[kuida0r3]

Per https://faq.soylent.me/hc/en-us/articles/200789315-Nutrition - The Soylent recipe is based on the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and is approved as a food by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Soylent 1.2 was developed under the close guidance of our nutritional advisor, Dr. F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, M.D., MPH. Pi-Sunyer is professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. At St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center he serves as chief of endocrinology, diabetes, and nutrition, and is director of the New York Obesity Research Center. Dr. Pi-Sunyer is also a senior attending physician at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital and New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

[Someone1234]

Being created by a nutritional advisor and a professor of medicine is legitimately credible.

I just want to add that this:

> is approved as a food by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Is utterly meaningless. All that means is that everything that goes into the product is "food grade" and that it was prepared in basically sanitary conditions. Nothing more. I highly doubt the FDA has examined their health claims (namely that you could live exclusively off of it). And likely won't unless there is public or political pressure to do so.

As an aside, I wonder if they could get a military or relief effort contract? Seems like the type of product perfect for both, as you "just add water!"

[tbrake]

> As an aside, I wonder if they could get a military or relief effort contract? Seems like the type of product perfect for both, as you "just add water!"

A lack of readily available clean water may be a challenge for use in relief efforts. There are also already products out there e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumpy%27nut

[DanBC]

It's very much more expensive than existing products.

WFP needs a variety of different foods. Sometimes they just need calories. Sometimes they just need micronutrient. Sometimes they need a specific micronutrient.

http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/re...

http://wfp.org/nutrition/special-nutritional-products

http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/co...

[lucb1e]

> as you "just add water!"

(Which might be highly ironic to people in some places of the world.)

[collyw]

Are these guys the idiots that ban haggis from the US?

(You guys don't know what you are missing).

[logn]

Their recipe relies heavily on added vitamins and minerals. As I commented on the other thread today, it's possible to get all daily nutrition from just 5 cups broccoli, 1.5 cups peanuts, and 3 cups milk.

Couldn't you just take any smoothie recipe, blend in a multi-vitamin, and claim it's a food replacement? Don't products such as Boost already do this? I don't understand Soylent's edge here, except marketing.

Soylent Recipe: http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0421/5993/t/12/assets/files...

[n72]

The problem is that we're still very much in the dark regarding nutrition:

"This formula contains what we know we need but not what we might need and don't know how to measure or quantify yet," said Ayoob, at Albert Einstein. "There are hundreds of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds, for example, that we're still learning about." (1)

The danger with Soylent is that they don't acknowledge these limits of our knowledge. Rather, "You can live on Soylent alone, Mr. Rhinehart claims" (2). Given the nutirition field believes differently and he really has no expertise in the field, a statement like this is mindbogglingly irresponsible. This is my basis for the accusation of hubris. (This also doesn't touch on the obvious monetary incentive he has for believing this/making this claim.)

(1) http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/DietNutrition/46983

(2) http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/technology/personaltech/th...

[dasboth]

"As I commented on the other thread today, it's possible to get all daily nutrition from just 5 cups broccoli, 1.5 cups peanuts, and 3 cups milk."

That's pretty random. Provided you're not just being facetious, where are you getting that information from? I'm genuinely curious.

[paulojreis]

> it's possible to get all daily nutrition from just (...)

How do you know you're not missing a few micronutrients? We don't know yet all the micronutrients our body needs, so how can you really say that?