Soylent is simple to make, simple to drink, and has a pretty neutral flavor. They tweak it at each new version so the issues with the early versions have been eliminated. Some people won't like that approach and will prefer a "whole food" thing instead, which is just fine.

This is an excellent summary. It's not about a "fad" or being "organic" or something like it.

Nutrition is a very complicated subject and while science has shone a lot of light on the subject we still don't know a lot. So sticking to the "tried and true", that is, what people have actually been eating is safer.

This is a valid point to an extent, but we don't know that people do fine on a particular subset of traditionally healthy ingredients. We may discover that Soylent lacks some subtle nutrient, but we could discover the same thing with MealSquares.

But we don't really know how far along the scale between dead and in maximum possible health traditionally healthy food gets us. Short of some genuine scientific results, I see no reason to suspect that Soylent is less healthy than traditionally healthy food. It could just as easily be more healthy.

2000 calories of it is 130% of your daily saturated fat...and 126% of total fat.

Eh. Soylent you could get away with eating it all day [theoretically]. MealSquares you need to supplement with other foods due to the fact content or you'll end up screwing your health with that much saturated fat.

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCenter...

Additionally:

> The American Heart Association recommends aiming for a dietary pattern that achieves 5% to 6% of calories from saturated fat. That means, for example, if you need about 2,000 calories a day, no more than 120 of them should come from saturated fats. That’s about 13 grams of saturated fats a day.

Its 6g per square, so you really shouldn't eat more than 2 and get the rest from other sources. At which point, its a minority of the calories you consume.

To me the problem is the sugar content. It's easily double, even for a large man, and almost triple for a small woman.

I'm currently experimenting with making a DIY soylent and I've noticed that if you're trying to get all the carbs from whole-grain, real sources you end up getting a lot of fiber (~50g/day even when doing a relatively low amount of carbs like 35% of your daily calories). A lot of people report feeling bloated and painful from too much fiber. It also adds up in price. So, they supplement with fast-burning carbs like maltodextrin and sugars (soylent is trying out the slower burning sugar isomaltulose).

I'm a little skeptical that something that gets broken down into half fructose and half sucrose exactly like table sugar and HFC is harmless if it just gets digested slowly, that'd be like saying drinking soda is totally healthy as long as you sip on it slowly all day instead of getting too much at once.

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/03March/Pages/Saturated-fats-and...

Which suggests as the guideline and inclues a 20g limit (which the squares are still over):

http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/goodfood/pages/fat.aspx

> Cutting down on saturated fats is only one aspect of reducing your risk of heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases. Other risk factors include eating too much salt and sugar, being overweight, smoking and a lack of physical activity.

Yes, there is disagreement but no I'm not going to take "disagreement" as "HEY LETS GO OVER THE DAILY LIMIT!!!"

Yes, but it exceeds the total daily allowance for the NHS, the US equivalent, etc.

There is literally no one that says "Everyone should eat 30g of saturated fat a day"

I wouldn't trust the USDA to tell me what to eat as far as I can throw them and all of their agriculture lobbyists. RDA's are a joke.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/12/18/inuit_life_exp...

Okay. Enjoy.

Fats: Those worried about saturated fat content should be assured that our saturated fat (and cholesterol) content derives from healthy sources, not industrially produced fats. Milk, eggs, cocoa butter, and sunflower seeds; these are nutrient-dense and healthy sources of energy. All our sources of fat have shown numerous benefits in long term studies. Lacto-ovo vegetarians have significantly extended life spans compared to people eating normal diets, vegans, and even regular vegetarians. Dark chocolate lowers blood pressure as well as being an antioxidant and nutrient source. Sunflower seeds are a rich source of vitamin E and demonstrate anti-inflammatory properties. Most of our polyunsaturated fat derives from raw sunflower seeds. Given the very high vitamin E content of sunflower seeds, we are confident that our polyunsaturated fat is stable, not oxidized. We will be sourcing our sunflower seeds from the high oleic acid varieties to reduce polyunsaturated fat content further.

Also xylitol, lactase, potassium citrate, rice bran, and vegetable glycerin are not really 'whole foods' by most definitions.