Hello,
Please increase the amount of those two nutrients. I do not find it to be enough.
Many Vitamin D supplements contain 3000 Units. And many B12 supplements up to 40 000 ųg. I believe these needs to be upped
Please do not be offended by the reply Squizzle…
But I think you ‘believing’ certain ingredients ‘should be upped’ isnt going to change Huel’s manufacturing or ratios of ingredients.
From what I’ve read (and I may be wrong) Huel spend a great deal of money in R&D, spend a LOT of time taste testing and have medical science backing up their ingredient how much and why it’s in there.
So although you have posted ‘your’ belief on this forum you probably are not going to get your wish …
Sorry that I had to be the one to break the news to you !
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Huel is a daily food and is designed as such. Huel already contains 3x the amount of vitamin D as required by the EU NRV.
Huel is not a supplement. Supplements can contain massively more of a certain ingredient and if Huel’s profile was designed on supplement quantities it would be all over the place.
Bottom line is if you want more of a certain ingredient then you will have to buy it as a supplement.
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True in this case probably but it is worth pointing out that there are also examples on this forum of Huel being open to new research & James in particular seems always interested in understanding his own product better. If someone who would like to use it has real issues, say due to a health problem that James isn’t familiar with or there’s some component in Huel whose level is of significance to certain users but has never been measured before, Huel will go out of their way to help if they can.
So if you have a good request & a very good reason, present your case & you will be listened to. That’s more than you’ll get from most commercial organisations. I’ve only ever seen this in academic & collaborative open source communities before, hence the reason Huel impress me.
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I’d second this - I had a specific query (about nickel and a health issue) and I was overwhelmed by how responsive Huel have been. Really impressive
Although very low amounts, it’s good that Huel has both D2 and D3 (and vegan D3 at that, which is excellent). However, the B12 in Huel is the inferior cyanocobalamin, and not the superior (and bioidentical) methylcobalamin. I don’t understand why Huel doesn’t use methylcobalamin, when Huel uses methylfolate instead of folic acid; methylated B vitamins is the way to go, as they’re both bioidentical to the B vitamins in food, they have superior bioavailability, and they don’t pose any problems for those with mutations on the MTHFR gene.
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Why not just take more vitamin D in a supplement? Not everyone wants crazy doses
The D2 and D3 are not in ‘very low amounts’. The amount of vitamin D in Huel is high. Remember that Huel is not a supplement.
The amount of B12 is also high and the cyanocobalamin form is actually superior. Sure, there are studies that indicate that the methyl form has greater bioavailability, but cyanocobalamin still has a high bioavailability and methylcobalamin falls off in foods rapidly over the shelf-life making it inferior. Plus, of course, methylcobalamin is only for permitted for use in supplements and not in foods.
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@JamesCollier what is your view on the fact many D3 supplements contain 2500-5000 units (upwards 80 ųg)? Is there not additional benefit increasing D (at least if one does not get much sun)?
But the point, Squizzle, is that not everyone “does not get much sun”. So you’re suggesting that they up the amount of D3 based on YOUR needs, which would then over-dose the D3 for those who don’t need it.
Put another way, Huel is replacing your food, not your supplements. Would you demand that your local spinach grower up the amount of vitamins in his product because you didn’t think there was enough? Or would you supplement if you didn’t feel there was enough in your diet?
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A lot of countries in Europe have inadequate sun exposure in winter months for any vitamin D to be synthesised from sunlight at all.
I take 10,000 ius per day, I get tested every year, works great for me, I wouldn’t say spending £7 per year on a cheap supplement is fancy though. 
Yes, and for them, there are supplements. Huel should be for everyone, not just those who need some additional supplements.
My point is the vast, vast majority of those consuming Huel in winter months will have that problem, whilst a tiny tiny fraction of their consumers will have an issue with toxicity from too much (you basically need to be outdoors all the time in the height of Summer around India or closer to the equator for this to be a realistic issue). Given the cheapness of vitamin D, I see no issue with its inclusion, especially given all the evidence that the RDA is significantly too low, even for those with a lot of sun exposure.
Some people do indeed benefit from addtional supplementation and this is also now an official recommendation in the UK for those who don’t get much sun and eat a diet low in vitamin D. Doses of that amount are excessive - not dangerous, but unnecessary - but there is certainly a benefit for increasing vitamin D, but pro rata*, Huel has sufficient.
*assuming either a 2000-calorie per day intake or an equivalent amount from foods or supplements
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The D2/3 amount in Huel is high for a food product, yes. I’d argue otherwise; Huel is indeed a dietary supplement. it’s not traditional food, it’s a powder diet, or meal replacement if you will, and meal replacements fall under dietary supplements. Look, I’m not saying per 2,000 kcal, Huel should contain 300,000 IUs vitamin D, but 1,000 IU is a bit on the low side in my book. It would be more optimal if you could aim for 5,000 IUs per 2,000 kcal, or at least 4,000 IUs. Keep in mind, this is a UK product, and sunshine is a rarity in the UK. I live in Sweden, and the sun isn’t exactly better here, and I megadose D3 @ 50,000 IUs per day, and even that is too low for me personally (imho, 100,000 IUs per day should be a minimum for D3).
As for B12, 4 μg per 2,000 kcal is not particularly high, and cyanocobalamin is most definitely inferior when compared to methylcobalamin. To begin with, cyanocobalamin isn’t even natural; it’s synthetic, and never present in real food or in nature, so to say, whereas methylcobalamin is a natural form of B12; in fact, our bodies convert cyanocobalamin into methylcobalamin. It’s not just that methylcobalamin has higher bioavailability; cyanocobalamin isn’t even bioactive, whereas methylcobalamin is both bioactive and technically bioidentical to the B12 found in food (hence the higher bioavailability, because methylcobalamin is already methylated, whereas with cyanocobalamin, our bodies has to remove the cyanide and methylate the cobalamin; this is already taken care of by default with methylcobalamin). More importantly, people with mutations on the MTHFR gene, which is like what, 70% of all people who carry at least one mutation (it’s worse for those who carry two mutations, or double copy mutations, on the MTHFR gene), have various issues with the homocysteine methylation cycle and so on, because people with mutations on the MTHFR gene can’t process folic acid and cyanocobalamin properly and this leads to all sorts of health issues like blood clots and so on, which is why methylated B vitamins is the way to go. I suggest you read up on this:
Or just google “MTHFR B12”, plenty of articles and studies on this issue.
If your argument is that cyanocobalamin has higher shelf-life in food (which it does) and it’s the only legal form of B12 permitted in food, I can accept that, as an argument for not using methylcobalamin, but that doesn’t make cyanocobalamin superior per se, because it clearly isn’t. And Super Body Fuel uses both methylfolate and methylcobalamin in their meal replacements, so this might be a legal issue within the UK/EU, but it’s done elsewhere.
Huel uses methylfolate, what’s the shelf-life for methylfolate? In any case, the bottom line here is that while cyanocobalamin may have better shelf-life, most people don’t process folic acid and cyanocobalamin properly, so despite the better shelf-life of cyanocobalamin, cyanocobalamin and folic acid are useless at best and potentially harmful at worst, for most people with the MTHFR gene. I doubt folic acid and cyanocobalamin will be allowed at all in the future.
Huel is not a dietary supplement. You have Huel as a meal - it’s a meal in powdered form. Flour is not a supplement. Weetabix is fortified with vitamins and minerals: is that a supplement? Huel is not a meal replacement: it’s a complete food. Haribo sweets are not a ‘traditional food’, yet they are not a dietary supplement. This is a legal and food category definition.
Vit D - Huel is high. If you want more, take a supplement. Like someone highlighted, they’re not expensive. Likewise with B12.
I’ve already explained why cyanocobalamin is superior to methylcobalamin. Sure it’s synthetic and you are technically correct in all your points here. But it’s a moot point if there is little methylcobalamin in your product when you consume it! Cyanocobalamin is superior to methylcobalamin in a food product
The shelf stability of L-methylfolate calcium in Huel is good, which is why we use it.
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Further, whilst methylcobalamin is more bioactive once it has been absorbed, cyanocobalamin is absorbed by the body far better. Studies showing the contrary have focused exclusively on intravenous administration so aren’t relevant for dietary supplements. So yes, once methylcobalamin is in your system, it’s better, but you need a lot more in your food to absorb the same amount into your system as a dose of cyanocobalamin.
Also the argument that methylcobalamin is better because it’s natural falls prey to the naturalistic fallacy. Botox is also natural and is one of the most potent (if not the most potent) toxin in the world. Something being natural does not mean it’s necessarily better for you, and likewise something being artificial doesn’t make it worse (and often makes stuff better).
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There are other products in UK/EU that contain methylcobalamin, one is even an actual UK product so I don’t think it is a legal issue.
For anyone following this discussion, this is a statement we need to start using. It is the only way of getting through backwards legal systems like the ones in Canada and other countries.
How come you use methylcobalamin and not cyanocobalamin then?
Mainly because of MTHFR mutations, but we balance it out by including a lot of methylcobalamin (20 micrograms per day or 1000% RDA). We also include 5 micrograms of coated adenosylcobalamin as well.
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