The mint chocolate flavour sounds good - but if you were deciding purely on nutritional grounds which flavour to go for, would unflavoured/vanilla be a healthier option? Or is there really no difference?
Likewise with the flavour boosts, is it generally regarded as these being a treat to add, or do they really not impact the nutrient quantities you’re getting and general healthiness in any meaningful way?
Probably a very dumb question, but I find it hard to believe that caramel flavouring for example can be equally as good for you as unflavoured. Any thoughts on this would be really helpful, as I actually really like the vanilla and would be happy sticking with it if the sweet-sounding flavour boosts aren’t quite as good for you.
Nutrition-wise they are all identical.
The only difference is that by having pre-mixed flavours eg Vanilla or Berry, you are consuming sucralose and flavourings. Some people believe these are ‘unhealthy’, but the science doesn’t seem to back this up. I personally react adversely to chemicals and additives but get on fine with flavoured Huel. If you want to read up on it, the Huel website has some articles on the ingredients including why they chose sucralose and why it doesn’t have the same negative health effects as other sweetners.
The flavour boosts contain Stevia rather than sucralose, so if you prefer natural sweeteners, the UU plus flavour boosts is a better option.
To put simply - they are all healthy. None contain anything bad for you. And the nutrition in all is the same.
So it’s just a matter of personal preference as to whether you want to avoid all sweeteners.
If you do want to stick to UU, it is easily flavoured using instant coffee, cacao powder, fruit etc - search the forum for lots of recipe ideas!
Also, just to clarify: Vanilla isn’t the same as Unflavoured. Unflavoured has no sweetener, Vanilla has sucralose.
If you want to avoid sucralose, then Unflavoured plus flavour boosts is better.
But, if you are getting on fine with Vanilla, then you are obviously not having any adverse reaction to sucralose, so you might as well enjoy the other premixes as well
And try the flavour boosts!
The caramel, mocha, cacao, and mint-choc are delicious
I mix Original with Unflavoured, as do many of us here, which cuts the Sucralose down while still being sweet (enough for me.) As @ChristinaT says, they’re all nutritionally pretty much the same, so the flavours are a matter of personal taste.
I thought the same as you when I started. It must make more sense to add the flavour to the U/U, so bought some for that exact purpose.
However the flavours are almost designed to go with vanilla to provide the base. You can do them with U/U but you end up adding more flavour to taste it.
So feel free to give it a go, but I’d not get U/U for flavours unless you really don’t like the taste with vanilla+flavour or want to have a really subtle flavour.
I personally prefer UU or original with the flavour boosts, as I really dislike the taste of the vanilla which isn’t disguised by the flavours.
Vanilla plus instant coffee is quite nice though
Your question isn’t a simple one since it is subjective what one might consider “healthy” or “unhealthy” and the desirable/undesirable factors that associate.
For example, several of the flavor boosts contain Maltodextrin, an artificial sweetener that has a particularly high GI causes your blood sugar levels to spike, if you are on doing Huel as a diabetic or to lose weight, then those flavor boosts are particularly bad.
The mint chocolate does not contain Maltodextrin and is sweetened with Steviol Glycoside (Stevia) which probably has the best reputation of all artificial sweeteners; I would consider it a good flavor boost if you like it.
The thing is, the flavor boosts do not have any positive effects beyond taste so ideally you would want to find something that improves the flavor while offering more nutrition.
I didn’t realise the flavour boosts contained maltodextrin - I thought it was just Stevia, so thanks for pointing that out.
That said, I’ve been using the flavour boosts in my Huel every day for months now without any negative impact on my blood sugar levels (which I monitor).
The amount of flavour boost to Huel powder is tiny - maybe 2%, so it’s not like the entire carbohydrate source is coming from maltodextrin which would have a terrible impact for people with diabetes. The maltodextrin is just tiny amount for flavouring and is unlikely to change the low GI (27?) of HueI by much at all.
