Not Tao:
This thread is full of silly stuff.
If you wish to make counter claims, at least include some research, science or something.
- The only soy product in Soylent is soy lecithin, and it's at the end of the list so there's likely very little in there. The protean source seems to be rice protean. (Note that there also aren't any lentils to be found, despite the name.)
I noticed later that they have different formulations, one for dry powder and one for the liquid. Soy is very high in ingredient listing for one of them, I think it was the liquid, which probably explains why the website brags about soy so much. Yeah I too was wondering where all the soy was at on that listing! They do not give sources for some of the stuff though, modified starch and whatnot can come from a variety of sources.
- Whoever said Canola oil is bad for you is crazy, it's one of the healthiest cooking oils you can use.
What is yoru source for this info? Are you assumign because it is unsaturated? Actually canola has come under increasing fire for its unhealthfulness, most of it is GMO, bred from poisonous rapeseeds and still contains some of the toxins, high heat in processing destabilizes unsaturated fates like rape seed and produces high amounts of transfat, typical article explaining it here: http://authoritynutrition.com/canola-oil-good-or-bad/ . The one thing that can be said about canola/rape seed oil though is that it is very very cheap to produce and has neutral taste, probably because it has to be deodorized to remove its natural stink which supposedly is quite nasty.
- In spite of the long looking list of ingredients, Soylent is essentially the same as eating sweetened buttery oatmeal with a multivitamin.
Ironically, with the exception of the algal oil, soylent has a very similar ingredient listing to lifestock feed. http://fixyourgut.com/soylent-2-0-review/ This article also explains further issues with its vitamin and mineral content.
- The algea oil is meant to be a vegan-friendly source of omega-3's. They were using fish oil before, so the website makes a big deal out of the algea oil since it's new.
Algal oil is probably the one thing no one is complaining about. The main problem is most of the rest of it.
- Eva needs to be less dramatic about vitamin absorption rates, haha.
Have you done any research on synthetic vitamin absorption rates yourself? I suggest you do so before you challenge my numbers. Many synthetics have very very low absorption. It's people who just blindly trust in the manufacturers and do not research or check that why they can get away with such bs in our food sources.
EDIT: One more thing - wheat is not bad, you all just believe in voodoo.
I stopped eating wheat and got rid of 40 plus years of rather bad asthma. For the first time in my life EVER, I could run and do sports and just lay down with completely free and normal lung function. Constant suffication does teach pain tolerance but it's one lesson I am happy to leave behind. And no more meds, I don't even carry them in my purse any more. Improvement kicked in within 24 hours of giving up wheat, in 2 days, I could ditch the meds, and in about 3 months, all traces of congestion were gone. Although my digestion has always been great and I am clearly not celiac, wheat is clearly very very bad for me.
There is some good research behind it too. DPP4 enzyme is responsible for inactivating circulating wheat and diary peptides. Such peptides are scientifically proven to be bioactive, there is not debate on that one, the only debate is if the effect is powerful or not. These peptides like to bind to morphine receptors which are all over the body including in the gut. Binding at the morphine receptor changes functioning of the cell (just as binding with more powerful regular morphine does, but just a weaker version) DPP4 enzyme is variable depending on genetics of the person, but heavy metals like mercury are shown to strongly inactivate them as well. Chemical contamination is much higher in many populations in the industrial age. Plus wheat and diary consumption is much higher, its in almost everything now. PLus the type of cows we use in recent times have different peptides and potential more difficult to digest than the more hardy versions we once used. (see A1 vs A2 cows) End result is that DPP4 enzymes can be overwelmed in many people resulting and high levels of circulating exogenous bioactive peptides. It's not voodoo, it's science.
Can't stand the idea of giving up wheat and diary? Hate the idea and react viscerally to it? Remember that the bioactive peptides bind with MORPHINE receptors, ie they are addictive. Many people have found out by giving up wheat and dairy for a few weeks just to see what would happen. If nothing, one can always go back to eating it. But most won't even consider living without them for even one day, that's now addictive they are.
Psi, by your logic eating almonds is eating trees, and eating lettuce is eating weeds. If it tastes good, that's natures way of telling you to eat more of it, so anything that tastes good in it's natural form (like whole wheat) is good for you. I'm off to eat a box of wheat thins and enjoy my healthy joints.

That logic would hold true in most cases for any NATURAL foods. But humans are not able to digest grains of wheat in their natural state, it just passes through intact and the plant likes that way because we would poop them out and then they would grow. Natural wheat is not something anyone eats. Current wheat was created in the 60s. Ever notice how the 'amber waves of grain' in the song are no longer present? Current wheat is dwarf wheat with doubled chromosmes and novel types of proteins the body is not adapted for. It's lower in minerals than the old Einkorn wheat. It's also processed differently and celiacs have been shown to react much more strongly to the new wheat. Even bread used to be slowly fermented with the old school yeasts. Yeast partially digests the proteins in the wheat, making them more nutritious for us. Current fast rise yeast does a much inferior job of it. Also, we once soaked all grains to remove the phytic which is an antinutrient, but no one does that any more. In short, whole wheat is not at all a natural food source for humans, it's impossible to digest in natural form, but the current versions all the more so. It is hypothesized that humans had to resort to grain sources more and more though when populations exceeded what the natural environment was able to support. Hence we had to start farming to survive and we had to learn to make things that were once inedible into something we could survive on. Humans have made some genetic adaptations to such new sources but industrialization and very rapid changes in food sources since the 60s have far outstripped that adaptation. Nuts and lettuce are mostly natural (if you don't count the breeding programs) but wheat consumption sure the heck is not.
-Eva