Provided
Joel Bikman, an entrepreneur who lives in Flower Mound, has solved a puzzle that has stumped many an innovator.
As a co-founder of HLTH Code, he manufactures perhaps the most expensive meal replacement shake on the market but at a price the consumer can, well, stomach.
Joel Bikman
Says Bikman: “We have an incredibly lean organization that allows us to be able to sell the world's most nutritionally complete meal shake — and the highest quality and quantity shake — that really you can find because we've just developed this incredibly lean organization that allows us to sell it for right around three bucks a serving.
“That's cheaper than a cup of coffee — a crummy cup of coffee.”
Bikman has built a multi-million-dollar business by challenging some of the biggest players in the $42 billion shake market. He says it all started with one mission — to fix what’s broken in a market whose options too often don’t provide good nutrition.
HLTH Code, the company says, is a meal replacement that is a more complete and balanced fuel for the body.
No, Bikman says, “you’re getting perfect nutrition.”
Meal replacements are no longer just for bodybuilders or dieters. Once relegated to chalky powders and sugary drinks, the $42 billion global meal replacement industry is undergoing a transformation driven by consumers who want convenience without sacrificing health.
More and more are turning to shakes as a full meal alternative in a market today that ranges from busy professionals to aging populations and metabolic health seekers. The trend now favors clean-label ingredients, better macronutrient balance, and functional benefits like gut health, weight management, and blood sugar stability.
Brands like HLTH Code — when Bikman talks about it, he pronounces it “health code” — are tapping into this shift, offering science-backed formulas that target longevity and wellness.
HLTH Code is a powder the consumer mixes with 8 ounces of water. It's sold at the company website and Amazon.
“For most people, HLTH Code is the healthiest thing that they will have in their day,” Bikman says. “That's a good thing. And it's also a little bit of a bad thing. We wish that our product didn't need to exist, that if everybody had the time, the knowledge, the discipline, the patience, and budget to plan, purchase, and prepare metabolically perfect meals, that they would do that 100% of the time. But most of us are busy. Certainly business people are incredibly busy. This will be something that will help people get much healthier. Their metabolism, their brain and their gut health will be improved. And it's something that takes 20 seconds to prepare.”
Bikman co-founded the business with his brother, Dr. Ben Bikman, who developed the product’s nutritional formulation.
Ben Bikman, who has a Ph.D. in bioenergetics and a strong record of scientific publications, is a leading authority on insulin resistance. He is also the bestselling author of Why We Get Sick.
According to a study cited by the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative, an alarming 88% of American adults are metabolically unhealthy, largely due to insulin resistance — a condition driven almost entirely by poor dietary choices, especially excessive consumption of sugar and refined carbohydrates. Widespread metabolic dysfunction, Joel Bikman adds, has worsened since the introduction of the carbohydrate-heavy food pyramid in the 1970s and contributes to a range of chronic health conditions.
Bikman says this is what inspired the formulation behind their nutritional shake, which is designed to offer complete, balanced nutrition without spiking blood glucose or insulin levels for most people. Backed by hundreds of scientific studies, the shake aims to provide everything the body needs — and none of what it doesn’t — making it a smart alternative in a world where metabolic health is increasingly under threat.
The formula includes a one-to-one ratio of protein to healthy fats. Clinical studies show that consuming protein and dietary fat in a one-to-one ratio allows one to better utilize the protein. The formula uses whey protein, though the company has a vegan offering.
“Our ancestors valued dietary fat, but we are the first and only shake that has an optimized amount of short chain, medium chain, and long chain fatty acids,” Bikman says.
Ben Bikman is no longer an active part of the company, deciding to exclusively focus on his career as a professor of cell biology and clinical researcher at Brigham Young University and promoting his book.
The company is headquartered in Houston, the location of a chief investor. The product is shipped from there. It is manufactured by a third party in another state. Bikman runs day-to-day operations from Flower Mound.
Born during the height of COVID, the company has been on a growth trajectory ever since, Bikman says. “The absolute worst time to start a company,” he says. "We were really fortunate to be fairly well capitalized.”
“We’re one of the rare companies in this space that is growing,” Bikman says. “Most of these companies had magnificent growth during COVID and perhaps the year or so after. But since, it all shrunk and consolidated where we continue to grow, and part of that, we think, is in large part is because this is a product that makes a real difference in how people look and feel to the point where we have a bunch of people who use it as for emergency preparedness. They keep a stash of it in case something else happens or tornado hits and power’s out or whatever else. We're really proud of that.”