I’m extremely sceptical sucralose is responsible. It’s been subjected to a vast, vast amount of research to assess its safety and nothing to do with depression has come up as a side effect.
Though if I had to speculate, I’d say it’s something related to how your brain reacts to sweetness. How much sugar was in your previous diet? Sugar releases a large amount of endorphins when consumed, and these make you feel good. Going from a high-sugar diet to a low-sugar one (like Huel) would mean a lower rate of endorphins being released, which could manifest as lower mood or depressive symptoms. Additionally, it’s possible your brain associates sweetness with the endorphin release, and therefore downregulates its own production of these endorphins to account for those in your diet - this is actually similar to how heroin addiction works, though obviously a lot milder. As you’re then producing less of your own endorphins due to the taste of sweetness, but not getting having any released from the sucralose the same way sugar does, this could also be furthering your depression. If I’m right on that, it would start to improve after about a week.
All speculation of course, but something to think on.
I’m not going to get too drawn into the “argument” as I have no scientific evidence or information to provide, but what I will say is that depression and other mental health challenges affect everyone differently. Until you have experienced it yourself and learnt how it affects you, you can’t understand it. Even when you have experienced it, that doesn’t mean you understand how it affects someone else.
Maybe the sweetener is to blame, maybe it isn’t, but it’s only natural that people will look for reasons for their feelings spiralling; the total feeling of loss of any kind of control over your thoughts and feelings is terrifying and not knowing why it happens is just as bad. Trying to look for patterns in mood spikes is helpful and if there’s something that triggers it (for a scientific reason or not, maybe it’s purely psychological- for me it could be associated with my perceived “need” to diet) helps you take back just a tiny ounce of control.
I really hope that everyone here can continue to be as supportive of people with every kind of struggle as they have been on other threads. It’s a great forum and everyone should be able to feel like they can share their thoughts. I personally felt an overwhelming flood of relief when the post appeared about depression: it wasn’t just me, I wasn’t crazy, there was someone else out there who was having the same experiences as me, and just knowing that made me feel a hundred times calmer. Please accept everyone’s struggles as individual and not something that should be mocked or ridiculed. By all means provide the counter argument as this too is really helpful. I will finish by saying that I’ve had only unsweetened Huel this week and I haven’t dissolved into a fiery mess. It might all be psychological and nothing to do with a Huel at all but I don’t care. I made a change that helped me, and I can continue to enjoy the other lovely benefits that Huel has brought me so far. Happy Hueling everyone x
I also suffer from depression and anxiety. I have never liked the taste of the Vanilla Huel, I almost think that my body likes to tell me when something doesn’t agree as generally the foods i’ve been tested for being intolerant to i’ve never liked/wanted to eat. Anyway that’s a bit unrelated… but I have only been drinking the unsweetened and unflavoured and i have had no side effects at all. One week or so in of replacing breakfast and lunch and i feel fantastic . Hope you feel better soon!
Hey, I agree with you many of the drinks make you feel depressed, whereas some make us feel energetic and fresh. One of my friend suffered from depression and anxiety for a long time, he tried improving his diet included Huel and took some additional info from the voynace pure psychic reader. The proper diet and exercise can help to improve the mental health and overcome depression and anxiety.
Just wanted to share my experience around using Huel.
I first started off on the vanilla Huel to replace my breakfast. I too started to feel dizziness and light headed after drinking it. It took me a little time to connect the two. It is my own fault I should have read the ingredients better. So I changed to the unflavoured. The dizziness stopped immediately.
I then progressed to having Huel twice a day with a really lovely healthy lunch and healthy snacks through the day. Physically my body started to slim down and become more lean. But mentally I started on a downward spiral. I got so low I had to seek professional help! So I stopped Huel and within 2 days I felt back to my normal self. People would always describe me as a glass half full kind of person. I honestly didn’t recognise myself on Huel.
This is my personal experience with Huel, I know others have very positive journeys.
Sounds like you entered caloric deficit while on Huel without realising, then once returning to your higher calorie “usual” diet things returned to normal mentally.
Extremely common. I feel very down in the dumps if I cut on under 1800 calories.
I feel this, 3 weeks in I’m not feeling well at all!! Extremely dizzy and not sleeping can it be the huel?
It starts after I drink it in the morning then that’s it I’m a zombie all day
Getting more and more dizzy and down about it feeling quite dissociative
I think I had some minor side effects from cutting down on salt and sugar when I first started on Huel. Like withdrawal symptoms. Which in the long run are beneficial for me, and stopped after a month or so. If I do a lot of strenuous exceeding I add in a little more salt if I feel a bit spaced out and that seems to set me right again. Maybe ask your GP for some blood tests to check everything is in balance.
Just my two cents on this, but since I have started huel again everything has been positive, more energy, weight loss, exercising more, playing competitive badminton. I’m not saying it’s the huel that has done that but a mindset change has which includes wanting to ensure my body has the right nutrients. I am fed up eating crap and at least I know my nutrient intake is either correct, well maybe slightly reduced due to some weight loss goals but in comparison to what I was eating I am much healthier. I have some ups and downs, mainly severe tiredness when my calorie intake goes below a certain point along with the extra exercise, but sugar and salt intake is significantly reduced.
I had a few moments of being down due to cutting out both salt and sugar and occasionally get cravings for bad carbs so I do order a dominos or similar and listen to what my body needs.
Also understand the depression and anxiety… Again just my two cents but the headspace app is amazing I’d you’ve never tried mindfulness. They have depression and anxiety meditations and honestly they are great. The guy who does them puts a lot of explanation and understanding into these things. If you can keep an open mind, do the 10 day taster course and then go through a couple of the relevant sessions I’m sure you’ll find them really helpful. I had never done it before, thought it all mumbo jumbo but I wholeheartedly reccomend.
Also did a blood test with thriva and can’t wait to see the results… Would have been great to have had one before I started huel again to compare against but unfortunately wasn’t organised enough.
Maybe huel does have some side effects for people due to sweeteners etc, but also try to work out what your food and drink intake was before you started huel - plot it down with something like my fitness Pal. It is very easy to suffer from withdrawal symptoms from something or other more so than symptoms from new foods.
. Hope you feel better soon!