Supplements to take with huel

Hi there, I wanted to ask if there is any food supplement that would be worth it taking considering I take the recommended 2000kcal a day just with Huel.
I’ve read that for example fish oil is very recommended in any diet. Would it be good to take it with Huel too? or does Huel have enough Omega 3?
Any other advices or supplements would be great to read, I’m open to try new food to be as healthy as possible :smile:

Also how much EPA and DHA are there in Huel and how much should I eat per day?

You might want to look into vitamin d3, especially in the winter (in the UK):

AFAIK the body can’t produce it itself and needs it from sunlight or food/supplements.

I just finished a bottle of liquid d3 but can’t say I noticed a difference, although haven’t had a bad cold for a month or so. So who knows?

@Coup it says it has a total of 1,372mg of EPA+DHA, and apparently, as I have read, the health benefits start from 2,7mg of EPA+DHA, so I could take extra supplements of omega 3 fish oils right?

@JCW I don’t know why the nutritional page of Huel doesn’t say how much vitamin D3 I should be taking, it just says it has 10mcg per day but not the RDA. Also, vitamin d3 is recommended to be taken with vitamin K2 but I don’t know which quantities.

I would really like to read more answers with as much information as possible, thanks everyone! :smile:

I can’t comment on that. I was just pointing you to an article Huel have written on EPA+DHA.

The EU NRV of Vitamin D is 5µg a day. This is stated on the Huel nutritional label by saying Huel provides 15µg per day (with a day being 2000kcal) which is 300% of the EU NRV.

Hi @Darcket - thanks for the questions. The figures of DHA / EPA that one obtains from Huel are based on conservative calculations since the amount of ALA is likely to be higher (it varied, so we chose the lower amount for illustration) and the conversion factor varies (again, we chose caution). So, the amounts one owuld be getting in realit are likely to be higher than the claim in my article.

However, I would disagree with the health benefits starting form the figure you cite. There are a multitude of health benefits from levels well below the ‘recommended’ amounts of 1,250mg per day which few people actually consume anyway.

An article on vitamin D is on my list! However the NRV (RDA) is compared to the vitamin D amount on the label (on the nutrition page) and there is no ‘RDA’ for D3, merely vitamin D, like @Coup points out.

Thanks for your answer @JamesCollier, so what supplements would you recommend to take if I eat 100% Huel, taking into consideration I do bodybuilding? And also, why do you consider that eating a good balanced diet of whole foods is healthier than eating Huel? which is also supposed to be a nutritionally complete food with all the necessary macros and micros.
I ask this because I saw an answer in an ad in Instagram which the Huel page answered to someone “we do agree that eating whole foods is better than eating Huel but…”

Oh and also, what supplement would be the best to help me with the pain and cracks I have sometimes in my joints, more specifically in my shoulder?

Hi @Darcket
You are likely to be on a high intake of Huel if you’re bodybuilding, so there may be no need for any supplements. Creatine monohydrate has some value. Then some of the ergogenic aids like beta-alanine, glucuronolactone and citrulline malate may help in a pre-workout formula with things like caffeine and taurine. But these are very much person-specific.

Leucine is interesting as the kick-starter for protein sythesis, but if you’re consuming over 3 scoops of Huel in one serving, there’s probably no need to supplement with it either.

Personally I only consume Huel and food (and a lot of coffee!) but in my 28 years of bodybuilding, I’ve tried a lot of supplements. Human nutrition guinea pig here!

We make that statement because some people criticise Huel as not being as good as real food; but very few people consume a balanced wholefood diet these days.

1 Like

The evidence is weak here, I’m afraid. I’d say sensible training and regular deep tissue treatment is best. Nothing’s going to help these.

If the aetiology of the problem is due to cartilage degeneration then there’s limited evidence that glucosamine and chondroetin may help.

I feel your pain - years of heavy training, with poor form in my earlier years, has left me with a multitude of aches and niggles!

One supplement I’ve found which is awesome for tendons is Cissus. Check it out, good stuff. I’ve taken a low dose for about 18 months now and it’s helped no end for several cases of Tendonitis I’ve had going on, obviously on top of other measures, but definitely has helped to keep on top of it all thats for sure.

:slight_smile: