Nutritional yeast anyone?

[lusciousleaves]

I recently bought a canister of this stuff to try out for extra flavor and B vitamins. It really boosted the flavor of my favorite roasted red pepper tomato soup and it impressed me so much that I posted about it on another forum. Then someone asked, "What does it taste like?" All I could think of was, "Umami."

Then it dawned on me . . . MSG. Tickety tickety goes a Google search and viola! MSG is a by-product of the fermentation process used to generate nutritional yeast. So there ya go. So much for staying away from food additives. Now I'm adding them myself and not realizing it!

[sewhappy]

I too have been looking into this as the cookbook (FoK) that I mentioned in another thread has recipes that contain this.

From what I found, "Most brands of nutritional yeast sold in health food stores are considered primary-grown. Primary-grown nutritional yeast is cultivated specifically for its nutritional components, rather than being the by-product of another process.

It is high in protein, Bvitamins, etc..and many vegans include it in their diet. Yes, looks like it adds flavor as well

It looks like it is best to introduce it in small amounts as it may cause bloating, etc.

I too am curious as to what others say about it.

[lusciousleaves]

I ended up feeling puffy and stiff a few hours after having this (which happens a lot after eating processed), and then started getting a headache yesterday, and a migraine today. A very stubborn one. I'm willing to give it another shot, but sometimes it seems food additives bother me and I'm not sure which ones. I did not have hardly any salt that day either, so it can't be salt. In fact, I used the nutritional yeast specifically to avoid adding salt. Not because I need to, but just to see if I could and enjoy the end result.

[BigA]

I've heard it tastes good and people use it to give things a cheesy flavor. I love Marmite, which is yeast, which has a savory flavor, almost meat-like.

[lusciousleaves]

I can see how that might work. Cheese has MSG, too.

Well, I had this again today in the tomato soup and my headache that had cleared up last night is back again. Boo.

Sewhappy, thanks for the info. I'm going to look into this further. It's so high in B-vitamins, it would be nice to be able to use this.

[gowiththeflow]

lusciousleaves - huge red flag. you have used the nutrritional yeast twice and gotten a headache, and as life life long mifraine suffere i can tell you msg it a huge migraine trigger for many people.

also, be careful and research what the nutritional yeast can do in your gut, the last thing anyone needs is yeast overgrowth replacing an intestinal flora balance. systemic yeast is the dickens to recover from, and not easy on your body at all.

maybe check in with a nutritionalist or Cam or integrative medicine doc? just a though.

good luck in your cooking endeavors!
~Flow

[sewhappy]

I agree with gow/theflow, If you know that is the trigger, don't take it anymore.

For others interested, this type of yeast is deactivated and does not contain MSG, it does contain Glutamic acid, an amino acid, as do many foods. Good info here:
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2011/10...nal-yeast.html

Apparently, most brands are fortified with the B vitamins, they do not naturally occur in the yeast. It is really all about the flavor for those on a meat/dairy free diet.

[lusciousleaves]

Nutritional yeast is dead yeast, so I don't expect it could cause a yeast overgrowth. But definitely a red flag for the migraines. We had a barometric pressure drop the first time, so had to try it again to be sure which was the trigger.

I'm going to put this on the list to ask my neuro about. He's always talking about this glutamatergic stuff and I'd love to hear his opinion on MSG and migraines.

Many of my favorite foods are high in MSG (tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese), but I don't always get this reaction.

[gowiththeflow]

really?

I was unaware mushrooms were high in msg. even the fresh ones? I am a manic about reading labels, and also know all foods, if cooked long create msg in the process. example, using a crockpot to do a long slow cook like 8-10 hours. I didn't ditch mine but will use if needed to quickly make herbal infused oils for health and beauty stuff if in a pinch. (prefer the 6 week cold method)

here's to no more headache! hope you are fully recovered now luscious. if you would, post back about what your neuro says about the nutritional yeast? inquiring minds want to know!

[rainykatie]

i like to add brewers yeast to air popped popcorn and to soups, but i do only 1 tbs.

i havent had any problems from it.

i do get MSG migranes from chinese food, and things like zatarain's rice mixes. i learned to cut those out a long time ago. but small natural occuring amoundts dont seem to bother me.

[lusciousleaves]

Okay. I did more digging on this topic and have found there are some strong claims that nutritional yeast is loaded with the manufactured version of MSG (because it is the same fermentation process used to create it), which is the problem child. Manufactured MSG contains forms of glutamate that aren't found naturally in plant or animal proteins, and the body is not designed to handle this large of large quantities in these forms.

This is a similar idea to the hydrogenated fats and how harmful they are, because natural systems are only capable of handling certain molecular shapes. Treating the fats in the way that they do to extend shelf life creates shapes of fats the body can't process and aren't found in nature.

Anyway, I'm pretty convinced this stuff gave me a migraine. Now I know why I don't react the same way to mushrooms and tomatoes. They have glutamic acid, which is different from MSG.

The Truth in Labeling website has a whole lot of information on this if anyone is interested in checking it out. It's too complicated for me to explain. Yes, it's biased against MSG as a food additive. However, everywhere is biased in favor of it. There is no way to avoid a bias one way or another on this issue. For me, I'm going to have to be biased against it. It gives me migraines. I'm so glad to have found solid evidence of this as a trigger.

Would anyone like my humongous canister of nutritional yeast? I'd be happy to ship it to you.

[sewhappy]

LL,

You are right, when I search "does nutritional yeast have MSG", there are some contradictory results.

I kinda got the impression that MSG and gluatmic acid are different by way of how they are processed and perhaps differ by brands as well? I think this would be a great thing for Tara to weigh in on. My head is spinning

[nutritiontara]

Nutritional Yeast

The B vitamins of the 60s......

Wow, its been awhile.

My old thoughts on this:

Its deactivated (basically dead) and will not reproduce/grow. So the idea that it contributes to candida growth is not accurate.

The glutamic acid issue is a bit contradictory. And I have to admit I've not done much research on this.

1. source and manufacturing varies and can create problems. Impurities, etc....which I think can add the wrong forms of glutamic acid ( D- glutamate) found in MSG.
when we used it in the 80s for "B" vitamins there were concerns over production impurities and mold growth.

2. nutritional yeast has other amino acids that may also be migraine triggers such as phenylalanine and tyrosine.

I can offer this: I will contact a few colleagues, specifically the owner of a large supplement co. and get his opinion....
to be continued.........

[lusciousleaves]

Mold growth? Oh my. Another one of my suspected sensitivities. But it tastes so goooooood! lol. This sucks.

Tara, thanks for checking. You rawk.

[nutritiontara]

Ya, no one had a definitive opinion on the glutamate in brewers yeast and the glutamate associated with MSG....


Things have gotten much better and if you source the brewers yeast well it should be ok. For you, IDK?

Thats why I only use challenge tests with foods.
Get yourself cleaned and then make one change...see what your results are.



*got my amino acid wrong; BY contains tyramine which can be hypertensive in combination with certain anti-depressants.