I have been a long time Joylent user (currently doing 80 to 100% of joylent depending on the day.
I am considering Huel due to it’s better ingredient list, but I have a few questions.
Joylent has around 30g of sugar in 1 bag of 520g (which contains 3 meals with all needed for a 2100 kcal diet). Huel has only 3g of sugar, which even according to Huel’s own nutritional label makes up 4% of the GDA. Isn’t this a problem?
Does anybody know how Huel’s Vanilla flavor and Joylent’s Vanilla flavor compare? Are they similar?
Why does Huel allow a maximum of 112 meals, which is good for only 28 days, when most months have around 30 days?
I’ve only been here a short while but I can answer a couple of these.
The ingredient list is indeed better. The GDA for sugar is a bit of a red herring. It’s actually an upper limit to stop people eating too much. There is no minimum amount because humans don’t need sugar — the body produces its own glucose from pretty much anything you put into it. What we colloquially call sugars are just carbohydrates with small molecules, like monosaccharides (glucose) and disaccharides (sucrose). Any larger carbohydrate are polysaccharides — these are complex carbs as in oats. The body will convert all of these into glucose. It even converts protein into glucose in a process called gluconeogenesis. But oddly enough, eating simple sugars, in almost any amount, has been shown to have negative effects. So the best current advice is to eat as little as possible, except if you’re consuming it naturally with added fibre as in fruits.
I’m not sure about the comparison between Huel vanilla and Joylent vanilla. Maybe someone else can comment.
On the last point, the Huel team might be able to offer more insight, but there is no limit to how often you can order Huel and you can in fact set a subscription of 112 meals to recur every 4 weeks or 28 days, thereby getting around that problem. I suspect that any more than 112 meals on one delivery would be unwieldy. The boxes are already pretty big at ~14 kg.
Now I just have to figure out if I would be able to stand the taste. The Vanilla version of Joylent is pretty good so if it’s anything like that then I won’t have an issue with it. Let’s see if somebody has experience in that department.
Been on Joylent! Didn’t use it fulltime, but all in all, had about 20-30 meals of the stuff, particularly strawberry, chocolate and vanilla. Vanilla was my favourite, so we may have similar tastebuds.
My first time with Huel, I liked the initial taste but then abhorred the aftertaste – I think that’s the pea protein coming through. About my third or fourth flask I adjusted to the taste and now like the whole thing. The texture is WAY better than Joylent as there’s tiny seeds in it, so after each mouthful, you can kinda chew it a tiny bit and feel like you’ve had something substantial.
I’ve recommended elsewhere that the best way to make it (for me) is with a BlendActive blender, to fill one of the flasks up to the I in Active, add three scoops of powder (adjust water quantities if not doing three scoops), and then blend, store overnight (same as I imagine you do with Joylent), and drink it chilled the next day (I can handle it warm but that requires more getting used to the taste).
I think you WILL like it. Just not sure if you’ll like it on the first sip!
I came from Joylent too (via Queal). Both were pretty good at the start, except way too sweet for me and over time it started to become a bind drinking them. They both mixed in the shaker a lot easier than Huel did. I tried Huel after seeing the ingredient list and thinking it seemed a lot more wholesome and better thought out, particularly if I was going to try it long term. I got some and I remember that my very first Huel shake wasn’t particularly good - I was fairly disappointed. But, it was just mixed in a shaker and was pretty thick and lumpy. There was also something very odd tasting about it at first, which I soon put down to the unmixed lumpy bits, but with extra shaking, and storing in the fridge that went by the second day. I’m not sure if I just got used to that taste or if it’s just not there after proper mixing. I love the taste of Huel now. To me Joylent tasted more like a sweet (sort of custardy) and I remember the vanilla having a stronger taste. Huel seems earthy and food-like to me and the vanilla taste more subtle, but perfectly nice.
Eventually I ended up forgetting about the fridge altogether and blending it in an electric blender. Nowadays, I prefer the unsweetened variety with the flavour pouches added to my taste and it’s awesome as I usually don’t like it too sweet and it gives the chance to experiment with other flavours. I do really like the original vanilla flavour too though, and wish they did a flavour pouch for that so I can relive it now and again without having to a whole vanilla pack.
Interesting, that. My experience was pretty much exactly the opposite. I quite like the joylent vanilla (although I’ll agree with you abut the custardy taste ), but when I tried Huel the first time, my taste buds went ‘Gah! Sweeeeet!’. It tasted massively sweeter than the joylent ones, and to be honest, still does.
I think I’m particularly sensitive to artificial sweeteners (diet coke etc makes me gag). Given the sweet enough/too sweet debate that crops up on here, I’d say I’m not the only one either. Fortunately, the huel guys were good enough to develop the unflavoured/unsweetened version, which suits me just fine. I’m one of those weird ones that likes it just as it is and sees no need to add anything to flavour it!
Apart from the sweetness of the vanilla version (which may just be down to my own tastes), I’d say huel is way better than joylent - the texture is better, the (un!)flavour is better, the nutritional profile is better, plus I just trust the company more - with joylent I feel like they’re a bunch of guys working out of a garage somewhere, Huel just feels more professional.
Go unflavoured Huel, once you get used to the naturally creamy texture you end up craving the stuff. All the flavours are too sweet for me. Couldn’t get a sample of Joylent I had down at all - perhaps it’s cos I hate custard (the devils sputum)
I’m coming from Joylent as well. Couldn’t say vanilla was my favourite because I couldn’t decide between strawberry, banana and vanilla.
Compared to that, my first impression of Huel was “wow, this is good!” then the sweetener aftertaste kicked in . Part of it was due to not adding enough water.
In my opinion Joylent is way tastier than Huel but the healthier ingredients (mainly the removal of maltodextrin, which breaks down to sugar) is worth the trade-off. Another very important point for me to stick with Huel is the unflavoured version that permits making a savoury shake (on Joylent I was getting tired of always eating sweet food).
I did get used to the Huel vanilla after a while. To me it tastes like crepes batter now, which is good. Don’t like the flavour pouches though. IMO the vanilla version is better than anything attainable with the flavour pouches.
im digging out this thread as i just started huel.
Taste and Texture: I prefer the taste of Joylent, but the texture of huel. I like that Huel shows a little bit of the incredient texture in the shake, but the sweetener in Huel is awful. You get used to it, but I would much rather prefer a little more sugar than the icky aftertaste of a Coke Light I’m getting. I also tried the unflavoured version without any flavours added and wow! thats disgusting. So, I ordered some flavours.
Ingredients: Easy win for Huel. I prefer the macro ratio as well as whats actually inside.
Price: You know the numbers
Other Stuff: I also prefer the bags Huel comes in. Around 2kg seems to be the sweet spot, whereas the small bags from Joylent are a little annoying to use. Joylent definitely mixes better with a shaker in comparison to Huel. One big upside worth mentioning is this forum! its one of Huels strong suits.
I just tried Whole Food which seems to combine great taste with better ingredients than Joylent. As a student I also love how cheap it is. Huel is still the one to beat when it comes to whats inside though.
Huel is a better product in my opinion.
Less sugars, more balance.
Joylent (now jimmy joy I guess) is tasty by itself, Huel will need you to compensate the bitterness with fats or sweeteners: milk, xylitol etc.
It’s not a big deal to add a glass of milk to the water.
Unflavored huel is a incredibly tasty addition when making cakes or pancakes.
), but when I tried Huel the first time, my taste buds went ‘Gah! Sweeeeet!’. It tasted massively sweeter than the joylent ones, and to be honest, still does.
. Part of it was due to not adding enough water.