Rob Rhinehart is experimenting with an essential, optimized food concoction, but a lot of his readers wanted specifics regarding his Soylent ingredients posted here. I think it is yet laborious to measure out vitamin & mineral powders for every mix, much easier just to use compound supplements and multivitamins.
Choose the right multivitamin base and 90% of the work is done, save for those annoying elements bunking class in almost every multivitamin out there, namely Potassium and Phosphorus. As one commenter aptly put, one's brain will catabolize itself without Choline, another tardy player late to the mix.
I live in South Africa, so I added a local mass builder for the protein & carb requirements. I doubled the dosage to 90g/day protein and 120g/day carbs (mainly maltodextrin). I increased the protein/carb ratio, since I saw a couple of commenters defending ketogenic diets, and I don't want to climb the ceilings from too much energy.
To meet the Potassium RDA is more expensive than meeting the entire Vitamin & Mineral RDA profile, but it's easier than eating 8 bananas a day.
Choline is also noticeably absent from 95% of Multivitamins, but apart from the hassle it is relatively inexpensive to supplement. I added only 1/2 the RDA, since Inositol is also present in the supplement. I couldn't find a full Choline supplement from a supplier that offers international shipping, but it is readily available in the US, e.g. Amazon.
I added a full Probiotic panel with all the exotics, but only at a 1/3 of the recommended dosage. Whilst Probiotics are not entirely essential, I thought it would be a good measure at a reasonable price point.
The Calcium supplement also contains 30% Phosphorus RDA, again for reasons of international availability, but a full Phosphorus supplement may be easily found in the US.
At first I had a separate Vitamin K2 supplement, but since Olive oil contains 10% Vitamin K2 RDA per tablespoon, I thought it to be excessive at 4+ tbsp/day of Olive oil.
An apple a day... I am concerned that not chewing and not using my teeth will be bad in the long run, so I advocate chowing down an apple each day. This will also add some good fibers, missing until now, and give the jugular a good workout.
$90.0/month: Anabolic Mass Builder by Nutritech
$6.60/month: Liquid Multi Gels by NOW Foods
$9.39/month: Potassium Gluconate Powder by NOW Foods
$3.40/month: Calcium by Enzymatic Therapy
$1.96/month: Choline & Inositol - 500 Mg by NOW Foods
$4.97/month: Probiotic Defense by NOW Foods
$30.0/month: Extra virgin Olive oil
$10.0/month: Apples
$156.32/month: Total
The nutritional analysis of the above mix can be seen in the pics below.
Vitamin A, E and the B complex is high above the %DV, but values are below the upper tolerable limits, at least according to a cursory search.
Iron may seem deficient at 9 mg, but apparently that level is good if you are male. Phosphorus is also low at 30%. A commenter mentioned Silicon as something that may be lacking in the long run.
For myself I think it would be good to chow on some greens now and then, just to reconnect mastically with nature. Slow munching on a raw spinach leaf might do the trick, in addition to an apple a day.
Shifting your omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio could improve this recipe (see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12442909). Right now you're at about 12:1 omega-6:omega-3, and around 4:1 looks a lot better for heart health. Maybe buy some bulk fish or flax oil and blend that with the olive oil?
ReplyDeleteOlive oil is the easy way out I suppose, adding 2 tbsp to every 750ml shake, for two shakes, so 4 tbsp can get you the 60g fat, without really sacrificing taste.
DeleteFlax oil is an excellent suggestion, though 2x the cost of Olive oil, and I don't know what it'll do taste-wise.
An Olive&Flax mix is a good compromise.
"Many people have said NOT TO mix your flax with your shakes. The mixing will negate the potential affects of the flax. It has to do with the volatility of the mixing."
Delete-From http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/bodybuilding-supplements/how-drink-flax-seed-oil-550.html
This might also be an issue with Olive oil, so might have to down the oils separately, maybe like this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=30Wr1jtDkWM .
Also, adding probiotics is probably not as important as adding prebiotics (food for your gut bacteria-normally longish oligosaccharides), since you will be starving your existing biota of the non-digested food that they normally survive on.
ReplyDeleteAnd adding bacteria to a nutrient soup will probably make it ferment, decreasing shelf life.
An astute observation, makes a lot of sense. I like the idea of supplementing probiotics, with immunity having its strong-hold in the gut. Will adjust the combo in a follow-up post to include pre+probiotics.
DeleteFortunately this doesn't have to be mixed into anything, being just tablets taken separately.
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ReplyDeleteSo in what amounts/serving are you ingesting your off the shelf mixes, if not the servings sizes listed and with ingredient ratio changes (e.g. protein to carb)?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehowd you get the diet analysis, what app or tool is that?
ReplyDeletenutritiondata.self.com
DeleteHello, I came across Rob's soylent information two months ago and I became very interested in producing my own batch. Your recipe was a great help. May I ask how you produce your own mix? Do you simply make a glass of anabolic mass builder and take the pills seperately or do you put everything in the blender? Thank you very much
ReplyDeleteI drink the pills separately with warm water, to promote the sensing of the lower dan tien. I just use a shaker for the anabolic mass builder and add a couple tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and a teaspoon of potassium gluconate powder.
DeleteNow I only drink one batch a day as a supplement, as I feel more wholesome when eating solid food.