I developed folate deficiency (V2.3 contains more folate than in April 2017)

I don’t think there’s much lobbying when it comes to micronutrients, certainly not like there is with macronutrients. There isn’t as much of an industry surrounding any one given micronutrient for there to be such an issue.

Does anyone know the best folate a pregnant woman can take rather than folic acid? I seem to be aware of a number of babies born with lip/tongue issues, and a nurse suggested it might be related to taking folic acid.

I was thinking perhaps the natural form would be safer?

I have to say that @IcyElemental absolutely amazes me with his approach in gaining and sharing his knowledge on optimal nutrition.

So it seems that US, Canadian and Nordic recommendations all double the EU Folate recommendation. I will soon perform a blood screen and report back.

Adding the enzyme phytase could help here.

In oat/grain based animal foods, phytase is typically added to prevent phytic acid bonding to various minerals, rendering them unabsorbed and causing deficiencies.

Alternately, prepping your Huel then letting it sit overnight in the fridge will also reduce the phytic acid content.

Aside from a possible insuficient folate intake. Insuficient choline intake could be causing a depletion of folate because of their shared functions.
Acording with the most updated cientific opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the dietary reference values for choline and folate should be 400mg and 330ug per day, respectively.
Huel contains 200mg of choline and 200ug of folate per day. Therefore, a reduced intake of choline and/or folate could be causing your folate deficiency.
I sugest suplementing with both vitamins to achive these updated dietary reference values.

References
https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/dietary-reference-values-and-dietary-guidelines

2 Likes

Interesting. How is it possible that the EFSA doesn’t change the European DRVs?

I think european policy makers are waiting for EFSA to finish all DRVs updates (for ex., riboflabin and vitamin K DRVs evalutaion is not finished yet), and then make a new food labeling law that modifies all DRVs at once

Nice. Is there an easy to read EU DRV changelog for the updates available?
I couldn’t find any.

A question to Huel company: If the EU DRVs play a role to your nutritional
goals, do we have to wait for the european bureocracy to complete it’s job
or can you update the Huel formula regardless of the date of the official
modification of the DRVs?

They can update their formula as and when they please. However, if for example a nutrient was found to be harmful at the levels recommended by the EFSA, so they lowered it to reflect more updated knowledge, they couldn’t label it as 100% or higher, which would be an issue. Any change made would still have to use the EFSA values for percentages, and not hitting 100% in all of them could look bad and lose customers.

That is insanely low. I suspect you meant 5 g.

Yes, 5g, thank you for spotting that. I have edited the first post now to fix it.

It looks like the EU DRV will be increasing to 400μg/day of folate very soon given the EFSA findings. This means that all of the nutrition agencies recommend a higher amount than is present in Huel currently - looks like Huel will have to increase the amount of folate soon.

Where did you see the 400mcg value from the EFSA? I’d like to add the new recommendations to my spreadsheet (even though they’re waiting on a few values before release), so if you happen to have a link that would be fantastic.

Huel has already increased the amounts of other things when the latest research indicates the EU recommended amounts are incorrect, so perhaps they could do the same with folate.

I cannot find the one I saw before because it seems paywalled, but this one might suggest something:

https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/3893

They suggest 330ug/day, but I expect the EU DRV to get normalized to 400ug/day to correspond to the other nutritional agencies so that the same product can be labeled as 100% on all markets.

Hi again @rikefrejut - we’ve looked into this some more. As far as your serum folate result, there are a number of things to consider:

As you know, Huel contains both naturally-occurring folate from the food ingredients as well as added L-methylfolate calcium. This form of supplemental folate is the form of folate found in the blood and the ultimate form used in the many reactions in the body which require folate. Indeed, folic acid and other forms undergo metabolism into this ‘methyl’ form before transport in the blood or used in various reactions. Therefore, the amount of total folate found in Huel would be expected to be adequate for the majority of the population, as is intended by the EU NRV recommendation of 200μg.

There are several genetic mutations / variations which affect folate metabolism. Most of these should only be an issue for those using the folic acid form (because in these people, it can’t be easily metabolised to the useable ‘methyl’ form). This shouldn’t be an issue with Huel (as it’s the L-methylfolate form). However, there is undoubtedly other genetic components that govern absorption and requirements for folate. Some gastrointestinal conditions affect absorption. You may not have IBS or IBD but food absorption can occur on a graded scale between individuals due to any number of perturbations, including intolerances, low-grade inflammation, leaky gut, gut bacteria profile, etc.

As far as the use of the folic acid supplement advised by your doctor, this is a standard dosage, which is advised when patients present with folate deficiency and is intended to rapidly resolve the condition. It will not affect the absorption of other nutrients from Huel or be affected by the consumption of Huel. Folic acid is slightly better absorbed on an empty stomach, so as long as this is consistent with your doctor’s advice, it may be a good idea to take it between meals.

Again, thanks for your feedback; we need posts like this in order for us to continually review an further improve the formula :slight_smile:

1 Like

Similar scenario here: I’ve been using Huel for around 3-4 years for 2 meals per day, with a normal evening meal often of vegetables (broccoli, carrots, runner beans) and potatoes.

I recently did a https://thriva.co/ blood test and had low folate levels of 7.1 nmol/L.

I’ve since been taking 400µg of folic acid per day and am yet to do a re-test.

But I was pretty surprised to have been deficient in anything while on Huel, especially as it seems to have high levels of folate.

1 Like

You only get sufficient folate when eating 2000kcal/day of Huel.

You mention you only had it for 2 meals/day, which makes me assume that you did not eat 2000kcal/day of Huel. Therefore the rest of your diet has to make up the difference.

To any mods, perhaps best to lock this thread now? It discusses an older version of Huel, and the newer versions have fixed the issue for me.

Thanks, @rikefrejut

Agree as this was in reference to v2.1 / 2.2 - locked.