What is Huel?

New to Huel? Still a little unsure about what it actually is? Don’t worry – we’ve put together a quick and easy guide answering the big question, ‘What is Huel?’

Huel is…

1. Food. The Oxford dictionary defines ‘food’ as “Any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth”, which sounds exactly like Huel!

2. Nutritionally complete. Huel products provide all the nutrients that the body needs – in other words, the nutrients your body can’t make itself and has to get from your diet. In nutrition, these nutrients are called “essential nutrients”.

3. Everything you need per 2000cal. If Huel products provided 100% of all the essential vitamins and minerals your body needed per meal, then you’d overdose on some nutrients because your body needs more than 400cal. Also, the body can’t effectively use that amount of nutrition in one go, so the amounts in Huel allow those vitamins and minerals to be easily incorporated into any diet.

4. Low in nutrients that are easy to overconsume. Sugar and saturated fat are two of the most commonly overconsumed nutrients, which can lead to poor health. That is why the amount we use in Huel products is well below the recommended limits.

5. Plant-based. This is not to follow a fad or for marketing. Research continually shows that the most sustainable and ethically sourced ingredients are plant-based, even when factors such as greater transport distances are taken into account (1).

6. Made with six main ingredients. Just six ingredients – oats, pea and brown rice protein, MCTs from coconut, sunflower seeds, and flaxseed – provide the majority of the vitamins and minerals in the Huel Powders and also provide phytonutrients (beneficial nutrients from plants). A bespoke vitamin and mineral blend (the more scientific-sounding names you’ll find on our ingredient list) is added to make sure Huel products provide all 27 essential vitamins and minerals in the right amounts.

7. Convenient. Whatever Huel you go for, you’re less than five minutes (and some water) away from your next meal.

8. Simple. You won’t find any fancy recipes here, and you won’t need to do much thinking to work out whether a Huel meal is healthy for you. We’ve taken care of all of that already!

9. Affordable. There’s no point making Huel all of the above if most people are priced out of buying it. If price is at the top of your list, check out our article here.

10. More than just a powder. Huel is available in our Core Powder range (v3.0), Black Edition (low carb powder), Instant Meals, Ready-to-drink bottle and Bar. Shop the full Huel product range here.

References 1. Poore J, et al. Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science. 2018; 360(6392):987.