I have been living completely off of Huel for the last 4 years. As far as I know I am completely healthy young male in mid 20s. Blood and urine tests are completely normal, and I always feel full of energy.
However, what always baffled me was my digestion / stool. It was always pale / yellowish in color, and I had some flatulence issues. But oh well, a small price to pay for improved Huel lifestyle. Recently though, I think I literally found the issue I am having.
My stool is bulky, pale, hard to flush(sticky?), and it actually floats. I also noticed that Huel doesnât have the 100% recommended daily intake of salt and fats, which sure, I am fine with that, I believe you know what you are doing, but from time to time, I like to buy salted peanuts. It naively seem to be a great supplement for Huel. However, right after eating them, even in smaller quantities, I get very flatulent and smelly. Which is not usually the case when I am only eating Huel.
Is this something to be afraid of?
Why does my stool have excess fat, when I hope I can confidently say, Huel doesnât have as much fat as a regular diet.
Edit: For more information, when I eat common solid food for a few days, my stool returns to the regular color and all other things.
Hi Henry, welcome to the forum. Have you tried reducing the amount of Huel you consume daily? Youâve tried switching off Huel entirely, but have you tried mixing traditional meals into your Huel lifestyle?
I wanted to pop in to ask a few additional questions to @Tim_Huelâs, if that is alright!. Have you spoken with your doctor regarding this at all and if so, have they been able to advise?
Does this also occur when you are not consuming the peanuts?
I wouldnât be able to say here as I donât have your full medical history. As mentioned above, your doctor would be best able to advise on this!
Well, those time when I ate common solid foods it was a bit of a mix of both, eg. 2 days of only solid food, and then 2 days of mixed Huel and solid foods (repeat for 2 weeks). So I would say that yes, it worked or can be confirmed to some degree, although I would still prefer a more Huel based lifestyle.
Yes, I did ask. Although not right away, whenever I went to a doctor with an unrelated issue, I asked them about some other things around my âdietâ, and the doctor stopped me the moment he heard I had such an unusual meals. âLook whatever your issues might be, the first thing you need to do is return back to regular foods. If the problems persist, then come back and we can take a closer look at it.â. I tried a different doctor later on, but it was the same response, of âYou are obviously doing something unusual, so the obvious thing is to return back to a regular diet, and see whether the things stabilizeâ. So asking there for help just resulted in, stop doing the obviously strange diet. Edit: They didnât say it in a âthis is wrong and hurtfulâ kind of way, but more of a âYou should stop, just to be on the safe sideâ way.
The difference is most visible after I eat the peanuts. I start being way more flatulent than usual, and the âsymptomsâ of Steatorrhea increase.
The regular Huel powder, unsweetened and unflavored. No other products.
Hahah, I myself am intrigued! The super regular and âstableâ diet of Huel powered provided me with a very good research/experiment baseline.
The doctors are likely not familiar with Huel in that itâs also food (thatâs nutritionally complete too!). Theyâre likely stating that if this seems to occur when you consume Huel, best to try taking it out and see what occurs. I completely agree there in that maybe thereâs something youâre not tolerating.
With that being said, it also persists when you consume peanuts, then I am not sure it would be Huel alone, but of course I cannot say for certain.
Thank you @CharlotteMW_Huel, and to answer my question explicitly, is this somewhat expected when consuming Huel? I have read that the stool might be pale, but is it expected to have further symptoms of the Steatorrhea?
Itâs not something expected or typical. I would suggest starting with one of the following, decreasing the amount of Huel you consume or taking out the extra peanuts and having something else instead, and see if that makes a difference over a few days, and then go from there.
Hope this helps and please let us know how everything goes!
