Got an email today, I took long enough to answer it I thought I might as well put my answer in a blog post.
The first question was about whether they need to give up alcohol
Well, there are a lot of reports on /r/keto about being on keto lowering tolerance for alcohol (just search for “keto cheap date” and you’ll see what I mean). “Liquid bread” drinks like beer have WAY too many carbs but distilled spirits don’t – and the aforementioned lower tolerance makes it less expensive too.
The second question was about if I had considered algal oil in powder form – it’s what Rosa Labs uses for Soylent 1.6
Rosa Lab’s motivation is a bit different than mine: they want to use vegan sources for everything. While that’s possible with keto, it runs counter to much of the philosophy. MCT oil and cream are better (tasting) and have definitive advantages for ketosis. Additionally doing powdered oils with keto is difficult to do because most powdered oils use starch (maltodextrin) and you’d end up with several times more carbs that the max amount. The only exception to that is the Quest powdered MCT/Coconut oil but it’s prohibitively expensive. I did some poking around and found that to get powdered coconut oil in palettes it ends up being almost exactly the same price as the end user simply buying it from Quest off Amazon.
The third question was about switching to soy protein
Rosa Labs was using rice protein in their powdered mix but it gives an icky silty gritty mouthfeel. Doing Soy protein is the best option if you don’t want to use whey protein. Again, I’m not interested in vegan (I eat a lot of bacon) – I want the best tasting and highest nutrition that’s economical, with emphasis on taste and texture. To that end I’m using whey protein. Doesn’t have the grit of rice or the (incorrect but whatever) public relations issues that soy has with the phytoestrogen scare.
So the short answer to the 3rd question is simply: Keto Chow already has superior nutrition, flavor and mouthfeel; it’s better than the new stuff Rosa Labs is using.
