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from the puns-about-square-meals-and-stuff dept.
Here's Soylent's New Product. It's Food.
Mr. [Rob] Rhinehart first pitched Soylent to the world with a post titled "How I Stopped Eating Food." Now his successor Mr. [Bryan] Crowley says that Soylent's customers — and everyone else — should definitely keep eating food.
Asked if new customers should consider living solely off Soylent, Mr. Crowley said, "We don't recommend it, no. Absolutely. 100 percent. We don't recommend, not because we don't think it's healthy or we don't think it's there. It's a very difficult thing to do and our research tells us that it happens for a very limited amount of time." (Mr. Rhinehart himself moved the company toward gentler "meal replacement" messaging before stepping down in December 2017, when he announced Mr. Crowley as his own replacement.)
Now Soylent has edged closer to something its customers might recognize as food.
There are other reasons to tell a less provocative story. In 2017, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency informed Soylent that its product didn't meet agency requirements for "meal replacement," which halted the company's expansion in that country. In 2016, the first attempt at solid Soylent — the Food Bar — was quickly pulled from circulation after customers reported vomiting and diarrhea.
The company is working hard to ensure its products are not merely safe to eat, but also tasty and enjoyable. "That's the big word that we talked a lot about," Mr. Crowley said. "Before it was all about function. Original Soylent was function, function, function. Now you hear words like enjoyment in our mission."
Stargate SG-1 s04e01.
Previously: Soylent Halts Sale of Bars; Investigation into Illnesses Continues
Soylent Meal Replacement Sales Blocked in Canada
Related: The Other Soylent Finally Ships
Ambronite: Organic Soylent Alternative
In Busy Silicon Valley, Protein Powder Is in Demand
Soylent 2.0 is Coming: Food Replacement Premixed in Bottles
Spore Scare Stops Shipments of Soylent Superfood
Soylent Stops Selling Powder While it Investigates Customer Sickness Complaints
Soylent Has Arrived At Walmart
(Score: 4, Interesting) by SunTzuWarmaster on Tuesday April 23 2019, @11:59AM (6 children)
I experimented for about 2 years trying to create a 'bachelor chow' - reasonably tasty, keeps for 7+ days, requires minimal cooking, nutritionally complete, cheap.
I settled on jasmine rice and lentils. Combined, they make a complete protein and provide the vast majority of vitamins/minerals required. There are documented studies of people living on rice/lentils for years. The final solution was:
Breakfast - skip
Lunch - skip
During the day - 4 scoops myProtein protein powder (gotta get strong somehow).
night - rice/lentils, pat of butter, with seasoning-of-the-day (frequently cumin, but italian seasoning blend or taco powder work reasonably).
---
About $1 of protein shake, $1 of rice/lentils, no cooking, no dishes, nutritionally complete.
Wash your bowl - http://mnmlist.com/wash-your-bowl/ [mnmlist.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 23 2019, @05:16PM (2 children)
Switch to brown rice. (better: black rice or wild rice, but that isn't cheap)
Keeping the cumin, add lots of turmeric and a tiny bit of either cinnamon or ginger. (better: also add cardamom and coriander)
Add finely chopped celery. Consider adding chopped parsley or sliced almonds.
Switch the butter to ghee (clarified butter), lard, chicken fat, or coconut oil. Coconut oil prices vary greatly, from affordable to insane, and your store might only offer one extreme. Check other stores.
Add iodized salt.
It keeps well. You can freeze it. It is easy to warm in a microwave; you can shake a half-full container to mix hot and cold parts. If you try the wild rice, note that you have to let that cook by itself first because it takes longer.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday April 23 2019, @06:10PM (1 child)
Good call on the iodized salt. That would have been obvious decades ago but now people like to use sea salt, rock salt, volcanic salt, et al. without iodine and probably with microplastic contamination.
Where's the vitamin C coming from? We gonna die?
Here's a meal that combines brown rice, black beans, walnuts, onions, sauce:
https://minimalistbaker.com/easy-grillable-veggie-burgers/ [minimalistbaker.com]
I made a version of this with just red lentils, white rice, onions, bbq sauce, and panko. I cooked it in a pan instead of grilling it. I would probably follow the recipe's directions more closely if I made it a second time.
Google says BBQ sauce has almost no vitamin C and ketchup has some, so I assume it varies by product. I'm not sure what the best cheap source is, maybe powdered ascorbic acid sold to homebrewers? And you get some from the onions.
The expensive bit would be any walnuts, almonds, etc. Might want to grow them or source them locally if possible. Maybe they aren't too expensive if you buy in bulk and use a small amount each time, I haven't done the math on it.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday April 23 2019, @06:24PM
Thinking about it some more. You might just want to eat a banana every day in addition to the rice/lentil mix, and pop a multivitamin with B12. Let's see someone die from that.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday April 23 2019, @06:18PM (2 children)
See my post below. Burger patty form could be a nice variation if you get bored of it. George Foreman grill / panini press might be the optimal extra step.
"Nutritionally complete" seems suspect to me. Survival stories aside, it ain't adding up to a nice set of 100% DVs like Soylent does.
You've skipped breakfast and lunch, but why not skip lunch and dinner?
'Big breakfast healthier than a big dinner' [medicalnewstoday.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by SunTzuWarmaster on Tuesday April 23 2019, @07:56PM (1 child)
https://greatist.com/health/complete-vegetarian-proteins [greatist.com]
You are right - eventually the diet outlined above will eventually get scurvy. I forgot to add a splash of juice to water in the evening. Additionally, you can throw in a multivitamin tablet every once in a while if you are concerned. B12 is found "in low doses" in lentils... but keep in mind that lentils are composing roughly 40% of your daily caloric content, so you shouldn't worry too much.
Also notably - life is uncertain enough that you go to parties, have a beer or two, take a girl out to eat, have some chicken fingers at a friends' graduation party, etc. The longest 'strict' stretch I did on solely on the above "bachelor chow" was 30 days.
I don't necessarily disagree with the AC above - switching to wild rice, adding celery (and onions), swapping in some black beans, adding iodized salt, making and adding ghee, etc. That said - now it is starting to look like work. I started with simple goals - nutritious, cheap, fast. The above "lentils+rice+butter+seasoning" can prepare 7 days of meals for $7 inside of 20 minutes. Additionally, it does not encourage overeating.
I kinda eat-when-I-come-home, so this is a ~5pm meal. I understand the benefits of "one big breakfast", but I prefer sleep to food. Additionally, I understand the 'dangers' of eating before bedtime, but it isn't like you are gonna get fat on lentils/rice. Among other things, on day 25 you just don't stuff yourself ;).
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday April 23 2019, @09:40PM
I think if you're making 7+ days of meals in advance, a little extra prep time ain't that bad. If you have freezer space, you could try making 14+ days of the stuff in advance. Obviously, it doesn't matter if you deviate from your chow once in a while. It's just meant for when you are alone and need something to eat.
Brown rice is somewhat more nutritious than white rice, and cheap (see generic bags at Walmart, Safeway, etc.). Sorry @ wild rice.
If you aren't making patties, canned stewed tomatoes would add some vitamin C and potassium. Eating a banana on the side would also add both, and bananas seem to be a better value than any other fruit out there at less than $0.50/lb. They become more nutritious as the peel completely blackens, apparently.
I've made a lot more black beans lately because an Instant Pot can turn dried beans into cooked in about an hour with almost zero prep time. Set and leave. But there's no need to have both black beans and lentils, and lentils may be the better choice.
I don't care about ghee. Just slap in any cheap oil where needed. Seasonings can be bought in bulk at a warehouse store or maybe a local Indian or Chinese food store. Stuff I would add: turmeric, cumin, granulated garlic, pepper, cardamom, smoked paprika, the iodized salt, and MSG [accentflavor.com] if you have it. You can mix these into your own spice mix in advance, and just sprinkle everything you need in one simple motion.
I would add onions at least, but you could forgo them. Meh to celery.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]