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Comment by SQL2219 | Hacker News Reader

Don't eat soy.

Apparently Soylent doesn't contain much of either soy or lentils. It's a weird way to name a product. Sort of like making a fruit juice called "BeefPork".

(I know the name is a movie reference. Still doesn't make sense to me.)

> I know the name is a movie reference. Still doesn't make sense to me.

It should, since you recognize the reference, and the name fits perfectly. For me, Soylent Green pretty much the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about this type of product.

Soylent is to soy as javascript is to java.

Why?

There are various reasons, some of which will require time to checkout. One is that soy is a phytoestrogen [1]. So the studies show there could be some issues with men eating soy at high levels. Googling provides a lot of arguments founded in reasoning for and against. Another issue is that soy requires heavy agriculture and processing [2]. This can harm the environment in much the same macro ways as beef production. The chemicals used in processing soy into tofu and other products can be bad. Again, processing arguments go both ways (though soy is poisonous in its raw form [3]).

So right now many, myself included, advocate minimizing soy. You can't get away from it. Thanks to several US administrations soy is huge business. Just watch it. It might be that its good for you. Right now the soy debate is much like the egg debate of the 80s. I leave you with Lewis Black's commentary on food nutrition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXS5GBuk-GQ

1 - http://blog.zocdoc.com/does-soy-feminize-men-fact-vs-myth/ 2 - http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/soy/im... 3 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean#Nutrition

Considering that soy is being fed to cattle, by definition, soy cannot harm the environment in the "same" macro ways as beef production. Beef production is an order of magnitude more, and anyone who substitutes soy for beef is doing a favour to the environment.

I get that you don't like this product, but why do you have to lie? There's no soy in it.

Then why do they say there's soy in it? https://faq.soylent.com/hc/en-us/articles/201274745-Vegan-Or...

I can see that there might be soy from the processing plant, but I can't find that information easily on their site.

Here's the ingredients label: http://files.soylent.com/pdf/soylent-nutrition-facts.pdf

Soy or soybeans are not an ingredient in Soylent. It has the "Contains: Soy" allergen label because it contains a small amount of soy lecithin, which is derived from soybean oil. Soylent contains lots of oils/fats, and you mix it with water to drink it. Oil and water don't normally mix well. Soy lecithin is an emulsifier that lets them mix without clumping.

Thank you. I actually wanted to know.

My wife is into clean eating. So we limit soy as part of this trend. However, I'm really lazy about eating (1 meal a day when left alone). So Soylent looked promising in that regard.

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