I’ve been using the Vanilla Huel v3.0 as a replacement for my lunch, over the past 2-3 weeks. Just one 100g scoop mixed with water and occasionally some fruit added or a flavour enhancer. And only as a replacement during the week, not on the weekends. So I’ve not been going mad with it.
Initially I had no issues with introducing this into my diet but since the weekend I have had severe stomach cramps, noxious gas and diarrhea, repeatedly and throughout the day.
I did not have any Huel shakes on Saturday through to Tuesday but the experience was the same after every meal. Yesterday (Wednesday) I felt normal for the first time in days, had my Huel shake at lunchtime, no problem. But after having my dinner last night I was again dealing with a seriously upset stomach & spent about 5 hours in and out of the loo, too worried about going to bed for fear of what might happen whilst asleep.
Surely this can’t be right? I normally have a cast iron stomach, not much upsets it and (apart from this week) I have normal, regular daily movements. I can’t continue using Huel if it is going to cause so much discomfort and prevent me from eating any other foods without it going straight through my system.
Is this likely to be caused by the artificial sweetener that’s added to the powder or is there something else going on? Should I switch to using the unflavoured powder?
Personally I blame the sucralose sweetener as I have zero issues with the unflavoured one or the Black edition Huel which uses stevia.
For some it can be that you’re not used to the amount of fibre and that it takes time to adjust but for me it never got good with sucralose in the “mix”.
Give the unflavoured one a try (or even black edition) and see how you react, could use dates and/or fruits to sweeten it up along with nut cream or stevia sweetener.
Also if you have trouble with the taste, it can differ quite a bit depending on what type of plant milk you use. I have around 2dl plant (unsweetened soy) milk and rest is water + huel black.
If I use a sweetened plant milk then the huel gets too sweet for my taste and I have to mix the flavoured huel with some unflavoured but in your case going with the regular unsweeted huel, you probably want a sweetened plant milk.
Sucralose – like any artificial sweetener – can exacerbate intestinal reactivity in individuals particularly with pro-inflammatory gut conditions – but as was mentioned, with most people experiencing the infamous Huel poops, its usually as a result of the fibre intake changing in their diet and this usually balances out after a short period of time. Similarly, people experiencing increased urination is usually a result of the diet change with lower sodium intakes triggering retained water release.
This is really odd Steve, I’m sorry to hear you’ve been having trouble. If you’re not having issues till after dinner is it possibly something to do with your evening meal or stacking from something in Huel + your meal?
Gut issues are notoriously difficult to pin down but if I’m reading correctly that you were having issues for 3 days and you weren’t having Huel it’s hard to say where your issues lie.
I’ve had no issues since I took a break from using Huel after the gastric explosion. I won’t be taking a chance with it during September as I have 2 big bike rides coming up and want to be sure that I’m able to participate.
I may try the unflavoured powder in October and see how I get on with it, as it’s already in the larder.
