Whether you’re looking to slash calories as part of a new diet and workout endeavour, cut away the excess eating that’s plaguing your weight loss attempts, or simply want an easier approach to nurishment, powdered food products are a worthwhile consideration.
If you’ve been investigating the market for the first time, chances are you’ll have come across several Huel review articles outlining the perks and drawbacks of the dietary system.
Right from the off, it’s easy to see why so many people have fallen for the charms of Huel, with its simplistic approach, quickly customised flavours and a degree of versatility that means the powdered product can be incorporated into more conventional recipes when you’re pining for solid food.
However, you’re probably looking for answers to deeper questions than that. Is Huel safe? It’s a valid question that needs answering, while the overall implications of switching to a liquid diet need probining deeper before you make your decision. In our Huel review, you’ll find a breakdown of all the basics you need to know before taking your next steps toward a new way to eat.
A bit of background on the product
Never heard of this innovative powdered dietary product before? In the market of meal supplements, you could soon find yourself in the minority. This increasingly popular choice of powdered replacement food has become a go-to for almost 30 million users recently, with more and more people flocking to test its benefits.
This powdered meal replacement food is designed to provide the body with all the essentials it needs, be that protein, carbs, crucical fats or the everyday vitamins and minerals a healthy body requires to function optimally. This product claims to provide 100% of recommended daily amounts in this respect, meaning you’ll never need to worry about your dietery intake lacking in any respect.
The brains behind the innovative formula is James Collier, a nutrition expert with more than 25 years of experience in the fields of nutrition and dietetic study. This work experience also includes several years working within the NHS as a specialist Clinical Dietician. With credentials like these, it’s hard to write off this enticing product as a flash in the pan fad.
Why products like this make sense
There’s a lot more beside good nutrition to commend about Huel. The manufacturer highlights the fact that current levels of world food production are on a precipice and inefficient. Although we produce more than enough food to adequately feed every single person on the planet, almost a billion people endure diets that consistently fall below basic recommendations for daily intakes.
What’s more, food waste in the developed world is a serious concern. In the United Kingdom alone, approximately 30% of all food purchased in shops and supermarkets is ultimately disposed off and never used. This dietary replacement formula and products like it offer a more streamlined solution for ensuring people maintain healthy diets without leaning toward bad habits, be it overconsumption or surplus buying that leads to unncessary food waste. One might argue that products like this could be looked upon as an indicactor of how we as a species might consume our calories and essential nutrients as a standard.
What’s more, bad lifestyle habits and poor dietary choices are causing spikes in the instance of avoidable diseases. Consaider weight statistics in the UK. More than 60% of adults in the United Kingdom can be classified as overweight, while a significant proportion of that number would be further classified as obese.
General obesity levels are on the rise, while millions of people in the UK are now diabetic. Many millions more fall on the borderline of being classified as diabetic, with approximately two-thirds of the overall population falling at risk of developing avoidable conditions such as diabetes in its Type 2 form.
Stripping back the way we approach meals and food consumption is one way we can begin to make significant changes to these worrying statistics. This attractive dietary formula offers all the essentials a healthy diet would deliver to a body, but allows the consumer to strictly monitor their caloricic intake and ensure they’re never creeping beyond recommendations.
There’s no complex calorie counting to worry about, no difficult preps to whip up a shake. It’s an easy to use system that requires minimal preparation with proven success rates.
What ingredients are included?
A considered balance of ingredients goes into this powdered meal replacement formula. Natural ingredients like oats, flaxseed, rice protein, sunflower oil extracts and pea proteins are used to bolster the formula with essential nutrients the body will be thankful for, while additional flavourings like vanilla are added to make the whole thing altogether more palatable.
What’s more, it is fortified with the addition of a tailored cocktail of vitamins and minerals, providing you with a meal replacement solution that doesn’t skimp on the good stuff.
Dosage and consumption guide
While the fun might be sapped out of preparing meals and your culinary skills will be largely rendered redundant, the simplicity that a product like this can bring to your everyday routine can be an attractive prospect. Making up a powdered food shake with a simple sachet of product is a breeze, taking little time at all.
The flavour enhancers and additives that the manufacturer also offers to consumers to complement their main liquid shake diet also makes personalising your shakes incredibly easy.
Admittedly, you’re limited to only being able to use manufacturer endorsed products (if you’re following consumption guidelines) and ultimately, variety is still largely hindered, but it’s a perk that similar systems don’t necessarily offer.
Knowing that your key nutritional needs have been met from the suggested servings makes keeping track of calorific intake and dietary requirements very easy however. If you’re forever forgetting to tally up stray calories from the addition of minor ingredients and supplements to conventional cooking when dieting to complement workout goals, you can bid goodbye to all that grief with the stripped-back and simple strategy at work here.
Side effects and other health implications
Common sense is key when it comes to keeping healthy when switching your dietary intake to a largely liquid-based approach. When used improperly, liquid meals can actually work against your weight loss goals and hinder your muscle-building mission.
These types of replacement meals are loaded with all the essentials you need to keep your body going, both in terms of crucial nutrients and required calories the body depends on. You certainly don’t want to be snacking on regular foodstuffs around your designated liquid replacement consumption, as this can significantly up your calorie intake without you really knowing.
Bear in mind, each recommended serving of this formula delivers 500 calories on average. A nibble here and bite of something else there can very quickly add hundreds more surplus calories to your daily totals. As such, if not consumed as recommended, you can see unwanted weight gain creep in that your workout activities won’t be able to compensate for.
Final thoughts
First and foremost, this powdered food supplement is something intended for those ready to swap out conventional meals with something more akin to a liquid diet. To the uninitiated, the apparent convenience of a meal replacement liquid shake can seem massively appealing, but there’s plenty to consider beyond the perks of not having to cook and prepare conventional plates of breakfast, lunch and dinner.
You might not feel satiated initially by a liquid diet, even if calorific and nutritional needs are met. You may find it too hard to sacrifice the physical act of eating and all the rituals that fall around mealtimes and the dinner table. It’s a very regimented approach to nutrition, one that saps a lot of the pleasure one can take from food.
This product with its exclusive additives and ‘flavour system’ enhancers goes some way to insert some level of variety and choice back into your new liquid-based diet, but they will never compare to complete culinary freedoms. If you’re keen to see significant changes in a tighter time frame and can be meticulous in adhering to a regimented routine, a liquid diet like this one delivers is worth considering. If you’re not comfortable with such a seismic shift in your everyday life and don’t think you’ll be able to commit to any serious readjustment of the way you consume your calories and essential nutrients, Huel and similar products are probably best avoided.
