I think Huel without fluoride is the way to go; then all the consumers’ teeth will fall out if we don’t use fluoridated toothpaste/water. Luckily we don’t need teeth to consume Huel, and they “could” increase their customer base.
I’m unsure that flouride is a bad thing. The NHS only lists it as a potentialproblem in high doses for children with developing teeth and Huel isn’t listed as for children.
I actively avoid fluoride in toothpaste and bottled water - and do not use tap water. This will stop me using Huel.
Now, the reasons are of course personal to myself, but I don’t believe I need it and the links to ADHD, hypothyroidism, and endocrine dysfunction are why I avoid it.
Hrm, it does state it’s not suitable for children or pregnant women or to consult your doctor before using it. Their individual and ideal nutritional requirement differ from us “norms”
Yes, I realise that adults have different needs but @Julian has stated that he may make a version of Huel suitable for children in future Why huel could be not recommended for children?
and the addition of Fluoride strays from that idea.
Ahh. Can’t wait for gluten & flouride free unflavoured but sweetened Huel and all 20,000 derivatives of every flavoured flavour pouches with or without sucralose!
Even when omitting outliers like pregnant women and children, the range that everyone else (“norms”) covers is enormous. This is why it is such a challenge to keep everyone happy. I think there is a case to be made for a new product release - “Huel Zero” - no added sodium, no added flavouring/sweetener, no gluten, no added fluoride, etc. And maybe it should even aim for complete nutrition in terms of micros and macros (to a certain extent) at a lower total calorie count (e.g. 1800 kcal).
You want some more sodium/electrolytes? - add it yourself accordingly.
You want some more fats? - blend in some nuts/seeds.
You want some more protein? - blend in some hemp protein powder.
You want some more fibre? - add in some ground psyllium husks.
Etc.
Heck Huel Ltd. could even sell additional powders/packs to achieve the consumers personalised nutrition, just like they already do with the flavour packs! Aaaaaand… on top of this they could easily make a simple app to help users portion out the right amount of ingredients (if they weren’t inclined to work it out themselves). You could have an entire product line:
Huel Core
Huel Flavour Packs
Huel Protein Pack (e.g. some blend that is mostly protein to have minimal impact on the other macros & micros)
Huel Fat Pack
Huel Fibre Pack
Huel Simple-Carbs Pack
Huel Complex-Carbs Pack
Huel Sodium Pack
Huel Fluoride Pack
Etc. Etc.
Not everyone would need each of these additives. The ability to add to Huel Zero should be viewed as a positive, the lack of ability to take ingredients away from, say, Huel v2.0 is a negative.
Edit: Bizarre that I only saw the post directly above this after writing this one! =D
Edit2: You could leave the vitamin/mineral blend out in a Pack on it’s own too. This would allow individuals to optimise their micro-nutrient intake too.
While that did get a laugh out of me, I’d still make the argument that it can still be considered “nutritionally complete” - just for certain activities/activity levels. With the correct proportions of the additive Packs it can be “personally nutritionally complete”. As it is, Huel is something like “generically nutritionally complete”.
If Sodium Fluoride is being added purely for dental and oral hygiene then no.
I’m no expert on the subject but in my opinion dental mouthwash is as important to dental and oral hygiene as brushing itself. Adding Sodium Fluoride into my food just because some people don’t use decent toothpaste or use mouthwash at all is not what should be done.
NICK sits sobbing on the sofa, rocking back and forth, tears roll down his face into…
CLOSE UP OF BOWL OF BLAND COLOURLESS FLAVOURLESS SLOP.
NICK: “I’m so glad I bought this new food, it’s truly the future”
NICK WIPES TEAR FROM EYE WITH THE BACK OF HIS HAND
NICK: “It’s a beautiful blend of bits of dried vegetable and contains no sodium, no flavour, no sweetener, no fluoride and is made in an environment that contains no traces of nuts or gluten.”
NICK LOOKS AT THE EMPTY SOFA OPPOSITE.
NICK: “My only regret in life is that I didn’t have any children so that I could feed them nutritionally incomplete human food which contains just some of the vitamins & minerals a person needs to survive. If only my own mother had raised me on a diet so varied.”
NICK REACHES FOR BOTTLE OF MORPHINE AND SPRINKLES A FEW DROPS ON HIS FLAVOURLESS BREAKFAST, SLOWING STIRRING THE SLOPPY LIQUID WITH HIS CHEAP ALUMINIUM SPOON.
NICK: But at least I’ll feel better in a few minutes.
NICK CRUNCHES UP TESCO VALUE MULTIVITAMIN AND MIXES IT IN.
I’m also in the no boat to adding fluoride - I wish I’d known before-hand so I could have placed my next order early and avoided version 2.0 and stuck with 1.2.
Have you changed the GF version in the same way?
Thanks
I use fluoride toothpaste but I’m against adding fluoride to Huel. Fluoride is not an essential nutrient [1] and has a low upper tolerable intake which makes it easy to unwittingly consume too much [2].
Yeah, this is a definite no. With almost all toothpastes being fluoridated nowadays, there’s no need to add it to a product like this, and for those that do want it, can very easily source it elsewhere. I’ll be holding off buying my next large batch until we get word on the matter.
Thanks for pointing this out. I must have clicked that in error - I tried to take my vote off, but all it’s done is moved my vote to ‘yes’, when I didn’t want to vote at all! Please ignor my vote.
Can I ask why you are so afraid of a minuscule amount of fluoride? You speak of wanting to ‘avoid’ it, but what’s it going to do? Explode in your face?
I’ve already stated I already live in an area that adds fluoride to the water at 1.5mg/l, add that to the current amount of fluoride in Huel 2.0 and you’ll see its not exactly miniscule but actually above the recommendations. And while it may not explode in my face as you put it, but as its a known neurotoxin and I, like others here who you seem to have skipped mocking, want to avoid it. As is my right when paying for a product. If Huel add fluoride I will cease to purchase the product. And no where do I say I’m afraid of it, if just like to avoid it.