Red-teaming PowerSmoothie.org by Holden Karnofsky
[This is a belated submission for the EA Red-teaming contest]
Having recently discovered PowerSmoothie.org, a website founded by our very own Holden Karnofsky, I felt compelled to share some concerns with the EA community about the nutritional framework and ethical implications of this project.
While the site presents itself as an evidence-based approach to nutrition, several troubling issues emerge upon closer inspection. PowerSmoothie.org applies naive utilitarian analysis to nutrition in a way that undermines EA values and the system change we need in the food system.
Is Holden a lizard in a human suit?
First, some of the writing is so strange that I suspect Holden might be a lizard masquerading as a human. For example, take this statement:
Was anyone really considering putting bread in the blender? Most humans intuitively understand that bread doesn’t belong in a blender without requiring an explicit cost-benefit analysis of bread-blending utility.
This incident, alongside suggestions to add mystifying ingredients like spirulina (pond algae with a distinctly aquarium-like flavour profile), reveals a concerning disconnect between nutrition theory and actual human eating patterns.
Nutritional disinformation
Perhaps most immediately jarring is the recommendation to add olive oil to smoothies—a culinary choice that defies both conventional wisdom and basic palatability. The site casually suggests pouring a salad dressing into a liquid fruit salad, creating what can only be described as an oil slick atop your breakfast. The fact that this recommendation comes from the same analytical mind behind GiveWell’s rigorous charity evaluations is, frankly, disconcerting.
Next, he dismisses bananas as having “too many carbs”. This ridiculous statement isn’t even worthy of genuine critique.
Promoting eating insects….didn’t turn out so good
Jokes aside, Holden’s recommendation to promote eating cricket powder has not survived the test of time (ironic because this is the same guy who wrote about future-proof ethics). Overall, I estimate that Holden is likely accountable for over 100 million cricket deaths (90% CI: 0-1e20).
(In Holden’s spirit of conducting minimal-trust investigations, if someone wants to recreate my working out, you can see it here:
35g of cricket is roughly equivalent to 112 crickets per power smoothie.
Given PowerSmoothie’s huge website footprint and Holden forcing this upon all GiveWell employees, I estimate he counterfactually led to an additional 1,000,000 cricket-based power smoothies over 10 years
This is equivalent to 112 million crickets killed, equivalent to killing 1.46 million humans, as I’m pretty sure you can just directly convert Rethink Priorities’ welfare range numbers between species.
Additionally, I think this will increase the likelihood of anti-speciesist value lock-in for AIs, leading to a 0.0001% higher chance of dystopia.)
Epistemic Rigour
Finally, people actually took donation advice from a guy who said “Just Google it?” We’ve come a long way as a movement it seems.
Conclusion
As we continue developing frameworks for effective living, we should question whether PowerSmoothie.org truly represents the kind of evidence-based approach our community claims to value.
I welcome thoughtful discussion on whether this project aligns with EA principles, particularly regarding animal welfare, scientific rigour, and whether anyone has actually consumed a smoothie containing both olive oil and cricket powder without immediate regret.
I’ve tried putting olive oil in smoothie-adjacent concoctions (calling the things I’ve made “smoothies” would be an insult to smoothies) and it always makes me nauseous.
One time, due to poor planning, the only thing I had available to eat all day was an olive-oil-based smoothie-adjacent beverage, and I still couldn’t manage to choke it down.