Hi folks
I’m James Collier, the nutritionist who’s been working with the Huel team. Any questions about Huel, please let me know.
Hi James. Firstly, congrats on what is a great product. I’ve only just begun to try it but it’s scoring very highly with me, over the other 4 types of powdered food that I’ve tested.
Can I ask you where the sweetness comes from please? Huel is very sweet to taste. I don’t mind this but I hope that it’s not from things like aspartame, which would unfortunately be a deal-breaker for me. I’m hoping for Stevia, in a perfect world.
Thanks for the product, Looking forward to ordering my first batch on Thursday.
What made you choose the current ratios of Carbs-protein-fats.
Also would you recommend someone who is quite active to add some salt to their mix if they plan to go 100%.
Thank you for not going with Maltodextrin. it’s the main reason I want to try Huel.
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@Regneva great questions, James is on honeymoon at the moment so I will try and answer your questions for him.
The ratio of carbs-protein-fats - this is what James said here: Huel | Nutritionally Complete Food
The macronutrients we require from food are protein, fat and carbohydrate and in Huel we’ve set them at the ratio of 30:30:40 respectively; i.e. 30% of the energy comes from protein, 30% from fat and 40% from carbohydrates.
Amino acids are the most basic units of protein and several amino acids are essential for life with others being crucial for good health, so any diet has to contain a significant amount of protein. There are also fatty acids that are essential for life and good health, so including sources of fat is crucial too. Carbohydrates, however, are not essential per se, but they do have significant benefits to sustaining even energy levels and are significantly cheaper helping to make Huel more affordable.
We’ve designed Huel at these ratios as they are not only within the parameters of the healthy eating guidelines, but also are levels designed for optimum, sustained energy release whilst covering macronutritional requirements for disease prevention. Fats are more energy dense than protein or carbs, so including them at 30% means there’s less powder and bulk making Huel easier to consume to meet your energy requirements.
There is a thread about sodium here: Sodium content in Huel - #2 by JamesCollier
Where James said:
Whilst we see the low salt/sodium as a positive, we are tweaking it slightly upwards in the next version, but not too much.
So yes maybe add a little extra salt if you quite active.
@Terry_Cooper Thank you for the kind words, we are pleased you like it.
The sweetness comes in the “flavour system”, in which there is a zero calorie sweetener. Other customers have said it too sweet too, while others have said it’s just right, and some not sweet enough. So it’s tricky to please everyone, however we have a cunning plan. In the next month, we will launch an unflavoured and unsweetened version, so you can add the exact amount of your own sweetener and flavour.
+1 on an unsweetened version! Apart from the bad stuff one hears about sweeteners, it is best to have all options to modify it to taste.
I’ll look forward to the new version without flavour or sweetener. It gives us the option of adding to suit ourselves.
What would be great is individual 500 calorie packs rather than one big bag. Do you see that on the horizon?
I personally like the taste of Huel just as it is, but I can see the value in allowing individuals to choose for themselves.
I personally don’t like the idea of small packs as I like to be able to choose how much I put in each time, and I like there is less waste with bigger bags. A better option is to have small reusable plastic boxes to put individual portions in. Less waste, and you can have as much or as little as you want. I think this is probably a big flaw in the approach taken by Soylent. It assumes that everyone will be consuming 2000 calories.
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I agree with @Marcus
The idea of the bigger pouches is two fold - less rubbish to throw away and more flexibility. Some people consume more that 500g per day so they would have to open more that one pouch.
@davidmccarlie did you mean you want a 500g pack? or do you want 500 calorie pouches? That would mean 4 pouches to throw away per day. Could you give me a little more detail on why you would like smaller pouches please.
Hi there
Yes, 500 calorie single meal packets was what I was meaning. I know it creates waste but it is hugely convenient to rip the top of a bag, pour and then shake. 500 calories is a convenient amount to take at a serving, particularly someone wanting to lose weight. It also eliminates the need for scoops, scales or mess.
Doubtless some would disagree and prefer weighing out exactly what they need. I can understand that. However, it’s really nice to just rip the top off.
Hi guys
Sorry, I’ve been away for a couple of weeks.
We chose the ratio of macros as we canted to keep it moderate carbs, didn’t want to go above 30% fat therefore the rest was protein. See the info in the copy Julian posted.
Let me know if there are any other queries
Hi James,
I remember from another post that you said that Huel isn’t perfectly balanced for serious sporting nutrition, but more of a recreational trainer. Can I ask what you feel would be different or additions could be made for someone who training regularly for sport?
Thanks in advance for any of your thoughts on this!
Hi Fitz
Huel is more for the recreational trainer, but since launching Huel we’re getting a few serious athletes using it. It’s too short a time to see the results yet, but so far, quite positive.
The issue for a more serious athlete is only the fact that these guys like to manipulate their own nutrition and may vary macro intakes on different days and different times of day. As Huel is a set formula, you can’t do this. That really is the only main issue. A way around this, would be to just use Huel for 1-2 meals per day: bearing in mind these guys often have 5-6 or more meals per day.
The other small issue, is that serious athletes like to take supernormal doses of some nutrients by way of supplements. They could, of course, still do this through extra supplements on a Huel diet.
I had an interesting message 2 days ago from a former competative bodybuilder. Of his own back, we wants to make a comeback to the stage in this November and plans on dieting for the show solely on Huel - consuming nothing else but black coffee and water. He’s going to log his progress for me to follow. Plus he’s having his blood lipids done before and after the diet as he currently has dyslipidaemia. This is his own choice, but it will be interesting to follow.
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Thanks James! Exactly the information I was looking for!
It’s great to be able to witness all these interesting developments.
Is the zero calorie sweeter aspartame, Stevia, or a different one?
I haven’t been told which it is, but I’m pretty sure it’s not Stevia. I’m hoping it’s not Aspartame as I don’t want to consume any of that if I can help it. I’m waiting for an official confirmation on this.
I think the current sweetner is sucralose, but they will be switching to stevia. @Julian is this correct?
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The current sweetener is a tiny amount of sucralose. We are considering alternatives.
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