Low carb/Keto Huel

Lauren,

I find it baffling that you are repackaging already existing food products and selling them on as a new product. There are a few things:

  • We are not associated with you in any way
  • The health of your customers is entirely your responsibility, we cannot be held liable for anything once that product has been opened/repackaged/resold
  • Any foreign bodies/contaminants found in your product are your responsibility
  • You cannot, under any circumstances, use the trademark Huel on your eBay page - please remove all mentions of the word Huel immediately (images, words, links). We would advise you to just list the ingredients
  • We do not recommend anyone here purchases this product
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I’m glad you’re back!!

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I want to believe that Lauren wants to use her knowledge and ‘recipe’ to benefit others… But surely this could be achieved by blogging and posting ideas of recipes?

Repackaging and selling on a product that isn’t yours to sell… It just screams that there is a monetary reason rather than a ‘helping others’ reason, to me.

Christ almighty, is this what is classed as an entrepreneur these days? I’m so done…

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To be honest I think the ‘knowledge’ is as nonexistent as any altruism here. This young lady appears to be wanting to make money off the backs of others and going about it with a complete lack of insight.

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I’m inclined to agree… What Lauren doesn’t seem to understand is that she is potentially selling a product with undeclared allergens within it, too.

She hasn’t posted or noted any food safety certifications - so how can somebody be certain that this doesn’t now contain any allergens, from a non-sterile kitchen?

Very worrying indeed. I’d be a bit twitchy about things - even if I had the best intentions in the world, people may still be being placed needlessly at risk.

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If any harm were to come to anyone consuming Lauren’s ‘product’, Lauren herself would be held solely responsible. I dread to think how that might turn out.

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I see two scenarios and they both carry custodial sentences… I’d probably be removing the item and writing to Huel to apologise. I’d also not be sending anything to anyone if they’ve purchased it, too much risk.

No harm in blogging about experiences and discussing keto Huel options via blogs or forums IMO… But this current method seems really dangerous to me.

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The recipe wasn’t even hers, she sort of copied it from James’ low carb hack. I say sort of, because although she claims it’s his recipe, she made a fundamental mistake by substituting a key ingredient for a completely different ingredient, due to her ignorance, which rendered the macros calculated by James null and void. She has no knowledge or expertise to share. Even if she doesn’t accidentally contaminate any of the ingredients whilst repackaging it, it’s against eBay listing policies to sell products like this. Plus it goes against the trade descriptions act on two counts (it is not a keto meal, nor is it a complete food).
There are just too many mistakes she’s making to even know where to start listing them.
I don’t think Tim needs to worry about any of us being daft enough to buy ‘her product’.

By the way, I’ve just invented a new drink.
It’s totally legit. I’ve taken Coca-Cola and Red-bull and mixed it together. It’s great because you get a triple caffeine hit.
It’s called Cock’n’Bull and is only £10 per 100ml, sent to you in a clear resealable zip-lock bag. I have all the certificates, so you don’t have to worry. And the brands are super supportive and I have trade accounts and everything.
If you would like to buy this amazing product, just DM me and I will send you a link. Please also include your bank details, mailing address and mothers maiden name as I will use this as your password when I set up your subscription.
Happy New Year :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Also interested in high carb low fat (vegan) option.

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Untitled

Just because something is low carb does not mean it is ketogenic. And you are still calling it Keto Huel in the table. And you’re still using a photo of Huel in your search listing advert.

I’m giving up now. Natural selection can take over from here.

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@LaurenMcG you know you can get sued, right?
Especially as you have been instructed by @Tim_Huel to remove all images and references to Huel.
Huel copyright aside, you cannot call this ketogenic because it’s not.
Seriously, we are all trying to help you out here.
This. Idea. Isn’t. A. Good. Idea.
Just take down your listing and go back to your day job.
Jeeeeez

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I changed and/or took them down days ago, and are off my listings, so can only assume they’ll be completely off soon.

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Keto Huel is still up there, thanks Coup, didn’t ctrl+f the page.

Lauren remove the mention of Huel from the page entirely.

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I’m a little late to see this as I’ve taken some time away from the industry for the Christmas/New Year period to relax.

I’m not going to delve into the pros and cons of this particular product - enough others have pointed out their issues with it that my take isn’t going to add much. I like the thought behind the product more than most here seem to, but there are obviously issues like others have said.

What I will go into a little more detail on is the question of whether a keto version of Huel is possible without other issues.

On the market currently (almost exclusively in the US) are three main types of complete ketogenic meal replacements (in powder form).

  1. Add-your-own fats.
    These options come with the protein, fibre, vitamins, minerals and electrolytes (tailored for ketosis) and a very low-carb content, but also a very low-fat content. The intention here is to add your own fats in the form of either oils (eg avocado, light olive, rapeseed etc) or double/heavy cream.
    This leads to an overall cheaper price than fats-included options and allows you to customise your calorie intake without sacrificing nutrient intake, but this obviously comes at the cost of convenience, as you have to add more than just water, as well as purchase your fat source separately and choose which you want (as well as refrigerate if you’re using double cream).
    Examples of this would be Ketochow and Keto Fuel. This is also our preferred type as, while it has its issues, those issues aren’t nutritional ones.

  2. Powder + pre-bottled oil blend.
    This ships as a powder with a bulk bottle of different oils mixed to give a good ratio of different types of fats. The oil you get with the powder is, I believe, enough to give you an intake of ~1800 calories per day. You can, of course, use more or less for a different calorie intake, but you’d then either have extra oil or extra powder at the end.
    This has largely the same benefits and issues as the add-your-own fats type of product, with the exception of a) being more expensive, and b) not having to purchase your fat source from elsewhere.
    As far as I’m aware, the only example of this type is KetoOne, but I may be wrong on that.

  3. Fats included in the powder.
    On the surface, this appears ideal for the consumer due to convenience reasons. However, I am opposed to this from a nutritional standpoint generally (sounds weird but I’ll explain). On a ketogenic diet, you want to aim for a macronutrient ratio with ~60+% fats. Fat sources suitable for a powdered meal replacement are surprisingly uncommon. The way most non-ketogenic products achieve this is by powdering oils with maltodextrin. Ketogenic options can’t do this because maltodextrin is a carb, and powdering enough oil to get an adequate fat intake for keto would require way too much maltodextrin to get into ketosis.
    The only other powdered ingredients with a high fat content to my knowledge are nuts, seeds and coconut. Nuts and seeds can be great ingredients in smaller amounts if milled to a small enough size, but almost universally, with the intakes you need for keto, you’d see your omega 6 levels getting way too high (the exception to this is macadamia nut, which is low in polyunsaturated fat levels so is a perfect candidate here). Nuts also, obviously, increase the allergenicity of a product substantially. Coconut is another good option, but unfortunately you can’t use isolated coconut oil (for powderising reasons), which basically leaves the next best choice being coconut milk powder (desiccated coconut as per the low-carb hack works better nutritionally (same fat content, lower carb content), but the texture is extremely unpleasant when in a shake in my experience - coconut milk powder is the way to go here). This is usually around 60-65% fat and 20% carbs. Unfortunately, that carb content is too high to get the fat content you need for keto (~150+g per day at minimum).
    The obvious benefit to this type is that it’s the most convenient - you just need to add water, you don’t need to worry about fat sources. The issues are as described above, and these are also the most expensive options.
    Examples of this style include Biolent Keto (highest carb content of the options listed at 40g per 2000 calories as prepared, and over 30 grams of omega 6 alone) and Primalkind (which I really like - it’s one that uses macadamia nut meal so the polyunsaturated fat content is low. Unfortunately it’s completely out of stock due to the owner of the company taking time out to take part in clinical trials as he has cancer).

So that is a (not so) brief summary on the different styles of powdered ketogenic meal replacement on the market, and my opinions of the pros and cons of each. There are a couple of ready-to-drink options (one in the US, also by KetoOne, and one in Australia from Aussielent), but these are either not currently available or don’t ship to the UK at all (and they’re also by far the most expensive options I believe).

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Thank you @IcyElemental
Not being very knowledgeable myself on keto, I didn’t know how to explain to Lauren how / why her product was not as she was describing it to be, except in very simplistic terms.

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Oh in the simplest of terms, to be in keto you need to consume <50g of net carbs per day (though some need to go as <25g net carbs per day), net carbs being total carbs minus fibre (though nutritional labels in the UK and EU already show net carbs as the ‘carbohydrate’ total so no substitution is necessary).

So for designing a keto meal replacement product, assume someone uses it for all their calories (up to, say, 2000 calories), and ensure at that intake level the net carb content is <50g, or ideally <25g.

There are more intricacies when it comes to electrolyte levels as you need a lot more sodium on keto than normally for example, but the main requirement is carb content.

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Here is some artist impression of the product.

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Thanks for the detailed keto product overview Joe :slight_smile: Which do your ketogenesis fall under?
Also, I’m curious as to why the carb macros should be replaced by fats and not protein - what is the maximum diet macro % that can be protein?

Jesus Christ.

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