Checked them out - they’re also $4 a meal which is honestly insulting.
And it seems to be US only.
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Nutrition per 2000kcal. These are all values that fall outside of EU and/or US adult recommendations:
37.5g saturated fat
150g net carbohydrates (total - fibre)
50g sugars (47.7g added, just under 50g US DV)
208.3g protein
8.333g salt (3333mg sodium)
2167mg potassium
5000mg calcium
4167mg phosphorus
45mg iron
62.5mg zinc
6.8mg copper
750µg molybdenum
625µg iodine
6250µg vitamin A
1667µg folic acid (2778µg folate)
Unknown values for: monounsaturates, polyunsaturates, omega-3, omega 6, vitamin K, choline
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I know this is a double post, but for comparison’s sake, here are the values per 2000kcal for which Huel is outside of the same recommendations:
18g omega 3
16g omega 6
190g net carbohydrates
3.6g salt (1440mg sodium)
800mg chloride
1.3mg copper
1.4mg riboflavin
So for both products you need a justification for being outside of those recommendations.
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After some analysis it has:
Higher cost ( each bag 15 portions of 60 grams and only 240 Kcal per portion ) at 59.95 USD per 900 grams bag.
USA made and for internal market?!
Almost fully organic ( not Huel purpose)
Lots of extras( adaptogens, greens, etc ) I prefer to supplement aside if needed.
Some see as an advantage others as a marketing gimmick to justify pricing.
Prefer an essential minimalist powder food.
Added sugar
No D3
No K2
Some inferior or non-disclosed mineral forms.
Consuming 1200kcal Huel daily, besides main meal, I use 300 grams everyday. So in Kachava I would spend around 20 USD daily.while at Huel I spent a third or less of that value.
If I wanted to go organic there are other European made alternatives.
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Regarding the Omegas conversion rate: Guide to EPA and DHA in Huel . I think @Dan_Huel can help with the other values.
Wowsers. And this is supposed to be a healthy food?
Well Dan (great name) looks like other Hueligans have done comparisons for me!
On the face of it Ka’chava looks pretty good but when you dig a little deeper they’re really nothing special.
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Yes the amount of EPA + DHA that is converted from ALA is easily more than the minimum recommendation of 250mg, but the amount of total omega 3 is still outside of the US AMDR of 0.6-1.2%. I didn’t use the WHO guidelines previously but they suggest 0.5-2% total omega 3 and 6-11% polyunsaturates.
Huel omega 3: 8.1%
Huel polyunsaturates: 17.55%
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Perhaps @Dan_Huel or even @JamesCollier can answer your queries. I was only trying to give some help, but surely they are nutrition savvy, not me.
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Is there something specific you would like us to answer? We’re not here to bash other products 
but if you have something about the nutritional profile you can’t assess from looking at both our nutritional labels then just comment the question and we will do our best!
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I think @Fightic_Acid questions, not originally mine, were mainly these, regarding Huel ( not the other brand)
and here:
Thanks Paulo, @Fightic_Acid let me know what you think of these answers.
So for both products you need a justification for being outside of those recommendations.
18g omega 3
16g omega 6
190g net carbohydrates
Recommendations also include what’s feasible for the population. I’d argue this is the case for omega-3 fatty acids as people struggle to hit recommendations because the main source in people’s diets is oily fish, which can be expensive and not to everyone’s taste. Additionally, recommendations are for a mixed/omnivorous diets so it’s important to consider the different needs for someone following a plant-based diet. There are certainly benefits for consuming more omega-3 fatty acids.
The net carbs recommendation I would pretty much ignore. We know people can eat a range of carbs and be in good health, I’d focus on carbohydrate quality as quantity tells you very little. In the case of Huel, the majority of the carbs are coming from oats and flaxseed which are good sources of carbohydrate.
3.6g salt (1440mg sodium)
800mg chloride
1.3mg copper
1.4mg riboflavin
Huel is within the upper intake of 6g of salt in the UK and 2300mg of sodium in the US. Let me know if you’re referring to different recommendations.
The RI for chloride in the UK is 800mg, in the EU it’s a safe/adequate intake of upto 3100mg and the US the DV is 2300mg. Often chloride recommendations are limited because it’s commonly consumed as sodium chloride (salt) rather than chloride itself.
Copper is slightly over recommended intakes because it is naturally occurring from the main ingredients. However, it is well within upper intake levels so this isn’t a concern.
1.4mg is the recommended intake in the UK, the PRI in the EU is 1.6mg and the US is 1.3mg, so there’s also no issue here.
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Hi Tim and Dan, thank you for your replies. I wasn’t asking any questions but I guess I was baiting a response lol. Let me clarify myself on a few points.
1440mg sodium is less than UK RNI of 1600mg; US DRI of 1500mg; and the EU puts 2000mg as the safe and adequate level.
The UK RNI for chloride is 2500mg. 800mg is an outdated value given by the EU that is still used for labelling purposes. Notably, this is also the case for potassium, vitamin D, and folate.
Copper is slightly under EU AI of 1.6mg.
I understand that not all recommendations are scientifically sound, especially when it comes to macros. However, I feel like the more recommendations that can be met, the better.
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Someone forgot to put an order in before the prices went up I take it.
Thanks for clarifying!
I understand that not all recommendations are scientifically sound, especially when it comes to macros. However, I feel like the more recommendations that can be met, the better.
This is where the knowledge of our nutrition team comes in. We look at the evidence and then take a decision based on this. Nutritionists agree on most issues, but as with everything to do with humans, there is a degree of interpretation and subjectivity.
1440mg sodium is less than UK RNI of 1600mg; US DRI of 1500mg; and the EU puts 2000mg as the safe and adequate level.
The sodium recommendation is more of a limit than a target. So if you’re hitting the RNI, that’s less ideal than being below it.
I can see your point and probably agree with you for chloride that there’s no harm in increasing the amount. There isn’t much research on the benefits of increasing chloride though. For your interest, the US v3.0 powder has 2300mg chloride per 2000kcal to align with the higher recommended amount in the US. It may be that in the future the UK chloride amount is aligned to the US.
For potassium, vitamin D and folate we go above the UK recommended intake and align with the higher DV set by the US as this aligns with evidence of better health outcomes.
There’s nothing that I have seen that strongly suggests that 1.6mg of copper a day is any better for health than 1.4mg a day. As all the copper comes from the main ingredients I don’t see any need to add 0.2mg from a supplemental source.
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@Dan_Huel I respect that you take an evidence-based approach. I don’t know how much it would cost to increase sodium, chloride, copper, and riboflavin levels, but seeing as recommendations are given, I’d prefer to meet them.
Just to clarify once more: the UK recommends 1600-2400mg sodium (4-6g salt) per day.
@Tristan I don’t eat Huel at the moment because it seems my body really doesn’t want me to. I am one of seemingly many whose gut has a bad reaction to it. I make my own version now, with different nutritional values, and I feel perfectly fine. Costs me about 30-40p per 500kcal meal, depending on how much of the ingredients I buy in bulk.
Edit: I should add that I make it for my own personal use. I’ve noticed that some people on here sell their take on a meal replacement and fair play to them, but I’m not that committed lol.
It’s not a cost thing, nutrition first, everything else second! However, we also need to balance communicating this to the average consumer and providing a product that appeals to them.
Yeap, I hear you. To give you more insight we also discussed that most people do not have Huel for all their meals and, on average, people are consuming more sodium than recommended. We actually used to put 6g of salt in per 2000kcal but this caused a lot of fuss that we reformulated and reduced this based on consumer feedback!
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That’s interesting, have you shared your recipe on https://www.completefoods.co/ by any chance? Would be interested in seeing what you put together
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