HUEL Anxiety/Depression warning

Hi guys,

So the only thing that’s been different compared to my usual is consuming huel and since I stopped 7 days ago I’m calmer less anxious and not sad, I was literally crying everyday couldn’t even calm my own thoughts down felt like I was on mild drugs of drinking super amount of caffeine it’s hard to explain, I was getting out the work van lifting a couple of tyres and feeling out of breath and fatigued all the time… like I say all the symptoms have stopped upon discontinuation,

Here’s the links that I have been reading, like i say I’m no expert on levels etc and how the body absorbs things all I know is my experience and how I’ve been feeling,

H ttps://eatfor.life/3-reasons-multi-vitamins-cause-harm-good/

H ttps://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-11727/are-vitamins-triggering-your-anxiety.html

H ttps://www.optimallivingdynamics.com/blog/do-you-have-chronic-stress-and-anxiety-these-two-minerals-might-be-the-cause

Also a link to another huel post I found with other users having a similar issue

Thanks guys

I find this hard to fully believe as anxiety and depression are symptoms triggered by other factors which can either be reactive to life events or a chemical imbalance of seratonin in and dopamine. I’m a mental health nurse and personally have found that the weight loss and management achieved by huel has boosted my overall mental well-being including mood and lessening of irritability. I also treat people for anxiety and depression on a daily basis and through this work there is never only one cause of anxiety and depression but a perfect storm of external triggers and pre existing psychological predisposition or trauma.

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I work within mental health, this is a very extreme reaction. From my experience this would not happen from 2 scoops per day. I would say that you are either picking poisons up from elsewhere or there is a possibility of mental health problems in your family?

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Thanks Daniel, I appreciate you sending over those links!

The first link, unfortunately this person is really lacking the qualifications to be talking on this topic and provided no references. What I’m trying to get at, in the nicest way possible, is she has just made up a lot of the statements for her article. She’s also talking about multivitamins, which aren’t regulated in the same way foods are, are only taken once a day, and often contain doses far above those found in foods.

Here’s an except from the second link for vitamin B12 “Like B6, high doses of B12 (>1,000 mcg) increase neurotransmitter levels, and as a result, have stimulating properties.”. One meal of Huel contains 0.8mcg of vitamin B12. The rest of the article follows a similar pattern.

The third link talks about a possible cause being an imbalance of copper to zinc (too much copper). Huel contains both copper and zinc and one meal contains 25% of the recommended daily amount for copper so we’re all good here too!

I hope that provides you with some reassurance and I’m glad to hear you’ve been feeling better each day.

Like I said, I’m not here to persuade you back into trying Huel but with mental health issues it really could be anything even down to the placebo effect. There’s no evidence that the composition of Huel, at one meal a day is the cause.

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I’m so sorry you had this experience, it sounds really awful. Even if the symptoms have got better now, have you spoken to your doctor about this? I think it’s important you speak with a professional so they can look into it properly. There are a number of different things that can cause symptoms like this, and a number of reasons why they can come and go over time. It’s good to do your own research and get an understanding of your own body, but always talk to a doctor on top of this. You’ll never know if you’re missing knowledge about a long term condition, an allergy, or basically anything. You will find articles online that are positive or negative about anything at all, but only your own doctor can tell you what’s relevant to you.

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so this one here is mine: One week in, wired, anxious, angry

I’m still hueling, and I do get the issues I mention in that post if I do huel for a long stretch.
Most of these days I don’t, as life and other things mean that I don’t do Huel every day.
I know for a fact that every time I experienced the wiredness, after stopping huel the issues would go away.

(I only do original and unflavour)

Thanks for all the responses guys. There is history of mental illness on my family and I have had anxiety issues and mild depression in the past but huel has definitely in my mind exasperated my symptoms a lot. Maybe my brain doesn’t like certain vitamins or supplements and reacts badly to them?

Either way I’m going to go to the doctors anyway and have a chat with them but all I know for now is I haven’t cried once or had even half as bad anxiety and agitation in the last 7 days since I stopped consuming huel. Maybe it is a placebo effect I don’t feel like it is, I’m not here to put the drink down just to see if anybody else has also had this response.

And thanks for the reply above makes me think I’m not just going crazy :sweat_smile:.
I’ll see how I feel in another week.

Thanks

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I appreciate you researching this for us. Thanks!

I have really bad anxiety and it is no better or worse and im having huel for breakfast and lunch monday - friday.

Correlation is not the same as causation. Perhaps something else caused your breakdown and now you are looking for things that happened simultaneosly. And there is always something that happens to have changed at the same time without really being related to it.

Some flavours also contain caffeine - have you used one that does? This could also be a problem.

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You could be right the first 5 days off huel I felt better as the days went on but now I have really bad anxiety… like I’m on a withdrawal but yeah maybe I’m just looking for something to explain my symptoms… I haven’t drank caffeine for 5 years at all as it gives me anxiety I’ve been drinking the vanilla flavour had that one got caffeine in??

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no - only coffee and chocolate based flavours have detectable levels of caffeine - all the other flavours have trace levels too low to show up in any testing.

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Please can you link any research paper which supports your theory that flaxseed consumption leads to or perpetuates anxiety?

If you can’t I will, again, edit your comment to remove pseudoscience and misinformation and silence your account. I’ve already emailed you about this and you haven’t acknowledged it, so perhaps you will read this comment. Please link to any research that supports this.

Here is an article about the safety and recommended intake of flaxseed with plenty of references.

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Not everyone does well on plant based diets. If you’re struggling watch the podcast below. Mikhaila Peterson had massive reaction to plant based eating and it’s worth the watch. It helped a member of my family enormously. Huel is an amazing product but it’s not right for everyone in my opinion.

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C’mon. That diet is useless and no good for you long term. It is missing so many valuable nutrients and minerals.

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Please don’t follow an all-meat diet. I hope it’s pretty self-explanatory but if not here’s a couple of articles that swing the other way to that podcast Jordan Peterson’s all-meat diet raises questions | Healthing.ca The Jordan Peterson Meat-Only Diet - The Atlantic. Also please bear in mind Mikhaila has zero nutrition credentials or education.

Carnivore diets are likely to work simply by eliminating the problem foods in the diet. The issue is there is no reintroduction of foods that do not cause problems and therefore several nutrients will be lacking in the diet.

I’m glad a member of your family was helped James, but the best bet is for anyone in a similar situation is to work with a Registered Dietitian.

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Yep - anyone who does needs their head looking at. unless they are a crocodile.

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Hi guys.

Today is day 12 off huel completely, I have severe anxiety, extreme fatigue and lethargy. All bias aside I just need genuine opinion for the sake of my mental health, Is there ANYTHING in huel that could have been building up in my system for the last 2
Months which I have now abruptly stopped that could be causing these symptoms… I am going for blood tests Friday and I’m aware I do have anxiety issues but this is a lot lot worse than I’m used too. Is it possible for the body/brain to have some withdrawal from supplements/multivitamins… i can’t put all this down to just my anxiety I’ve never had it this bad before…

Thanks

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To be clear, I’m a Huel advocate and have been for a long time. I’ve currently got a Huel subscription and been using it for some time. All I’m saying is that we’re all different. It’s worth noting Mikhaila Peterson has reintroduced some other foods and aspires to eat a more “normal” diet again one day. The poor woman has had some horrific medical problems prior and was in desperate trouble.

I am not on a carnivore diet either, but I have seen what it can do for some people. When you’re desperate and on a slope to an unpleasant ending you try all sorts of things. I get that. For a heck of a lot of people Huel is the solution. I read the posts on Facebook and know there are people who could not live without it.

I started reading nutrition books in 1995 and I confess to being very judgmental of any health professionals. I’m interested in results. I find the information provided by Huel really very good and matches my requirements. But we’re all different. If you’re ill and it’s serious you consider everything and anything. I go to any length when it’s family. There’s a ton of information out there. I use it all and try and keep an open mind.

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The only person who can answer this is your doctor. It’s also interesting that while using huel, you attributed your health issues to huel. When you stopped and felt better at the same time, you used this as further evidence that huel caused the issues. Now that the issues have come back but you’re not using huel, you’re still using it as evidence that it’s because of huel and that it’s withdrawal symptoms.

At some point you have to ask if huel really is the issue or if it’s something else. It seems you have tunnel vision for this one route and can’t see past it. Health problems aren’t something we should guess or deal with alone, your doctor will be able to help and give you a clearer picture. I hope you feel better soon.

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