The flavored Huel powders also seem to include stevia, though. The vanilla powder lists Steviol Glycosides in its ingredients list. That’s why the only Huel I’ve tried is the unsweetened.
My perfect meal drink is a 50/50 blend of unflavored Huel, mixed with plain Soylent drink. Provides just the right amount of sweetness and creaminess with no stevia aftertaste. Huel alone is filling but doesn’t taste good; Soylent alone is tasty but a little too sweet and not filling enough.
USA version 1:1 isn’t the same as UK 1:1, Huel launched later in USA, so although we are on 2:3 it doesn’t mean that yours is a really old version from 1963.
Ah thanks @hunzas that explains it (that properly puzzled me!)
I’m sure I read somewhere that the reason the US has a slightly different formula is because of different food regulations there. @mathew you might want to join the US forum as well (discourse.huel) because the flavours, ingredients and labelling are slightly different to what we have here in the UK, so you might get more relevant info on that forum especially in regards to ingredients.
You might as well join both forums n get the benefit of everybody’s wisdom
Correct me if i’m wrong, but this paper is a literature review stating that sweeteners disrupt the microbiome of the human body, but they don’t know what effect this really has. I didn’t see many strong safety concerns although there are some points of further research, such as the effect of high quantities of Sucralose in breast milk, decreased insulin sensitivity.
When the paper describes problems that occurred in rats, these rats were given the maximum dosage for humans and considering the size difference between humans and rats, I don’t feel this research can be directly inferred to humans like this paper attempts.
The key safety concern i identified i see in that paper is when Sucralose heated in products, which has no impact on most people. This is because the effects require Sucralose to be melted (above 125 degrees C) and would have no confirmed impact on those who put it in coffee or dissolve it before cooking e.g. not allowing it to melt.
On top of that i don’t see this having much of an impact on huel as its generally consumed cold.
Remember to have a critical mind even when reading research.
I might be a bit loony here, but wouldn’t it be an option to mix yourself/develop a version with a natural sweetener with a low GI? Something like honey (GI 50), coconut sugar (GI 35), fructose (GI 25), agave syrup (GI 15),…
I’m not a food scientist in any way, but I like the idea of having, next to a unsweetened version, also a “naturally” sweetened version.
It doesn’t really work. The thing with the sweetener is that they kind of work in tandem. If you just added the flavouring you would have to add so so much to have a marked effect – this would result in a sort of flavour burn. We’re researching alternatives because it is interesting and also clear that despite plenty of research to the contrary, many still don’t like the idea of sucralose.