in that at least you are having your needs sated... but otherwise, soulless is the perfect word.

I enjoy food too much to ever go 100% all in on any meal replacement, regardless of flavor. But being so bland makes it super easy to, I assume, dress it up however you like. Sort of like chicken. Chicken, just plain ol' chicken, is rather soulless. But nobody just takes a cut of chicken, cooks it up, and calls it a day. That's why there are a billion ways to prep chicken.




Also... there's a hint of people.

 

[Ns1]

So do you basically pound it like a beer? Lol

 

[destrekor]

So do you basically pound it like a beer? Lol

Don't like beer? lol


Find some good beer, mate. You don't need to pound it.

But yes, if you're speaking of the American macrobrew light beers, pound it like them.

 

[IGemini]

This week Soylent permanently dropped their powder prices by 23% across the board.

http://blog.soylent.com/post/128059365657/soylent-powder-now-even-more-affordable

 

[TwiceOver]

This week Soylent permanently dropped their powder prices by 23% across the board.

http://blog.soylent.com/post/128059365657/soylent-powder-now-even-more-affordable

Did they mean "monthly"? Under subscribe it shows $54 for the month.

EDIT: Ohh, I see now. Kinda odd wording.

EDIT2: Wait. No. 28 "meals" $54.

 

[IGemini]

Did they mean "monthly"? Under subscribe it shows $54 for the month.

EDIT: Ohh, I see now. Kinda odd wording.

EDIT2: Wait. No. 28 "meals" $54.

Before the drop the same thing was $70 by subscription and $85 for single purchase.