My current state regarding meal replacements

In my 2019 Year in Review, I wrote the following:

Also sometime in February I started to drink whole meal powders, motivated by the poor nutrition that resulted from the lack of opportunities for good food in the neighbourhood of the company. Instead of eating junk food at lunchtime, I wanted to drink a complete shake, which not only filled me up, but also gave me all the nutrients my body needs. After choosing Huel in February, I will switch to another brand, probably in February 2020, after my stocks are empty.

In the end, I didn’t switch to another brand after my depleted supplies in 2020, I just stopped drinking whole food powders. It was lockdown and home office and I had better options again to feed myself than junk food from the supermarket. At lunchtime I could just cook or make myself a frozen meal (there are reasonably healthy ones) in the pan.

But now that the time with 100% of home office is over (temporarily), I recently bought myself new meal replacements again.

The market has continued to evolve since 2019, and the German brand yfood now offers vegan versions, and several brands now offer savory substitutes that simply need to be mixed with hot water. (And I finally have an electric smoothie blender and don’t have to keep shaking by hand.)

First I tried yfood. The vegan berry products. From Huel, I remember sometimes burping after drinking it. Also, the texture was a bit rough. yfood, on the other hand, is quite creamy, almost like a thick milkshake. The taste is also quite artificial, but I could quickly get used to it and do not have to burp.

Since the powder is a little cheaper, I also got different powders from the Dutch brand Jimmy Joy (formerly Joylent). So far I have only tried the passionfruit powder, so can not say much about it. My first impression was just that it is thicker than yfood and the taste was not very intense. But whether that is positive or negative, I could not decide yet. I also have a few other flavors, through which I must first try…

From both brands I also got said savory meals. From yfood “Hot Bowl Italian Pasta”, from Jimmy Joy “Plenny Pot 1.0 Vegetable Korma”. They are much more expensive than the powders, but not more expensive than some fast food. They taste good to me.

I’m not quite sure if I’m not just going through a phase again, but at the moment I also like to eat or drink these substitute meals at home when I don’t feel like cooking or eating bread for dinner. Mostly only one meal a day, but still it gives me the feeling that I get at least the most important vitamins and nutrients even with my vegetarian diet. And it’s always better than shoving in a pack of chocolate cookies.

I wouldn’t want to eat only such substitute food, after all there is a lot of delicious food out there and I like to eat, but if it’s just about nutrition, I’m glad there are such products as an alternative to fast food or time-consuming pre-cooking.

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