Huel Black Review

Huel Black Nutrition

Calories: 400 kcal
Carbs: 17 grams
Fat: 17 grams
Protein: 40 grams
Sugars: 4.5 grams

It is a gluten-free formula, so it will be a good choice for those with wheat or gluten intolerance.

Huel Black Vegan Protein

Even the best weight gain or lean mass gain meal replacement products will never come up to muster when compared to eating a healthy diet and working hard in the gym. However, using meal replacement shakes can make life a little easier for those with little time to cook every meal from scratch at home.

If you are a hard gainer, then supplementing with these shakes can help you gain weight and build muscle faster than struggling to consume enough food each day to meet your needs.

Weight gainers and mass builders are usually shakes formulated using a base of protein powder, carbohydrates and added sugar or sweeteners. They can be incorporated into a healthy diet and exercise programme but are not meant to be used alone.

The only problem is that if you follow a vegan diet or are lactose intolerant, you won't be able to use most weight gainers on the market as they are made from milk protein (whey or casein). So, you have to resort to using a vegetarian or vegan weight gain product. Quick disclaimer, Huel black isn't our favourite high protein meal shake, check out our list of the best dairy free meal replacement to find out what was.

Huel Black is the most popular vegan meal replacement on the market, and many consider it to be the best that the company have produced so far. So we decided to take a closer look at what makes Huel Black a favourite choice and whether it lives up to the hype.

Pros

High Protein
Completely Balanced Meal
Vegan

Cons

Not As Filling As Some Shakes
Have To Buy Multiple Bags At A Time

What Are The Huel Black Flavours Like?

Available in a range of flavours: unflavored, vanilla, chocolate, coffee caramel, peanut butter, banana, salted caramel, and strawberries & cream, Huel black does have something for everyone. As a quick overview, we liked the caramel, strawberry, peanut butter, but we're too keen on the vanilla and the salted caramel has a slightly chalky aftertaste. The Strawberry's and cream was clearly the best huel black flavor. The unflavoured is as you'd expect unflavoured, and like huel can sometimes be it's a little chalky. Although we were pleasantly surprised with the banana which tasted mostly natural, unlike a lot of banana meal replacement shakes. As always Huel still can't seem to get chocolate right, so best to avoid the chocolate huel black.

Who Should Use Huel Black?

✔

Vegans who need more protein
✔

Huel fans
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People looking for a known quantity meal replacer

Does Huel Black Work For Weight Loss?

Short answer yes, second answer, it is probably our 4th or 5th choice when compared to some of the other options on the market, that's not to say this is going to be an unfavourable Huel Black review mind, we do really like the product. It does work pretty well with only 1 scoop, rather than 2 which would be a lower calorie option coming in at just 200kcal rather than 400 making it a solid alternative for losing weight.

Criteria	Rating
Ingredients	9/10
Filling	7/10
Taste	8/10
Texture	7/10
Value	8/10
Recommended	8/10

Huel Black Acolades

It isn't bulked out with cheap carbohydrates like most weight gainers meal replacement shakes on the market. It also won in the 'Best Protein Powder or Snack' category at the T3 Awards 2021. It may be a little unfair to categorise Huel Black as a weight gainer or a muscle mass builder per se because it is much lower in carbs and sugar than similar products.

The nutritional content of this product is also boosted with added vitamins and minerals to help it reach an ideal level of all 27 essential vitamins and minerals, which it would otherwise be missing.

What Is Huel Black Made From?

The Huel Black Edition is made using a base of tapioca starch, which is naturally gluten-free. To this is added some plant-based extracts such as green tea, which is a good source of polyphenols, and natural flavours and sweeteners. The primary source of protein in Huel Black is pea protein combined with brown rice protein. This combination is a common staple of most vegan meal replacement shakes. They are chosen because they complement each other with their individual amino acid profiles to make up for what is lacking in the other.

It is also refreshing to find that Huel Black is soy-free, so a good choice for those wanting to avoid consuming soy, which can be found as an ingredient in so many generic meal replacement products. Many people avoid consuming soy because of its high concentration of phytic acid. This anti-nutrient binds to and limits the absorption of essential minerals such as iron, calcium, magnesium, and zinc.

The ingredient formula used tries to maintain a healthy balance of protein, carbohydrates and fat so that you can gain healthy lean body muscle without excessively raising your blood glucose levels or causing a spike in your insulin response.

Huel And Improved Taste

Huel is well known for producing a range of plant-based meal replacement products. Still, the one criticism coming from customers ringing loud and clear over the years is that their products taste so gritty and earthy, which can be a very unpleasant experience.

The Huel Black Edition tastes slightly less gritty and earthy than the original formula used when the first Huel meal replacement product was released. This is understandable because it is a plant-based product, after all. However, Huel has a solid customer base, and the feedback has been very positive for their new formulation.

Huel black is sweetened using naturally-sourced sweeteners rather than artificial sweeteners. This is one of the reasons that Huel Black is so popular with those who want to avoid consuming artificial sweeteners for health reasons. Huel Black has quickly taken the vegan meal replacement marketplace by storm since its release. According to Huel, it has already become their second best-selling food product.

However, for those who are not vegan or can tolerate whey and casein protein powders just fine, the taste can be disappointing and would still be the major downfall of this product. It would help if the company could make the powder a little smoother so we generally wouldn't recommend it as a first choice.

The Benefits Of Huel Black

Huel Black has many advantages over the company's original formulation. It contains 50% fewer carbohydrates and 33% more protein and is free from gluten and artificial sweeteners.

It is a good choice for those following a vegan diet, those with gluten sensitivity, and those wanting to avoid consuming soy and artificial sweeteners. It is also nut-free and palm oil-free. Huel Black uses organic coconut sugar as a source of carbs and sweetener (4.4g per serving) instead of artificial sweetener. However, the blood glucose response is lower due to the formulation's lower-carb and higher fat levels.

While it is pretty low-carb compared to other weight gainers on the market, the carb content is still too high to be considered suitable for anyone following a keto diet. A downside is the tapioca starch used makes this product nutritionally weak compared to Huel's original recipe that uses oats, so the formula has been boosted with lots of added vitamins and minerals to make up for this.

Overall, Huel Black is a good meal replacement choice for those following a vegan or plant-based diet that wants to avoid consuming whey or casein containing products. It seems that Huel are keen to improve on their recipe and product formulations constantly, and Huel Black Edition certainly appears to be a step in the right direction.