Huel diet diagnosed anemic

Hi All wonder if I can get any answers as to whether a huel only diet could have anything to do with anemia.
I have now lost 3 stone being on huel only diet now combined with exercise.
I have 2 shakes a day 3 scoops each nutritional information suggests this provides me with over 100% of my required iron.
I do top calories up to around 1400 daily with tea and coffee with milk.
Doctor asked regarding my diet and if I was vegetarian and i believe huel is ok for vegetarians.
Got more blood tests coming up as to ascertain where the deficiency lies so will update.

I’m not sure. Have you tried measuring on a scale so you can see how much you’re getting? When I measure a scoop on my scale its usually around 35g so you may be getting less calories/nutrients than you think. Also you may want to check out the following links on how tea and coffee consumption affects iron absorbtion, seeing as you’re consuming quite a lot to make up the extra calories:

May be worth having an extra huel shake and topping up fewer calories from your beverages to see if that helps?

Congratulations on the weightloss by the way, very impressive! :slight_smile:

Off the top of my head, isn’t it 100% RDA of a vitamin/mineral per 2000 calories of huel? So sounds like you’re not having enough huel to meet your requirements.

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Thanks for suggestions

Hi thanks according to nutritional info 500g provides 280% Nrv I am assuming this is same as Rda.
So I have 210g of huel a day this should provide me with over 100% if I am reading it right.

I’m assuming your iron/ferritin deficient, as well as anemic? There is a subtle difference…

Anyway, to add to the already good suggestions of cutting coffee and tea down etc, you could also megadose on vitamin C, this is well known to increase iron absorption, if you do megadose I might suggest using Sodium ascorbate, since it’s a little gentler on the gut, unlike ascorbic acid.

The above works for me, I regularly donate blood, so I learnt little ways to keep my ferritin stores topped up.

:slight_smile:

Huel is “nutritionally complete” at (4) 127g 500 cal servings/day. If you’re only having (2) servings, Huel is only getting you to 50% of your RDA on a lot of nutrients.

If youre having one meal worth of snacks on your own, I’d suggest adding at least 1 more serving of huel to get you closer to your RDA. I imagine that and a multivitamin would keep you from getting deficient in anything.

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Huel only uses protein from plant-based sources. This type of iron is not as readily absorbed as iron that comes from animal protein sources. Many MANY clients I have (I am a registered dietitian) that have gone from a regular diet to a vegan one (which huel is) has issues with anemia and does so until they resume consuming animal proteins. I would definitely associate the plant-based protein sources in huel not providing the correct form of iron that would be best absorbed and utilized by the body.

Hi @rbcola04

This is a valid concern, but one that we’ve already addressed; have a read of our article here. Also, don’t forget that the oats are heat-treated which lessens the effect of phytic acid.

Rest assured, there is both sufficient iron and sufficient absorption of the iron for iron-deficiency anaemia to be of no concern for regular Huelers.

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Then they are doing something wrong. There is simply no requirement to eat animal products to achieve sufficient iron levels, or sufficient levels of anything else for that matter.

https://www.vivahealth.org.uk/vegans-hair-and-iron

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So your tea and coffee is about 500-600 calories ???
I’m concerned now as I drink a lot (and I mean a lot) of tea … but 500 calories is an amazing amount !!

1 scoop is roughly (correct me if I’m wrong !!) approx 75 calories … so you are having 3 scoops 2 x daily (so 2x450 calorie meals) and tea and coffee …

Hi yes probably have around 10-15 cups a day i think its an addiction to brews.So i figure around 40 cal per cup with semi skimmed milk.Every now and the will throw 1 spoon of sugar in if i am lacking in energy a bit.
I now regularly run aswell doing 10k 4-6 times per week and find i am still managing on 2 shakes ok.
I do now allow myself 1 day per week off huel eating normally and having a beer as i have reached my target weight.

I’m with you on the addiction to cuppa’s !!
I have about the same !
Didn’t even think about the calorific intake of a simple cuppa …
so for me to lose weight … cut out all my tea drinking !!!