I’ve been using vanilla Huel for about a month now, occasionally with nothing added, but often either with a handful of blueberries of some of the Huel strawberry flavouring. All of it is blended and kept in a fridge. Anyway, I just ordered another batch and was reading around the Huel website and found this page (about halfway down) that mentions adding cinnamon. The article linked to also provides some interesting reading, but I have no idea how accurate it is. My question is this; does anyone add cinnamon to their Huel, and if so how much so as to get a good but not overpowering taste? Does the amount you use likely give any of the health benefits mentioned in the article linked from the Huel page, or is that something that comes over time with continued consumption?
I put cinnamon in mine, quite a lot of it because I love cinnamon and have desensitised myself to
The strong taste of it.
And I don’t notice any other Heath benefits from it, but I know cinnamon is beneficial for the body to have. How Stuff Works did a really interesting podcast about it.
It goes super wel in the vanill flavour though. I’ve started only adding cinnamon to it and shunned adding coffee flavour.
If you search for “cinnamon daily dose” you’ll find plenty of info; most sites suggest 1–6g per day, which is about ¼–1½ teaspoons I think. There are some indications that larger doses may not be significantly more effective. Most cinnamon is not actually true (“Ceylon”) cinnamon, but cassia cinnamon, which is cheaper and slightly poisonous in large quantities. Consequently I’d be inclined to go with no more than ¼ or ½ a teaspoon a day unless I was sure I had true cinnamon.
Thank you both for the replies. I’l start adding a small amount to vanilla Huel and adjust to taste. I’ll also try to source the Ceylon variety. Thanks again for taking the time to respond.
I’ve been using cinnamon and instant coffee. Of course one of the benefits of using cinnamon is that it is said to reduce blood sugar and there is some evidance to suggest that cassia is better than “true” cinnamon.
I normally dump about 10g in my morning Huel, tastes great but I’ve done this sort of thing so long I’ve also de-sensitised myself to the taste a bit I think
Well, I’m still using the Ceylon variety. I alternate between that and the Huel strawberry flavouring. I haven;t noticed any health benefits with the cinnamon, but a level teaspoon in a Huel mix does tatse nice
I’m guessing cassia, I just buy the cheapest I can get which is from my local wholefood type shop, I’ll ask next time I go in, but yeah cassia is the most common and cheapest so I’m strongly assuming that.
Why would it matter anyway? Is one form harmful in large quantities or something?
Cassia cinnamon contains coumarin, which the EU set a TDI (Tolerable Daily Intake) of 0.1mg per kg of body weight per day. The justification is based on a number of studies that suggest long term consumption over this amount can become toxic to your liver. You can read the full document here: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/scientific_output/files/main_documents/793.pdf
I’ve seen figures suggesting between 1-6g of cassia cinnamon could push you over the TDI for coumarin, however, nothing concrete.
Ceylon cinammon, meanwhile, contains quite a bit less coumarin, so people suggest using this over cassia cinnamon to be safe. I don’t know enough about the science of it to be sure if it’s better, this is just what I’ve read.
I’m actually not kidding haha.