I’ve recently started on Huel and do want to move over to 100%. However one of my friends linked me to the article below.
What is everyone’s take on this? Has anyone looked in to this and can guide me to some more Huel specific articles?
Aiui Huel’s micronutrient balance accounts for their interactions altering absorption, so that on a typical 2000kCals you get 100% of what you need.
Probably more so than a lot of other 'lents that are out there too.
Huel takes what you’d eat during a day (assuming you’re on an excellent, complete diet) and makes it available in a form that doesn’t require hours of standing over the stove, messing with pans and so on. It isn’t a supplement: it’s food, just in a different form from what you were brought up eating. Do you avoid eating one ingredient at the same time as another ingredient because of interactions according to this article? I’d bet not…
Yes some vitamins and minerals you take as supplements (ie over and above what you normally get in your diet) may need some juggling about - I’ve fallen foul of that myself as one of the drugs I take to treat my HIV infection mustn’t be taken within six hours of the calcium supplement I need to prevent osteoporosis. My way of sorting things out is to take the drugs whose ability to work is compromised by other drugs and/or vitamin/mineral supplements in the morning, and the compromising elements of my pillbox at night.
Huel I eat as and when it pleases me: it’s food, not a drug or a supplement. Okay, it’s slightly less than 3 months since I went 100%, but already my Hba1c (measure of average blood glucose over 3 months: HIV improves your chances of getting diabetes) has improved already. For the rest I’ll know at the end of the month when I have my first HIV check-up since I started with Huel.
The Huel formula has taken into account these interactions, for example calcium does inhibit iron absorption, so there’s a high iron content as well as a vitamin C content to help the iron absorption.
Huel has a reasonable fat content to this compliments the fat soluble vitamins.
Interesting point about 100% of what you need on a typical 2000Kcals…
So I’m currently on 100% Huel again, nothing else, made it past the mythical 2-day threshold where I craved solid food, and being going strong for couple of weeks now.
I am, however, currently calorie restricting in order to lose the odd pound (read: stone) lol - so I’m having 400g per day at 1600Kcals… so does that mean that I’m only getting 80% of what my body needs?
Whilst I bow to the fact that Huel is by far more nutritionally complete than the average diet, and most people are deficient of various things on any given day based on variety of choice - would only consuming 80% of the recommended guidelines of vitamins and minerals etc cause a cumulative shortfall and potential issues?
Or is it more a case of I’m getting everything I need, just in slightly lesser amounts, and as I lose weight my calorific requirements will also drop, so there’ll be a gradual offset until I plateu?
Apologies for hijacking the thread but it’s an interesting point and I’m not sure I’ve seen that one addressed before? Additional apologies if it has been. 
Yeah, its a good question: are the stated required amounts of micronutrients the amounts everyone needs, or are they the amount a person who needs 2000 calories would need?
As far as I’m aware, they fit 97.5% of the population:
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