Plenny Shake vs Huel Powder

With so many Complete Foods available now I wanted to start a series of direct comparisons. These will briefly put two brands in a nutritional fight to the death stand off and will hopefully help inform you about the contents of each product.

When it comes down to it, only you can decide which Meal Replacement is the best for you of course.

Let’s go

To begin with… Of course it’s Huel and Jimmy Joy. These brands are officially part of the old guard having launched not long after Soylent first turned the world of nutrition on its head. Continually innovating and with multiple tens of millions of meals sold each – it’s not easy to discount the massive effect they’ve had on the Complete Food space and the world of nutrition at large.

Cliffnotes…

• Both Huel and Plenny Shake use Oats as their primary source of Carbohydrates.
• They each use Sunflower Oil and Flax seed as the main fat sources.
• And each provides nutrition that meets or exceeds the Reference Intake (RI).

Plenny Shake vs. Huel Powder…

It’s clear that Plenny Shake and Huel are closely comparable, yet when it comes to carbohydrates Huel is slightly ahead with less sugar and lower carbohydrates overall. But of course as meals go both are easy to digest and offer extremely positively balanced macro-nutrients across the board.

The same is true when you scale up to a 2000 Kcal diet, with each providing nutrition that meets the Reference Intake (RI) across the board..

What do reviewers say?

@Coen_T on Plenny Shake
“The shakes have changed a bit over the past years, but the ease of use has stayed the same. I really enjoy having it at home or at work as a snack / back-up meal / breakfast. Especially as breakfast or post-work out it saves me a lot of time, energy and money, and I’ve grown to really enjoy the taste as well.“
* Full review

@laurenmcg on Huel
“Favourite complete food brand for several reasons, especially superior in nutritional value, taste and price. Used in several ways: to create drink, to create soup, as a flour substitute etc. Tested several of the websites recipes, including low-carb hacks.“
Full Review

Let’s look at pricing

Here things start to look better for Plenny Shake. Not only is it cheaper per meal, the minimum order is significantly smaller and there are deeper discounts should you decide to subscribe. Over time that’s going to add up. Shipping is free with Huel of course, but you’ll likely spend more than €48.99 with either brand, so that’s a none issue to me.

Huel wins on number of flavours, but it’s worth noting that two of those are different variations of vanilla and one is the aptly named ‘unflavoured’.

So which should you buy?

It’s difficult to single one out as an outright winner. Both Jimmy Joy’s Plenny Shake and Huel’s Powder provide everything your body needs. Plenny Shake does tend to work out a lot cheaper in the long run, whilst Huel has marginally better nutritional values – though of course, both are much healthier than whatever you probably had for lunch today.

There are additional functional ingredients in Huel, thickeners for example, which mean Huel shakes will feel more substantial as you drink them, but Plenny Shake has an awesome texture to it too. Don’t forget to check the ingredients is what I’m saying.

So which to have? I can confidently recommend both of these brands. Their ingredient choice and decisions around their formula’s are superb and whichever you choose, you’ll be taking a step in the right direction of a more sustainable lifestyle.

What a cop out eh? Plenny Shake does have more fun looking bags of course.

• You can read more about Plenny Shake here
• Or about Huel here

Want to try them? You can use the links below to get £10 off your first order with either brand.