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I've eaten a meal replacement shake twice a day for two years (2019)
- gexla 2y agoThe headline is spot on. This person ate a meal replacement shake twice a day for two years. If there was anything else to add, then I guess the headline might be different.
- rcarr 2y agoI highly, highly recommend Huel or alternatives for anyone. I feel way better and have much more energy when I'm regularly consuming them. I think liquid food in general is really good for energy levels because the body has to expend way less energy breaking the food down to absorb it. I especially recommend it for anyone who suffers from depression. The ability to just make a nutritionally complete meal that isn't full of complete shit in less than a minute is a godsend for maintaining your physical health on bad mental health days. Another tip for healthy meals in under 5 minutes. Buy the following: - A bag of mixed salad leaves - A bag of pre-shredded coleslaw veg - Microwave rice, cous cous or grain blend - Cooked chicken breast (or get a whole chicken from the shop and strip it all) - Some ready made sauce or dressing like peri-peri mayo, pesto mayo, honey-soy-garlic dressing etc - A seed blend (optional) - Some fried shallots/onions (optional) - Wasabi peas (optional) Put the salad and coleslaw veg in a bowl. Put the rice in the microwave for 90s, and the chicken in the microwave for 60s. Add the rice and chicken to bowl, add the optional toppings if desired and drizzle a bit of sauce (don't go overboard) on it. You've now made an exceptionally healthy meal in under 5 minutes. For some reason the added carbs and the heat in the chicken and grains really makes the it way more palatable than a cold salad. Poke bowls for the win.
- holoduke 2y agoThe Human body is designed to eat all available material. meat, vegs, fruits, leaves, nuts, shells, skin, bones, flowers, insects and much more We can digest almost everything and we should. Our stumic needs to work. Our chewing muscles need to work. We should not eat easy lazy food. We will turn into weak beings with allergies and zero resistance. Eat healthy, but also a bit unhealthy.
- navane 2y agoThe parents food advice is not competing against wholesome meals, it's competing against a bag of chips and a beer for dinner.
- HyulianGrader 2y ago[dead]
- t-writescode 2y agoAs someone with anxiety (diagnosed) and a strong bit of OCD (diagnosed) of the particular flavor that makes cooking *very stressful* I am grateful for Huel and use it for many of my meals. Relatively reasonably priced, good-enough tasting (better with added spices and such), low stress, low commitment, way healthier than eating out for every meal. I second this recommendation. edit: to be clear, I mean their "ready to eat" or "just microwave" meals. Their shakes are good too; but the microwavable meals are where they really shine, in my opinion.
- solumunus 2y agoTo each their own. I find them all edible but they’re all worse than literally any meal I’d be replacing them with.
- TaylorAlexander 2y agoI’ll add one of my favorite recipes: Use a high quality blender (I have my old roommates vitamix) and add: Frozen blueberries (for the antioxidants), frozen other fruits (to taste). One banana. Add enough oat milk to cover all the fruits. I like Oatly full fat. Blend thoroughly, adding a little more oat milk if needed. Then add a few heaping tablespoons of pea or soy protein and blend in thoroughly. I add it at the end as it is less likely to stick to the walls of my blender this way, but probably depends on your blender. With the vitamix you can fill it about 2/3 or 3/4 full at most but it might overheat if it’s too full, needing to cool for 5 mins before you finish blending. I’ve done that too many times to count and the blender still works, tho I try to avoid it. Pour it in to several mason jars with wide lids. I tend to end up with three jars. I drink one right away (in the morning after my oatmeal when I am getting ready for my day), put one in the fridge as an easy meal later, and take one with me wherever I am going. They keep all day, and if you don’t finish it you can put it in the fridge at night and it’s still good the next day. Vegan stuff keeps really well usually. And it’s super tasty! I noticed today that I like the vanilla soy milk Jamba uses in their shakes, so I may try that some time for a little extra flavor, but honestly fruit blends have loads of flavor so maybe not. Don’t skip the protein powder! It really gives it a satisfying body.
- fire_lake 2y agoThis can’t be good for your jaw muscles.
- TaylorAlexander 2y agoPlenty of other ways to exercise your jaw muscles…
- artemonster 2y agoI cannot even begin to imagine doing that. I cook all my meals and cooking process is like a meditation/flow experience for me (and my spouse if we are doing it together), then taking time to enjoy the meal, then a very rewarding „one-up“ after cleaning. Nothing will ever beat that. Yes, a lot of time, yes, you have to factor it in. But it is so much quality of life, this is irreplacable, imho.
- Galanwe 2y agoI think you forget the fixed investment in time you have to make so that cooking becomes a pleasure. Really, I envy you. On my end, having never really cooked, everything is an effort. I have no inspiration on what to buy, no inspiration on what to cook from what I bought, and whenever I actually do the cooking, everything has to be a mental focus. I can't just "bake" stuff, because I have to focus on checking it's baking okay, turning it, shaking it. Now I have no doubt all of this can be much smoother and enjoyable, but only if you invest enough time that each step is no requiring you to spend hours checking recipes ideas, baking tutorials, etc.
- HyulianGrader 2y agoGet meal kits delivered. You still do >80% of the cooking but it takes out all of the planning and shopping. I was lucky(?) to grow up with a great cook and gardener for a mum, so I'm not even really sure how you exist without doing this at least. Pardon my naivety, but what do you eat...? Is everything unwrapped from plastic or from the local takeaway joint?
- Galanwe 2y ago> Pardon my naivety, but what do you eat...? Is everything unwrapped from plastic or from the local takeaway joint? As a student, money was always a struggle, so I would mainly eat stupid simple meals. [Pasta|potatoes puree|green beans] with [olive oil|tomato sauce|frozen steaks]. Once I started working, yes, a lot of pre-made meals. That eventually gave me some deficiencies and led to teeth issues. I then increasingly had more income, so I switched to food delivery (deliveroo|foodpanda|uber eat), which is close to "eating at a restaurant every day". Not really healthy though since most restaurant food, at least in Europe, is tailored for occasional meals, not everyday meals, so it's often fatty and not well balanced. I'm married since then, and luckily my partner took on her to do the cooking, while I do the prep/cleaning. I don't mind doing the grunt work, it's definitely not a pleasure, but at least it's not stressful, and the food is much healthier.
- Euphorbium 2y agoI did it for 2 years with like 90% of meals like this. Nothing significant to report there, it worked well but got boring.
- seydor 2y agoWhy do people eat 2 meals a day? Any other animals do that?
- t-writescode 2y agoAs opposed to?
- jimnotgym 2y agoHerbivores graze all day. Carnivores gorge themselves and then lie around saving energy. I guess omnivores can do a bit of both depending on what they are eating
- seydor 2y agoonce? it s just a habit
- olalonde 2y agoI don't know about animals but I know nutritionists recommend 4+ meals per day. From "The Renaissance Diet 2.0" by Mike Israetel: > The best recommendation for timing with relation to hunger and fullness is to eat four to eight evenly spaced meals of similar calorie content per day and avoid extremes outside of those boundaries.
- TheAlchemist 2y agoThis is a prime example of why not all innovation is good.
- Kiro 2y agoWhat do you mean? I think Huel is great and has improved my life a lot.
- lazide 2y agoHow?!
- gklitz 2y agoWhat part do you think is bad?
- thefz 2y agoPeople who do not understand this probably have had an epiphany switching to Huel instead of three fast food meals a day. Those who usually cook for themselves healthy food will stay away from this highly processed crap.
- therealdrag0 2y agoEnvironmentally friendly rounded meal benefits a lot of people.
- rustybolt 2y ago> Telling people to eat more fruits and vegetables often tends to be 1 percent or a high-income solution Am I totally out of touch with reality or is this a completely ridiculous remark? Only 1 procent of people is able to afford the most basic food?
- atlas_hugged 2y agoProbably not that far off the mark
- gklitz 2y agoCalling it 1% is a bit extreme, but yes fruit and vegetables as a stable part of your diet is a significan cost in western city living.
- ffgjgf1 2y agoIs it though? Certain types of fruits/vegetables are of course somewhat pricey. But buying the same ingredients (legumes and stuff) Huel/etc. are made from would certainly be reasonable cheap and probably way cheaper than the hyper-processed powder..
- ben_w 2y agoIn the US, I could believe that from what I've seen in the shops when visiting as a tourist. In the UK (where I grew up) and Germany (where I live), you should be able to get the recommended 5-a-day for less than £/€ 2 per day if you need to keep costs down, and £/€ 8/day if you're being lazy and getting fairly fancy stuff. Sure, the income here is lower than in the USA, but even at the higher end that's not so much as to make that "significant". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_A_Day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_A_Day
- ffgjgf1 2y agoYeah, sounds pretty silly. Also eating too much fruit isn’t the best idea either.
- Tade0 2y agoIt's counterintuitive, but apparently shelf life trumps low cost of production. Apples last how long, two weeks? Meanwhile pasteurized apple juice can sit for months at room temperature.
- subroutine 2y ago> I do eat my Huel, by the way; I don’t drink it. I make it with less water so my Huel is the consistency of melted ice cream. Then I pour my Huel into a bowl and eat it with a spoon. Huel, more like Gruel.
- Ferret7446 2y agoThat just goes to show how mundane Huel is. Huel is mostly oats (well, depending on the version), so it's effectively the same as thin oatmeal, fortified with seeds, etc.
- candiddevmike 2y agoHuel, like the sound you make when you're dry heaving.
- pluc 2y agoI did Soylent for ten years, at least once a day, AMA.
- surfingdino 2y agoHow much was the toilet waste pipe replacement job?
- keyle 2y agoAny long term digestion changes? Issues you might point back to this?
- pluc 2y agoMan tits from soy. Nothing else
- thinkharderdev 2y agoDid you stop? If so, why?
- 0x1ceb00da 2y agoSoylent started in 2013. He's probably still on it.
- pluc 2y agoI stopped when they had issues getting it into Canada, then decided to drive across the border to get it instead. I stopped because of too much soy side effects.
- 2y ago
- Angostura 2y agoI tried Huel once, but it tasted like it had some artificial sweetener in, that unfortunately disgusted me.
- therealdrag0 2y agoUnfortunately the taste can vary. I’ve been using it for 5 years and I report about a bag a year as bad because of the flavor being off. Often in a weird sweet way (like paint or gas). Also keep in mind there are various flavors. Vanilla is common default but there is also “original” which is less sweet, and even “unsweetened”!
- a13o 2y agoI replaced breakfast with a bottle of Huel six years ago, and I don't see a reason to stop. I still cook for lunch and dinner and I skip the Huel on occasion to brunch with friends. No need to be a zealot about these things. I do keep some of the meal bags in the pantry for emergencies. I've also replaced lunch with them at times to count calories and lose weight. I think these are good tools to have in your kitchen. They have characteristics that no other food option has, and that makes them valuable.
- therealdrag0 2y agoExactly the same for me. I started using soylent like 10 years ago just like 20 meals a month. And about 5 years ago I switched to Huel and have it for breakfast every day except vacations or friends.
- johncarlosbaez 2y agoIt's good to do if your life isn't boring enough and you need to avoid pleasure.
- moribvndvs 2y agoI used Huel for 6 months twice a day because I have ADHD and would simply not eat because I would forget or felt eating “interrupted” my flow, and I thought this would be cost effective and efficient; I could just leave Huel in containers at my desk with water nearby, ready to mix and consume without stopping what I was doing. Reality? I had diarrhea on most days and towards the end of that experiment, trying to consume one had the psychological impact of water boarding myself. Meal prepping rice bowls with beans (bought dried and in bulk, cooked in an Instant Pot), tofu/seitan, veggies, and whatever sauce I felt like for the week is cheap, fast, easy, healthy, etc. and doesn’t make me feel suicidal. The latter point might be because I was taking time to enjoy being alive rather than hyperfocusing on being a good little cog in economic machine trying to spin as fast as I could.
- shaunkoh 2y agoThe author wrote about her experiences 3 years later on: https://www.greaterwrong.com/posts/zpg2C9fmzcGqqhZpE/hyperpalatable-food-hypothesis-a-lesswrong-study/comment/CRmYEy7EiYtgmWGCk https://www.greaterwrong.com/posts/zpg2C9fmzcGqqhZpE/hyperpa... TLDR: while meal replacements were technically effective, they did come at a cost to her mental health. Shifting to a well balanced diet appeared more sustainable in the long run.