For me it would be perfect if there was no Gum Arabic, Carrageenan or any emulsifiers of any kind in it.
The thinner the better but obviously I realise some people do not prioritise quality over taste etc etc.
Maybe the UU should evolve to be the product people interested in nothing but quality go for, minus everything that isnt a plus.
With the recent state Huel got into I did purchase Nutberg, that is to be mixed with 350ml of water but trust me it is gross.
Huel is the first product of this kind I have used, after checking out all the rest I chose Huel because it is the best out of the lot. I hope it stays that way. I was worried for a while but today shows that they arenât mad after all!
So this is also a good argument for removing the emulsifiers from vanilla- risks associated with the emulsifiers not worth the potential benefit. Best and cheaper to avoid unnecessary additions to the formula- keep it simple!
I think there has been a misunderstanding here. Emulsifiers have always been part of the flavour system in Vanilla Huel. This is why v1.2 of Vanilla Huel was a bit thinner than v1.0 (due to the reduction in the amount of flavour system in it), and why Unflavoured Huel was initially a lot thinner than Vanilla Huel.
A step in the right direction, but Iâm not purchasing huel until you take out the sodium flouride too.
And I havenât even started googleing the carageenan. Maybe that is one more of the things the huel team needs to âlook intoâ, to see if mistakes were made.
I seem to remember a fair number of people complaining about Unflavoured being so thin. Thatâs why they added the emulsifiers. And Iâm not sure the advice about just adding less water would have quite the same effect. Some people want to have a considerable amount of Huel in one go, with a certain amount of thickness to make them feel full, without having too many calories. For example, when I got my Nano Meal, that has no emulsifiers in and they recommended only 350ml of water for a third of my dayâs calories, and it was still really thin.
The thicker it is the more like a meal it is and the more filling it is which are big factors
People saying to remove the thickeners and instead use less water, well this creates a smaller shake with less volume which is consumed quicker with the potential of feeling hungry faster because it didnât seem like a meal
The people saying oooo use less water, hey guess what, you lot can simply use more water and make it thin as you like
Keeping the thickness and having people who want it thinner simply having to add more water is only a positive as it encourages more water drinking
Letâs remember what Huel is about - simplicity, convenience, affordability and portability. The addition of agents to make Huel thicker just so you feel âmore fullâ off lower calories isnât what Huel is about - it isnât advertised as a weight loss supplement. Making it thicker doesnât make it more like a meal - weâre consuming a liquid meal at the end of the day which will never âseem like a mealâ in that sense of solid food.
For me itâs more about the use of unnecessary additions to the formula, especially ones that are used to simulate inflammation for drug companies (which is a bit worrying), rather than trying to âmake it as thin as you likeâ.
Surely thickness is a personal preference. What works for one may not work for another.
Sometimes adding more water wonât work. Some of us canât tolerate that much liquid in one go, and spending the best part of an hour consuming a huel when you could have eaten a meal in less time goes against the convenience of Huel, doesnât it?
The difference in water used as a result of the emulsifiers will be a very small variable in the satiating power of Huel, in comparison to the real constituents of the food such as the protein and carbohydrate content of it. Everybody digests food at different rates and works differently, but the actual thickness wonât make as much difference to the satiety youâll feel. If youâre getting hungry after only a couple of hours, you clearly need to be eating more rather than worrying about small differences in the thickness of your meal drink.
Above everything, itâs quite concerning that youâre not considering the potential dangers associated with the emulsifiers added.
It just goes to show, you canât please all the people all of the time. They created the Unflavoured version for those who wanted it, and the gluten free version for those are sensitive to gluten. Obviously there are some things weâre just not all going to agree on.
Those who like it thinner, like it thinner, and those who like it thicker, like it thicker. They already added the emulsifiers into Unflavoured because some people didnât like it so thin. But they canât really keep changing it back and forth. They also probably wonât create two versions, Thick Huel and a Thin Huel, because then they would actually have to have 8 versions:
Thick Vanilla Huel
Thin Vanilla Huel
Thick Vanilla Gluten Free Huel
Thin Vanilla Gluten Free Huel
Thick Unflavoured & Unsweetened Huel
Thin Unflavoured & Unsweetened Huel
Thick Unflavoured & Unsweetened Gluten Free Huel
Thin Unflavoured & Unsweetened Gluten Free Huel
What next?
Thin Gluten Free Low Carb No Fluoride Unflavoured & Unsweetened Huel With Extra Fibre?
Thick High Carb With Fluoride Vanilla Huel With Less Fibre But More Vanilla Flavouring?
By the way, the issue of the safety of the particular emulsifiers being used is definitely worth discussing, and could even be thought of as a separate issue. If you like it thin and are also concerned about the emulsifiers used, thatâs two different reasons that you donât want them in Huel. But it would be possible to have a conversation about the safety of the ingredients used, and still accept the fact that most people seem to like it with something in it thicken it. So it then becomes a discussion about what that thickener should be, or whether the existing ones are indeed safe.
Itâs a bit like if a few people were to complain about the level of protein in Huel, then question the safety of rice protein. Itâs two separate issues - the level of protein and the type of protein used. So you could say, âI want a version of Huel with less proteinâ, and Julian/James might say, âNot going to happenâ. But if you were to say âI donât think rice protein is safeâ, they might say, âOkay, weâll look into itâŚâ
after all!