I’m considering buying Huel for the first time but want to enquire about histamine levels in the product as I suffer from histamine intolerance.
I’ve read on another thread that although there is pea protein, which could be high histamine, that the overall levels in Huel (I’m looking at Black edition) is very low.
However, I note that there is a probiotic strain in Huel. Many strains are high histamine, so can you provide any guidance on this? Also, I note there is kombucha in the product. This is a very high histamine ingredient so I wanted to ask how Huel can be low histamine with these ingredients.
There are only small amounts of probiotics and kombucha in Huel Black Edition relative to the other ingredients. We have conducted lab tests on the final product than the level of histamine is undetected.
There is a small amount of histamine (~0.3mg per serving) for the coffee flavour if you want to avoid that to be on the safe side.
What is the easiest way for me to try Huel? I would know after a couple of servings if it agrees with me or if I’ll have a negative reaction, so I obviously don’t want to spend lots of money if I cant then consume the product.
What would you suggest I start with? i.e what is the minimum I can buy?
Histamine intolerance is a huge issue post-covid. Regardless of what yours is caused by, there’s more and more of us. At my worst Huel was my only safe food. Cookies and Salted Caramel are my favourites now. I can tolerate more foods after 18 months on a strict low-histamine diet so I’ve started blending a banana in. (use a blender regardless, it helps with the texture) Tastes more like a snack than a meal.
Sorry to hear what you’ve been through Abby. Glad to hear you are making progress.
I noticed there was cocoa powder in the Salted Caramel one which can be bad for histamine, but it’s obviously ok for you. I think I will try vanilla and salted caramel first.
What foods do you typically react to? Is it the standard high histamine foods?
The minimum order is 2 pouches of Black Edition as we don’t offer samples. However if you run into issues, let our Customer Experience team know and they’ll be able to help you out.
I haven’t heard about this, thank you for sharing, so many weird side-effects of Covid.
The amount of cocoa in Huel is low enough for me that it doesn’t matter. Think of histamine intolerance as a bucket that slowly fills. It’s not all or nothing. My diet is very controlled, no processed foods, no high histamine foods,… the air in my room is filtered with HEPA filter to take triggers out of the air,… so that gives me plenty of space to allow some histamine here and there. I’ve been able to come off antihistamines while at home too. But that’s after 18 months of strictly controlling everything so my body could heal.
I remember having issues with tomatoes, cheese, cinnamon, corn, fava beans, soy,… I didn’t stick around to try and find out exactly what else, most of these things I found out while trying to reintroduce. We already knew about the covid histamine issues back in 2020 and I was very sick at the time with constantly changing symptoms, but once I was on the low histamine diet I started to feel better and things calmed down. The majority of Long Covid patients are on H1 and/or H2 blockers too. It’s extremely common.
The majority of Long Covid patients are doing better on H1 and/or H2 blockers. It’s also a relatively common problem in ME/CFS, POTS, Ehlers-Danlos,… but then all these conditions are likely connected somehow. They’re so under-researched…
There’s a market there, you know. Especially with Covid disabling so many. 17 million estimated in Europe by the WHO. The ONS has us at 2.3 million in the UK alone.
I think if you highlight the histamine content in your product info along with the usual gluten/lactose/…, and look into it more to see if your products are safe for us, it could help a lot of people. Because most of these new post-viral patients have no idea how to cope with something like this. The foods we need are low-histamine, gluten-free and lactose-free. (all three at the same time) And as so many of us have extreme fatigue, Huel is a life-saver. Imagine not having the energy to take care of yourself anymore, barely being able to shower, struggling with a brain that no longer functions as it should, and then being told that on top of that most of the things you’ve eaten all your life are no longer compatible with your illness so you now have to find new things to eat…
And I want to start by saying that this is not an issue with Huel, but a general warning to anyone with IBD or certain bowel conditions.
I took Huel for the first time around 11 days ago, 1 scoop of original. Within 2 hours a headache started to come on, and by night I was quite dizzy, dull head, and a bit spaced out. These are all my standard histamine intolerance symptoms.
I appreciate the levels of histamine in Huel are low, but my guess is that some ingredients act as histamine liberators.
By the following day I had full blown cold/flu like symptoms, and unfortunately its triggered my first ulcerative colitis flare in over a year.
So just a word of warning to anyone with sensitive guts or prior conditions - it could be a saviour for you, but for me it’s turned into 10 days of bad illness that I’m still trying to resolve.
thank you for this discussion, and Andrew for sharing your test results. I also have histamine caused problems in combination with Long Covid. How are your experiences, Andrew and Huel users, with the Black Edition unflavored & unsweetened?
Thank you!