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Is Huel Actually Healthy? A Doctor Looks at the Evidence
Meal replacement shakes have become a popular solution for busy professionals, health-conscious individuals and anyone seeking a convenient way to manage their nutrition. Among the most prominent brands is Huel, which promises "nutritionally complete food" in a simple, easy-to-consume format. You’ve likely seen the sleek packaging and heard the claims. But when you’re dealing with persistent symptoms like fatigue, digestive upset or hormonal imbalances, you learn to look past the marketing.
Is a Huel drink a genuine step toward better health, or is it just another highly processed product that falls short of what your body truly needs?
As a doctor focused on root-cause medicine, I understand the appeal. You need reliable, simple options that fit into a demanding life. However, it's crucial to distinguish between a convenient shortcut and a sustainable health strategy. Let's look at the evidence behind Huel, exploring when it might help and where it could hinder your journey to true, lasting wellness.
What exactly is Huel?
Huel offers a range of products, from its original Huel powder to the higher-protein Huel Black Edition and ready-to-drink Huel shakes. The core concept is a powdered food made from a blend of plant-based ingredients: oats, pea protein, brown rice protein, flaxseed, and sunflower seeds. This blend is fortified with a comprehensive mix of 26 essential vitamins and minerals.
The brand markets itself as more than just a Huel protein powder; it’s designed to be a complete meal. A standard 400-calorie serving of Huel provides a balanced mix of protein, carbohydrates, fats, and fibre. This macronutrient profile is what sets a Huel meal replacement apart from a typical protein shake, which is primarily designed for post-workout recovery.
Many people turn to Huel for various reasons:
Convenience: It’s faster than cooking a meal from scratch.
Calorie Control: Each serving is precisely measured, simplifying weight management.
Nutritional Assurance: It offers a safety net, ensuring you get essential nutrients even on your busiest days.
These benefits are valid, but they don't paint the full picture of health. To understand if Huel is right for you, we need to look deeper.
When can a Huel meal replacement be helpful?
In specific situations, incorporating a Huel shake can be a pragmatic and supportive choice. It’s about using it as a tool, not a crutch.
The Advantage of Convenience and Consistency
Life is messy. Between work deadlines, family commitments and personal obligations, preparing three balanced meals every day can feel impossible. This is where many people run into trouble, grabbing unhealthy snacks or skipping meals entirely, leading to energy crashes and poor food choices later.
A Huel shake offers a predictable, convenient alternative. Having one for a quick breakfast or lunch can prevent you from reaching for a pastry or fast food. This consistency helps stabilise blood sugar, manage hunger and ensure you’re getting a baseline of nutrients. For individuals trying to lose weight or build healthier habits, this structured approach can be an invaluable starting point. It removes the decision fatigue that often leads to diet failure.
A tool for specific metabolic goals
For those with metabolic health goals, such as improving insulin sensitivity or managing weight, calorie and macronutrient consistency is key. Huel provides a straightforward way to control these variables.
Calorie Deficit: For weight loss, a 400-calorie Huel meal replacement is an easy way to create a predictable calorie deficit without the mental load of weighing and tracking a complex meal.
Protein Intake: The Huel Black Edition, with its higher protein content (40g per serving) and reduced carbs, can be particularly useful. Protein is highly satiating and has a higher thermic effect of food, meaning your body burns more calories digesting it. Adequate protein intake is also crucial for preserving lean muscle mass during weight loss, which is vital for maintaining a healthy metabolism.
Using a Huel drink in this context is a strategic move. It replaces a meal that might otherwise be nutritionally poor or excessively high in calories, giving you a structured way to stay on track with your goals.
Where Huel falls short: a doctor's concerns
While convenience is appealing, it shouldn't come at the expense of your long-term health. From a root-cause perspective, relying too heavily on products like Huel raises some significant concerns. Your body is designed for whole, natural foods, and a processed powder can never truly replicate that.
The problem with ultra-processing
Huel is, by definition, an ultra-processed food (UPF). It’s made from ingredients that have been broken down from their original sources—oats into oat flour, peas into pea protein isolate. While these ingredients are plant-based, their journey from farm to powder involves significant industrial modification.
Why does this matter? Growing evidence links high consumption of UPFs to a range of health issues, including:
Increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Higher rates of cardiovascular disease.
One theory is that the "food matrix"—the natural structure of whole foods—is destroyed during processing. This structure dictates how nutrients are absorbed and how your body responds. For example, your body digests the carbohydrates in whole rolled oats differently than it does finely milled oat flour. The latter can cause a faster spike in blood sugar, even if the fibre content looks good on the label. Relying on a Huel powder for multiple meals a day means you are consuming a diet high in ultra-processed ingredients, which may work against your long-term health goals.
Fibre: quantity vs. quality
Huel proudly states its high fibre content (around 7-8 grams per serving). Fibre is fantastic for gut health, blood sugar regulation and satiety. However, not all fibre is created equal.
Your gut microbiome, the community of trillions of bacteria in your digestive tract, thrives on diversity. Different types of fibre from a wide array of plant foods—vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, and seeds—feed different families of beneficial bacteria. This diversity is the cornerstone of a resilient and healthy gut.
The fibre in Huel comes from a very limited number of sources, primarily oats and flaxseed. While these are healthy, relying on them alone starves the bacteria that prefer fibre from broccoli, apples or lentils. A low-diversity microbiome is linked to a host of problems, including IBS, inflammation and even mood disorders.
Think of it like tending a garden. You wouldn't just plant one type of flower and expect a vibrant ecosystem. You need a variety of plants to attract different birds, bees, and butterflies. Your gut is the same. Consuming a Huel meal replacement daily might give you a checkmark for fibre intake, but it won't cultivate the rich, diverse inner garden your body needs to thrive.
The missing pieces: phytonutrients and enzymes
Whole foods contain thousands of bioactive compounds called phytonutrients. These are the colourful pigments in fruits and vegetables—like the lycopene in tomatoes or the anthocyanins in blueberries—that act as powerful antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents. They play a crucial role in protecting your cells from damage and preventing chronic disease.
These compounds cannot be synthesised in a lab and added to a powder. While Huel is fortified with synthetic vitamins and minerals, it lacks the complex symphony of phytonutrients found in a diet rich in whole plants. These micronutrients work together in ways we are still just beginning to understand. By replacing a meal of colourful vegetables and fruits with a beige-coloured Huel shake, you are missing out on this vital layer of protection.
Huel for IBS and digestive health: a word of caution
For individuals struggling with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), the idea of a simple, easy-to-digest meal is tempting. Some people report that Huel helps manage their symptoms, likely because it provides a consistent and predictable meal that avoids their specific trigger foods.
However, it can be a double-edged sword. The ingredients in Huel can be problematic for some people with IBS:
Oats and Grains: While gluten-free, the oats in Huel can still be a trigger for some sensitive individuals.
Protein Isolates: Pea and brown rice protein are concentrated and may be difficult for a compromised gut to digest.
Artificial Sweeteners: Some Huel products contain sucralose, an artificial sweetener known to disrupt the gut microbiome and cause bloating or discomfort in sensitive people.
Fibre Content: A sudden increase in fibre, even from a liquid source, can worsen bloating and gas if your gut isn't adapted to it.
If you have IBS, using a Huel drink as a temporary tool during a flare-up might offer relief. But it is not a long-term solution. The goal should be to identify your root causes, for example leaky gut or microbiome imbalance—and heal your gut so you can tolerate a wide variety of whole foods. Relying on Huel can become a crutch that prevents you from doing the deeper work required for true healing.
Download my Free Gut Health Guide and learn my 5 favourite tips to creating a thriving microbiome — without wasting money on expensive drinks
How to use Huel as part of a healthy diet
So, where does that leave us? Huel is not a "health food," but it’s also not nutritional poison. The key is to use it strategically, as a small part of an otherwise diverse, whole-foods-based diet.
Here’s how to incorporate a Huel product without compromising your health:
Use it as an occasional back up, not daily staple: Think of Huel as your emergency meal. Keep it in your desk drawer or gym bag for days when you're truly in a bind. Using a Huel shake 2-3 times a week is far different from having it for one or two meals every single day.
Prioritise the rest of your diet: If you have a Huel for breakfast, make sure your lunch and dinner are packed with a diverse range of colourful vegetables, lean proteins and healthy fats. Your other meals need to compensate for the lack of phytonutrients and fibre diversity in the shake.
Choose your Huel wisely: If you are sensitive to artificial sweeteners, opt for the unflavoured and unsweetened versions and add your own natural flavours, like a handful of berries or a sprinkle of cinnamon. If you’re focused on metabolic health, the Huel Black Edition might be a better fit due to its higher protein and lower carb profile.
Listen to your body: Pay close attention to how you feel. Do you feel energised and satisfied, or do you experience bloating, gas or energy slumps? If a Huel protein shake doesn't sit well with you, it’s not the right tool for your body.
Ready to go beyond powders and quick fixes?
If you’re relying on products like Huel to manage fatigue, digestion, or hormones, it might be time to explore what your body is really asking for.
I help patients uncover the root causes of these symptoms through advanced testing, personalised nutrition, and practical, doctor-led strategies that fit real life.
Click the button above to explore how a functional, whole-food approach could transform your energy and long-term health.
The final verdict: tool, not a treasure
In the quest for better health, especially when you're navigating complex symptoms that conventional medicine has dismissed, it’s easy to be drawn to promises of simple, complete solutions. Huel offers just that—a seemingly perfect answer to our time-crunched, nutritionally-confused lives.
But true health is rarely found in a powder. It's built meal by meal, with whole, vibrant foods that nourish your body and your microbiome. While a Huel meal replacement can be a useful tool for convenience and consistency in a pinch, it cannot and should not replace a diet rich in real food. Its ultra-processed nature and lack of dietary diversity are significant drawbacks that can't be ignored.
Instead of looking for a replacement for food, focus on empowering yourself with knowledge and strategies to make whole food eating manageable. Healing is possible, but it requires addressing the root causes of your symptoms, not just covering them up with a convenient shake. Your vitality is worth more than what can be scooped from a bag.
Medical disclaimer: Educational content, not a substitute for personalised advice
Written by Dr Avni Sheth MBBS, BSc, DRCOG, MRCGP, mBANT CNHC, founder of The Holistic GP Clinic (CQC-registered, Cheshire).
References
Monteiro CA et al. Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes. BMJ. 2023 link
Vitale M, Costabile G, Testa R, et al. Ultra-Processed Foods and Human Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies. Adv Nutr. 2024;15(1):100121. doi:10.1016/j.advnut.2023.09.009 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10831891/
Levy RB, Barata MF, Leite MA, Andrade GC. How and why ultra-processed foods harm human health. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 2024;83(1):1-8. doi:10.1017/S0029665123003567 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-nutrition-society/article/how-and-why-ultraprocessed-foods-harm-human-health/72C5B81ECAD70D743A3C9ADEB9E6F190
Fu J, et al. “Dietary Fiber Intake and Gut Microbiota in Human Health.” PMC. 2022. link
Aljuraiban GS, et al. “Types of fiber and gut microbiota composition and diversity: a systematic review.” PMC. 2023 link
Lloyd-Price J, et al. The healthy human microbiome. Nature. 2016;535(7610):47–55. link
Liu RH. Health-promoting components of fruits and vegetables in the diet. Advances in Nutrition. 2013;4(3):384S–392S link
NHS website “The truth about sweeteners” article. link
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