Liver Health?

I’ve searched on this site and found a few posts about liver health and Huel, but none really addressing the question I have.

Background: I’ve been using Huel (powder) for the past year or so and love it. I eat healthy, homemade food and augment my diet with 600cal of Huel in the mornings for breakfast and sometimes again in the evening after working out - in total, 3-5 scoops per day (600-1000 cal from Huel). I am a parent and busy balancing two careers right now, so Huel has really helped me to not skip breakfast or go to bed hungry. My goal has been to slowly get up into a healthier weight. When I’m stressed and busy, I tend to skip meals and my weight suffers. I’ve been able to gain 15 lbs back in the past 18 months or so and am getting to a much better weight for me and my fitness level (working out 5-6 days per week).

My question: Huel is “nutritionally-balanced”, but are there long-term negative effects on the liver or kidney? Our bodies are not meant to handle processed foods and, instead, we should be eating healthy, natural foods. Certainly, we can adapt to short-term changes but, over the long run, is this healthy and sustainable on our bodies?

For the first time in my life, I have been able to get into a diet routine that seems to be working really well (I love Huel) and I just want to make sure this is a healthy solution to continue long-term.

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Hi Nate,

I’m not really sure what you’re asking here.

Processed foods is a super broad term. Tinned tomatoes, prepared chicken salad, a fruit smoothie are all processed foods.

There’s no evidence that processed foods have negative effects on the liver or kidney. If you’ve read something send it over and I will be happy to have a look at it.

This also doesn’t mean much. There are hundreds of mushroom species that our ancestors once thought were food but then their friend ate one and died.

Have you checked out our article on processing and nutrition?

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Citation needed.

citation_needed
(source: xkcd: Wikipedian Protester )

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Lol nicely put. I do like mushrooms I remember as a kid going mushroom picking with my Grandad in farmers fields really early about 6am lol. Lovely fresh mushrooms for breakfast.

My opinion here is that it is too early to know about the effects of processed foods (or Huel). So far there appears to be no issues. There is however literature and an evidence base that processed processed meats and foods cooked to charred or burnt may cause colorectal cancers, liver cancers and liver problems. However some of the research have limitations of population size and ‘poor’ validity.

I’d say that Huel doesn’t have any effect on the liver unless you replace 500ml of water with vodka.

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