Comment by canjobear | Hacker News Reader

Comment by canjobear | Hacker News Reader

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It is true that medical meal replacement things do exist, as well as mass market shakes like Ensure. If the people behind those products go ahead and use their nutritional expertise to make something that is more Soylent-like, I would welcome it and gladly prefer that to what these Soylent guys make. However, here are a few ways in which the current products are not Soylent-like:

* The medical things like Jevity are developed for people who are very sick, rather than people with normal health.

* The medical things are sold to hospitals; it is not easy to find them or buy them as an individual. (I know it is possible though.)

* It is not clear that the medical stuff is cheaper than solid food. Part of the idea of Soylent is that it is cheaper than food. I'm not sure if this has actually come to pass, though.

* The nutrition drinks on the market, such as Ensure, taste disgusting and are full of sugar. (I once had to drink several cans of the stuff every day for a year.) Soylent is designed to have minimal taste: the idea is that you can add your own flavoring. To me, this is a huge deal, and it also seems to indicate a difference in underlying philosophy.

> Part of the idea of Soylent is that it is cheaper than food. I'm not sure if this has actually come to pass, though.

$3.04 per meal is not cheaper than food (though its cheaper than most prepackaged, ready-to-eat food.) Since Soylent is food -- and highly processed food, with processing having a cost -- it hard to see why it would ever be expected to be a particularly inexpensive alternative. Sure, I know that's part of the vision that Soylent marketed, but its not particularly realistic. (It might be cheaper to ship, and therefore able to be cheaper all-in than other food alternatives if you are getting it someplace that is very remote from food production, but the nature of human society is that isn't where most people are.)

> It is true that medical meal replacement things do exist, as well as mass market shakes like Ensure.

It is also true that there are meal replacement shakes designed for active, health-conscious adults, and with a wide range of specific focuses, that are neither "medical things" designed for sick people or things that are full of sugar, including ones that are intended for people to add flavorings.

Soylent's may have a well-developed hype machine, but it doesn't really seem to offer anything substantive that doesn't already exist on the market.

  Since Soylent is food -- and highly processed food, with 
  processing having a cost -- it hard to see why it would 
  ever be expected to be a particularly inexpensive 
  alternative.

Some processing reduces the end cost. When you process tomatoes into cans, you don't have to throw away as much stuff that goes off, you don't have to anticipate customer demand so precisely, and you can make weekly, large, slow shipments instead of needing daily, small, express shipments.

I don't know if soylent will ever be cheaper than canned tomatoes on dried pasta, though!

The ones intended for people who cannot eat properly due to ill health are trialled on healthy subjects as well.

There are also more specialist products to suit certain medical conditions e.g. organ failure, but that's not relevant to Soylent-type feeds.

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