A few years ago I tried to donate blood but couldn’t because I was taking iron supplements at the time and it would have given the nurse an inaccurate reading on the iron blood test. Will huel have the same affect? Do I need to tell the nurse If I try to donate blood again?
Huel is not a supplement but a meal replacement. It should be viewed as real food. Would you give them a list of the real foods you are eating?
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I, like I’m sure many others here, give blood and consume Huel daily. I’ve not felt the need to inform them, if anything I’m in theory healthier now than I was pre-Huel.
Interestingly I always used to be absolutely exhausted after giving blood for a few days, since starting Huel twice a day my recovery has been significantly quicker.
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Were you taking the iron supplements to treat a condition, such as anaemia? You cannot give blood if you are anaemic and I think there is a period of 12 months after treating anaemia before you can donate blood. Otherwise, if the iron supplements were to make up for a lack of iron in your diet and your iron levels were within the tolerance of where they should be, I don’t see why this would prevent you from donating blood?
Either way, as @hunzas has said, Huel is not a supplement, it is a balanced food.
Please, please, please give blood! As hunzas says, Huel is “just” a meal replacement, though optimised to be as good as the average healthiest meal: it won’t have any affect on your donation, except that it will probably have better levels of micronutrients than most blood donated.
The blood transfusion service is always short of blood (just as we’re always short of organ donors - though that’s not an invitation to top yourself…), so your donation will be most welcome. Both my late husbands depended on people donating blood before they died, and I’m very grateful for the extra time and quality of life those donations gave them.
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No it won’t effect anything. However they are fussy as hell about what you’ve eaten prior, what I say if I’ve had Huel for breakfast, then donated is I’ve eaten a “large blow of porridge with linseeds and a protein shake”, ironically the same but no one bat’s and eyelid. Works for me.
Or just flat-out lie and say you’ve had steak and chips or some other crap. Who cares. It really doesn’t matter.
Last time I donated blood I got glandular fever straight after. I haven’t donated since but surely it was just an very unfortunate coincidence?
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I donate blood 4x a year, and consume Huel for 100% of my calories (2000kcal/day).
No issues with blood donation ever - I don’t tell them about Huel though, I just say I have had a meal before donating and drank enough water.
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Is that in the UK? I’ve been donating for years, I’m fairly confident asking what you’ve eaten is not a standard question they should be asking. They do always make sure you’ve had to plenty to eat and drink, but not what.
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Thanks for the responces, thats really good to know. I will definatly be trying to donate blood again.
I used to live in Northern Ireland and they would ask what I had eaten that day and on my only sucsessful donation they made me eat biscuits because they wearnt happy with my answer. The second time i tried to donate my iron levels were to low so I saw my doctor whom advised the iron tablets. My diet is much better now and I use huel to replace one sometimes two meals in a day.
Yup, UK. I’ve been asked every single time for years. Maybe its a regional thing?