I’ve been eating huel for several years now, I took a brief hiatus to go Keto, but I’m back on the hueligan train!
We recently launched a Wellness initative at my company, and part of it is to track our daily servings of vegetable intake. I was wondering what 1 serving of huel equates in servings of vegetables?
I imagine it is quite larger than a 1:1 ratio, as 1 serving of vegetables is generally half a cup diced. However, huel is dehydrated and significantly more nutritious than many of the veggies that are 99% water.
Is there a good correlation out there? I assume it could be anywhere from a 3:1 to 15:1 ratio.
Counting servings of vegetables ensures that you get good amounts of many of the vitamins and minerals, as well as a good intake of fibre and phytonutrients. Although Huel will not count as one serving it does contain all 26 essential vitamins and minerals as well as being rich in insoluble and soluble fibre, phytonutrients, probiotics and more.
Do you think I would be appropriate in saying in my Wellness program that 1 serving of huel = 3 servings of vegetables? Based on the nutrient profile and macros, it could easily be more than 3 servings when compared to other vegetables such as bell peppers.
No I don’t as, excuse the pun, you’re comparing apples and oranges. I’m not sure what you’re basing the comparison on as there are phytonutrients that bell peppers contain that Huel doesn’t and vice versa.
There’s no harm to consuming more servings of vegetables so if you enjoy eating them then go for it.
The two are not like for like comparisons. Both Huel and a specific vegetable will share the same nutrients but there will also be different nutrients.
Vegetables servings, like 5-a-day in the U.K, encourage the consumption of a variety of different vegetables because there consumption has many benefits. We can take a good guess at which nutrients may be providing these benefits but isolating some of these compounds is not enough. It’s the food matrix and interaction with other nutrients that is also important.
I guess I don’t get what you are trying to accomplish by counting it as vegetables. Is there some kind of monetary benefit from this health initiative?
If not just do you and consume huel in place of junk food and make sure to eat healthy for other meals. You’re wellness habits don’t need to fit into some cookie cutter health initiative.
Well it depends on how you want to define vegetables. In the traditional sense, vegetables often mean the non-starchy plant foods which includes most of the green and yellow types. You know, the stuff our moms made us eat before we could have desert. In this sense there are no vegetables in Huel.
The closest thing you can say that is a traditional vegetable in Huel is the pea protein… So the isolated macronutrient from peas.
But Huel is one hundred percent plant based with no animal products.
Do you define potatoes and rice and oats as vegetables or starches or both? These terms aren’t universally agreed upon so it’s up to your perspective.
As others have said Huel is plant-based. The main ingredients being oats, pea protein, brown rice protein, flaxseed, sunflower oil, MCT powder (from coconut) and tapioca starch.
Out of those ingredients only pea is a vegetable and because we use pea protein it would not count towards your 5 a day. I hope that clears everything up.
I have been researching this same question that @Alivation_Salivation is asking here, and have not been able to get an answer. Maybe it is unanswerable, but it feels so important to me, that I really would like to clarify my question, and possibly be able to shed more light on it.
We want to eat fruits and vegetables for the nutrition content, not to say that we ate fruits and vegetables. If Huel can theoretically make up 100% of a healthy, balanced, and nutritious diet, then it makes no sense to me that a serving of Huel would not count toward the five a day servings of fruits and vegetables.
Therefore, it seems reasonable to ask the question - After eating a serving of Huel, how many fewer fruits and vegetables do I need to eat to count toward the daily nutrients that my five a day of fruits and vegetables would have given me?
Earlier you said that it like “comparing apples and oranges.” But that is exactly what we are doing when we eat Huel! We are comparing Huel to a well balanced diet, and wanting our nutrient intake to shake out accordingly.
Thanks for all of your insightful replies on this forum, Dan. I have gotten a lot from your insights.
You’re asking a question that Dan_Huel cannot answer…at least, not easily.
There is no such thing a “standard vegetable”. You’re asking for a measurement in units that do not exist.
This is a public forum and as the cops say on U.S. TV shows, “anything you say can be used against you in a court of law”. I am not a lawyer but you don’t really need a lawyer to tell you that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other similar governmental entities do not approve of nutritional claims that aren’t backed up by solid evidence.
You are asking an honest question that seems simple. If I were Dan, I wouldn’t even attempt to answer the question without commissioning a scientific study and consulting a lawyer. But, I’m not Dan, so I get to say that I’m glad that I don’t have to try to look polite while trying to find any possible excuse to not answer your question.
I’m new to Huel, but my impression from the product claims is that you need NO fruits or vegetables daily from a nutritional standpoint, if you’re taking Huel for every meal.
It sort of is, as in nutrition you’ve never likely to get a straight answer and there will be lots of “maybes” and “it depends” because it’s complicated and everyone is different.
Yeah there’s no answer to this because Huel is not fruits and vegetables. The 5 a day guidelines are not an essential requirement i.e. you need to have 5 a day to live, unlike say, getting 50g of protein every day. The 5 a day guidelines are there to help people get all the vitamins and minerals they need (which Huel helps with too) and also to provide other nutrients like fiber and phytonutrients (Huel doesn’t provide the same phytonutrients as fruit and vegetables).
Because even fruits and vegetables are different to one another e.g. a banana vs a cucumber you can’t just size them up against each other. Studies have shown that those who eat more fruits and vegetables are healthier. We understand some of the reasons why this is, but not all of them. This is why governments provide guidelines and recommendations rather than hard and fast rules because everyone is different and also leads to different lives and likes different things, so diets are different too.
Hopefully, I’ve now answered this with the above Nick.
What specific vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients are in these six vegetables? What other ingredients do they contain that contribute to optimal health in the human body? Now pick the six vegetables you eat most often and give your answers.
What specific vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients/ingredients that contribute to optimal health in the human body are in one recommended daily serving of Huel?
