Not impressed with today’s article in Wired.
It is clear she didn’t like the products much. Particularly Huel.
She brings certain concerns out, like getting tired of the flavour, taste etc that are subjective. However, they are going to be cases that people are going to feel like that.
Besides this, it seems that she has tried to contact some experts and ask them about the nutritional aspect, which is fair enough.
The twist in all this is that it seems that she has only included the arguments from one side. Thus the narrative is really biased and the overall article feels like a click bait headline with a little content, but not very well researched.
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Well put. My thoughts exactly.
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Yeah thought this was an interesting one. Obviously as people say, all PR is good PR but there were a few lines that intrigued me.
"To sum up: I quite liked both Soylent and Huel, but not for too long. And I agree with Lawson that while “cracking open a bottle of these products feels easy, throwing a pre-cooked salmon fillet, a cold sweet potato and a few salad leaves on a plate is just as quick — and far better for you.”
I mean, the comparison is to RTD (“cracking a bottle”), so that takes a second. Perhaps they’re buying precooked salmon in the supermarket and precooked sweet potato, but it just seems like a strange comparison.
It also seems like nutritionists who review Huel miss that Huel is made of food, like oats and flaxseed. So we aren’t “recreating nutrients” apart from the 26% that are synthetic.
Ho hum, what do y’all think?
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Goes to the fridge for morning mint choc Huel goodness
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Agreed. There were multiple lines that threw me off. That being one of them. Everything seem rather vague and lazy.
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“And far better for you” - really? According to who?
Lazy journalism in the free media age
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How does 26% synthetic compare to other types of meal replacement options or even to a ‘normal’ diet or supplements. Just curious as it stood out to me. Happy Hueler here!
Most of them should be synthetic vitamins and minerals, which are pretty much a standard in the industry. Very very few would offer you a complete shake just from food and they would brag about it (has a clear effect in the price usually).
Otherwise, I would say huel’s ingredient list is pretty average. Some will have more synthetic ingredients (if you consider processed = synthetic; which is not the case), some less if they have a custom vit/min mix that partially relies on food.
So, average (this being positive).
Honestly not sure. I’m uncertain whether other brands in this space disclose that information. Last time I looked I think that on Soylent’s micronutrient nutritional information they mark them all down as 100% of the reference intake (or the US equivalent), which seems unlikely, but that might have changed - apologies if it has, my VPN isn’t working. I imagine this represents just the vitamin and mineral blend they add as opposed to an inclusion of the whole ingredients plus the VM blend.
Great to have you on the team! Just note that synthetic doesn’t = bad. Just as natural does = good.