I’m looking at starting Huel in the near future (once I find a way to tell my aunt that I don’t need her to cook for me for the foreseeable future, that is!), but I do have one question.
I have some concerns about the elevated levels of manganese in Huel. When I read the article on the site regarding it, I noticed that one of the reasons to not be concerned is that manganese in water is more bio-available than the manganese in Huel - which is actually my problem!
The water source that I currently do the majority of my drinking from during the day is currently under review due to elevated levels of manganese (130μg/L) and iron (540μg/L).
Would it be ill-advised to use water from this source with Huel, or is it a small enough issue that it probably wouldn’t matter? Bringing in water from the outside would be annoying, but could be managed if necessary.
(I am a woman, early-30s, and planning on 1500kcal/day of Huel for weight loss when I start using it, if that matters at all.)
ETA: And since I apparently got on the wrong forums, I’d be purchasing through the USA supply channel.
I think I figured this out by myself, and boy is my face red! (I promise that I’m more numerically literate than this question made me out to be, and thank you all for not pointing out how oblivious I was being.)
Unless manganese in water is 1k times more bio-available than in food, the difference in units alone is enough to make the water content a non-issue. Not sure why I was panicking
If it makes you feel any better I read it and didn’t see any flaw in your logic!
What is interesting though is that I find the taste will change when mixed with different water sources. I spend a lot of time in London and in the north (of England), and find Huel tastes better up north! Neither are quite as good as using the water cooler at work though
How reliable is the data of the levels of manganese in your water?
The manganese in Huel is not a concern as it’s naturally occurring from the main ingredients and will also be lowered by phytic acid form the oats and flaxseed.
It’s a fair point you raise, though, about water levels of manganese. We should do an article covering this where we look at manganese levels of water throughout different regions - it might not even be an issue, but we should look into it.
I use bottled water, for no reason other than fluoride. I avoid fluoride as much as I can - have done for years - which mainly means using non-fluoride toothpaste and drinking bottled water.
I know bottled water has stuff in it - my usual brand has 6mg/l magnesium, and 0.1mg/l fluoride - and I know the plastic bottles are an issue - I do recycle, but I don’t know if they are actually recycled or not. However, fluoride is a toxin, and I’d just rather not have it.
Plus, bottled water just tastes nicer than tap water - even up here in the North!
Our work is on an independent well system, and the numbers come from the test results that we are mandated by the (State) government to post due to elevated levels of iron/manganese. So I’m reasonably confident in the numbers, and they are from within the last year.
I’m glad to hear that you are considering looking more into this issue, even if it turns out to be a non-issue for most people.
Just wondering do the likes of Brita filters help I use one but don’t actually know if it’s worth the cost to be honest. What about reverse osmosis. I use it for my marine fish. Is it safe to drink?
I sure as heck hope so, given how much of it I drink…
All kidding aside, it’s at the level where we are required to notify, but still well below the maximum level considered safe. I’m not worried about drinking the water on it’s own, just in the context of making Huel, given that the recipe’s already a bit heavy on the manganese.
ETA: My employer is also a secure facility, so bringing in a filter pitcher or other setup like that to leave on site is tough to swing.
In my last-but-one house, in the same village, we had spring water into the house - for free! - but it did sometimes taste funny. It tested fine, but we ended up installing an under-sink reverse osmosis system and that seemed to work beautifully. I was more than happy drinking that.
