Recomended intake of Omega-3 is 3-5g (1).
Huel Black has 5.6g per 90g serving.
Two Huels a day = over double the upper spectum of Omega-3 intake
Omega-3 has negative side effects including suppressing blood clot formation (1).
Hey Doug,
Don’t worry we have a whole article on this! (One of my favourite lines).
As Huel is plant-based there is no fish oil in Huel. The main omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil are EPA and DHA, Huel contains an omega-3 fatty acid called ALA.
The conversion rate of ALA to EPA and DHA is pretty low and we explain this in more detail in the article I’ve linked above, so no need to worry.
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Ah beautiful- I get back to chuggin em all. See you later my fellow Hueligan!!!
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Hi Dan,
Although you explain very clearly in that article why you include ALA, it doesn’t address the concern that the amount of ALA you include is very high.
Sure, you need that amount to reach effective amounts of EPA and DHA, but have you considered the side effects of such high amounts of ALA in itself?
All recommendations I can find say 1.6g/day. Some studies I found that use higher amounts still don’t go higher than about 2.5g/day for long term use.
But my Huel Black contains 6.6g/100g. Since I normally use 3 scoops per serving, two times per day, that makes about 270g of Huel Black, or almost 18g of ALA per day!
That’s about 10 times the recommended amount of ALA (alpha linolenic acid).
I have a feeling you shoudln’t have included this. Can you provide convincing and recent data that shows this amount of daily ALA (alpha linolenic acid) is totally fine?
Thanks
The amounts recommended by governments is often an adequate intake, this means there is a lack of strong evidence to provide an RDA for optimum intake. The 1.6g/day figures you quote aren’t ideal amounts, there more of a guideline to try and aim for. Guidelines also consider what’s realistic for a population to hit and most people don’t eat much ALA.
For example, a serving (30g) of walnuts contains around 2.5g of ALA, I don’t know anyone that would say limit the amount of walnuts you eat based on the ALA content.
The French government states not to exceed more than 15 times the Daily Recommended Intake which Huel products do not.
Some research focuses more on the omega-3 : omega-6 ratio with a recommendation of between 1:1 and 4:1 which Black Edition falls between.
All the ALA is naturally occurring from the main ingredients: mostly the flaxseed.
For example, a serving (30g) of walnuts contains around 2.5g of ALA, I don’t know anyone that would say limit the amount of walnuts you eat based on the ALA content.
That’s probably because my 18g of ALA would be eating about 245g of walnuts daily, every day of the year, which nobody does.
The French government states not to exceed more than 15 times the Daily Recommended Intake which Huel products do not.
I must have missed it, but I can’t find where they talk about 15 times the RDI? I do find this:
"This has led to the proposal of an average supply of 2 g.d–1 for linolenic acid for the adult, using
a ratio n-6/n-3 of 5, lower than the actual ratio;"
Roughly confirming the amount of 1.6g that I mentioned earlier.
Some research focuses more on the omega-3 : omega-6 ratio with a recommendation of between 1:1 and 4:1 which Black Edition falls between.
This research also mentions the 1.6g/day of ALA. Ratio is interesting, but you can easily cause big health issues if you ignore absolute amounts.
If you include an ingredient in your product in an amount of 10x the Recommended Daily Intake, I would have expected some decent, and recent, scientific backing.
I’m still worried I must say…
My point was that a serving of walnuts exceeds the dietary reference intake (DRI), not that it’s equivalent to the ALA in Huel Black Edition.
Apologies I linked the wrong paper, it was this one, but after looking at the reference the authors use I can’t find support for their claim.
Based on the research the DRIs are based on, and any other published research that’s out there, what are these big health issues related to consuming ALA above intakes stated by Public Health departments?
I’ll reiterate that I think there’s some misunderstanding of what the RDA actually represents. There are RDAs and upper limits (ULs). What you’re concerned about here is at what amount could there be a risk of adverse effects. The RDA doesn’t represent this concern the UL does.
As I’ve stated above most governments don’t actually establish an RDI for alpha-linolenic acid because of the lack of evidence, they publish an adequate intake, like the US for example. The US also hasn’t established an UL for ALA because of the lack of evidence of adverse health effects (source). This is in contrast to EPA and DHA where upper limits have been established.
A large part of the evidence for ALA deficiency appears to stem from a deficiency of EPA and DHA, in other words an inadequate amount of ALA being converted to these two essential fatty acids (source). This is why in the Huel article you linked we explain at length that the ALA amount is based heavily on how much can be converted to EPA and DHA.
In that same review paper I linked they have a couple of tables that show the different governments recommendations for omega-3 fatty acids. You’ll see that there is stronger agreement and more governments providing recommendations for EPA and DHA than for ALA and this is reflective of the evidence available.
It’s a tricky one and I’m sorry I can’t give you an exact answer because nutrition is often like that. I suppose you could set an UL for ALA based on the estimated conversion of EPA and DHA, but the evidence for that is weak. If you’re interested you can read more about the UL for EPA and DHA set by the EU here, the US is here and they only set an UL based on supplements, not from food intake as is the case with Huel.
For clarity:
Dietary Reference Intake / Value (DRI / DRV) - the umbrella term for the nutrient reference values
Recommended Dietary Allowance / Reference Daily Intake (RDA / RDI) - the value that exceeds the requirements of 97.5% of individuals in a group (note this is not an optimum intake)
Adequate Intake (AI) - If sufficient scientific evidence is lacking to establish an RDA, an AI is assigned instead.
[Tolerable] Upper Limit (UL) - the highest level of daily nutrient intake that is likely to pose no risk of adverse health effects to almost all individuals in the general population. As intake increases above the UL, the risk of adverse effects increases.
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Hi Dan,
I appreciate your time and extensive reply.
Also I understand the reasoning behind your choice for this amount of ALA better now.
Many thanks!
No problem at all and thank you for pressing me for a decent answer! You guys are one of the main reasons we strive to do better each day.
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