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Comment by moat | Hacker News Reader

I feel like I'm the only who has ever read the nutrition facts. It's a garbage product full of ingredients I wouldn't aim to put in my body. Love the idea of it all, just not the science behind it.

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Do you have the time to talk about what you found specifically wrong with the ingredients? Outside of the allergy risk of Soy, many of the ingredients aren't uncommon in a variety of dietary supplements and weight gain targeted products. I found soy lecithin is one of the more controversial ingredients over how it's derived, but the process isn't much different from how orange juice is extracted.

You piqued my curiosity. Here are the nutrition facts from their drink product:

    Calories 400
    Total Fat 21g 32%
      Saturated Fat 2g 10%
      Polyunsaturated Fat 2.5g
      Monounsaturated Fat 16g
      Trans Fat 0g
    Cholesterol 0mg 0%
    Sodium 300mg 13%
    Total Carbohydrate 36g 12%
      Total Sugars 9g        
    Protein 20g

The ratios don't seem that bad. The top ingredients are water, soy protein, maltodextrin (a filler/preservative with a high glycemic index), and algal oil.

It depends how you view nutrition. I'm personally a big proponent of eating lots of cholesterol and saturated (read: stable) fats.

One of cholesterol's most important functions is to support learning and memory — the brain is basically made of cholesterol. And statin drugs provably lower cognitive function, for instance.

Anyway, it's a real rabbits hole to go down research wise, but I certainly wouldn't advocate a cholesterol-free diet like soylent.

And saturated fats have been unfairly demonized for years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-...

> One of cholesterol's most important functions is to support learning and memory — the brain is basically made of cholesterol.

I'd be interested in the science on this, particularly how much replenishment cholesterol it needs on a regular basis.

The brain's mostly fat, but that doesn't mean fat people are smarter.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090223221430.h...

"If you deprive cholesterol from the brain, then you directly affect the machinery that triggers the release of neurotransmitters," said Shin. "Neurotransmitters affect the data-processing and memory functions. In other words -- how smart you are and how well you remember things."

More saturated fat, less dementia.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-optimalist/201310/y...

"Two forms of fat that are vitally important for brain health are cholesterol and saturated fat. In the Mayo Clinic study mentioned above, it was found that those individuals consuming the most saturated fat experienced a 36% reduction in risk for developing dementia. And this comes on the heels of data now indicating that saturated fat consumption has absolutely no relevance in the area of cardiovascular risk as recently described by Dr. Glen Lawrence in the journal, Advances in Nutrition."

This study seems to imply that large amounts of dietary cholesterol may not be needed for brain function though...

http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/1880610

Which ingredients do you have a specific problem with?

Out of curiosity, what did you see that disturbed you?

Can you elaborate a bit? What exactly is garbage about the ingredients?

I'm wondering the same. The only thing that jumps out to me is 9g of sugar but even that is not bad. 20g of protein in a 400 calorie meal is pretty good.

Yeah I'm hoping the parent responds, I don't consider myself an expert on nutrition so I'm curious if theres something we're not seeing! I tried Soylent for a bit and had mixed results, but that was I think mostly due to misjudging how many calories I actually needed.

First off ingredients on labels are listed in order of most prevalent to least. So what stands out specifically is the unhealthy oils. Sunflower and canola. I'm mobile or I would paste links, but read up on them. Horrible omega ratios, and sketchy by-products are usually found in them (hopefully Soylent at least has quality versions of this).

Also maltodextrin is always one of the main ingredients. Super high gi, and no nutritional value.

The maltodextrin is needed to bind the oil into a powder.

It's only needed if you want to drink soylent.

Why do you say maltodextrin has no nutritional value? From a metabolic recovery / glycogen replenishment perspective it's the most efficient thing you can ingest. Pure maltodextrin (aka "carbs in a can") mixed w/ sugarfree beverage powder is the go-to during/post-workout drink for elite athletes across many sports.

Judging by the mono-unsaturated fat content that sunflower oil is a high oleic variety. It avoids the excessive omega-6 problem of regular sunflower oil.

Soy has proven to be not as healthy as people believe. Maltodextrin is just sugar.

Do you have any references for what you're saying in your first sentence?

Yes, eat real food. It's hard to believe there's no much interest in another industrial product.

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