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example.com0 points · 0 comments · 12 years ago · smacktoward
The human body is a complicated thing, but while it's hard to improve, it's very easy to screw up. And screwing up someone's health can have consequences for them that last for years or decades. It can literally ruin their life. If that happens it won't be much comfort for them that their sad story has led you to pivot to a more promising approach.
For all the intellectual firepower of people in the tech community, there is a curious strain of anti-intellectualism that comes forth in projects like this; an eagerness to discount the expertise of people who have studied a subject for their entire lives, just because they weren't CS majors. It's like trying to send a man to the moon without working with any aerospace engineers. I honestly do not understand it.
freyrs3
DanBC
Having said that it's harder to screw up the nutrition if you're eating real food rather than supplements, especially if it's a range of food.
It is a great idea and it's the kind of thing I'd be interested in. They'd have to be idiots if they provided a worse diet than the food I'm getting now.
nazgulnarsil
throwu444
Firstly, nutrition science is not real science - we don't have a full understanding of how our body processes foods, etc to be able to model it properly. So it's not real science.
Secondly, having a balanced nutrition isn't nearly as complicated as you make it out to be. Variety and everything in moderation. Humans would have evolved to be able to live off a variety of different diets and foods. Most of our history involved a food shortage and so a very specific set of nutritional requirements would definitely not have been selected for.
For all the intellectual firepower of people in the tech community, there is a curious strain of anti-intellectualism that comes forth in projects like this
I think a lot of people in technology scene have a strong undercurrent of anti-authoritarianism and distrust of traditional institutions, this coupled with a philosophy that many of shortcomings of the world can be recast as problems of inadequate connectivity or insufficient technology is a big source of the phenomenon you described. At it's best it gives people a different perspective on how to change things for the better in the industry, at it's worst I think it manifests as full on anti-intellectualism.