Autism and 'restricted diet' - Huel to the rescue!

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New member here - thought that I would share the following with you.

I am 63 and Autistic. I have had issues with eating and diet all of my life due to distinct sensory preferences and differences related to my interception. In short, there are many things that I will not eat and I often do not feel hungry.

As a child my family were very worried about me and trips to the GP were a frequent occurrence - in those days referrals to specialists were a rare thing so they were simply given the advice to ‘try and encourage him to eat’.

Meals and deciding what to eat have always been a very difficult thing for me and the things that I actually like eating are not the best things for ensuring appropriate nutritional intake. I prefer dry food items such as crackers (Jacobs are the best thing in the world!) and things like Ryvita. I hate fruit and vegetables and I never eat meat of any kind.

Over the years I have eaten fruit and veg and other things but not because I liked them but to try and ensure an adequate diet. I kind of treated them like horrible medicine that you just endure.

I have often said that if only there was a tablet that you could take once a day so that you didnt have to eat, then that would be perfect!

I have never considered meal replacements, substitutes etc. Many years ago I tried a Slimfast and not only did it taste horrible it actually made me very hungry - something that I dont experience very often and not something that I like at all.

Last month I was talking to someone with Crones disease who said that Huel had been a ‘game changer’ for him as he had found that when he felt poorly moving over to a 100% Heul diet for a week or so really helped him. He recommended I try it.

I was a little frustrated that you cant buy a ‘taster pack’ but decided to order two bags of Huel black. Salted caramel and chocolate.

This had also been a game changer for me.

Although having something ‘wet’ is a challenge, I have been on this for a few weeks now and find it excellent. Its such a relief to know that I am getting enough nutrition so I can eat as many crackers etc as I like and not have to worry. The chocolate flavour isnt great but its tolerable. The salted caramel is excellent and I will definitely be buying more of that.

My health is improving. I also have Ethlers-Danlos syndrome which caused inflammatory flare ups of my joints and is definitely impacted in part by diet. Since moving to 2 to 3 Huel meals daily I have noticed a distinct improvement in this and the usual gastro intestinal problems that the syndrome causes in my case are much reduced.

This stuff if just great!

The only problem I have is with the wet and slippery consistency, which is more tolerable due to the gritty/grainy texture (I wouldnt be able to tolerate it if it were blended and super smooth) - however taking into account the benefits I can live with this.

Happy customer here :smile:

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If you want it drier, you could always try cooking with the powder, there are a lot of recipes on the website. Or just put the powder in a pan, add a bit of water (just enough to make it a bit gooey), and heat it until it goes to a porridge like consistency.

For a super simple recipe (only three ingredients, including huel) the below is how to make pancakes.

Or you can go the other super simple way, and freeze the huel to make it less watery

There are a lot of options here.

There’s the hot and savoury range, as well as bars, which is more like “normal food”, but with better nutrition. So if that works you could try those too.

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As usual for me - I havent quite explained myself properly!

I cannot tolerate most ‘normal’ food unless the consistency is totally dry. Anything like soup or porridge etc makes me feel sick. The consistency feels gloopy. Something like a smoothy is hell. This is why I like crackers, Twiglets and various biscuits.

So blending Huel or making it more like a porridge would make it something that I just couldnt have.

Mixing two scoops in the shaker is still a bit gloopy for me so I have to grit my teeth and treat it a bit like medicine.

Over the past few days I have been experimenting with putting only one scoop in water up to the filler mark in the shaker and drinking two lots to get to 400 cal. This is working a lot better. The Huel seems far more watery and not so gloopy. I guess the added bonus is that its increasing my fluid intake - something that I also struggle with at times as I can often not drink enough due to not feeling thirsty like most other people.

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Also - just thinking about the Huel bars

If I am reading the descriptions right it looks as though they are as nutritionally complete as the powder - is that correct.

If its is then it should be able to use these to replace conventional meals instead of the powder. Does that sound right?

More expensive that way of course - but it would certainly solve the consistency issue!

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No need to apologise for your explanation, it’s difficult to explain taste over an internet forum.

To an extent. Do they have the same complete set of vits and minerals as the powder. But, like “complete protein” they are not made to replace all the food in a day.

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Hey Ian, it’s great to hear that Huel has been so helpful to you!

Mike has answered your questions really well, if you have anymore just let me know.

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