From the post:
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Among the Soylent claims Shane outlined, there are the below. I’ve added my comments:
Soylent provides all the energy and nutrients the body needs. [TIM: I'm not convinced Soylent can prove this.] The body can absorb all the nutrients Soylent provides. [TIM: I'm not convinced Soylent can prove this.] Soylent makes one more alert. [TIM: If measured, this could potentially be demonstrated.] Soylent can help people cut fat and maintain good body weight. [TIM: Be wary of any structure or function claims. Reword.] Soylent saves time and money. [TIM: Provable compared to another defined group (e.g. eating at Chipotle), but not across the board.] And at the end of the day: Soylent isn’t dangerous. [TIM: I'm not convinced Soylent can prove this. Where are the data? Safe for how long?]
If you've followed Tim Ferriss, it's clear this is something he'd be interested in. His first company was a sports supplement manufacturer, and he's written two books that touch on nutrition.
I don't see this as a shallow post aimed at promoting a product. Did you even read it?
Not what I said, and yes I did. I know why he'd be interested in it, or more to the point I know why his readership would. Having someone else do the (unscientific) experiment pulls all the traffic while allowing TF to look objective without investing anything. It's shallow in that (as shown above) the medical claims made are quite meaningless.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience
> Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status.[1] Pseudoscience is often characterized by the use of vague, contradictory, exaggerated or unprovable claims, an over-reliance on confirmation rather than rigorous attempts at refutation, a lack of openness to evaluation by other experts, and a general absence of systematic processes to rationally develop theories.