Save money, and keep customers happy, don’t add them. They are not completely necessary and those who want them can add them to their diet themselves.
Yes, I rather thought you might have.
Look guys, you can’t blame a manufacturer if you don’t read the info in emails they send you. With the best will in the world it’s really your own fault if you’re not paying attention to what you’re buying.
Thanks for the answers, and I do appreciate this isn’t exactly something you can address overnight. If you could get the salt equivalent down to about 5g (or below) a day that would be great for me - as I mentioned, because of a preexisting health problem -, but again I appreciate you’ve got to do what’s going to satisfy the most customers. The way I see it I’ve got enough v1.2 in the cupboard to be able to mix it with v2 and keep my salt intake at something appropriate for a couple of months, and I’ll see what’s happening then.
OK, great then. As far as I’m concerned you can lock this thread now
I can take your word for it that there’s no conspiracy, but I’m still waiting for an explanation as to why you thought it was appropriate to increase the salt level to unsafe amounts. The reasoning behind fluoride is understandable, even if it’s weak and misguided. But there is no excuse for the salt fiasco, and no excuse for the poor communication when pressed about these issues…
One of Huel’s competitors - Nutberg - have a novel solution to an analogous problem:
Why not just add a bunch of Salt sachets to every order? Heck you could do it with Sugar too. It’d be cheap and users could opt-out of receiving them if desired anyway.
Edit: You should also add a small tube of toothpaste. For those desperate to consume Fluoride.
Haha, I thought of the same thing the other day. Throw in one little sachet of salt per huel bag, with a note that says “if you eat 100% Huel, throw one sachet into the bag”. Solved.
As someone who is Sodium deficient and has to remember to add salt to my food to avoid the mental degradation and depression it causes I’m glad Huel has the RDA of salt. Sick of people with half baked ideas claiming it’s best to have little to no salt in their diet; we need it for healthy neuron function.
True, although the 6g salt RDA is generally an upper limit recommendation than a target from what I understand. I can’t say I’m convinced that the current level in huel is going to cause any particular health problems for standard people long term, but I’m no dietician. Dimly remembered biology classes give me vague memories of nerve axons using sodium, potassium and some kind of inorganic cation, but that’s about it
For what its worth I started the thread for a genuine health reason rather than any half-baked idea in that me and a lot of my mum’s side really do need to eat a low sodium diet because of high blood pressure. Huel has been great in that I’ve kept my salt down for a few months now with out the incredible tedium of pulling out a magnifying glass to pour over food labels every time I buy anything. Also I get to stuff my face with pizza & Chinese Takeaway every so often without feeling guilty and have the occasional coffee too
I’m honestly not here to rant or make demands - if they decide to leave the formula’s salt as is then I’ll look somewhere else.
Although I’d be equally happy if the unsweetened & unflavoured version also became unsalted, while the main variety continued as is. I usually add something to my huel for flavour anyway.
I’ve not seen anyone claim we don’t need salt. The issue is too much has been added which goes over the RDA - and too much salt is strongly associated with hypertension/heart disease.
I plan on using 100% huel for a long time; I’d be stupid if subsequently consistently consuming more than the advised dosage of salt didn’t concern me.
No, 6g is not an upper limit, it is the recommended intake. Consistently consuming well under 6g a day can lead to issues as I stated. True no one claimed no salt on here, but I see/hear a lot of that along with people talking about cutting down when they are consuming under 6g already, and my point is that folks on here are advocating that and the arguments often get banded around together.
Ok, so 6.4g is 0.4g over the RDA as stated, but that is a small amount over and our bodies should be easily capable (barring organ damage) to filter that out in the same way popping vitamin pills causes our bodies to remove excessive amounts of vitamins out (take vitamin B and urinate with a blacklight to see what I mean!)
If you say so, although the World Health Organisation disagrees with you about the 6g thing.
(From it’s June 2016 fact sheet here - http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs393/en/)
As does the NHS and if I’m being honest I don’t remember any practicing health professional I’ve talked to over the last decade or so disagreeing. Still, whatever works best for you
Incorrect.
6g is the maximum, not the RDA. Not that an RDA is optimum anyway, thats just the amount needed to keep you alive ha!
I for one, really like the increased salt intake in v2. I already noticed that my cravings for salty foods and snacks have decreased. The salt intake in v1.2 was too low for me, but I understand that if you have a medical condition that requires you to lower your salt intake, that v2 might no longer be the perfect fit for you I’m sorry to hear that.
Its worth repeating that the amount of salt in Huel is not a problem only for people with certain health condition. 6.4g of salt today is well above the maximum safe consumption levels recommended by nearly every public health organisation.
Was this not already answered here:
I mean, its an answer but it fails completely to address the issues people are having. I’m just going to repeat things that have already been said above, but whatever.
First, the EU Reference Intake value for salt intake is 6g/day. Huel 2.0 supplies 6.4g/day, which is 107% of the RI as is indicated on the Nutrition Information label Huel provides. So, the amount of salt in Huel is already above the RI.
Second, it is very widely accepted that the EU RI for salt is too high. Widely accepted in that nearly every major public health body in the world suggests to reduce daily salt intake to less than 5g per day based on the recommendations of the World Health organisation. If we look at the WHO page that @matneee linked http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs393/en/ we see the following points (I’m copying them directly because I doubt people are reading the links):
- “High sodium consumption (>2 grams/day, equivalent to 5 g salt/day) and insufficient potassium intake (less than 3.5 grams/day) contribute to high blood pressure and increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.”
- “Salt intake of less than 5 grams per day for adults helps to reduce blood pressure and risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and coronary heart attack. The principal benefit of lowering salt intake is a corresponding reduction in high blood pressure.”
- “Reducing salt intake has been identified as one of the most cost-effective measures countries can take to improve population health outcomes. Key salt reduction measures will generate an extra year of healthy life for a cost that falls below the average annual income or gross domestic product per person.”
- “An estimated 2.5 million deaths could be prevented each year if global salt consumption were reduced to the recommended level.”
In response to the WHO recommendations for salt intake the EU started a “Salt Reduction Framework” on 8 June 2010. You can read some of the documents produced by this campaign here http://ec.europa.eu/health/nutrition_physical_activity/high_level_group/nutrition_salt_en.htm.
Other pubic health organisations also recommend levels much lower than 6g/day for health reasons. For example:
- Health Canada has an adequate daily intake at 3.75g and a maximum upper limit at 5.75g http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/nutrition/sodium/index-eng.php
- The USDA in their 2015-2020 dietary guidlines also recommends that people consume less than 5.75g https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf, page 34. As indicated, that number is set as the upper tolerable limit, meaning the highest value before they expect consumption to have negative health consequences. The CDC even has a special page dedicated to information to help reduce salt intake https://www.cdc.gov/salt/
Altogether, we see that the amount of salt in Huel is not only well above what is necessary but is well above what most public health organisations think is harmful for one’s health.
I very much hope that Huel decide to reduce the salt content in an upcoming version, and do so shortly. As it stands I will not be ordering any v2.0.
I am pre-hypertensive so I don’t want any extra sea salt added. Is it possible to get it without added salt? If I realy need salt I can add it myself. (Like I add a teaspoon of olive oil, etc) thanks
I’m going to go on a leap here and say 6.4g is probably fine and the recommendations are usually just trying to keep people in line for a huge range of different people. Especially if you take 2000kcal of Huel, the amount of salt your body needs should hugely vary upon your weight, your activity, the amount of liquid you consume and all sorts of factors I’m not aware and I’d expect most health organisations are just recommending a low value to be on the safe side.
Imagine if you are 50 kg and you consume 1500 kcal a day, your daily salt GDA is somewhat still the same but you get less from Huel in that case, you get 4.8g
Having said that I don’t see why Huel wouldn’t do the same, from having none it could have gone to having 4-5 or something safely below the higher limits, I really don’t see where they were going with this. It’s also quite easy to add a pinch of salt at home to your shake if that’s what you want to achieve and you avoid this whole issue.
It’s not an issue for me, but it just seems like bad vibes for no reason.
Still no hint of an explanation from Huel.
Hi guys - sorry that some of you feel this is a step in the wrong direction for Huel. Rest assured, we are taking the comments on board, and will be addressing the issue asap.
You’re not addressing the comments. Why did you think it was such a neato idea to raise the salt content beyond recommended safe limits?