V2.2 Huel Powder released

I look forward to trying it.

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Thatā€™s hand-waving really. 70mg is way past the upper limit of 45mg. How do you know this is safe?

I canā€™t make any statements one way or the other about the safety of the the iron content of Huel. There are two things worth noting however:

  1. No form of iron is part of the vitamin and mineral mix, so all of the iron in Huel comes from the plant ingredients. I imagine the oats contribute the majority. Therefore reducing the iron content would be difficult without drastically changing the recipe

  2. Your NIH link does a good job of explaining the health risks of excessive iron intake. The issues seem to fall into two categories. The first is single intakes of >20mg/kg of body weight, which can have effects ranging from nausea to death in high enough doses. This is well outside the type of dosage you get from Huel and could only really occur from taking too much of an iron supplement. The second is a disease called hemochromatosis which effects 4.4 / 1000 white people. The important thing is that the UL is set at the dosage when people will experience gastrointestinal effects after having taken a supplement of that quantity.

Based on the reason given on the NIH page for setting the UL where it is Iā€™m not particularly concerned about the high iron content. Of course, Iā€™m quite ignorant about nutritional science. Other than the gastrointestinal effects for supplementing iron at that quantity, can anyone find any research indicating problems with daily iron intake in the 70mg range?

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Huel appears to have always contained that amount of iron, they just made a more accurate measurement now - they have not changed anything. At least thatā€™s how I am reading the comment about iron.

@rikefrejut Possibly itā€™s always been dangerous then.

@XXX I donate blood 4 times a year and monitor my iron levels. All good since I started eating Huel. Hence the iron level in Huel is not a concern for me.

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70 mg/day* is exactly the LOAEL (Lowest Observed Adverse Effect Level).
Would you feel more comfortable if it was 69 mg in Huel?

  • Determined by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment

Source: Bundesinstitut fĆ¼r Risikobewertung: Domke A, GroƟklaus R, Niemann B, Przyrembel H, Richter K, Schmidt E, WeiƟenborn A, Wƶrner B, Ziegenhagen R (Hrsg.) Verwendung von Mineralstoffen in Lebensmitteln ā€“ Toxikologische und ernƤhrungsphysiologische Aspekte

Upper tolerable intakes are set for a reason. I was critical when I thought it was the old amount. And is this really an ideal amount?

Well, technically the 45mg upper limit is from the US, and the EFSA failed to find such an upper limit:

"CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. DERIVATION OF A TOLERABLE UPPER INTAKE LEVEL (UL)
    The Panel considered that the adverse GI effects which have been reported after short-term oral
    dosage at 50-60 mg daily of supplemental non-haem iron preparations are not a suitable basis to
    establish an UL for iron from all sources.

An UL cannot be established for iron based on iron overload due to a poor correlation between iron
intake and biochemical indicators of iron status, between biochemical indicators and actual body
stores, or between body stores and adverse effects.

An UL cannot be established for iron (including haem iron) based on increased risk of chronic diseases
such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer, due to the lack of convincing evidence of a
causal relationship between iron intake or stores and chronic diseases"

And that 50-60mg in a short time period mentioned in the first paragraph refers to this:

ā€œAdverse gastrointestinal effects (e.g. nausea, epigastric discomfort, constipation) have been reported
after short-term oral dosage at 50-60 mg daily of supplemental non-haem iron preparations, particularly
if taken without food.ā€

Take note of ā€˜particularly if taken without foodā€™. Even with an intake of 69.4mg per day, youā€™ll be getting this with food, minimising risk. Additionally, the symptoms listed for such a dose are clearly more discomforts than serious health issues, and Iā€™d suspect if people were experiencing them on Huel, they would question it and lower their intake.

Though having a figure above the US UTL like this isnā€™t ideal, based on the work and studies done by the EFSA and those they reference, the level of iron in Huel isnā€™t problematic.

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Just tried the new stuff, thumbs up! The new smoother texture was pleasant.

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Though having a figure above the US UTL like this isnā€™t ideal, based on the work and studies done by the EFSA and those they reference, the level of iron in Huel isnā€™t problematic.

Upper limits arenā€™t flawless. 70mg is far beyond a normal diet. Thereā€™s essentially no proof (I am aware of) itā€™s safe in the long-term.

But what happened to thriving as a goal?

Upper limits are deliberately designed to have a great deal of wiggle room in order to be sure theyā€™re safe. The point is, iron upper limits have been calculated based on supplements, as similar results are not seen from dietary intake.

I fail to see how this is any different to thriving.

Upper limits arenā€™t flawless and the iron is past the UL intake. What do you make of this?

I doubt high iron intake, whether or not itā€™s ā€œsafeā€, is healthy in the long-term.

Thatā€™s a very interesting article, thank you. I think itā€™s important to note that a large part of the arguments in the article are correlations, with proof of causation requiring much more stringent testing, but it does raise some good questions. Iā€™d be interested to hear @JamesCollier take on that article, as he is more versed in nutrition than I am.

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Can you please confirm if xylitol has now been removed as I canā€™t see it on the ingredients list?

Just as a comment, if I had known a new formula was coming, Iā€™d have not quite stocked up so heavily in my last order. :wink: I applaud the transparency, but does this mean we can expect improvements every quarter or so?

If youā€™re reworking, Iā€™d also suggest to revisit some of the flavor components to make them, well, a bit more flavorful.

@Stole_My_Sweetroll but did you ever leave the U/U version in a fridge for 8 hours - I had a couple of batches literally set

@RDW Yeah I do that quite often with Vanilla, hence why I freaked out which I might not be able to with the new version haha :joy:

As James said it should be the same still :slight_smile:

Glad about the palm going. Will miss the lumps though :worried:

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I was anemic before, and Iā€™m healthy on Huel. Iron is only dangerous if you take too much in supplements. Natural iron naturally occurring in natural food, as is, will never harm you. People have been eating oats for thousands of years. Despite its high iron content, large amounts of oats never harmed anybody.