Don’t get me wrong. I love Huel. Been using it now once or twice a day for 6 months and I still like the taste, and I love the convenience and lack of cooking and washing up :).
But my stomach can’t take it. The ungodly flatulence last night was too much for even me just on my own to bare, and it’s really uncomfortable, and I think my body is just screaming to me that it can’t take this much anymore.
I think I could maybe drop down to once a day and it would be ok. But does anyone know of any alternatives that would provide me with the same convenience but not quite so much discomfort? Maybe something home made?
Or would there ever be a version made that was kinder on the stomach perhaps? Without so much fibre or pea protein?
On that aspect I haven’t tried enough of the alternative soylents to give a definitive answer. I think the gas is a pretty widespread issue across the board.
If you don’t get an answer here, maybe look to /r/soylent on reddit, they should have a broader group of people.
Personally, though I recognize and relate to the issue, it eventually stabilized. I’m at four-five bottles a day. On the side I tend to go for one solid meal, yoghurts and berries among other things.
For DIY soylents, there are hundreds of homemade recipes here https://diy.soylent.com/ . Most of them seem to have a very high iron content, one solution offered was to give blood on a regular basis!
Thanks for your question. Yes, right now we only offer Vanilla flavoured Pulve. We would rather launch a different flavour in stead of an unflavoured version. Not everybody can stomach unflavoured food.
With regard to your emulsifier question: yes we do ad Xanthan gum to make the blend a bit thicker. Of course the amount of water that you ad all boils down to your personal preference.
Coconut, just for me try going 100% Huel for a week. I had exactly the problem you’re having, so I went Unflavoured with nothing added 100% and after three days it had settled down, now I can mix and match OK. I just think your gut can’t get itself settled.
Thanks for the replies all. Yeah I do order the gluten free version. I know people say that my gut needs to “settle” or get used to it, but honestly that feels quite unscientific to me. And like Julian said, after 6 months this really should have happened by now. So I have to assume there’s something in it that I just can’t digest properly for whatever reason.
For DIY soylents, there are hundreds of homemade recipes here https://diy.soylent.com/2 . Most of them seem to have a very high iron content, one solution offered was to give blood on a regular basis!
This is a fantastic link thanks. I’m a bit weary of experimenting with my body like this, but I may try putting something together that’s basically just very plain with a bit of multivitamin. And then try and make up everything else I need in other meals. And just start from a very simple base, then maybe add gradually to it and monitor how my gut deals with it. Damn IBS!
I feel your pain with regard to IBS, thankfully i’m miles better on huel than other foods (other than trying to live off corn flakes and peanuts, not quite a balanced diet)
have you done any exclusion testing on xylitol?
luckily i seem to be able to handle xylitol with comparatively minor symptoms, but it is a known IBS aggravator
Just so you know, the amount of xylitol is minute. Like, 0.1% total weight. It is so small that legally we actually don’t have to put it on the ingredients, we do though. I highly doubt xylitol would be the perpetrator.
I’d definitely agree with this. From my experience Huel has some, erm, drawbacks. But they are very short term and I think that ultimately Julian makes by far the best 'lent in terms of formulation and ingredients (for my use anyway).
It’s fairly high in fibre though, with you mentioning IBS I wonder if fibre is a trigger for you perhaps and that a 'lent that’s lower in fibre will work out better for you?
I’ve recently made a new website that let’s people search and compare different 'lents, give it a look, might help you on your future food journey
So Huel isn’t a ‘lent’ as it has no soy or lentils, but is often referred to as one. Is ‘lent’ just used loosely as a term for powdered convenience foods ?
Pretty much. “lent” comes more from Soylent being the ‘original’ powdered food product - with the other powdered foods being variants of their recipe (and many born from the soylent DIY forum).
It’s only really Huel and Ambronite (I think) that have taken the high road in terms of ingredients.
