Dizzy, nausea, bad stomac

Hi

I am on my 3rd day on Huel
I tried 3 scoops for lunch for 2 days and i am really sick (2 normal meals) i am vegetarian
Dizzy nausea and bad stomach ( i did drink also a lot of water)

Today i tried one scoop for lunch not long after breakfast just to see how I feel and i added more water and I get same dizziness
I tried few month ago another meal replacement but i didn t have any side effects
Any advice?

I have the cioc mint one that i open and the other one is vanila

Hey Simona, really sorry to hear this.

What I would recommend is don’t have any Huel for a few days then come back to it and try with one scoop from the off.

3 scoops (600kcal) is a lot to try in one sitting from the start and might be causing your issues.

1 Like

Hi
Thank you for the relay
I have one colleague at work that has the berry one

im trying now one scoop for breakfast to see how i feel :blush:

Okay, keep us posted!

How’s it going? Is it better?

Please take those supplements that really suits your body.

I’ve just read through a few posts regarding nausea and side effects. I can’t really believe my eyes, our bodies are reacting negatively to Huel, in quite a detrimental fashion(almost pulled out of a race on the weekend) and stomach is outrageous right now. When we become sick in life or when our stomach reacts badly to anything it is a definite sign not to be dismissed. All I see are answers about reducing dosage and adapting over time to these reactions, posted often if not always by people with stakes in Huel, in what way affiliated I don’t know. A mention to sucralose was dismissed, and the pea powder is often blamed as the culprit for all of this healthy stuff our body hasn’t been used to. In the ingredients there are thickeners, micronutrient blend, natural flavouring along with the sucralose. None of these ingredients are truly natural, and they should be avoided in all foods you purchase and make. I can only share my own knowledge on sucralose, sugar is bad for us, sucralose can only be worse, you can taste high concentrations of addictive sweetness in this product, sugar dehydrates the body and is more addictive than drugs. You can only take me on the word I represent if you wish, but I’ve no doubt from my own experience that it is one of the contributing factors to cancer, inflammation causes all diseases, and cancer is the perfect picture of our diet related issues. That this is being sold as a healthy alternative to eating a meal (whatever little loopholes could be found in this statement, such as only for sometime, or alongside, does not justify how it is promoted) is why we need to be more aware of what our body is telling us. Again, whole-food plant-based calls me away from this error I’ve made. If you are reading, I hope it makes sense that food that grows in nature would be more beneficial to your physical and mental health than a bag of powdered food that, even if they’ve made the effort to scientifically fill it with nutrients that are perfectly well for us, does not justify the other ingredients that may be slowly killing us. Even if you disagree with me on all of this, please just listen to your body, awareness of it’s health is key, sleep, fresh air, water and healthy sustenance will always be king.

1 Like
  1. Sugar is bad for us. Processed/added sugar is likely very bad for humans, as per the literature that I’ve read and from my own experience. The natural sugar found in fruits, when eaten as whole fruit, seems to be innocuous and doesn’t have the same effects.

  2. “Sucralose can only be worse.” I doubt that. There’s no strong literature showing this. Also, since sucralose is like 500x as sweet as sugar, the amounts used to sweeten food are very very small. This would minimize its impact on human health, IMO.

  3. “Sugar dehydrates the body.” Not really convinced on this one. I suppose a diabetic whose blood glucose is > 300 and spilling glucose into the urine would experience an osmotic diuretic effect. But other than that, glucose, sucrose, high fructose corn syrup is very easily digested and absorbed in the body. Glucose is not really involved in the body’s regulation of water/volume maintenance and kidney function, with the exception of what I mentioned above. I have seen no scientific evidence that sugar itself is dehydrating to humans.

  4. “Sugar more addictive than drugs”. Ehhhh, maybe. It’s certainly used more than drugs in the aggregate. But I’d wage dollars to donuts that it’s a lot easier to come off sugar than an Oxycodone or Heroin addiction. IMO, opiates have the highest addiction potential of any substance that humans consume.

“That this is being sold as a healthy alternative to eating a meal .”

It’s the lesser of two evils. At work I do not have the option of consistently heating up a whole food plant based meal, like I do at home. Many times when I attempted to bring in my grain bowl or oatmeal, I’d heat it up, get interrupted by nursing, then it would go cold and be tossed in the trash. Then I’d be forced to snack on crackers and chips till I got home. Being able to drink Huel whenever I get a chance and do it while working, and can easily stop half way and then drink the rest 30 min later is very nice. It’s the healthiest option that I can come up with that allows for that complete freedom at work. And, as a result of doing Huel at work, along with time restricted eating, and a (mostly) whole food plant based diet, I was able to improve my health and slim down over the last few years.

As far as food additives are concerned, they are a necessity for a convenient product with longer shelf life. They exist in any semi-processed or processed food product. They exist in the hot sauces that I add to my grain bowls. They are a necessary trade off. The alternative is spoiled food, which I guarantee will make people sick.

5 Likes

It’s a nice speech and I appreciate your concerns. However, issues are not dismissed at all. The most common problem is an increase in fibre, I don’t think pea protein is pointed to by myself at all especially compared the amount of times I bring up fibre. The standard American diet is low in fibre whereas Huel is high, so it can take a little bit of time for the body and gut microbiota to get used to this. This is not a bad thing, fibre has several benefits.

You make a lot of strong claims. We have hundreds of independent peer-reviewed references on our website and this includes our article on sucralose: https://huel.com/pages/guide-to-sucralose

Do you have any evidence to back up what you are saying, such as “the other ingredients are slowly killing us” avoiding synthetic ingredients (man made vitamin C is chemically identical to natural vitamin C) and “sucralose can only be worse”. It’s really important that we discuss your concerns but let’s make sure we are using evidence to back up our claims.

Please also bare in mind we offer an unflavoured and unsweetened version of our powders without any sucralose and flavourings to provide a choice to our Hueligans.

1 Like

Thank you Dan.

In response to Deron, I should have definitely specified refined sugars, binging on locally-sourced fresh fruit could almost never be a bad thing. I did not know that about sucralose, but 500x sweeter sounds kind of scary in my opinion considering refined sugars are already bad for us. I’ll just take a line here to recommend The China Study, which has definitely influenced a lot of what I represent. Alas I am glad of the article Dan has shared, and that Huel are offering transparency on their knowledge of this topic. I still encourage awareness around E numbers and things that seem too good to be true when reliable alternatives exist. Thanks for what you shared also Deron, it’s insightful and leaves me plenty to reflect on.

I am taking in what you’ve said about fibre and it likely explains the stomach turmoil, and I understand that we may, as I have, be willing to try something other than eating the whole of the veg or fruit as our source of fibre, even though nature might only intend for this as our most reliable form of sustenance.

I agree I have made my claims rather strongly, without regret however, it’s quite a sensitive topic for me when concerning my own vitality and what’s projected to the masses. I will say I did say “may slowly be killing us” which I know was still strongly put, yet is intended to express my lack of knowledge on the full extent of the facts of things, just to really express by serious concern. I should also have refrained from saying sucralose “can only be worse” I admit, yet I can’t let go of the feeling that something 500x sweeter than refined sugar may be. I will also say that evidence and peer-reviews can also be gathered or manipulated to such a degree to promote any product, whether it be Huel itself (even whether it’s not ill-intended), promoters of sucralose or any corporation, particularly pharmaceutical, that might benefit financially from such influences and really the truth of things may often only come in what makes sense to the individual, through discussing, researching and feeling into topics such as this. Here’s an article that suggests the truth about sucralose is still unknown, as with much knowledge in the mysteries of the human mind and body, so it might be a case of going with your heart on a topic like this. https://blog.daveasprey.com/sucralose-splenda-safe-dangers/

Finally I’m glad to know of the unflavoured and unsweetened version you provide. Again thank you for responding, and I hope these posts prove useful to anyone that finds themselves here. It’s been enough for me to vent my concerns and feel listened to, and whatever we take from all of this, I’m glad we could relate rather peacefully, and are all striving for healthier lifestyles for our bodies, our mental health and the earth. Cheers

2 Likes

[Not aimed at anyone. Just a humorous observation from being on social media platforms recently.]

Until veganism came into the public view, noone was concerned about protein intake. All the sudden , we’re all Brian Shaw and competing for World’s Strongest Man and “need our meat”. Until Huel came along, noone batted an eye about Sucralose. @Dan_Huel please forgive me, but I just had to use my new meme app …

Joker%20Huel%20Sucralose

1 Like

Not a problem at all!

I get where you are coming from but unlike sugar, sucralose doesn’t have a negative effect on teeth, doesn’t affect a person’s blood sugar levels and doesn’t contribute to the calories or nutritional composition.

Yeap, Huel is there for when time is short, you’re on the go or a nutritious, convenient and affordable meal is difficult to come by. Often, that means the nutritious/healthy part loses out and so junk food is eaten instead.

In some aspects I can agree, but there’s a lot that I don’t in that article. For example, it’s been shown time and again that sucralose doesn’t cause cancer: https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.k4718
Also remember sucralose and splenda are not the same. Splenda has bulking agents such as dextrin added to it.

That’s okay Conor, the feelings are mutual. Let me know if you need anything else.

You’re forgiven, I think it’s brilliant. I think there will always be concerns about artificial ingredients as we are never going to shake the idea that natural is best, even though it’s not always true.

1 Like

I was using Huel 3-5 days a week for 6 weeks before I got massive nausea/vomiting and intense stomach pain. I stopped for 2 weeks and made sure my shaker was VERY ruling out a bacteria problem. Same issue happened, about 30 mins after consuming very bad N/V that remain for about 1-2 hours after I cannot throw up anymore. I’ve only used the chocolate and vanilla so I tried a different flavor 2 weeks later with an entirely different shaker bottle. Same thing, I eat pretty health consciously including vegetarian very often so I doubt it’s anything related to fiber. Also, I find it quite dismissive to say: N/V may happen from this fiber cause you probably are not used to having a good diet high in fiber like our product has. I’m an RN and I work in clinical trials, if you think fiber is the cause of massive stomach upset with cramping and vomiting I can assure you, it’s not.

2 Likes

That’s really odd. Would you mind sending me a message with your batch numbers and best before dates please?

Cramping and nausea can absolutely be side effects of a high increase in fiber in the diet.

Was it the new 3.0 version, by any chance?