I used to use Huel only as my lunch meal replacement because it was easier to do in the morning and also meant I wasn’t buying food at lunch so saving money.
WFH meant I had more time so just made lunch - I got through a bag of huel though and sold the other one.
When I go back to work on site will go back to RTD for lunch - it’s just easier and more convenient.
I am in good shape though (I think) run 35+ miles a week managed 10K steps a day every day this year so far and eat well. It’s just for ease for me to be honest.
I guess I’m just a bit of a scrooge too, as these are really expensive compared to just making a something simple at home. I understand that peoples needs are different though and if that works for them, then great
There’s a guy at my work also claims to have no time to make lunch each day. Instead he uses a website (I forgot the name) that gives him a bunch of ingredients and it makes a variety of meals. So on Sunday night he does this and batch makes all his meals for the entire week, all portion controlled, nice and healthy using fresh ingredients and he comes in with some really nice stuff
There’s a whole world of #mealprepsundays out there too. People box up literally everythign they will eat for a week in pre made portions.
I love the concept of it but barely have space for a couple of days…
On the space food front, the key thing with it is, like with all foods, you can use it to aid weight loss, if you are managing your calorie intake. CICO is where it is at. With things like huel, it’s made a little bit easier, as you can standardise fairly easily those numbers.
You know 1 bottle = XXX calories every time. Whereas if you are cooking at home, it’s harder to get right, either down to having the right data, or just taking time to calculate it.
I keep meaning to give it a go just for the variety side of things because he claims it doesn’t take more than an hour. It also means I can have a bit of a lie in each morning instead of getting up to make my lunch for work
Tried the yfood sampler and I was impressed. My wife hates saturo (says it doesn’t taste like milkshake at all, although it does to me, although I admit it’s a bit bland) but really likes yfood… it’d be interesting if she got into it for lunches as well.
Comes from germany as well as saturo, so 1-2 week delivery… I wonder if anyone from the UK will ever start a competitor.
I really want to clear my saturo stock so I can get my order in to get some limited edition coconut
Random question, but then we live in strange times…
What’s the minimum age these products are designed for? Toddlers?! I’m guessing teens, right?
From some anecdotal evidence, it seems these products are gaining popularity among autistics. Total control and consistency in itself is attractive.
It could be a good way to help autistic kids and teens in particular, who struggle to get a balanced diet and can suffer some form of malnutrition, often mistaken for anorexia etc., when what they want is food that is more like fuel…
It’s based on an adult diet… a teenager needs more calories per day and a child needs less, so you could scale it either way. Probably a bit expensive to be used everywhere like that, though.
I was wondering more about the actual product. I doubt it’s positively dangerous, looking at the nutritional information, but are there any reasons it would be a bad idea for toddlers, preteens, teens etc?
This discussion (coupled with some spare time on my hands!) lead me to take a more in depth look at Huel. Actually ended up ordering some! I’m probably coming at this from a different perspective than most so I thought I’d share my thoughts for anyone else curious…
As a full time replacement for all other food I can’t see this is a good idea, indeed even the founder of the company only uses Huel for 10 meals a week. There’s no research on the long term effects of switching to a diet entirely of this kind of food and there’s plenty of nutritionists who have warned it’s probably not a good idea. For one thing, if you were to get all of your calories from this you would be taking in far more than the RDI of a lot of nutrients and there’s some evidence that’s not healthy long term. If you’re trying to massively restrict calories then in the short term maybe it would be suitable.
Now, as a replacement for one/two meals a day as part of a balanced diet or used as a supplement? Hell yeah! I’ll actually be replacing my current protein supplement with Huel Black from this week as gram for gram it is ahead on every relevant metric. It’ll also work out cheaper for me too. As a plant based guy with a muscular build getting the required amount of protein alone is always going to be a real challenge for me so 40g in 400kcal at this price point is excellent.
They also managed to go from me ordering to it arriving in (almost exactly) 24 hours - which is really impressive at the moment.
I really don’t see the point in such food-replacement products. I take such enjoyment from planning, preparing and eating real foods - not to mention combining them with appropriate beverages - that I find it difficult to believe anyone would want to inject a shake instead. Can someone explain?
I used to work for the International Red Cross in war zones, and we occasionally found ourselves in pretty tough situations - such as the earthquakes in northern Afghanistan in 1998, or the Rwandan refugee camps in 1996. In such situations, when we found it difficult to get food from the locals (or didn’t want to, for fear of depriving them), the gold standard was the French Army MRE (Meal Ready to Eat), and they came in so many different flavours - including coq au vin with gratin, with apple pie for desert. I could imagine someone very busy resorting to eating those now, but just don’t see the appeal of something like Huel.
I used to love the MRE packs in the British Army. So many different packs, and doing a mix and match with colleagues. I honestly don’t get these replacement/supplement things…
We used to get sent a whole range - depending on which armies were feeling generous or simply needed to rotate their stock. The French and German ones were the best - in my opinion - with the US ones (and much more basic protein bars also available) less appealing - at least taste wise.
