[Kevin] (0:03 - 0:26)
Hey, welcome back to Nutrition for Noobs. Throughout the summer, we're going to be taking it a little bit easy so we can enjoy the summer along with you. So we're going to be doing what we're calling Summer Shorts, which are just going to be shorter podcast episodes about various topics to keep you engaged on the topics, but to allow us to take a little bit of a break because, you know, it's all about us after all.

[Michelle] (0:26 - 0:28)
Keep your pants on, we're doing Summer Shorts.

[Kevin] (0:29 - 0:38)
Exactly. That's good. That's good.

So, Michelle, I thought we'd kick off our shorts by asking you a question.

[Michelle] (0:38 - 0:38)
Okay.

[Kevin] (0:39 - 1:05)
So, as everyone knows, I have been going through the ongoing struggle of trying to create a Caesar dressing. And I'm there. I'm finally there.

But one of the things that really surprised me was that to replace the Parmesan cheese, you can use a mixture of panko and nutritional yeast. So my question is, and I've used it in chili and spaghetti sauce and all that.

[Michelle] (1:05 - 1:06)
Nutritional yeast is the best.

[Kevin] (1:06 - 1:10)
I have no idea what it is. What the heck is nutritional yeast?

[Michelle] (1:10 - 1:13)
You know, most nutritionists don't even know what nutritional yeast is.

[Kevin] (1:14 - 1:17)
So that's why I'm asking you because I certainly don't know.

[Michelle] (1:18 - 1:30)
You know, it's funny because I looked this up for myself because it sounds gross, right? Like nutritional yeast, like it sounds like yeast. Like who wants to sprinkle yeast on their food?

[Kevin] (1:31 - 1:41)
Well, it reminds me of Marmite or Vegemite or something. You know, the yeast spreads, which are kind of nasty. No offense to anyone who likes Vegemite or Marmite.

[Michelle] (1:41 - 1:46)
Well, it's funny you say that. Okay, so because Marmite's going to be part of my explanation.

[Kevin] (1:47 - 1:47)
Oh, really?

[Michelle] (1:47 - 1:58)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We didn't even plan this, ladies and gentlemen. Spoiler alert.

So yeast has a nickname. I also didn't know this. Of nooch.

Nutritional yeast.

[Kevin] (1:59 - 2:15)
Nooch. Oh, that makes so much sense. Because as I'm watching some videos, people say, and then you add your nooch.

And I had no idea what they were talking about. There you go. I had to go down to the recipe and figure out, oh, they mean nutritional yeast.

Oh, so that's like a term.

[Michelle] (2:15 - 2:25)
So it's a form of an ancient species of yeast called Saccharomyces cervicei or something like that.

[Kevin] (2:25 - 2:26)
That just rolls off.

[Michelle] (2:26 - 2:29)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Gesundheit.

[Kevin] (2:29 - 2:30)
Saccharomyces cervicei.

[Michelle] (2:31 - 2:48)
So like a baker's yeast. Okay. And like all kinds of yeast that exist around us.

It starts as a wild yeast, which grows naturally on cane or beet molasses.

[Kevin] (2:49 - 2:50)
It's a wild yeast.

[Michelle] (2:51 - 2:51)
It's wild.

[Kevin] (2:51 - 2:52)
It parties all the time.

[Michelle] (2:52 - 3:05)
And it's picked, it's rinsed, it's heat dried. And that kind of takes care of any live cultures and it deactivates the yeast. Because we think of yeast as something that we put in bread, right?

[Kevin] (3:05 - 3:07)
Of course. It's bread. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Michelle] (3:07 - 3:31)
So this really great article that explains it kind of starts with brewer's yeast because there's a lot of similarities. And then it gets to how we got to nutritional yeast. So brewer's yeast is a byproduct of beer brewing, right?

Similarly, you know, making the yeast inactive and then rising alcohol levels and pasteurization.

[Kevin] (3:31 - 3:32)
Okay.

[Michelle] (3:32 - 4:18)
And so nutritional yeast and brewer's yeast both come from the same fungus, but they are fundamentally different. So one is used for a leavening agent and one is used as a nutritional agent. So here's how we got there.

And I'll try to keep this short. Okay. So there was this German scientist in the 19th century named Justus von Lieberg.

So he made the discovery that the byproduct of beer brewing could be harvested and compressed into a flavor concentrate that resembled meat, but it was completely vegetarian.

[Kevin] (4:18 - 4:19)
Okay.

[Michelle] (4:19 - 4:32)
So in 1902 Marmite Food Company launched and its signature dark product was a dark savory spread made from this yeast extract.

[Kevin] (4:32 - 4:33)
Okay.

[Michelle] (4:33 - 5:06)
Yeah, I never knew this. So brewer's yeast became basically the first health fad. And in 1916, around five years after the advent of the term vitamin, there was a chemist that wrote an article on the potential to use brewer's yeast as a cheap supply of nutrients.

And he did these experiments. His name was like Atherton Seidel.

[Kevin] (5:07 - 5:11)
Oh, he sounds so British. Atherton Seidel.

[Michelle] (5:11 - 6:12)
And he fed brewer's yeast to paralyzed pigeons and he found that a relief of their paralysis occurred within an hour. So even though he acknowledged to get any type of human significant result, you'd have to highly concentrate the nutrients. But anyway, this is what kind of led to this idea that there was this potential to use yeast to address nutritional deficiency diseases, which were very prevalent at the time of Burberry and Pellagra.

They're forms of B vitamin deficiency. But beriberi is a deficiency in B1 thiamine and pellagra is a deficiency in B3 niacin. And they can have a lot of detrimental effects to humans when they have prolonged deficiencies like that.

So you have to keep in mind, these are times when nutritional deficiencies were, you know, much, much more common like that.

[Kevin] (6:12 - 6:12)
Right.

[Michelle] (6:12 - 7:30)
So marmite was considered a source of five important B vitamins. And even though it wasn't, you know, a very tasty thing, like the Brits really developed a taste for it. And I think that this happened because it was included in troops rations in World War II.

And then soon enough, like other American companies, you know, got involved and started making this things and or byproducts and Fleischmann's yeast company was formed. And, you know, there were so many other things that happened. But anyway, get us to nutritional yeast.

So when they had this idea embedded in the consciousness of people that that yeast could help, you know, address something marmite not being very palatable. In 1950, the Red Star Company produced the first nutritional yeast by heat drying the type of yeast that grows on glucose. And then as compared to brewer's yeast, this was resulted in a yellow, flaky, easy to apply, you know, substance that was still savory, but it had a much milder flavor.

Right?

[Kevin] (7:30 - 7:31)
Okay.

[Michelle] (7:31 - 7:31)
Yeah.

[Kevin] (7:31 - 7:32)
Interesting.

[Michelle] (7:33 - 7:39)
So fast forward to today, Kevin, and you've heard of nutritional yeast. I've heard of it. We learned about it in nutrition school.

[Kevin] (7:39 - 7:40)
I use it all the time. Yeah.

[Michelle] (7:40 - 8:15)
And it's so popular now as a health trend that there was this one report that sales of nutritional yeast in the United States increased 20% just between 2019 and 2020. Yeah. So it's very popular.

Bragg's is probably the most popular brand. I know that's the brand that, you know, that we very commonly buy in the grocery store. It's, again, packed with B1, B2, B3, B9, B6, B12.

B12 is not native to the yeast, but it is added. It's fortified.

[Kevin] (8:15 - 8:16)
Okay.

[Michelle] (8:16 - 8:30)
This is why, like, even in nutrition school, we were taught how, you know, nutritional yeast can be such a simple thing to do to add to your foods. Because as a source of B12, if you don't want to supplement, you know, because it makes things cheesy, it makes things...

[Kevin] (8:30 - 8:40)
It's a very interesting flavor. Like, I like it a lot because it is a very complex flavor and it adds that umami-ness to it.

[Michelle] (8:40 - 9:24)
Yeah. You just flake it into things. And it's also really high in beta-glucan, which is, like, super anti-inflammatory and really helps to support your immune system.

So there's so many things to love about nutritional yeast. I love it. And you can use it to make cheesy-type sauces.

You can sprinkle it on popcorn. There's tons of great, like, easy, you know, plant-based mac and cheese recipes out there. You use it in your salad dressing.

I've made pesto with it. There's tons and tons of applications for it. Some people can find it, you know, a little bit pricier than they were expecting, but you don't need very much.

[Kevin] (9:24 - 9:25)
Right, exactly.

[Michelle] (9:26 - 9:59)
And you know what? I love your recipe for Parmesan. We've used that as well.

I've also done raw cashews with nutritional yeast and just, like, two seconds in the Vitamix. And that blends that up, and then we put that in a container that we can just pull out and shake whenever we need to when we're doing something. But honestly, on our lazy days, if I haven't made that mixture and I don't have cashews or we're just, you know, too lazy, we just sprinkle nutritional yeast right on top of our pasta.

[Kevin] (9:59 - 10:03)
For sure. I've never tried that, but it makes me curious now. I should try that.

[Michelle] (10:04 - 10:06)
Yeah. So there you go.

[Kevin] (10:06 - 10:24)
Excellent. Well, thank you. That illuminates a lot for me.

I've been using this for years, and I had no idea what I was eating, so now I know. And, you know, I'll try not to hold it against nutritional yeast, that it is related to Marmite. Again, I'm alienating all the Marmite lovers out there.

[Michelle] (10:24 - 10:28)
It's like the first cousin once removed.

[Kevin] (10:28 - 10:32)
Yes, exactly. And it's a good thing that they're removed. It's a good thing.

[Michelle] (10:32 - 10:36)
Did you ever eat Marmite? I haven't, but I've heard that it's vile.

[Kevin] (10:36 - 10:48)
Oh, I've had it. I actually have a bottle. You know what?

I've been making fun of it. Once in a blue moon, I have nostalgia for it, so I actually have a bottle in my pantry right now.

[Michelle] (10:48 - 10:52)
Is it one of those things that, like, lasts forever, like a wartime food?

[Kevin] (10:53 - 11:11)
It's very shelf-stable. And, I mean, I only want it, you know, once or twice a year. But once or twice a year, you just put a tiny bit, especially just on toast, it's not bad.

It's more the type of thing where I miss the flavor, then I taste it, then it's like, oh, yeah. Okay, I've had enough for the time being.

[Michelle] (11:11 - 11:19)
The fact that you miss the flavor, though, that's interesting to me. And then this is, again, because of your, like, your British roots, right?

[Kevin] (11:20 - 11:34)
Totally. Totally. My aunt always had Marmite, so I kind of sort of grew up with it a little bit.

Whenever I visited her, she'd always bring the Marmite out, and I'd try it. And a friend of mine growing up had Australian roots, so he loved Vegemite.

[Michelle] (11:35 - 11:36)
Is that the same thing?

[Kevin] (11:36 - 12:17)
A little fun fact. In World War II, of course, supply chain blew up, even worse than COVID. And so Australians who had been used to eating Marmite up until World War II could no longer get it.

So some Australian dude basically made his own version. And the difference is it's a little bit, I can't remember, one is thicker than the other. But Vegemite actually adds some vegetable flavor to it.

Mild vegetable flavor. So it tastes a little bit different. And then that became the go-to for Australians, Vegemite.

So it's basically the same thing, but just slight differences in flavor and texture.

[Michelle] (12:17 - 12:18)
Another descendant. Yeah.

[Kevin] (12:19 - 12:21)
Exactly. Once or twice removed.

[Michelle] (12:21 - 12:22)
Yeah.

[Kevin] (12:22 - 12:26)
Anyways, thank you, Michelle. This was very interesting to know what I'm working with now.

[Michelle] (12:26 - 12:27)
Thank you.

[Kevin] (12:27 - 12:52)
So quick story. We're recording this just after Father's Day. And my Father's Day gift from my son was a list of dad jokes.

So throughout these summer shorts, I'm going to be reading the dad jokes provided to me by my son. So be prepared. This is like grade five level.

[Michelle] (12:52 - 12:53)
Okay.

[Kevin] (12:53 - 12:57)
So I was making a joke of retirement. It didn't work.

[Michelle] (13:00 - 13:02)
I don't even get that one.

[Kevin] (13:02 - 13:10)
Let me repeat that. I was making a joke of retirement. It didn't work.

[Michelle] (13:10 - 13:15)
Oh, my gosh. I can't believe. I need another cup of tea.

[Kevin] (13:16 - 13:39)
I think so. I think so. Maybe I'll edit out a little bit of that pause.

We'll see. Or maybe I'll just leave it in. You never know.

That's cute. Excellent. Well, thank you for listening to Nutrition for Noobs.

And you can look forward to another summer short coming in two weeks. So until then, it's still summer, but you should still eat your greens.

[Michelle] (13:39 - 13:40)
And be real, everyone.

[Kevin] (13:42 - 14:22)
This has been Nutrition for Noobs. We hope you're a bit more enlightened about how your fantastic and complicated body works with the food you put into it. If you have a question or a topic you'd like Michelle to discuss, drop us a line at n4noobs@gmail.com.

That's the letter N, the number 4, N-O-O-B-S at gmail.com. If you haven't already, you can subscribe to the podcast on whatever your favorite platform might be. Also, please consider leaving a review or telling your friends.

That's the best way to spread the word. We'll see you next time with another interesting topic.