Is it really true Huel isn't missing anything?

As James as more than likely said before, Huel offers everything the body needs in line with the regulations applied in this country and in some cases a little more when we feel the amounts are outdated. It’s important to point out, in the comments about anti-oxidants, that we don’t promote Huel to be high in anti-oxidants, despite this being the case. C and E are essential vitamins and that is why they are in Huel. I agree that sometimes the benefits of antioxidants are a little exaggerated/inflated.

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It’s worth noting Jake, another powdered food, has just updated their formula to contain lycopene.

For anyone interested, this article discusses lutein, zeaxanthin and lycopene:
http://advances.nutrition.org/content/4/4/474.full

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I would be interested to give it a try, but Jake (light) and Nano have been the only powders that I simply could not finish.

http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2009/06/24/what-are-antioxidants-and-are-they-good-for-us-part-1/

Also: Ben Goldacre
Two large trials of antioxidants were set up after
Peto’s paper (which rather gives the lie to nutritionists’ claims that
vitamins are never studied because they cannot be patented: in fact
there have been a great many such trials, although the food supplement
industry, estimated by one report to be worth over $50 billion globally,
rarely deigns to fund them).

One was in Finland, where 30,000
participants at high risk of lung cancer were recruited, and randomised
to receive either ß-carotene, vitamin E, or both, or neither. Not only
were there more lung cancers among the people receiving the supposedly
protective ß-carotene supplements, compared with placebo, but this
vitamin group also had more deaths overall, from both lung cancer and
heart disease. The results of the other trial were almost worse. It was
called the ‘Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial’, or ‘CARET’, in honour
of the high p-carotene content of carrots.

It’s interesting to note, while we’re here, that carrots were the source of one of the great
disinformation coups of World War II, when the Germans couldn’t
understand how our pilots could see their planes coming from huge
distances, even in the dark. To stop them trying to work out if we’d
invented anything clever like radar (which we had), the British instead
started an elaborate and entirely made-up nutritionist rumour. Carotenes
in carrots, they explained, are transported to the eye and converted to
retinal, which is the molecule that detects light in the eye (this is
basically true, and is a plausible mechanism, like those we’ve already
dealt with): so, went the story, doubtless with much chortling behind
their excellent RAF moustaches, we have been feeding our chaps huge
plates of carrots, to jolly good effect. Anyway.

Two groups of people athigh risk of lung cancer were studied: smokers, and people who had been
exposed to asbestos at work. Half were given 3-carotene and vitamin A,
while the other half got placebo. Eighteen thousand participants were
due to be recruited throughout its course, and the intention was that
they would be followed up for an average of six years; but in fact the
trial was terminated early, because it was considered unethical to
continue it. Why? The people having the antioxidant tablets were 46 per
cent more likely to die from lung cancer, and 17 per cent more likely to
die of any cause,* than the people taking placebo pills. This is not
news, hot off the presses: it happened well over a decade ago.”


Ben Goldacre,

  Bad Science
Great Book by the way
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From what I’ve read, Beta Carotene is harmful if supplemented by smokers, but not harmful if supplemented by non-smokers.

This old chestnut, the claim made today in the Daily Mail that vitamin supplements increase cancer risk, is based on some spurious research, published in 1996, that happened to find that smokers during a beta-carotene study, had a higher rate of cancer. The non-smokers didn’t.

My point with this thread is to question and find out if I should settle with Huel, or if there are ANY benefits from trying competing products.
Also to question if there is anything I could add to Huel, to make it better for my body and health.
Obviously our bodies are all different and what works for me might not work for someone else, but that means the only to learn this, is to test it. Therefor I’m very interested if anyone have taken note on ingredients you think Huel is lacking or had good results mixing food supplements with Huel?

Even though I would like a cheap product (who wouldn’t?), my focus is manly on health (body and mind, and long term effects). IMO the food we eat is the worst place to cut down on quality only to save money.
My least concern is actually the taste. Better taste is not the reason I’m buying powdered food :wink:.
I’ve also learned that even if something tastes bad to begin with, my body is quite good at adapting and learning to like it, if it feels better after eating it. Much like you didn’t like certain vegetables as a child. I didn’t like the taste of Huel at first either, but now I sometimes crave it :slight_smile:

I’ve tried Jake before and my stomach didn’t feel so good on days where I only ate Jake. They got a new recipe, but I’m not sure if I will give it another go.
I’m now running on Huel Gluten Free (56 packs) and tried Huel Original (56 packs) before that.

I’d be very interested in learning more about the more expensive alternatives as well, that market themselves as “superfood”, “organic”, “whole food”, “real food”, “natural”, etc.
I’m taking about products like Ambronite (too expensive), Bertrand (will try next week!), Nutberg, VEXX, Veetal, 100percentfood, etc. and hope to settle if there is any benefit at all to these products over Huel or if I should stick with Huel.

Therefor I’m very interested in everyones experience with Huel and with these alternatives, and if you feel there’s anything Huel is missing.
I would also like to know if anyone can claim there is absolutely no benefit at all from using these more expensive alternatives over Huel, and why that is?

Best Regards
– Gabriel

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@Gabriel Great post! I admire your keen interest in the topic and your enthusiasm with which you are looking into the whole subject of health.

From what I’ve seen Huel is ahead (for me) on the macro balance, but I’d be interested to see what you find out. I’ve looked at Nano, Joylent, Soylent, Bertrand and Ambronite and as I recall the carb sources were inferior (overall, way too much sugar).

I can’t be bothered getting worked up about a tiny bit of extra salt in the latest formulation of Huel or the addition of fluoride (though I think the latter was scientifically unjustified as well as a sub-optimal business decision).

@Julian @JamesCollier Could you update us with any missing components of Huel v2.2 please.

Many Thanks

v2.2 is complete and meets requirements for all nutrients and more including phytonutrients and more.

Could you please consider to add lutein?

What plans do you have for huel in the future in terms of the ingredients?

Hi @l0rdraiden - Huel already contains added lutein: https://huel.com/pages/nutritional-information-and-ingredients#phyto

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I fully agree, especially with your second point. If you hadn’t said it, I would…

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Beautifully said, Quidditch