Hi. I’m a bit confused. Huel is made up of 7 ingredients oats, rice protein, pea protein, sunflower, flaxseed, coconut MCTs, plus a vitamin and mineral blend.
Many companies relish in stating words like organic or sourced from natural produce, so when it is listed vitamin and mineral blend only, then goes on to list the Vitamins and minerals contained within alarm bells ring. For me (especially as it not stated on the pack of Huel itself) this can only mean the vitamin and minerals added are synthetic right? Just like most shop bought vitamins and minerals which have no health benefits. It confuses me as the top 6 ingredients are all pretty natural so why not find a couple more super foods e.g spirilina et al…and complete the mineral and vitamin blend with pure natural produce? I find if something isn’t easily replicated at home with natural ingredients I tend to stay away. Also, why is Huel 40:30:30 split?it seems a bit high in fat and protein and low in carbs…when It seems the more healthy approach could be 80:10:10?I don’t get it. Huel is a new nutritional product using old nutritional info isn’t it? Check google out. Most mainstream nutritionists advise 40:30:30 split and most people within the mainstream should be ignored.
You say on you’re website " for many micronutrients, levels higher than the RNI may have beneficial effects to health." and you go on to explain how recommended daily allowances of many vitamins in our society are too low so you have increased them for added effectiveness in huel. This also confuses me as you go against the pharma mainstream way of thinking and are consciously aware that we are being misguided with low doses but on the flip side there are synthetic vitamins in huel and western diet mimicking ratios. If true this equilibrium wouldn’t be for me.
The argument that mainstream nutritionists should be ignored is confusing because it’s not based on science? What are you basing your ‘healthy’ argument on? And how do you think the body distinguishes between ‘fake’ and ‘real’ vitamins?
It usually does. Our bodies have developed over millions of years to accept vitamins and minerals from plants and fruits, replicating it in a lab is not the same for obvious reasons. I don’t accept GMO’s, processed food, fluoride, high unnatural amounts of sucrose or salt so why would you want man made vitamins? Stick with nature. She knows best!
Yeah sure. Google 80:10:10. Its a raw food lifestyle, getting 80% of carbs from fruits. Most animals on the planet do it. If you think about it a fruit is a gift to you. A gift that has been developed over millions of years through symbiotic evolution. The tree or plant see you as a mobile seeding, compost station so delivers you a high vitamin parcel encasing the seed. It’s a two way gifting street. An animal isn’t a gift for you to eat and why spoil your fruit or veg gift by covering it in oil and frying it?uncooked veg and fruit, to me seem like the right choice. Plus no more plastic packaging. All natural fruit packaging is great for compost to make more fruit!!!can’t go wrong really.
If it’s not based on science like you say then shouldn’t it be ignored?My healthy argument is based on nature. A lot of animals eat, uncooked fruit in large quantities on a daily basis. I really don’t think we need 60% of our intake to be protein and fat. Doesn’t even sound healthy reading it back.
The same people pushing this ratio have got to be the same people with investments in the food and pharma industries. These statements pushed in our society are not for the benefit or health of all but usually the gains of a few. For example and I know it’s a silly simple one: eating 3 meals a day…ridiculous isn’t it? eat when you’re hungry…eat more if you’re more active that day…eat as much as you like if you’re a fruitarian …you meals have to adapt each day just like you do. Implant 3 meals a day in the mass consciousness and we find people going food crazy.
You’ll find a lot of people saying 80:10:10 is bad but then think to yourself why…who would be loosing out if everyone ate food everyday grown in their garden? What would happen if every chocolate bar and drum of cooking oil just sat on the shelves not being bought?Or if peoples health sky rocketed and they hardly got sick…who would lose out?
how do you think the body distinguishes between ‘fake’ and ‘real’ vitamins?
definitely know it likes the real ones more!!I’ve never heard of some going on the raw synthetic vitamin diet(sponsored by Boots)…would you live only off synthetic vitamins bought from Boots/superdrug if the body can’t distinguish between the two?your body can definitely “feel” the difference anyhow.trust nature, trust your body when it speaks to you.
“The way these compounds are made is not remotely similar to the metabolic processes that plants and animals use to create them. The finished product is also usually a compound not exactly the same form as any found in nature. These synthetic vitamins, according to a multitude of studies, are not as bioavailable, absorbable, or usable. These “virtually identical” vitamins are not what we find in natural foods, not recognizable to the body, hard on the kidneys, and can often be treated as toxins.”
For every argument for something, there will always be an argument against.
I cannot say that 40:30:30 is better or worse than 80:10:10, I merely offer the link as balance to the suggestion that we google it by way of your reference (Google references 4% of actual internet availability), but I’m more than happy with what Huel provides for me and the positive effect it has had on my life.
I very much appreciate your promotion of a raw healthy lifestyle - if it is something that you already follow I’m unsure as to what your interest in Huel is?
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve bought Huel a few times and I think its a great energy boosting supplement. It had a very positive effect on my life as well. I’ve recently switched over to a Fruitarian diet. I’m just questioning where the vitamins and minerials to form this blend come from in Huel and it sounds synthetic to me. My partner still buys Huel so I just started questioning. I would have bought the other six ingredients separately in the past and added spirulina, camu camu and others. I just think that if this is a complete food it could be made completely natural rather than a dubious blend of the unknown.
Personally I add chia seeds and maca and I’m interested in spirulina and chlorella but need to research more.
I would suggest that all the additions we mention come at a premium cost especially when certified organic and if added to Huel as part of the product may increase the cost to make it unattractive to consumers.
I completely take your point concerning natural v synthetic vitamins but without knowing their make up I cannot really make further comment.
Certainly I would trust a vitamin blend from a reliable source over a multi-vit tablet from a high street outlet (and I know as I type that it’s a question of who is classed as a reliable source) but more especially when there is a propensity to add colour and fillers to tablets for no reason other than to make them consumer attractive.
How are you finding fruitarian if you don’t mind me asking?
I forgot about maca. I’ll check it out. Chia seeds are really good and in the past have ground it up added water and used it as an egg binding substitute.
That is true it would probably cost more adding a natural blend of vitamins. I’m quite interested now to find out whether or not it could be done, that is to mix together a few super food powders and maybe have something like 6 times you daily requirement of vitamins contained. I might try it out at the 80:10:10 ratio. Spirulina, chia seeds,camu camu powder would definitely be in there, a few of the huel ingredients and maybe a couple of high carb powdered fruits to get the 40 ratio up to an 80. I Might do a bit of research and try if possible to make it for my partner.
That’s the thing. What or where is a reliable source of synthetic vitamins?and are these vitamins reliable if they are synthetic? Hopefully someone from huel will reply because we don’t know if they are yet. It just sounded strange to me when read out with the other 6 ingredients.
I always knew microwaves were bad but used them anyway. Same with fluoride, cooking oils etc I went onto look at how cooking food can destroy many of the nutritional values of foods and thought it was a bit of a dis to cooked something that has evolved perfectly for us to just twist off a tree or bush.Also took a look at Carcinogens and chemicals produced by cooking that your body doesn’t know what to do with and decided enoughs enough.
It’s going well thanks. I’m not going to lie. It was quite tough at first. It was a slow transition though. Stopped eating meat and processed foods about 6 months ago, then stopped dairy, chocolate, then stopped eating cooked food. Went on to eat many bananas and my 10% fat came from nuts, I think protein in bananas is around 6% and incorporated huel for a month. I did notice a big energy improvement. I now eat around 18+ bananas a day, a couple frozen mangos(tastes just like ice cream) I still have some nuts and an avocado here and there for extra fat but rarely and any other high water content fruit I can get my hands on.
I’ve really noticed a difference. More energy, much easier to get up in the morning, no hunger pains because you can eat until you’re full every time as a medium banana is around a 120 calories. bananas are great to digest too.
The way I’ve been looking at it now are through the eyes of my African land snails. They eat all types of raw fruit and veg but they prefer high water content fruit. Basically, the greater the similarity between the fruit and the soft body of the snail, the more likely they are to eat it. It makes sense really. We’re made up of 70+% water so why not eat food with 70+% water. They love bananas, cucumbers, melons, mangos. When I look at them I see them as natures nutritionist truth tellers…well let’s just say they find it hard to lie. When I see nature replicating this over and over again I guess you could say I started to feel left out so cut everything out slowly. I felt that my previous diet had been misguidedly taught to me or pushed in my face on the high street and it was something I felt needed to align more with nature
Sorry to not respond sooner, busy busy at the Huel towers.
Some vitamins are synthetic yes, but this doesn’t mean they’re not effective. Some vitamins and minerals are more bioavailable than others, but that’s the same for vitamins in minerals from foods as well. There are other limiting factors too from natural foods. Phytic Acid for example can limit iron absorption, but is found in a number of natural foods, so just because they’re natural doesn’t mean they’re inherently better, though I’m certainly not going to say they’re worse either!
But as JJMC said it does also come down to cost. You can make a product that is entirely from food sources, and there actually is one called Ambronite. However, it costs £8.55 per 500 kcals compared to Huels £1.64, so the cost is a huge factor in this. Synthetic vitamins and minerals are more than suitable for ensuring you get the nutrition your body needs.
No worries.Thanks for the response. Yeah JJMC thought it might be the cost of the product. I’d have to say nature usually is inherently better you’ve just got to consume more of it!
I’m sorry I’d have to disagree that Synthetic vitamins and minerals are more than suitable for bodily nutrition. I found out years ago that shop bought vitamins are very low dosage and are chemically different than it’s natural counterpart and it’s just not that beneficial to the body so I don’t know why they are still turning up in modern supplements promoting health. I know synthetic grass isn’t as good to play sports on, artificial intelligence are malevolent beings portrayed in most films and the very words artificial and synthetic are the acts of mimicking what is already true. Nothing that is artificial is ever just as good or better. Nature is unmimicable. the bee and fly will always be better than the plane and the same with vitamins and minerals from the same source.
I still can’t see how huel can say it’s a nutritionally complete food when part of it’s make up is synthesised. That’s not nutritionally complete in my opinion anyhow. Ambronite sounds interesting. It says on their website “packed with goodness and free from artificial nasties.” Even they call them nasties. It probably cost that price to buy from the Ambronite company but probably not as much to buy in bulk the separate ingredients for home. Is it of similar ingredients to Huel plus natural vitamins and minerals? I wonder what they use?
From a companies perspective I guess the good thing about this vitamin and mineral blend is that it makes it difficult to replicate it from home!
That’s fine, debate and disagreements are healthy and great! I don’t believe artificial means bad, just as I don’t think natural means good! You can get a unique vitamin and mineral blend to make Huel up at home, it is just very expensive and a total pain!
I live off of bananas mostly so I guess the real debate could be are the statistics out there on nutrition there to make us continually eat and buy food, become unhealthy, dying sooner or actually there to help. I’d go with option one. If I went to a doctor and told him my diet he would say I’ve got an obsessive food disorder and to eat 40:30:30 yet deep down I feel great and this isn’t the case. For me statistics are all wrong just do what feels good, right for you and readily available to you in terms of fruit. Those statistics include synthetic vitamins and minerals in my opinion. I’d buy natural ingredients to mix at home not a blend but the problem is trusting any nutritional info.
Artificial is usually the unnatural replica of the original so usually is bad or usually not as good anyhow. I’m still confused as to why apparently its so easy and cheap to have nutritionally complete meals everyday yet if you want to make a powdered health supplement that is complete the price sky rockets. can’t many different natural cheap fruits be powdered along with a few super foods to make it complete? It seems more of a struggle to make a supplement complete than a meal.
Ambronite contains 18 natural ingredients 5 of them you could grow in your own back yard! The other ingredients are very similar to yours with a few things added including nuts and berries. That wouldn’t cost a lot to replicate at all. I wouldn’t buy it though just replicate it as their split is also 40:30:30. I can see the danger of being an organic( naturally sourced company) you can replicate it easily but that’s a good thing for us because I don’t need a laboratory, goggles and a white coat to do it! There is really no need for synthetic vitamins when we live on a planet riddled with nutrition.
The only reasons I can think of synthetic vitamins being useful are for companies. 1) They may be able to patient certain chemicals like they do with GMO’s seeds and chemicals. 2) probably cheaper to make than extracting from nature. 3) Not as effective towards humans so we need to buy more of it. 4) some may be detrimental to human health so more vitamin consumption is needed for a “cure” to this ill health. I can’t think of any benefit for human consumption apart from that it’s more readily available than it’s counterpart but that doesn’t help. Arsenic was readily available in the 1800’s and so was gout.
I’m going to have to bypass Huel this time I’m afraid. For me it’s either totally artificial with bright packaging, pictures of fruits, pictures of healthy people smiling back at you on the front and all the bells and whistles to draw you in or 100% natural. The mixture of the two doesn’t appeal to me. If you think about it I’d be paying for the part I can’t replicate which is the not needed synthetic vitamin blend. Not to be harsh but the other 6 ingredients in Huel are cheaper to buy in bulk online. There’s 27 vitamins and minerals in Huel. Even if half have been synthesised it’s still a lot. 23 vitamins and minerals are listed on the back of the pack underneath where it says vitamin and mineral blend. That must mean 23 of the 27 vitamins are synthesised right?! Don’t get me wrong. It’s a great supplement, gave me loads of energy and tastes great as a porridge or shake but reading the ingredients in Ambronite I’d rather trust adding ingredients I’ve grown or picked locally with a few ingredients from Huel plus some of my own. Thankyou. Huel’s been most helpful though but more as a help into transitioning into health than incorporating it into a truly natural, healthy lifestyle.
