How would the formulation of Huel differ if it was designed to be optimal without being a vegan suitable product?
Despite the product no doubt being an excellent source of ‘complete’ nutrition, presumably certain compromises have been taken as a result of aiming for inculsivity.
I was wondering how different the product would be ingredients wise, and potentially the extent in which it may be closer to optimal if for example it was unsuitable for vegans/vegetarians. No doubt cost effectiveness would enter into the equation to a large extent, but ignoring that and focussing purely on the component formula.
Not looking to start a row with anyone who chooses to live a vegan lifestyle, just curious in terms of how the product would have looked otherwise.
I don’t know the answer to the question, but Huel as it is is fine for vegans, vegetarians, omnivores, but not carnivores (who choose to eat 100% animal product…which is no-one), it seems a good route to go down. There are other non-vegan alternatives out there, and each of them are different in their formulas…e.g. solent, joylent…guess it may be a tricky one to get a conclusive answer about…
There are a couple of dietary components that are more challenging for Vegans to come by. For example, Vitamin B12, Vitamin D3 and Creatine. We used to get B12 historically from bacteria and insects on our food (now we freak out if there is a caterpillar in our lettuce so everything is too clean). We can synthesise D3 ourselves (more difficult the farther you live from the equator and the less time you spend outdoors and the darker your skin). The commercialy processes for producing synthetic D3 are new and not widely used/available yet. Most omnivores acquire some additional Creatine from meat in their diets. There are synthetic (and consequently vegan) creatine supplements - I’m merely pointing out that they are not included in Huel.
I will stress a related point though - you probably don’t (deliberately) incorporate insects into your diet. Lots of people do - it’s called entomophagy - and even more did historically. They can be very nutritious. You should try some cricket powder - http://www.cricketflours.com/. In some ways - the further down the food chain the more nutritious (per kg) the food gets. Plants are always at the bottom.
Anyway, to give you a simple answer - whey protein. That would probably be included for the nutritional bang for it’s buck. Check these recipes to see the high prevelance of whey and other potentially non-vegan ingredients - https://diy.soylent.com/recipes.
A blood test earlier this year showed I was deficient in vitamin D so I take a vitamin D3 supplement daily along with vitamin k2 to help its absorption. Its not hard to take them.
As nutritionally complete that Huel is I wouldn’t expect it to cover a deficiency that was already there and, I believe that, we all have slightly different nutritional needs so a little supplement here and there doesn’t do any harm.
FWIW I’m not 100% huel and would take those supplements if I wasn’t hueling at all (I’d probably take more of them!)