Hi I was thinking about this idea of adding adaptogens inside Huel. This will profoundly include the health benefits of Huel. First adaptogens are
'a natural substance considered to help the body adapt to stress’
Along with this they usually contain many vitamins and minerals.
The best benefit of this may be the starting phase of Huel as many people go through a short phase of getting use to it. However, an adaptogen will help the body adapt to it quicker so users can start implementing it in their diets more regularly.
I would appreciate your guys thoughts on this
Thanks
Just a placebo effect as far as I’m aware? (Take something that’s supposed to de-stress you, believe it’ll work and lo and behold; feel less stressed out).
Starting Huel doesn’t increase stress so I don’t really see the place for them and I can’t seem to find anything that’s peer reviewed on them.
Well, thank you for introducing me to a term I’d not known. The Wikipedia article despite having “issues” is fairly informative. The term
was originally created in 1947 to describe a substance that may increase resistance to stress… Another definition requires that, for an herb to be considered an adaptogen, it must be nontoxic, nonspecific and have a normalizing effect on physiology.
To me, saying such a substance must be “nonspecific” yet “normalizing” just screams “measuring placebo effect”.
That aside, it is hard to see how Huel or any meal replacement could productize this effect. Look at the long list of candidate herbs in the Wikipedia article – with no concensus on how an “adaptogenic” herb does its work, there is no basis for choosing among them. So which of these would you want added to Huel, and in what quantity? And where would the company source them? It would greatly add to the complexity of sourcing the ingredients and mixing them, which means higher cost – without considering the cost of the herb(s).
There is current science: look at this list of search hits on PubMed. Many many articles! But again, each one seems to be testing a different plant or plant species. In a quick skim I didn’t see any titles that look like they are proposing a general mechanism. So again, how would Huel select among the many herbs mentioned in anecdotal and small-scale studies?
Things like these should be sourced separately, not forced upon those who eat Huel.
Also, these can have varying effects between people and different compounds. For anxious people they may relieve it a little, for others they reduce motivation and increase tiredness.
Adaptogens are certainly not just placebo effect, and a lot of people have had extreme success with adaptogens such as Ashwagandha and Rhodiola Rosea for enhancing their energy, or improving sleep or symptoms of anxiety. Some people have reported the opposite effect of what they typically do, and people have also reported that tolerance develops to them too.
Overall a supplement that can be useful, but not for the general everyday population.
