Xyilitol suggestion

Hey, i think xylitol would be a great replacement as a sweetner for Huel. It’s proven to be good for your teeth and gums. It also have no calories and is as sweet aa the current sweetner.

Hi there thanks for the message! It’s actually something we have considered in the past but was rejected for the following reasons:

  • Xylitol isn’t nearly as sweet as sucralose, so we would have to use lots more in Huel which would prove costly
  • Xylitol in excessive amounts can produce a laxitive effect, which because we would have to use lots would be evident

Does that make sense? Hope it helps!

[EDIT] @Hunzas muggin’ me off on my typo.

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No it doesn’t make sense…I think you meant to say: “It’s actually something we have considered in the past…”

Sucralose like most artificial sweeteners has issues for some people. Stevia seems to be the best of all of them, but the aftertaste can be off-putting (it is to me, although some products are better than others).

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You really are the forum Troll aren’t you? :joy:

Just to add, I actually like Sucralose, I think out of the many sweeteners it’s one of the safest out there, plus the taste is decent enough compared to others.

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I prefer Sucralose too, although the gut microbiota disruption is something that does concern me mildly…but some research says the same can be true of Stevia.

I don’t consider I troll the forum too much…at least not compared to everywhere else I go on the inter web.

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There is a variety of artificial sweeteners: aspartame and sucralose are the most used, but there is also Acesulfame K, which gets very little mention. Then there are two “organic” ones – “organic” in the sense that they are directly derived from plant sources – Stevia, and luo han guo or monk fruit whose pulp, after a very involved extraction process (see link) yields a powder that is about 300 times sweeter than sugar by weight. I learned about luo han guo because that is what SuperBodyFuel uses as a sweetener for their meal replacements.

Luo han guo seems not to have the bitter after-taste that Stevia does for some palates. That said, there is probably no food product other than water, that does not cause a bad reaction in some minority of users. But if Huel were looking to try a different sweetener at all, my advice would be to test out monk fruit.

Is monkfruit allowed to be included in food in the UK?

Ah. Good point. No, per the EC Novel Food search box searching on Siraitia grosvenorii [*] the result is,

Lo Han fruits are used both inside and outside the People´s Republic of China, but not as food in the EU.

Which is interesting as heck, because a quick search of amazon.co.uk produces a variety of hits. Are all those products being traded illegally?

Anyway, if you want to experiment with it, you can easily get some. It’s very strong (350xsugar) so for easier experimentation I recommend dissolving the powder in 9 parts warm water. The resulting liquor is still a powerful sweetener but easy to dispense. I find 1.2g of the powder (as 12cc of the liquor) nicely sweetens 2L of unflavored Super Fuel.

[*] But, Brexit?

Stevis has only within past 5 years or so been allowed in uk.