Comment by doix | Hacker News Reader

Comment by doix | Hacker News Reader

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For quite a long time, I ate only Huel at home. At $2.21 per serving (a bit cheaper in the UK - £1.51, where I am from), and 5 servings per day, it's $11.05 per day. 4.5x what the author did, but I think it's worth it.

Whilst it costs a bit more, you save so much time and possibly money. It allows you to not have any dishes -> no dishwasher needed -> no cupboard space needed -> no kitchen needed -> no fridge needed -> cheaper rent. You don't need to go grocery shopping (no car needed), food never gets wasted, you take out significantly less trash. There's 0 "mental load", you never have to think/plan about how you're going to eat/cook/whatever.

If you're willing to adopt a bit of an "ignorance is bliss" attitude, you can happily pretend that you're eating a perfectly balanced diet ;).

I have no affiliation with Huel, just an extremely happy customer. Now that I'm traveling around the world, it's pretty much the only thing I miss from my old life. If I could get it shipped anywhere in the world for a reasonable price, I'd probably still be eating it right now.

This has to be the most UK response ever. Even sad you have to eat the rich and varied foods of your host countries during your travels.

Surely even in the UK food is a bit more than just a way of not dying.

> Surely even in the UK food is a bit more than just a way of not dying.

It definitely is. Most people I know care about having good food. It does vary a lot with income and region. The biggest problem is long working hours and people not having time or energy to do anything more than buy ready meals.

While people in the UK tend to eat worse than people in the rest of Europe, we eat better than Americans and food here is "rich and varied".

I am puzzled by GP's comment about having cheaper rent by not having a kitchen. I have never even heard of anywhere you could rent here that did not have a kitchen - its really must be bottom end room rental (and even there shared kitchens are normal).

Absolute shoeboxes yes. Think 250sqft (23ish square meters) or so. One room, maybe a closet, and a bathroom, much like a basic hotel room in the US.

> Surely even in the UK food is a bit more than just a way of not dying.

You need to get your view of UK food from somewhere other than American comics' jokes about UK food.

I did say "at home", I still ate out plenty. I just don't find the effort/cost/reward of being able to cook at home worth it.

When traveling, I eat plenty of local and varied food. The problem of cooking at home is exacerbated when traveling though. Having an adequate kitchen for cooking is even more troublesome.

Going out to eat every meal gets pretty tiresome after doing it for years. The food available for takeaway isn't great. Fine for a few weeks or months, but eating it for years definitely kills you faster.

Having a healthy, 0 effort meal available at a moments notice is great.

Food culture has (in general) moved on in the UK from that period!

I really liked Huel from a taste and satiety perspective and have tried it a few times over the years. The problem? Unless it's only an occasional fallback, I tended to find it kinda... came out in a similar style to how it looked going in.. It lacks what my mother would have called "bulk." If not for that problem, I'd totally live on it.

I practice a miniature version of this by having protein bars for breakfast everyday. It saves so much time over cooking anything in the most time-valuable moments of the day.

One of the true pleasures of WFH is being able to cook whatever I want for any meal of the day.

? I'd rather get up a little earlier than stress about how much time I spend on breakfast to be honest. Mind you my breakfast is usually a sandwich, not exactly time consuming.

For me, getting up earlier because of breakfast is stressing over how much time I spend on breakfast.

I tried Huel in college as I disliked cooking. I found that I ended up drinking far too much, for each meal you need to mix a large quantity of water with the powder. I ended up eating a diet of sashimi and tartar, tastier and probably better for you.

You had the shakes or the instant pots?

Huel.com is quite expensive in US https://huel.com/products/huel-instant-meal-pots

$2.21 per serving is deal, did it fill you up?

I had the powder: https://huel.com/products/huel

That's the page I got the $2.21 per serving figure. I wasn't hungry when I ate Huel, but I was never "full" like after eating a pizza.

To be honest I don't like the new Huel offerings like the pot or the premixed shakes. They generate too much rubbish, part of the appeal of Huel was how little garbage I created per meal.

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