. So I love Huel Black and I am now finding it hard to wait until my breakfast time of 8am to have it. I am actually EXCITED for it. It’s not that I am particularly hungry, it’s just a nice treat to have. Probably the best tasting chocolate “healthy” thing on the market.
If you add a little too much water, kinda like chocolate milk. Normal water and put it in the fridge over night, like a really smooth milkshake just about.
People still think I’m nuts for drinking it, even my boyfriend but THEY are nuts for not drinking it.
Keep up the good work guys. I’m always on here reading feedback and seeing what’s new with Huel. I’ve been jokingly told I am apart of a cult but so what if I am. I’d be rocking pants, socks, hats, bumper stickers and all if you had them. I haven’t seen a better change in energy and body composition with any other “diet” I have followed. I am one of those who just can’t meal prep consistently nor do I have the time to make boring macro healthy meals every week just to chew it mindlessly. I like having something I can enjoy the time saved from not cooking means more time to get big and strong
Anywho, back to the cult thing, if yall ended up like some of these small business now, I’d give up my first born to keep you in business. I mean, I’m not planning on having kids - but if I did - we’d name him Huel.
haha my coworkers would call it my morning Gruel shake. I mean you just whisper the word vegan and people in the south think you’re nuts as is…now put it in the form of a shake like substance and they think you’re some moon man sent from the future or I am on some fad that requires no chewing.
People just love to eat here and drinking anything but beer gets you funny looks
Indeed. I been working on the COVID-19 ICU floor since we got our first patient. Been spending a lot of time learning and relearning stuff related to this new disease and it’s complications. It’s been a very interesting and ever changing time since the pandemic started. We’ve had to improvise and adjust. Plus the risk of exposure puts me a in a constant state of unease. Engineering controls and PPE can significantly reduce that risk, but it’s never zero, and when I’m exposed to it up to 40 hours per week it’s unnerving.
Obviously, the use of Huel at work has become even more important for me. My floor is locked down and most of the microwaves have been removed, so getting food during break time has become even more difficult… unless it’s already in my bottle ready to go. So at least I don’t have to worry about being able to get something to eat consistently.
And, I am hoping my weight loss and plant-based diet puts me at low risk of developing complications from COVID-19, should I be unlucky enough to contract it. There’s really no way to know definitively. But I will say that the main conditions we see in patients who develop the severe respiratory distress from COVID are the metabolic diseases: obesity, Type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, and high blood pressure. We also see some COPD people too. But I am most surprised that obesity and Type 2 seem to be major risk factors for COVID patients developing the so-called “cytokine storm”. We really aren’t seeing immune suppressed or cancer patients in our ICUs.
The most troubling aspect of the COVID patient who develop the acute respiratory distress and need intubation is the length of time they spend on ventilator. They are remaining intubated about 2 to 3 times as long as a typical ICU patient. Many of our patients have been intubated for 2 weeks or longer. A few are now at day 30 in our ICU. Some have been here so long their follow up nasal swab shows negative for COVID but they remain in the ICU. Their recovery will be long due to the length of intubation and the need to paralyze most of them.
I can’t even imagine what you’re going through. An ER Nurse I grew up with passed away from COVID a few weeks ago; her father passed away two weeks later. It’s really a very scary and very unfortunate situation we’re in. Thank you for all you’re doing, my prayers go out to you and your family!
Haha thank you Debbie! This really brightened my day. We’re not planning on having a kid, but if we did we’ll call it Debbie!
Thank you so much for the work you’re doing Deron. Wow, it sounds hugely stressful and upsetting. I do hope you’re ok. With regards to food, do you have donations of food to the staff at all or any other helping hands? Glad that you have Huel to keep you fuelled, but what are the others doing?
It was most stressful in March and early April. But, as with anything new, it gets better with more practice and experience. Things are getting better overall. ICU census is down from the peak 3 weeks ago, and we are holding steady with no second surge (yet). We’ve already developed a third version of our treatment algorithm, incorporating newer data that seems to be coming in every week. We’ve already learned a few of the early treatments don’t do jack, so we’ve ditched them. And now we have a few other options available. Our hospital is currently involved in three clinical trials and so far we’ve seen good results (at least I assume, since I am blinded to whether or not each patient gets the drug or placebo). We know early proning and early steroids also help, so everybody is now getting those. We’ve had time to procure more PPE for nurses and more critical drugs for the patients, so we are not in dire shape that we thought we’d be in originally. And just this week we now have COVID tests available for all staff members, so we will be able to identify anyone who is an asymptomatic carrier.
For food, there is actually an abundance. Restaurants around the community have donated food for the staff almost every night. Partly as a thanks. Partly to get some good PR. Partly because they have excess food they are having a hard time selling. Unfortunately, none of it is what I consider real food. It’s all laiden with dairy and meat. Sooo much pizza. So, it’s Huel only for me.
Interestinglty enough, the biggest co-morbidities in our critical COVID patients are all the “metabolic diseases” that are associated with poor diet: obesity, type 2 DM, hypertension, and coronary artery disease (CAD). It’s not the immune compromised, COPD, or cancer patients that do the worst. It’s the people who eat too much fast food or junk food. If there ever was a time for Americans to take an introspective look at their diet, it’s now.
And here is the latest study on Type 2 diabetes and COVID on hospitalized patients. This is exactly what I’ve been seeing in my area. Indeed, poor glucose control was associated with a significant higher mortality rate among hospitalized covid patients.
I’m no expert, but from what I’ve seen with heart disease is that when the immune system is trying to fight fat, it gets stuck in it. So possibly the people who have the obesity might have the same issue going on. That doesn’t sound right, because it’s the white blood cells that would be stuck. Cytokines (from my biology/anatomy courses) are the signal cells that attach to antigens. Maybe it’s the signalling part that gets stuck and then the brain tries to send out more signals and with immune suppressed people and cancer patients (who are likely immune suppressed from chemotherapy), their brain isn’t signalling for more or it’s not getting stuck or reacting as much. So I bet it’s something like that happening here. Hope that helps.
I just think the difference is that one has an immune system and one doesn’t - hence the difference, even though they both have not great bodies to work with.
I think the link between diabetes or obesity and more severe disease state in covid-19 has to do with angiotensin 2 receptors. In those patients, they have an up regulated aniotensin system and coronavirus binds to the angiotensin 2 receptors in the lung cells to gain entry into the cell and do it’s thing.
I didn’t know about them in the lungs, thought they were only in the heart (possibly some other places maybe, but definitely never heard about the lungs). Thank you for giving me details and helping me. Now I understand a little bit more.
Angiotensin 2 receptors are also found on the surfaces of smooth muscle surrounding all our blood vessels. When angiotensin 2 binds to it, it leads to vasoconstriction.
Oops. Let me correct myself on the Covid actually binds to the enzyme angiotensin converting enzyme 2, not the actual angiotensin 2 receptors. this is the enzyme that converts angiotensin 1 into angiotensin 2.
But still it is felt those patients who have higher renin-angiotensin responses in their bodies are more at risk.
