Is meal replacement the future?

The last few weeks I had the opportunity to test Huel (pronounced similar to fuel, as it is fuel for your body 😉 ). Huel sent me a test package with 1,75kg of their vanilla and 1.71kg of their unflavoured/unsweetend powder. I wanted to test Huel since I am quite busy at the moment with writing my thesis and am sometimes struggling to find affordable, fast, nutritious and vegan food on the go. I also really like the mission of Huel to “make nutritionally complete, convenient, affordable food, with minimal impact on animals and the environment”.

After trying Huel for several weeks (usually 4-5 times a week), I can say that it met my expectations. It is really easy to prepare and tastes good (especially the Vanilla flavour). I did not really like the unflavoured version, but when I mixed it with vanilla (2:3), it tasted very good (and also not too sweet like the vanilla one). The consistency is also very nice, like a normal shake. However, if you have a mixer, you should use that for preparing Huel as I sometimes had a few clumps when only preparing it in the shaker (moreover you could then add some fruits to make it even tastier 😉 ). I think Huel is a really good meal replacement that you can use 1-2 times every day. If you would want to, you could even replace all meals with Huel. Personally, I would not like to do it as I enjoy eating out with friends and I like good and varied food. I found that especially replacing breakfast and/or lunch with Huel is quite handy when I am working or studying in the library, as it is fast, nutritious and very cost effective. Usually I would need to pay at least 6 EUR for a meal and with Huel a meal costs me less than 2 EUR and is probably more nutritious and better for the environment. Also you can get very creative with Huel and e.g. use it for baking pancakes or making normal smoothies by mixing it with fruits etc.

One of my main reasons why I wanted to try out Huel was due to environmental and ethical considerations. I like about Huel that it’s 100% vegan and gives me the nutrients (26 essential vitamins and minerals) that I need in the most efficient way. Moreover, CO2 emissions and packaging are reduced. Thus, it has the potential to solve the global problem of feeding 9 billion people in a sustainable way. However, it is of course still nicer to eat normal food, cook with friends, and take a proper lunch break from work. Occassionaly it is really handy if you are very busy and want to have a nutritous and environmentally friendly meal. Tell me if you give it a try and send me a comment with your experiences. 🙂