I was browsing through discussions of that blog post on reddit, and someone pointed out that his formula has inadequate fiber. One batch has 1500ish calories from macronutrients (carbs/protein/fat), and only 5g of fiber. The daily recommended intake for fiber is 38g per day for an adult male, so if you’re only consuming Soylent, you’ll want to increase the fiber per batch dramatically.
I tried Metamucil packets a while back to help alleviate side effects of the antidepressants I was on, and the trick with those was to drink them reasonably quickly after you added water, before they turned into gel. With the single-serving packets, you could try adding the fiber right before drinking.
Sign me up for the interest list as well. On a related note: given the number of upvotes for the others who have expressed interest, the writeup might warrant a Discussion-level post when the time comes; if it does end up working anywhere near as well as Rhinehart’s personal experiences, I feel we shouldn’t risk the finding being buried in the comments of this thread.
Also, in case you don’t share his misgivings about providing brand names, such a list would be appreciated. Part of the reason is that Rhinehart says he lives in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, and if he says some things are “hard to get” and have to be obtained from small suppliers, I might end up having to import them.
Man, my very own Discussion-level post! I’ll start working on that. As for my list, I’m about 90% done with the first sweep, and then I’ll go back through it and try to find better alternatives. One thing I’ve noticed so far is how outrageously high the dosages of some vitamins that makers generally sell! I knew it was above the FDA recommendations, but I didn’t know that it was sometimes more than 3 orders of magnitude!
I heard that this is because your body won’t absorb much of that dose in its synthetic, isolated, pressed-into-a-pill form, as they supposedly don’t break down easily
Soon please! I am sad that I found out about this via Facebook rather than LW because I don’t keep up fully with comments. But this is the best thing ever, thank you!
I’m thinking about stopping eating food, like this guy.
I’m curious to see how well that works for different types of people; please let me know what it was like for you, if you end up doing it.
I’ll keep you posted!
What are you going to make your soylent mixture out of?
Right now, I’m shopping around. I’ll let you know when I’ve assembled (or at least decided upon) the ingredients.
Interesting! He’s also offering to ship Soylent to people, and it’ll be free if you’re willing to get various tests before and after a one-week trial.
I signed up for this. Should be interesting.
I signed up, too, but he’s been a bit slow in following through.
I was browsing through discussions of that blog post on reddit, and someone pointed out that his formula has inadequate fiber. One batch has 1500ish calories from macronutrients (carbs/protein/fat), and only 5g of fiber. The daily recommended intake for fiber is 38g per day for an adult male, so if you’re only consuming Soylent, you’ll want to increase the fiber per batch dramatically.
You’re absolutely right. I’ve had a spot of trouble finding a source of fiber that won’t expand and turn my version of soylent into a gelatin.
I tried Metamucil packets a while back to help alleviate side effects of the antidepressants I was on, and the trick with those was to drink them reasonably quickly after you added water, before they turned into gel. With the single-serving packets, you could try adding the fiber right before drinking.
maybe flaxseeds? they were used in a smoothie in this video at about 1:30
also while having more than 5g is a good idea i doubt you need as much fiber as the RDA since it assumes you’re eating food
Inulin?
Sign me up for the interest list as well. On a related note: given the number of upvotes for the others who have expressed interest, the writeup might warrant a Discussion-level post when the time comes; if it does end up working anywhere near as well as Rhinehart’s personal experiences, I feel we shouldn’t risk the finding being buried in the comments of this thread.
Also, in case you don’t share his misgivings about providing brand names, such a list would be appreciated. Part of the reason is that Rhinehart says he lives in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, and if he says some things are “hard to get” and have to be obtained from small suppliers, I might end up having to import them.
Man, my very own Discussion-level post! I’ll start working on that. As for my list, I’m about 90% done with the first sweep, and then I’ll go back through it and try to find better alternatives. One thing I’ve noticed so far is how outrageously high the dosages of some vitamins that makers generally sell! I knew it was above the FDA recommendations, but I didn’t know that it was sometimes more than 3 orders of magnitude!
I heard that this is because your body won’t absorb much of that dose in its synthetic, isolated, pressed-into-a-pill form, as they supposedly don’t break down easily
Soon please! I am sad that I found out about this via Facebook rather than LW because I don’t keep up fully with comments. But this is the best thing ever, thank you!