while I’ve been consuming Huel inconsistently over the past 6 months, its been a month that I consume about 50% of my daily calories using Huel consistently. All these months while I was happy with the product I wasn’t particularly noticing any specific improvement. But this later month I noticed that when I brush my teeth my gums no longer bleed. Gum bleeding was pretty consistent when brushing my teeth as far as I can remember myself. So I googled a bit and it seems that gum bleeding may be caused by certain vitamins and mineral deficiencies but again I’m not sure that this was my problem, or if it was Huel that fixed it. Nevertheless even if its a coincidence its pretty impressive for me. Anyone else with a similar issue?
The vitamin deficiency to do with gum bleed is related to vitamin C, meaning you would have had scurvy before starting to use Huel, which is highly unlikely. In Western countries there generally are no deficiencies of note in people with a working intestinal tract. (except iron, not a vitamin though)
I can rather imagine that your change in diet has changed your oral flora to the point where it now causes less local inflammation. If so, more power to you.
Don’t forget to floss regularly.
A dietary cause of gum bleeding is not only C deficiency from what I’ve read, but also A, K and calcium, magnesium deficiencies. I’m not suggesting that I had these deficiencies for sure and Huel fixed them, I just cannot explain my gum health otherwise.
I have another theory. Gums are very quick healers, and that’s necessary because they’re probably one of the most abused parts of the body. When eating solid food, especially crunchy ones, like crisps, nachos, nuts, etc. but also stringy meat, gums are constantly being scratched and bruised. Bleeding usually stops even before one ends the meal. Because gums are very hardy. But that doesn’t mean the scratches went away.
Bleeding when brushing is (in my experience) usually from the same spots that were previously damaged. I usually get bleeding for 2-3 days after hurting gums in a particular spot. Usually, giving a few days for the gums to recover fixes the problem. This may include (counterintuitively) brushing less in that particular area. Or brushing less intensively.
I’m suspecting in your case, switching to Huel removed from your diet whatever solid food was actually damaging your gums. Hence, in a few days gums healed.
Whatever the reason, congrats anyway
