Health benefits of going Unflavored & Unsweetened?

I’ve been going pretty well on the flavored gluten-free Huel since lockdown.

I have about 5 to 6 Huels a day, plus one normal food meal which is not too unhealthy.

Although I have the odd cheat day on the weekend.

I’ve lost about 4.5 kg and my digestion feels la lot better.

I no longer seem to crave (and eat) chocolate and other junk since cutting it out.

But I’m now wondering, would I feel even better if I went Unflavored & Unsweetened to cut out the extras that are put in for flavour and taste?

Are those extra ingredients potentially detrimental to health?

What does the Unflavored & Unsweetened Hueltaste like?

Would the blandness make me crave sweet food again, like I used to when I ate my regular diet?

Has anyone gone full Unflavored & Unsweetened and did they notice a difference?

I don’t really want to buy a bag of it on the off chance, as I might not like it, then have wasted my money.

Thanks

I cant eat anything but UU, the flavoured huels are too sweet for me. I have some regular Vainilla and Chocolate huel but I use them only like Flavour boost.

It tastes like very fine porridge. The first time I ate it was horrible and then I started to make a transition. Now I really like the UU flavour, also its easier to add some flavours.

But the best benefit is that it doesnt use sucralose. I know its approved and safe but I prefer to not have it.

And 3.0.2 tastes better than 3.0.1 UU 2.3 UU

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You can always mix it with your flavoured Huel. For example, I mix it with Vanilla Huel to reduce the sweetness. On its own, U&U tastes “plain” or “bland”.

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I’ve been eating U/U exclusively for years.

I’ve had vanilla at the very beginning before Huel introduced U/U and sucralose felt very sweet. The recipe has changed a lot since then, so my experience is not representative anymore.

Overall, whenever I offered some U/U to others, most did not like the flavor on its own. However, it is perfect if you want to mix it with something else, especially savoury flavors.

If you’re worried about buying U/U and it being a waste, you can always mix U/U with other Huel flavors to get a less sweet version: 120g flavored + 40g unflavored or any other ratio you find enjoyable.

Some people don’t like taste of sucralose and replace it with stevia or some other sweetener, and some people have strange inconclusive issues with sucralose so prefer to avoid it. There have been some studies on sucralose having detrimental effect on gut bacteria, on making you crave sugary things more, and on insulin sensitivity - but none of those studies present conclusive evidence that sucralose should be avoided yet.

If you’re eating U/U on its own, many prefer the flavor/texture profile more if it is blended to a smooth consistency rather than shaken. So get a blender.

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I tried U/U on its own yesterday. I was planning to at some point, but I’ve been mixing it 50/50 with vanilla to reduce the sweetness, and I absentmindedly made a 100% U/U shake. I got a shock when I took a big gulp!

I didn’t really like it, but I had no problem drinking the whole thing.

@5kg2go you could buy a bag and, if you don’t like it, do the 50/50 mix like me.

Thanks. Yes, I might try doing a 50/50.

Although would that have the “health” benefit I was thinking of, as I’d still be having the sweetener?

I don’t find the regular Huel too sweet to taste.

The health benefit of not consuming sucralose is contentious. Fact is however that sucralose provides no nutrition.

If you want to eat only what your body needs and nothing more, then giving up sucralose fits with that, and doing 50/50 reduces the amount of sucralose consumed.

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I was suspicious at first, because sucralose wasn’t on the list of sweeteners I’d convinced myself was safe, but on further reading I don’t see any reason to expect a health benefit from switching to U&U / avoiding sucralose and flavourings.

There’s one under-researched “gotcha!” hypothesis that’d apply to all sweeteners: the notion that simply tasting sweetness triggers a physiological effect (preparing your digestive system for sugar) that’s then screwed with if it doesn’t get the sugar. I don’t know if there’s anything to it, and it seems to so conveniently counter all sweeteners ever that the hypothesis has always felt a bit “Paid For By The Sugar Industry” to me, but… maybe?

There’s one psychological benefit to U&U, which you get just by doing 50/50 with sweetened: getting used to less sweet food. If Huel isn’t 100% of what you eat, like with me, that could be really beneficial to the rest of your diet.

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Really curious: what does other food taste like to you? What’s a reasonably sweet food to you – can you eat cake?

When I went from 50% Sweet to 33%, I found Nakd bars became slightly too sweet (when I was 100% they weren’t sweet enough!), apples/bananas/berries became noticeably sweet and I started being able to taste sweetness in some vegetables. It’s… weird. But really amazingly helpful for being healthy.

Dont get me wrong, I like sweet although I prefer salty food. But I prefer things on its primary form, unaltered if possible, I like to keep it simple.

I tend to use salt on my food, even on Huel. I like to cook with multiple spices and herbs if I am cooking, I love coffee, dark chocolate and whisky.

My sugar intake in general is very low, in fact is so low, that when I have a sugary drink like some Cola I feel how the sugar have an direct effect on my brain.

I think that I am more sentive because as I prefer have unaltered food like homemade plain kefir, dark chocolate, solo coffee or solo whisky so my taste maybe is wider and that is why I am more sensitive with food.

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I haven’t eaten any other food than Huel in years, so I don’t know anymore. I can say for sure I don’t have any cravings nor desire to eat anything else.

Most describe U/U flavor as earthy or very oaty, which I would have agreed was the taste I’d experienced years ago and was fine with it because I liked oats in many forms. Nowadays it just feels like a ‘neutral’ taste, just like water tastes, with perhaps a hint of sweetness to it (perhaps due to the carbs?).

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I tried UU for the first time this week. It honestly tasted like sawdust to me. I tried adding vegetable stock and curry powder and it was quite nice. I also added some to a loaf of bread I baked which turned out very well. I think most people would not like it or, at the very least, gradually introduce it into their diet.