[colinshark]

I think the difference here is that the goal is more ambitious (100% diet replacement). Ensure is explicitly a dietary supplement. The marketing, cost, flavor, and nutrient profile reflect that.

It's like wanting to enter a high end auto race and you just buy a sports car off the lot. It will be expensive and slow. The fast cars are custom built because the market is small and the requirements are unique.

[DanBC]

Ensure can be a meal replacement. It is a complete food. It is one of the products used to force feed people who are on hunger strike (and also anorexics detained under section of the mental health act in English psychiatric hospitals).

I'm not sure what you mean by the cost, flavour, and nutrient profile. It's a complete food. If you want more calories you use Ensure plus. If you need more protein you use the high protein product. If you want savory versions you use one of the savory varieties - here's chicken (http://www.chemistdirect.co.uk/ensure-plus-savoury-chicken_1...).

The reason Ensure is sweet or highly flavoured is to encourage people to eat - these people are ill and need the nutrition.

A person eating only Ensure is not going to be any iller than someone eating either 'official Soylent' or 'open source Soylent' - and probably not as ill, because Ensure is created by people who know what they're doing, using quality assured ingredients and sealed in suitable packaging. This is important for Soylent to work on - I hope they include good packaging.

All the existing products tell you not to survive on a liquid diet without medical supervision. I take that be be a big sign that living on liquid feed is sub-optimal and needs to be done cautiously. Other people say it's a sign of an industry that can be disrupted.

My posts in this thread are trying quite hard to be constructive. I admit I find it difficult because I have strongly negative opinions about some of the Soylent product.

[fudged71]

>one of the products used to force feed people who are on hunger strike

Whoa, pardon my ignorance... got a link?