My Experience - Bad!

By your comment it surely does not seem like you do! Take this seriously. My business, turns over £8 million a year and I would want to find the soloution to the apparent number 1 reason of losing custom. I would employ extra staff to get this null and void. Just think if you are losing just 1000 customers a year (which I’m sure will be the bear minimum) that’s about £600,000 a year not small change.

@GFK I’m not convinced the issue is with Huel but more likely people’s individual constitution. Maybe people’s guts aren’t used to the high fibre. Or maybe it’s genetic predisposition to not tolerate certain ingredients. I don’t really know. I just know that as someone who consumes Huel for convenience and not because my diet was previously bad, I haven’t had any gut issues whatsoever.
Before Huel I had porridge with flaxseed, almonds, coconut and pea protein for breakfast every day for years.
Changing to a breakfast of Huel instead made absolutely no difference to my gut health - I had no flatulence, no changes in bowel habits and no digestive issues at all.

I have friends who also didn’t have any noticeable change to their gut or bowel health when introducing Huel into their diet.

This makes me think it’s not a generalised issue with Huel but that maybe it just doesn’t suit some individuals, and others may need time to adjust to a very different diet.

Personally I am unable to tolerate dairy, gluten and bananas.
Everyone has certain foods they don’t tolerate well - sometimes it’s minor reactions, sometimes it’s very severe.
No food is going to suit 100% of the population.
If a certain food doesn’t suit you personally, and you’ve tried introducing it slowly and tried probiotics and other foods or supplements that can improve overall digestive health, but that particular food still causes significant problems, then it’s best to avoid it.
It’s inconvenient when a food causes unwanted symptoms, but that’s just the way it is.

Huel is about as hypoallergenic as it can be, but there will always be a small minority unable to tolerate one or more ingredients - it would be impossible to create a food that no one was intolerant to.
Rice for example is about as hypoallergenic as you can get and yet I know someone that cannot tolerate even one grain. It’s strange. But just the way it is…

I wish I could eat bananas, because they are a fantastic, convenient, healthy, high carb, high potassium, natural food that comes in its own perfect wrapper… but if I even touch one I get really sick for 48 hours - sweating, severe pain, cramps, diahorrea, skin rash, difficulty breathing, headaches and vomiting. It’s a bummer. Sometimes I feel like getting angry at the banana trees. Especially because I really like the taste of bananas and so every few years I try again to eat a banana only to find I’m still unable to tolerate it.

Fortunately I’m fine with Huel.
I hope you’re okay with bananas :banana: otherwise biology is being really unfair to you

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As you can see, my comment was a reply to Ian’s where he tagged me in and was linking the farting to climate change. I responded with another tongue-in-cheek comment. (It’s kinda lost when you have to justify it…)

We do take this seriously and we are investigating the issue. However, it’s not simple. Some people clearly react with wind from having Huel powder, others, who previously had gut issues, actually claim that having Huel makes them feel better. So, in all honesty, just looking into this issue is hard. And we would have to mitigate any risk if we were to implement something for risk of possibly helping some people, but upsetting others: we could win 1000 but lose another 1000.

A good place to start would be to see how big a problem this really is by collecting data from reported issues (eg forum, social media, customer service). We’ve done this and the results were, I think, unrealistic (too low).

I think (and this is the problem: I’m making assumptions) that for the majority of people who start Huel and report gut intolerance issues, it’s a case of the gut microbiome adjusting to a new diet with a higher or different fibre profile. But I accept that many people also report to have had Huel a while and they get gut issues. Why? I really, really don’t know.

I get why you would ‘wish that Huel would deal with the flatulence issue’ and I wish it were that simple, but it simply isn’t. It would be a major win for everyone, including us.

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I have been in touch with huel regarding this subject for some time & they have says they are researching regarding this problem. So it’s clearly “a problem” also 2 other people a mother and daughter I recommended to huel have now also since last week finished this due to this problem. There was also a debate on here about with people suggesting coconut spray etc etc. I have all my life ate healthy I’m 48 now, tried all the shakes, I have twice daily salmon at 30g protein 150g of greens & 150g of sweet potato. My wife is Kenyan our children are mixed race their guts and hers can handle anything except the huel

May I just say though. I am not knocking huel but i am disappointed as I felt great taking huel it really was the BEST meal for feel good factor I have tried to date. But when you can’t go anywhere or have meetings at work etc then this becomes a problem as it was for my 2 friends the mother and daughter as they work with the public

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I do get that James! My point exactly!
How you had the energy and time to make a joke with somebody else! but not on a professional stand point of addressing my own comment to this problem! It shows that it is taking literally tongue and cheek and yet I would still recommend huel as the BEST meal for feeling good in my 30 years of eating healthy and trying to keep fit. Dats is easy the people who don’t buy again you just set up a standard mail chimp email asking why they didn’t with a quick 10 second tick box reply

I didn’t read the whole thread, to be honest - only as to what Ian was referring to. I will always make time and energy for jokes as I love humour.

It’s actually no where near as easy as that. Asking prompted question gives skewed and unreliable answers. Plus many people don’t answer and those who do often are those who had a strong reason (eg gut issues) which would massively skew results.

Anyway, I was just quickly pointing out that it’s very hard. We do fully acknowledge there is an issue and we are looking in to it - but we need to do it right.

I apologise for coming across that I wasn’t taking this seriously.

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Everyones different - took 6 months for my stomach to get used to a vegan diet (which is essentially what Huel is) but since then don’t suffer with stomach aches, whereas this used to be a regular occurrence. So when I started Huel in March it didn’t really have a huge effect on me as my body was already used to more plant proteins. Unfortunately wind is quite a normal human thing to do :sweat_smile: (embarrassingly so) …

Does it actually cause pain/cramping for you?

I think Huel need to get ‘to the bottom’ of this issue. I’m thinking of cancelling my next order and coming off huel, due to this issue.

Hi Jon

Sorry to hear this. How long have you been having gut issues and how long have you been having Huel? How much Huel do you have?

I will also be writing to my local curry house and ask that they consider research into producing curry that has no effect on my insides thanks

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Sorry to @JamesCollier for getting him in trouble :roll_eyes: for my joke about Huel farts and climate change and his joke reply. Even though it was a joke about Huel farts and climate change and NOT a joke about anyone suffering with it.

I had it for a few weeks after starting Huel but settled down then but if it hadn’t and was causing problems I would of stopped Huel and tried something else. @ChristinaT says it all really, people are different and can effect people differently, I am sure some people who are ok with Huel have this problem with other brand shakes. It’s good Huel are looking into it but may never find the answer just that it’s how some peoples bodies react to Huel just like other foods may do. @ChristinaT likes her polls and is really good at them if you want to get some idea how bad flatulence is with Huel on here :wink:

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The problem with polls like this is that they both invite a response and also do not allow for the degree of any effect. For example: have you experienced wind following Huel? I bet 90% of us have. I bet 90% of us have following any high protein, high fibre meal too. So results can give a skewed perception of a problem.

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@Ian42 so you managed to persuade me to do a chocolate poll, but then I can be persuaded to do pretty much anything chocolate related :grin: and chocolate Huel is my top interest / priority :laughing:
All this talk of farting and sharting though… puzzles me and I’m not very interested (sorry). I guess because I have no problems, it’s hard for me to understand what all the fuss is about…

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I would rather fart than be bloated and not be able to. My innards are nicely in balance these days, thanks to Huel

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A card for all your friends

Thanks for your post. My husband is allergic to nickel so I am interested to know the conclusion of the tests.

@Acuflower here you go…

Hi,

I thought I’d follow up on this after googling around for some similar symptoms. I started using Huel a week or two ago and I absolutely love it. Recently I’ve been getting nausea, tight chest, hot flushes and palpitations. I thought it was Covid but the tests always come back negative. These symptoms arrived around the same time that I started using Huel but interestingly I also get them if I take a ‘comprehensive’ multi-vitamin (tried it as an alternative). The symptoms go away once I stop using either. So it’s not Huel causing these symptoms in my case, it’s a common ingredient/mineral/vitamin.

As some background I used to have a huge caffeine intake, often chugging drinks like Monster which have relatively high levels of B12. I decided to drastically reduce my caffeine intake and invest in drinking something healthy e.g. Huel. Looks like it’s a process of elimination now but I’ll be focussing on vitamins B (pernicious anaemia etc) and D.

If you’ve only been using huel for a few weeks you are not going to have had too much vitamin D and you cannot have too much B12.

Pernicious anemia takes a long time to manifest and wouldn’t have been caused by just a few weeks on Huel.

With regards to the symptoms being anything else in Huel and/or vitamin tablets I am not able to advise.

Some of those symptoms can be caused by caffeine, but if you’ve been cutting down gradually it’s unlikely to be that.