We start with nutrition.

Nutrition is complicated, and the internet hasn't helped. One week a food will save you, the next week it's killing you.

Huel takes a more balanced view. Work out what an adult needs from a meal. Deliver that and then make it tasty.

Every Huel meal carries a balanced macronutrient profile and all 26 essential vitamins and minerals. Formulated by nutritionists, tested by independent researchers, and refined over a decade.

Think of us as your personal nutritionist and chef.

Protein

The UK reference intake is 0.75g per kilogram of body weight per day (which roughly works out to 50g a day) [1,2,3]. That figure is a minimum rather than a target: enough to prevent deficiency, not much more. If you're doing anything from walking to working out, you need more [5].

Most plant proteins are not complete proteins. For example brown rice protein is rich in methionine and cysteine and low in lysine. Pea and faba bean protein are the other way round. Used together, the profile is complete. That's why our meals draw on two or three sources instead of one.

Protein is found in your skin, blood, bones, and organs, even some of your hormones are made of protein [6]. So we've made sure you're getting enough.

Fibre

Fibre is the part of a plant your body doesn't break down. The main role of fibre is to keep things running smoothly [7]. Fibre works like a sponge, so when increasing your fibre intake it is important to stay hydrated [8].

Only about 1 in 25 UK adults reaches the target [9]. Protein gets all the attention; fibre is where many diets actually fall short.

Soluble and insoluble forms do different jobs, and we need both, which is why ours comes from a mix of whole ingredients rather than one added source.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrate is also your brain's preferred energy source [10].

The carbohydrate content you want depends on what you want from the meal, so our range varies on purpose. Huel Powder takes 37% of its energy from carbohydrates. Black Edition takes 17%, using tapioca as its main source. The hot meals get theirs from brown rice, pasta and noodles.

Our Huel meals have a low glycaemic index, which is a measure of how quickly a carbohydrate raises blood sugar after you eat it [11,12]. Slower release, and a gentler rise in blood sugar [13,14]useful for when the snack cupboard is calling at four o'clock. We've written a longer explainer on glycaemic index and load here if you want the detail.

Fats

It carries flavour, helps absorb some vitamins, and is essential for your body to function [17,18].

The balance is the difficult part of getting fat right, and it's the part we've done for you. Most Western diets get plenty of omega-6 and not enough omega-3, and it's the ratio between them that matters, not just the totals [18,19]. Flaxseed and rapeseed cover the omega-3, sunflower the omega-6.

Why do we use seed oils? Seed oils get blamed for junk food's sins. But junk food is bad because it's hyper-palatable and easy to overeat, not because of what oil it's cooked in [20,21]. We've published our position and the evidence behind it rather than accept misinformation and bad science.

Vitamins and minerals

Most of the micronutrients come from the ingredients themselves. The blend is then built to fill the precise gap between that and a balanced day, which is a different job from tipping a multivitamin into a recipe, and it's why the blend differs between products.

What no one tells you is that these nutrients interact with each other. Vitamins A, D, E and K need fat present to be absorbed, and in a Huel meal the fat is already there. Vitamin C increases iron absorption, and Huel is a source of both [22,23,25,26]. Flaxseed naturally contains phytic acid, which binds to some minerals and makes them harder to take up, so iron and zinc levels are set with that in mind rather than ignored [27].

Superfoods and phytonutrients

Research shows that they have a role in preventing various diseases [29,30,31,32]. The evidence behind them ranges from solid to thin, so we are careful to select the ones we believe are the best bang for buck.

Some ingredients such as oats, brown rice, flaxseed and tomatoes naturally bring a range of phytonutrients. Some Huel products also contain additional phytonutrients as part of their vitamin and mineral blend.

Ingredients with a purpose

Every ingredient in a Huel product has a reason to be there, and there are fewer of them than you'd expect.

Protein comes from peas, faba beans and brown rice. Carbohydrate from oats, tapioca, brown rice, pasta or noodles, depending on the product. Fats from ground flaxseed and rapeseed and sunflower, with MCTs from coconut in some formulas. Fibre arrives with those whole ingredients. On top of all that sits the micronutrient blend, built to close the gap between what the food provides and what a balanced day needs.

We use flavourings, sweeteners and thickeners sparingly and in precise amounts. A meal you don't finish is worth nothing nutritionally, so taste and texture are part of the formulation rather than an afterthought.

What we leave out: animal products, GMOs, artificial colours and artificial flavours. Black Edition is sweetened with stevia. Gluten-free versions of Huel Powder use oats grown and processed in a gluten-free environment and are certified by Coeliac UK.

We've done the thinking.

Some of this is complicated. Amino acid profiles, absorption, fatty acid ratios. It has taken proper research to get right.

None of that is yours to think about. That's the point of Huel. Open it, make it, get on with your day.

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References

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2. FoodDrinkEurope. Guidance on the Provision of Food Information to Consumers Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011 2013 [Available from https://www.fooddrinkeurope.eu/uploads/publications_documents/FDE_Guidance_WEB.pdf.
3. British Nutrition Foundation. Nutrition Requirements Revised 2019 [Available from https://www.nutrition.org.uk/attachments/article/261/Nutrition%20Requirements_Revised%20August%202019.pdf.
4. EFSA NDA Panel, 2010. Scientific Opinion on the substantiation of health claims related to protein... growth or maintenance of muscle mass (ID 415, 417, 593, 594, 595, 715)... EFSA J. 8, 1811.
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