Why you should care about a nutritionally complete diet

Below is a brief definition of nutritionally complete, if you want to find out more have a read of our full article here.

There’s no need for an introduction here, let’s go straight into how we define nutritionally complete at Huel.

What does nutritionally complete mean?

Huel products are “nutritionally complete”: they provide ideal amounts of all essential nutrients as well as beneficial levels of other important nutrients for optimum health, energy and performance. In other words, Huel as a meal provides the right amount of protein, essential fats, carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins & minerals.

Beginner's Guide to Nutrition

Want more detail?

Let’s pick apart a few bits there. An essential nutrient is a nutrient that the body can’t make enough of so we need to get it from our diet. Vitamin C and iron are two examples of essential nutrients. If you don’t get any vitamin C in your diet, all your teeth will fall out, no this isn’t an old wive’s tale it’s true, but don’t worry it’s incredibly rare so you’re probably ok!

Important nutrients include fibre, vitamin K2 and phytonutrients (“phyto” means plant) which are not essential but do provide their own health benefits.

What is a nutritionally complete diet?

Probably a more simple but less encompassing term is “balanced diet”. To achieve this with wholefoods, variety is key because a single food can’t provide everything that you need, hence a balanced and varied diet.

Why should we have a nutritionally complete diet?

If you’re missing an essential nutrient in your diet, as mentioned above with vitamin C, you’re going to know about it at some point. The body can’t do its thing if it doesn’t have all the tools and fuel it needs. Those tools and fuel are nutrients and a nutritionally complete diet provides them all.

A nutritionally complete diet also provides nutrients that are beneficial for health and in ideal amounts. In other words, it’s not just about sustaining life but promoting overall wellbeing. Whether we like it or not our diet affects our health.

Did you know...

The effects on our body often take a long time to notice, so an unhealthy diet may not seem to be causing a person problems now, but it’s likely to in the long run.

Why do some people not have nutritionally complete diets?

A person may not have a nutritionally complete diet for so many reasons. We are all busy and sometimes we can’t always find the time to cook a balanced meal. We might grab a quick breakfast at home before we dash out of the house, or eat a sandwich we brought from home while travelling, or grab a quick lunch from one of the oh so easy but expensive places round the corner from the office. Now, these foods may fill a hole and a purpose at the time, but every day while not getting enough nutrients elsewhere? Now that isn’t ideal.

Why is Huel nutritionally complete?

We want to make good nutrition, simple, convenient and affordable. Most foods hit one or two of those categories, but how many can you name that hit them all? Probably very few. Huel is one of them.

If you’re short on time nutrition can suffer. If you don’t have the energy or ingredients to cook a home-cooked meal nutrition can suffer. If you’re not sure what a balanced meal looks like and you can’t learn right now nutrition can suffer. If you can’t afford to buy healthy food nutrition can suffer. If the latest Instagram craze isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be nutrition can suffer.

You get the idea.

Why is Huel nutritionally complete per 2000kcal?

Huel products provide all the nutrients you need in a day per 2000kcal. So why 2000kcal? Why not 1000kcal or 3000kcal or per meal? If we packed one Huel meal with the amount of each nutrient that you need in a day, the body wouldn’t be able to use it all - essentially you’d end up with some expensive urine because the nutrients have to go somewhere.

Also, a Huel meal is 400kcal which means when you have other meals you could have more of a particular nutrient than is ideal. So, we put our stick in the ground and used the average recommended intake for women, which is 2000kcal.

So hopefully you’ve got a good idea what nutritionally complete means now and why it’s important. If you’re having a tough time eating a nutritionally complete diet, Huel can make everything that little bit easier.

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