Don’t Buy Huel Until You See This: Hot & Savoury and Drink Review
I get asked about Huel all the time. The company wouldn’t send me any samples, so I went and bought some myself to give you an honest, unsponsored review. Huel is marketed as a nutritionally complete meal replacement drink that’s plant-based and made for busy people. I like the company itself, their branding, and their customer service. But the product? That’s a different story.
The Hot & Savoury Range
When Huel launched their hot meal range, I was genuinely interested. They come in two flavours: Thai green curry and tomato basil. The preparation is simple – two scoops, cover with boiling water, and you’re ready to go in 90 seconds.
Thai Green Curry: A Flavor Overload
The Thai green curry rates a five out of ten in my book. The taste is intense – fruity overtones with a slightly Byzantine period flavour that just doesn’t work for me. It’s extremely concentrated, like getting to the bottom of a crisp packet where all the seasoning powder sits in one place. That’s the experience here, multiplied by ten.
It’s like if the guys behind Cup of Soup went to the gym. Very strong flavoured. Too much for me personally.
Price and Convenience Tradeoff
The hot meals work out to about two pounds per meal. That’s pricey if you were making it yourself, but the whole selling point of Huel is convenience and quickness. It’s portable and you can take it to work. You’re paying for the convenience, not the ingredients.
Nutritionally, the hot meals are solid. Good micronutrition, good fibre content, quite satiating. It’s all plant-based if that’s your thing, and there’s nothing questionable in the ingredient list. But would I recommend it overall? Not particularly.
The Ready-to-Drink Products
They sent me two ready-to-drink versions – one berry flavour, one vanilla. Unfortunately, both are far too sweet for my taste. They’re quite thick, and there are several ingredients in there that I have serious issues with.
Huel is not designed as a weight gain or weight loss drink. It’s more for busy people who don’t have time to get the calories in.
The Hormonal Issue
I’m trying to reduce my overall estrogen load. Luckily, Huel doesn’t use soy protein, which is typically used as cheap filler in protein supplements. However, all of their drinks contain flax seed, and some studies show that flax is more hormonally active than soy.
Flax acts like estrogen in the body and can reduce testosterone and muscle-building capacity over time. One study showed testosterone reduction in patients with PCOS. While there’s not much research on training populations, the general evidence shows flax is hormonally active. Estrogen is complicated, but it’s certainly not anabolic, and it’s not something I want to introduce as a long-term habit.
It’s not that I’m afraid of one ingredient in isolation. It’s more that by consistently choosing to buy and use Huel, I’m making thousands of decisions that compound into a higher overall estrogen load and reduced capacity to gain muscle and lose fat – the whole point of my nutritional goals.
When Huel Actually Makes Sense
Huel shines if you’re a shift worker who runs the risk of simply not eating because you’re too busy. If that’s your situation, it minimises the friction to getting calories in. But if you live a life where you don’t have time to eat, either your priorities are wrong or you’re actually being exploited. I’m a junior doctor doing busy on-call shifts, and I still always make time to eat because it’s that important to fuel the thing you’re operating in.
If the alternative to drinking Huel is cramming down absolute junk, then it’s a much better alternative.
The Verdict
All things considered, Huel is a no from me. The company is great, and with a few tweaks to their formula – ditching the flax, reducing the sweetness, toning down the flavour intensity – they could do some really good things. But as it stands, I’m not a fan.
If you want to gain muscle and lose fat with minimum effort, we’ve laid out the whole roadmap for you in our nutrition playlist.