People seriously 'put off' Huel after realising what name means
The name is a play on words, but people were put off by what those words are
People have been put off after finding out what the name 'Huel' actually means, having never realised until now.
The drink is marketed as being 'nutritionally complete', meaning that you could technically live off it and nothing else if you really wanted to, though Huel does not encourage its customers to do this.
After all, who needs the joy of cooking and sharing delicious food - one of the oldest and most quintessentially human activities - when you could just guzzle some liquid and get back to being super productive?
The products are also marketed as dietary supplements, used in combination with exercising, for example, when someone is trying to gain muscle mass.
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But some have been put off by the name after finding out what it actually means.
It turns out 'Huel' is a portmanteau made up of two words.
The second of these which gives us the '-uel' is fuel - not 'gruel' as comedian Dave Gorman has previously joked.
As for the first part, that's not 'healthy' as some people have speculated, but 'human'.
That means that 'Huel' is actually derived from 'Human Fuel', which really makes us seem more like cars than complex, nuanced beings.
One person was left put off by the revelation, and took to social media to share their discomfort.
They wrote on Reddit: "I thought originally it was healthy fuel. When I realized it was 'Human Fuel', I found it a bit off-putting even though I get the reasoning."
Another said they thought it had meant 'gruel', which in fairness does make sense given that gruel is a bland brownish liquid which is made to provide us with basic nutrition.
They wrote: "Honestly I thought Huel was a play on 'gruel', rather than being a portmanteau of human fuel."
Huel has even been compared to gruel in a positive way.
One person posted: "I know the word 'huel' is short for 'human fuel', but it's also gruel. Now, I know 'gruel' gets a bad rap, because it brings to mind underfed orphans in Oliver Twist. But note that the problem with the gruel in Oliver Twist was that there was too little of it, and what they had was too thin, because corrupt workers were selling the grain."
Huel confirmed the portmanteau on its website, writing: "Huel (Human + Fuel) is nutritionally complete food. This means every Huel meal contains a balance of all 26 essential vitamins and minerals, protein, essential fats, carbs, fibre, and phytonutrients."
It added: "It was started by Julian Hearn in June 2015 with a simple mission. To make nutritionally complete, convenient, affordable food, with minimal impact on animals and the environment."
Kit Roberts