I was just wondering how Huel fits into the 5-a-day recommendation? 5 different fruits and veg every day to give a good balance of nutrients, etc. Pulses only count as one, no matter how many different types you may have.
Yes we know it’s a nutritionally complete meal, but does it lack anything compared to the given advice?
Pip
The recommendation to consume 5 fruit and veg a day is to increase the vitamin and mineral intake of the population and ensure a spectrum of vitamins and minerals are consumed. The idea is that by consuming a variety of food you are less likely to miss out on certain nutrients, hence why 5 apples does not count as 5 fruit and veg.
For those that are consuming Huel 100%, they can be confident they are reaching the recommended levels for all vitamins and minerals. However as we know, the vast majority don’t consume Huel 100% and would mix this up with a fairly varied diet anyway. This way, if there is some nutrient in fruit and veg scientists haven’t accounted for, you would still be fine.
Does that make sense? In short, fruit and veg portions don’t really apply to Huel!
5 a day was always just a buzz phrase without proper nutritional backing.
In 2014 NHS research decided that it was actually 7 a day that we need (link) and
a lot of nutritional advice says “2 cups of fruit. 2 1/2 cups of vegetables”.
Visually, “ideal” fruit and veg daily looks a lot like this.
That’s exactly the answer I expected, Tim! Not being a nutritionist myself I just thought I’d check though 
@Tristan - I know the real hope is 7, but 5 is quite ingrained now, and still regularly repeated 
Though I still hope it’s okay I blended a banana in this morning as well 
Thought this was an interesting one too - “‘Five a day’ advice should be reconsidered because fruit and vegetables are too expensive”
Personally I don’t agree, I think 5 fruit and veg a day should be affordable for most, but perhaps if you have a large family it isn’t. Anyone here struggle to feed their family 5 or more fruit and veg a day?
The whole 5-a-day thing is so arbitrary. It’s kind of misleading because it leads people to think like “Oh, I’ve had my 5-day-today, therefore I’m fine”. So someone could eat 1 apple, 1 banana, 1 bowl of grapes, a carrot, an avocado, and then pig out on chocolate bars for the rest of the day.
Obviously, eating 5 fruits/vegetables per days is a LOT better than eating no fruits or vegetables. But every fruit and vegetable is different, and some are more nutritious than others. It’s a bit like if your boss at work told you, “Make sure you do 5 pieces of work every day.” Or imagine if your personal trainer just said to you, “Just make sure you do 5 exercises a week”. Wait, what the hell??!!
Also, what about the nutrient levels in fruits and vegetables? For example, I read that frozen vegetables are often actually more nutritious than “fresh” vegetables because they are frozen right when their nutrient levels are high, whereas “fresh” vegetables often hang around for a while before you buy them.
Anyway, I’ve breathed my target of 20,000 lung-fulls of air today. I’m off outside to smoke a cigar…
Surely the headline there should be about how ridiculously cheap nutritionally poor food is?
Though, obvious really. No nutritional value is bound to be cheaper if it’s just bulked up rubbish.
I didn’t think eggs were fruit and veg. I think one picture is misleading.
I suspect that’s mostly used an excuse rather than it being a valid reason in most situations. There’s usually some super cheap frozen veges available and most places have some sort of cheap fresh fruit available.
Pretty sure it’s just illustrative
Hehe…I know
I had a bottle of Appletiser the other day in the pub and it is labelled as 1 of your 5 day.
Ridiculous.
Appletiser is 100% Apple juice though so no worse than any other apple juice
Most bottled juices will be heat treated to destroy bacteria, thus also destroying many of the nutrients. It’s mostly just sugary water.
Labeling bottled juices as one of your 5-a-day is just marketing bullshit.
so if you consume 4x100g servings of Huel or 1600 calories per day I don’t think you are getting a full nutritional profile @TimOfficeHuel is that right as RDA is satisfied by Huel at 2000 calories per day is that correct?
In that scenario I’m actually not being properly healthy? I’m actually doing that as a calorie restricted diet (some other calories come from whey and cassein protein supplements)
Should I also be taking a multivitamin?
The “a day” logo isn’t standardised or policed. Anyone can use it on anything they like. I’ve seen it on lasagnas.
If you are consuming only 1600 kcal of Huel per day then yes you will be short on a few of essential micronutrients. What you could do, if using 100% Huel wasn’t essential, is assess which vitamins and minerals you are short on and then try and incorporate foods high in these into your Huel meals.
@TimOfficeHuel that wouldn’t really work if you wanted to lose weight if you know what I mean at that point I might as well eat 2000kc of huel do you understand?
Is it possible Huel will consider an actual weight loss product as you simply can’t deny that is why a lot of people end up here.
This is something I’ve wondered too. For me, there are two motivations for me using Huel:
1 - to lose weight, cut back on 500 calories per day as advised (250 in food, 250 through exercise)
2 - I’m an extremely fussy eater and get no veg in my diet at all, so Huel is a way for me to get the nutrients I would be missing out, in to my diet
However, I was wrongly under the impression that having Huel just once a day would fulfil the daily quota I need. So is the only way then to get 100% of all the recommended intakes of nutrients, through having Huel for every meal of the day?
Thanks