January 4, 2019 • 35 mins
Nutritional yeast is a recent-ish edible innovation that provides a vegan source of protein and cheesy/savory flavors, but it's far from the first yeast humans have consumed. Anney and Lauren delve into the weird history and science of nutritional yeast.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello, and welcome to Savor. I'm An Eries and I'm
Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we're talking about nutritional yeast, which
apparently some people call neuch and I really don't like that.
I really do not like that. Okay, I did see
a recipe for Neutch show cheese dip, and I find
that straight delightful. Like I can't argue with newch Na. No,
(00:33):
I'm not on board. I can't even explain why, Like,
there's no particular thing. It doesn't sound nice. It does, Honestly,
nutritional yeast doesn't sound nice either, but it's but it's fine.
I mean it's but it is nice. It tastes very nice,
Actually it does. I I've used it quite a bit. Um,
not so much recently, but back when I was more
healthy than I currently am. Um, But I use it
(00:55):
as a cheese substitute kind of, because it does have
a flavor that can pass um. Yeah. I mean it's
good on its own, but if you're looking to cut
back on cheese, it is a way you could do that. Um.
And I remember making particularly like a lot of pastas
with it, and like topping it topping pasta. Oh yeah, yeah,
(01:15):
it's also good as a topping for popcorn. Well, I
love popcorn. Well sure, I was about to say that's
nothing's going to stop you from eating popcorn, but I
mean hopefully not. But this brings us to our question
nutritional yeast. What is it? Well, nutritional yeast is a
(01:36):
powder or flake that's kind of toasty yellow in color,
a cheesy or nutty and flavor, and is basically dried
yeast juice. That sounds so advertising. Allow me to explain.
We've talked on this show before about saccharo mices, Sarah
Visier like, we've talked a lot about it because it's
(01:57):
a strain of yeast that's used to from an grain
into beer and juice into wine. It's used to create
air pockets and flavor and bread. It's the act of
ingredient in vegemite and door marmite, and is also responsible
for adding flavors to a whole bevy of things, from
worse to shear sauce to chocolate, all those good things. Yeah,
do you want to do it? Worcester sauce, Hey, Worcester sauce.
(02:21):
Thank you, Lauren. It's like a major thing. I have
to do it. I have started mentally doing that now
since we did our episode on Worcester Sauce and I
still haven't seen I mean, that is literally the only
clip of that Scooby Doo series that I think I've witnessed.
So it's a powerful clip if you know. If you
have no idea what we're talking about, I guess either
google it or listen to that episode both probably both.
(02:45):
Yeasts are microorganisms that in mass humans can use as
like flavor and nutrition factories. It's sort of the opposite
of assembly line manufacturing. Like in an assembly line, you
have each unit on the line work on one small
step in a many step process of creating a large thing. Yeah,
in a yeast colony, you have many units each creating
(03:09):
a small thing simultaneously. By the sheer number of yeast
organisms that you can grow quickly and easily in a colony,
you can get a large amount of work done. It
sounds like it should be a children's movie. Oh man,
I would watch the heck out of a micro organism
(03:29):
related children's film. Y'all get on that. Yeah, be you,
me and maybe three other people. So good, we'd be
very enthusiastic about it. Yes, Okay, more ideas for children's books.
Here you go, yes um. In this case, the work
that you are asking a yeast colony to do is
to turn sugar into something better for us to eat
(03:51):
than sugar. When you feed yeast with cane sugar and
or beat molasses, they'll eat that and then use it
to create stuff that they need to grow of vitamins,
per teens, fats, fiber. Perhaps the key ingredient that's created
during this process is called glutamic acid, which is a
component of some proteins and is what you're tasting when
you experience the flavor savory, sometimes called umami. It's in meats, cheese, soy, mushrooms, tomatoes.
(04:17):
In its sodium salt form, it's um on a sodium
glutamate or M s g M. And this is the
flavor that is going to be at work in nutritional
yeast anyway. So to make nutritional yeast, you set up
a tank where your yeast factory can get to work,
and you wind up with a sort of fermented soup um.
You centerfuge out the bits you want, mostly like the
(04:40):
yeast cells, leaving most of the fermented behind, and you
wind up with liquid referred to as cream. Yeast the
terms in this episode or just very spectacular. I we
could set up some kind of like vote about whether
news or cream yeast is a worse newts creamy east
(05:05):
I could convince myself as like a cream sherry or something. Okay,
I mean I'd had to do some some mental gymnastics,
but I could do it alright. But creamy east is
a cool thing. Um. It could go on to become
Baker's yeast because it's still active and alive. But in
the case of nutritional yeast production, you're gonna want to
pasteurize this creamy east to deactivate or kill the east cells.
(05:30):
Then you slowly dry and or cook the cream yeast
and um, usually in roller drum dryers, which I just
learned about, and a really cool piece of machinery. Um,
they're these a steam heated drums, and you apply a
liquid to the outside of this heated cylinder. As it's
slowly spinning, it rotates and then creates a sheet of
(05:53):
dried material from the liquid. That sounds cool. It's just
really one of those simple things. Anyway, I can't mix um,
so yeah, yeah, you get the sheet of dried material
and then you mill that sheet to the flake or
powder consistency that you want, and then you package it. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you do. Yeah. It's like, well, I didn't realize all
(06:13):
this stuff went into nutritional yeast, but I probably should have.
It doesn't just like grow on trees. No, okay, well
not yet anyway, science one day, one day. Some manufacturers
will add extra vitamins at some point in this process,
maybe when they're feeding the yeast originally, maybe after pasteurization,
(06:35):
in order to boost the nutritional content of the final product.
Other strains of yeast can be used aside from that
one that I mentioned earlier, and researchers are psyched about
the particular nutrients and a few particular species maybe like
being able to help us feed and cultivate a really
a plus gut microbiome um. But yeah, sacromices Sarah the
(06:56):
Sea is the most common. It also sounds like either
a character in a fighting game, like a pirate ghost character.
I don't know why pirate ghost is what I'm seeing,
or like a demon. A pirate ghost is a surprisingly
frequent fighting character. Yeah. I think it's because a soul
caliber I suspect, so soul caliber is one of those
(07:18):
classics it's one of the ones that me and my
roommates still play. And it has a ghost character, doesn't
it. It It has a pirate ghost. Yeah. Oh my god,
I'm so used to my brain just banking up nonsense.
This is a pleasant surprise. Name is servante is something? Okay?
Well we got to the bottom of that mystery. Okay,
(07:41):
but back to a nutritional yeast. Yes, um, it contains
by the way, as I said earlier, but just to reiterate,
it contains no active yeast. Nutritionally yeast will not grow
in your food or in your body. It's super dead. Okay,
it is an ex yeast, all right. No zombies worries,
(08:04):
not that I'm personally aware of. Actually, that's when you
should be worried about zombie East science. We're giving a
lot of whole work to science in this episode. It
has a couple of other nicknames, apart from nootch um,
hippie dust or yes she yes do you think? Sure?
(08:25):
Yes she? In the US, savory East flakes savory with
a U. In New Zealand, along with rufe facts, Bon
Appetite called it nature's cheeto dust. Oh I like that?
Like oddly magical? Does it's a pretty heavily like man
made product. But so I'm not sure if nature is
(08:45):
the right word, but maybe man's cheeto dust. No, that's
what cheeto dust is. Anyway, woman's We can we can
get to the bottom of this later. Yes, the word
yeast might come from the Old English word gist or
gist in the Indo European word yes, which meant to boil.
(09:05):
And nutrition wise, it's a product that nutritionists and marketers
alike get excited about. A serving is two tablespoons or
about half an ounce, and compared with an equal amount
of like plain roasted chicken breast, nutritional yeast has twice
as much protein and a buttload more vitamins and minerals,
like way over your daily recommended value of several vitamins,
(09:27):
and lots of these are inconveniently bioavailable forms um, as
opposed to many meats where your body has to work
on processing them. So yeah, your body can use them
directly without having to make sure that you're pairing up
other nutrients to create those more other nutrients. Rights. Yeah, um.
It's also a decent source of fiber. It's low and
fat that can be a positive or negative depending on
(09:49):
what you're going for, but it does mean that um
nutritionally used does not provide some of the good fatty
acids and like specific minerals that animal proteins do commonly
contain if you are are using it as like a
nutritional supplement. By the way, it's better to eat that
two tablespoons, serving in like small portions throughout the day
rather than all at once, because your body can only
(10:10):
process so much of a given vitamin at a given time.
Anything over that you'll just excrete. So yeah, spread it out,
sprinkle it on everything, sprinkle it out throughout the rest
of your day. And oh man, side note, probably all
of us could stand to consult a diet ossian about
what we eat. But if you are choosing a vegan lifestyle,
(10:34):
please do your research, y'all. It's a valid thing, and
eating all or mostly plant and fungus based foods has
a lot of benefits. But getting a good complement of
nutrients just takes more mindfulness. So uh, you know, honestly,
if you're a vegan, you're probably into mindfulness and I
shouldn't really worry, but I do. We care about it.
We do. That's why we bring out these old lady
(10:56):
ghost voises. Those are boy system carrying. Oh oh, and
nutritional yeast is light sensitive, meaning that you should store
it in a cool dark place or in the fridge,
which I guess is a cool dark place when you
get down to it. I don't know what goes on
in my fridge. It could be light in their heck,
(11:20):
could be waiting, just waiting. I got a new fridge.
So hopefully if we look at numbers, one million tons
of yeast are consumed per year. That is total yeast
for like baking and beer and pharmaceuticals and biofuel everything.
(11:41):
That total market value, by the way, is expected to
reach five point four billion American dollars by two nothing
to sneeze. That a lot of yeast money. It is
a lot of dough. Oh, thank you, thank you. I
was right off the out of this old hold it
right here. Oh and while I'm talking about different types
(12:05):
of yeast products, I wanted to note that nutritional yeast
is different than supplemental brewers yeast, which is also a
deactivated yeast, but it's usually found in tablet form. Yes,
there's a lot of types of yeast. Oh yeah, that's
a different episode yes. Indeed, on a commercial level, nutritional
(12:26):
yeast can be added to processed foods, fish, meat, vegetarian
protein substitutes, um. It can be in package snacks or
in meals. It can be in dietary supplements. And nutritional
yeast as a flavoring or supplement is getting more popular,
but I am not sure by how much. I couldn't
find any numbers on that. Yeah, difficult to get specific
(12:48):
numbers on nutritional yeast. Um. But as we talked about
at the top, sort of, it can be used for
all kinds of things on toast surfas popcorn pastas, and
that's because of its flavor. Vegans do frequently use it
as a cheese substitutor. I hesitate to use words substitute
because it's more like you're trying to get the flavor right.
(13:09):
It's not right. Yeah, I mean it's nice. It's nice,
and that's what I'm trying to say. And it can
help products that you're making with nut milks or or
bean milks taste more like dairy milk. Yeah. It has
quite a long and interesting history, and I would say
about half of it is marketing and in a good
(13:30):
fun way. Yeah. Yeah, And we'll get into that after
a quick break for word from our sponsor, and we're back.
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, And we're back with
Antoine van numen Hook. Our hook according to rend and Stimpy,
(13:54):
is that which is I think? So? Yeah, that's the
sound reference that I'm working off of. That is so funny,
because didn't I mentioned another episode? It's some episode. It
all gets blurry up in here. But how looney Tunes
the source of much of my cultural knowledge? What was
the petras Eni episode? Anyway? One. Antoine van Lewin Hook
(14:16):
was the son of a brewer and often considered the
father of microbiology and one of the first microscopist, and
he was one of the first to observe yeast under
a microscope in sight ce probably clear, but just in case,
just in case. For a while, a lot of this
yeast did come from beer barm, but it wasn't well
(14:37):
understood and was very unpredictable. This is where the word
barm he comes from. Yeah, I love it. And producers
moved away from this yeast from beer barm. A eighteen
twenty four cookbook called a New System of Domestic Cookery
featured a recipe for Mrs Rundell's yeast, and it goes leslie.
(15:00):
Thicken two quarts of water with fine flour about three
spoonfuls boil half an hour. Sweeten with near half a
pound of brown sugar. When near cold, put into it
four spoonfuls of fresh east in a jug. Shake it
well together and let it stand one day to ferment
near the fire without being covered. There will be a
thin liquor on the top which must be poured off.
(15:22):
Shake the remainder and cook it up for us. Take
always four spoonfuls of the old to ferment the next quantity,
keeping it always in succession. Yeah. Yeah. Beer barm is
the kind of foamy stuff that happens on top of
a Vada beer that's brewing, And as you can possibly imagine,
just taking that can lead to other flavors and a
(15:46):
certain amount of unpredictability in Yeah, the microorganisms involved, not
that they knew at that point all the time, I mean,
you know, yeah, keeping it always in succession is a
great way to inter recipe, just saying. In entry from
the eighteen fifty five Canadian Settler Guide described the process
of getting bruise yeast and using it to make bread.
(16:06):
A story included in the guide tells of a woman
shocked that her neighbors didn't know how to make yeast.
Now she taught them this valuable piece of knowledge. Um,
and from that time they were able to make a lightbread.
The girl quote shrewdly remarking to her mistress that a
little help was worth a great deal of pity. Huh.
(16:29):
Enter Louis pass store in eighteen fifty seven, and he
figured out fermentation, and he believed that yeast were alive,
and we're behind this fermentation thing. Scientist Emil Hansson took
this research and expounded on it in isolating yeast into
its pure form. With the industrial revolution in full swing,
(16:50):
in eighteen seventy six, brothers Charles and Max Fleishman, yes
that Fleishman revealed their manufact yeast at the Centennial Exposition
in Philadelphia, which was attended, by the way by over
ten million people. It was a big hit, and in
nine they added a research lab to their New York
(17:12):
factory and it looked a bit different than we're used
to though, this yeast. At first it was sold in
kind of like these cakes, like yeast cakes. Yeah. Yeah,
they were moist too. And they went bad fairly quickly.
But going back to the Fleishman's for a minute, they
were immigrants. Charles was trained in yeast production and distilling,
(17:35):
and along with his businessman James Gaffe, they started mass
producing yeese at a factory near Cincinnati. After the yeast
ate the starter, it was rinsed, pressed into cakes, and
wrapped into foil. And that's where you get that. Before rinsing,
what they probably had was that cream yeast thing that
we were talking about earlier. Oh yeah, descriptions of the
(17:59):
texture of these yeast cakes remind me of like calin
clay or like some of the powdered like rice flour
cookies or candies that I've had, uh, sort of melt
in your mouth, but also sort of chalky and pasty,
and you know with that sour, stale beer smell that
you get off of a vegemiter marmite. So a lot
of things happening at once. Yeah, and yes, they were moist.
(18:24):
They were made of fresh yeast rather than dried yeast,
which is what you'll find in those little packets today
that you might buy in a store. And because of this,
they attempted to sell them quickly they would go door
to door. Charles and Gaffe also opened Fleishman's Distilling Company
to make gin with the grain alcohol left over from
yeast production. Smart very. While the development of refrigerated rail
(18:49):
cars was a boon for Fleishman's, the development of bread
you could buy in a store was nuts. So what
do they do? Hired a physiological chemistry professor to look
into the health benefits. This professor's article, published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association, claimed that eating yeast
(19:09):
could cure boils, acne and other skin ailments, and all
kinds of gastro and testinal distress, all cards. The association
of yeast with health food really took off in the
nineteen twenties and thirties when folks figured out that yeast
has a good amount of B vitamins. The word vitamin
(19:30):
wasn't coined until nineteen eleven. Yeah, when the word was coined,
no vitamins had actually been chemically isolated UM, and there
was some debate among scientists about whether vitamins existed at all,
But that did not stop food manufacturers like Fleishman's um
from marketing them, especially once they were confirmed to exist
(19:51):
and vitamins were all the age in the US around
this time. I had to include this ad copee. I
had to beer is good for you, but Schlitz the
beer was Sunshine Vitamin D is extra good for you.
I love it. It was. It was from a particular
Schlitz product, us Schlitz Sunshine Vitamin D beer from ninety six.
(20:14):
It's like sunny Delight, but with perfect I'm not sure
why we don't see that anymore. Yeas was touted as
a cure to all kinds of things. One ad for
Fleishman's yeas read this new yeast is the biggest advancement
in treating constipation in a generation. And then it would
help you quote break the cathartic habit, which, by the way,
(20:37):
is not like a nun pun. It is like taking laxatives. Right. Yeah.
Because because sluggish quote sluggish intestines at the time were
considered a serious affliction. Um or we're being called by
some people a serious affliction. I'm one British doctor wrote
in nine I should like to prescribe less feasting and
(21:00):
more yeasting. But can't you feast on yeasts? This is
the point I missed. The point of the ad copy.
It went over my head. And I will say, to
be fair, eating yeast cakes does work as a laxative,
So they weren't lying about that part. No, perhaps exaggerating things,
(21:22):
well exaggerating, I mean, not being entirely scientifically straightforward about
many other things. But the laxative effect they had down.
But there are a couple other things, just a few
that they claimed it would help with headaches, skin, hair loss, cold,
(21:44):
giving you pep. You're advised to consume a yeast cake
at least thirty minutes before eating to keep your digestive
track on track. Three yeast cakes a day, presumably, I
would imagine for three meals a day. A free pamphlet
pushed by Fleshman's was called Yeast Therapy and four million
(22:04):
were distributed. And here's another ad. I love the fastidious,
successful women of today know how to avoid the damaging
effects of clogged intestines. The health effects were said to
take months before anything noticeable happen. That's very convenient. Yeast
(22:25):
cakes were sometimes advertised as creamy, wholesome candy, uh and
that people should try a let's just buy of but
you had. Another ad described the taste as pungent and appetizing.
It was everywhere that fresh food was sold, like soda fountains, grocers, cafeterias.
You could eat them as is, or crumble them up
(22:46):
into water, milk or fruit juice. Tomato juice is the
one that I saw specified. You could also eat them
on crackers or in peanut butter or jam sandwiches. Yeah,
I suppose you could. I mean you couldn't not do that.
There were options and it was everywhere. But this push
to associate yeast with health was not done. It was
(23:07):
not and we will get into that after we get
back from a quick break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back, Thank you sponsor. All right. So this
campaign promoting yeast health benefits it was a huge success.
(23:31):
The marketing firm behind it launched a contest calling for
positive testimonials. Eight thousand responses rolled in like this one.
I am a mail carrier, and it may sound strange
that a man walking twelve miles a day, six days
a week should suffer from constipation. After the first month
of yeast eating, I noticed a remarkable difference. And when
(23:53):
Saturday night came, I still had some pep left Fleishman's
yeast has relieved me completely constipation, and I feel tip
top all the time. The campaign integrated photos of the
writers of these testimonial writers beginning in to be quote
absolutely accurate in every detail. But according to one of
(24:16):
the photographers working on this, that's not really what was
going on. He said he would go door to door
all over the city and would list the ingredients for
a good photo, a good shot, and these were quote ingenuity, tacked, eloquence, endurance,
(24:38):
and he said many of the people he was looking
up had moved, weren't in the city anymore, Many were sick,
many were too old, too young, too fat, or to
quote helplessly, ugly, helplessly that's harsh, sir. It is. Between
nine and nine Fleischman's net profits went up seventy five
(25:02):
cent sales were two point four or five pounds were
capita in the company accounted for almost nine of the
yeast industry in They started radiating their product to get
some vitamin D in there to further their vitamin cash.
A vitamin D was said to prevent quote soft boned,
(25:24):
weak muscled teeth, a prey to decay. Discovery of a
new strain of yeast that contained vitamin A, which reportedly
could help decrease your chances of getting a cold, also
was added in there. Yeah, and if you listen to
our milk bonus, those vitamins DNA were being added to milk.
At around the same time as more and more vitamins
(25:47):
and minerals were discovered, Yeast marketing got even bolder if
you could believe it, claiming it was better for you
than fruits and vegetables. Quote, it supplies protective substances, your
stomach bowles need to work properly, and that no other food,
even fruits and vegetables, gives you enough of them. Who Yeah.
(26:08):
These big claims raised the figurative eyebrows of the US government,
specifically the Federal Trade Commission the FTC. They sent Fleischmann's
a cease and assist letter in and seven years later
the FTC was victorious. Yeah, but at its height before
(26:29):
the crackdown, yeasts could prevent pimple's fairy tongue, fallen stomach, cure,
bad breath, elimination of crying spells, increase of the skins,
self disinfecting power, the sharpening of intellect, so many things
that they claimed it could do. One ad said it
(26:50):
restored a woman's ability to walk. Huh, yeah, they water
into wine. Actually, guess it turns juice into wine after
a while. M Why didn't they go all in on
that right? Missed opportunity. By the nineteen thirties, yeast was
a staple. The first crossbreeds of yeast entered the market.
(27:12):
Fleishman developed active dry yeast as a way to get
soldiers fresher bread during World War Two, and it was
a big deal. It didn't need to be refrigerated and
could be activated quickly. More and more improvements over the
next few decades had the raising time of dough eventually
lead to the corely Wood bread baking process in nine
s one. This is a high volume, continuous industrial process
(27:35):
that many say sacrifice flavor and texture for speed. Yeah,
and these days a lot of dry yeast is used,
but yeast cake or fresh yeast or compressed yeast is
still available. It does still need to be refrigerated and
will spoil even then after about two weeks, but some
bakers prefer it to dried yeast products, and professional bakeries
(27:57):
today often do use it. If you're looking to use
it in home baking, you might not find it in
consumer shops, but it's sometimes available online, or you could
ask your local bakery if you can buy some off
of them. Here in Atlanta, I hear that Star Provisions
will sell some to you from their bulk supply. Oh cool. Yeah,
the public lost access to end interest in eating yeast cakes, which,
(28:21):
as it turns out, is a good thing because after
all this drop off in fresh yeast availability around World
War Two. More recent research was done um by folks
with less of a steak and the results and it
revealed that eating living yeast is not beneficial. It's not
going to cure my crying spells and pimples. I'm sorry, No,
(28:45):
whatever will I do? I feel a crying spell coming on.
That is no substitute. I guess I'll just have to
let it out. Uh. Yeah, it's not good for you.
Don't eat fresh yeast cakes advice of the episode. But
(29:06):
the research community never gave up on yeast at large
as a nutritional supplement. In the late nineteen fifties, research
into the mineral selenium started showing that a it's an
important mineral for mammals like rats and humans, and b
that uh saccara mices Seravisier is a good source of it.
I think modern yeast nutritional supplements started as pills in
(29:30):
the sixties based on research like this, and by the
mid seventies, amid the rising trends of healthy living and vegetarianism,
tasty nutritional yust as we know it today started showing
up on store shelves. It was called out in a
number of cookbooks as a good substitute for cheese flavor
in non dairy recipes like tofu cheese and gravy throughout
(29:52):
the nineteen seventies, and by eighty it was being used
in package of vegetarian and vegan foods like a like
tofu soysage, sostage. Yeah, it was hard to single out
the history of nutritional yeast. Yeah, I oh man, Like
all all of these references that I collected at the
(30:12):
end here we're from like primary sources, like mostly marketing materials,
which I guess most of the research in today's episode
was from as far as I could find known as
really written a comprehensive history of how we got to
nutritional yeast and how I don't know I want to do.
I need to look into it more. Yeah, this is
(30:33):
what we found thus far, and I think it's a
pretty good overview. Oh and so much fun marketing. Yeah,
I love that old ad copy. Um, but that about
brings us to the end of this this episode on
nutritional yeast, and it brings us to listen. That was
(30:57):
an evolution reference that Lauren won't get as as we discussed,
it's one of the few movies she's walked out on.
But Selenium is a big plot point in it. Just
a f y I to anyone out there, all right,
Katie wrote, I recently listened to the gum episode and
quickly remembered a fascinating, albeit slightly disgusting attraction in the
(31:18):
town I currently go to school at. Yes, I attend
cal Poly in San Louis Obispo, California, and in downtown
s o l Are. You probably call it slow, but
I'm not from around there. Um is a place called
Bubble Gum Alley. It's an alley between some shops where
the walls are covered in thousands and thousands of pieces
of chewed gum. I didn't find out about this place
(31:40):
until a day or two after I moved into my
dorm freshman year. A group I was with for orientation
went downtown and Bubblegum Alley was one of the places
we stopped that Unlike some of the people I was with,
I refused to even step into the alley, simply preferring
to observe it from a foot away from the entrance.
But able to see the place in all his scory,
I was both horrified yet mesmerized by the site, as
(32:02):
I could not begin to imagine how many pieces of
bubble gum are on the walls. I recommend looking this
up online to see what it looks like if you dare.
For me. It was a small part of the things
I've experienced at college so far that I'm probably not
going to forget anytime soon. Oh no, I won't forget
that either. I'd be so afraid to touch gum. Oh yeah, yeah.
(32:27):
Both of us like like like retreated all of ours
to us. An Tonia wrote, I am a longtime listener
since your first episode on Champagne. Oh hi, who watched
the recently released film The Favorite It said in England
during Queen Anne's reign, so the very beginning of the
eighteenth century. Late in the film, as Abigail, played by
(32:50):
Emma Stone, revels at her fancy digs at the palace,
she proudly proclaims, my maid is on her way up
with something called a pineapple. I guess most viewers thought
it was just some random joke, as evidenced by this
time article uh explaining the lines historical context. But I
already knew about it having listened to your episode on pineapples.
(33:12):
That episode remains one of my favorites. Yeah. Oh, and
I still I My roommate and I are rewatching True Blood,
which I'm a little bit ashamed about, but man, I
love that goofy show. And uh, we're in the third
season right now where the King of Mississippi comes in
(33:33):
and he has this very fancy dining room that was
designed by his very fancy boyfriend. And uh, and there's
the centerpiece of this dining table is this tower of
fruit with a pineapple right at the top. And I
was like, show designers, you're doing it, you're doing it,
you're feeling it. You're my friends so happy the crown
(33:57):
a top this fruit tower. Well, kudos to them designers
on True Blood and also this movie the favorite um
I've mentioned before on the show. One of our coworkers,
Channeler he's really good friend. He's very excited about things.
He's always very excited. That's one of the things I
love about him. But he's always very excited about getting
(34:17):
me to see a movie. And right now he's trying
to get me to see the favorite. You've seen the favorite.
You've got to see the favorite. I can't believe you
haven't seen the favorite. All right, let's go check it out.
All right, it's got pineapple. Yeah, we'll laugh too loudly
at that part. Perfect. Thanks to both of them for
writing in. If you would like to write to us,
you can. Our email is Hello at savor pod dot com.
(34:39):
We're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at savor pud. We hope to hear from you.
We have a store online where you can buy like
T shirts and like laptop cases or I don't know,
like yeah, oh man, you can hold liquid in something
with a picture from us, not of of us. We
(34:59):
thought that would be creepy. Possibly, yeah, but it could
be a cup of liquid that says heck in bacteria poopy.
Wouldn't you want to drink out of a Mugga says that,
I know I would. I know you would too. The
store is UM is run by T Public, who helps
us with designs and they're mad geniuses. It's at t
(35:19):
public dot com slash savor. We hope to hear from you.
If you're into buying stuff I don't know, check that
out UM. Thank you as always to our super producers
Andrew Howard and Dylan Fagan. Thank you to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor. I'm An Eries and I'm
Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we're talking about nutritional yeast, which
apparently some people call neuch and I really don't like that.
I really do not like that. Okay, I did see
a recipe for Neutch show cheese dip, and I find
that straight delightful. Like I can't argue with newch Na. No,
(00:33):
I'm not on board. I can't even explain why, Like,
there's no particular thing. It doesn't sound nice. It does, Honestly,
nutritional yeast doesn't sound nice either, but it's but it's fine.
I mean it's but it is nice. It tastes very nice,
Actually it does. I I've used it quite a bit. Um,
not so much recently, but back when I was more
healthy than I currently am. Um, But I use it
(00:55):
as a cheese substitute kind of, because it does have
a flavor that can pass um. Yeah. I mean it's
good on its own, but if you're looking to cut
back on cheese, it is a way you could do that. Um.
And I remember making particularly like a lot of pastas
with it, and like topping it topping pasta. Oh yeah, yeah,
(01:15):
it's also good as a topping for popcorn. Well, I
love popcorn. Well sure, I was about to say that's
nothing's going to stop you from eating popcorn, but I
mean hopefully not. But this brings us to our question
nutritional yeast. What is it? Well, nutritional yeast is a
(01:36):
powder or flake that's kind of toasty yellow in color,
a cheesy or nutty and flavor, and is basically dried
yeast juice. That sounds so advertising. Allow me to explain.
We've talked on this show before about saccharo mices, Sarah
Visier like, we've talked a lot about it because it's
(01:57):
a strain of yeast that's used to from an grain
into beer and juice into wine. It's used to create
air pockets and flavor and bread. It's the act of
ingredient in vegemite and door marmite, and is also responsible
for adding flavors to a whole bevy of things, from
worse to shear sauce to chocolate, all those good things. Yeah,
do you want to do it? Worcester sauce, Hey, Worcester sauce.
(02:21):
Thank you, Lauren. It's like a major thing. I have
to do it. I have started mentally doing that now
since we did our episode on Worcester Sauce and I
still haven't seen I mean, that is literally the only
clip of that Scooby Doo series that I think I've witnessed.
So it's a powerful clip if you know. If you
have no idea what we're talking about, I guess either
google it or listen to that episode both probably both.
(02:45):
Yeasts are microorganisms that in mass humans can use as
like flavor and nutrition factories. It's sort of the opposite
of assembly line manufacturing. Like in an assembly line, you
have each unit on the line work on one small
step in a many step process of creating a large thing. Yeah,
in a yeast colony, you have many units each creating
(03:09):
a small thing simultaneously. By the sheer number of yeast
organisms that you can grow quickly and easily in a colony,
you can get a large amount of work done. It
sounds like it should be a children's movie. Oh man,
I would watch the heck out of a micro organism
(03:29):
related children's film. Y'all get on that. Yeah, be you,
me and maybe three other people. So good, we'd be
very enthusiastic about it. Yes, Okay, more ideas for children's books.
Here you go, yes um. In this case, the work
that you are asking a yeast colony to do is
to turn sugar into something better for us to eat
(03:51):
than sugar. When you feed yeast with cane sugar and
or beat molasses, they'll eat that and then use it
to create stuff that they need to grow of vitamins,
per teens, fats, fiber. Perhaps the key ingredient that's created
during this process is called glutamic acid, which is a
component of some proteins and is what you're tasting when
you experience the flavor savory, sometimes called umami. It's in meats, cheese, soy, mushrooms, tomatoes.
(04:17):
In its sodium salt form, it's um on a sodium
glutamate or M s g M. And this is the
flavor that is going to be at work in nutritional
yeast anyway. So to make nutritional yeast, you set up
a tank where your yeast factory can get to work,
and you wind up with a sort of fermented soup um.
You centerfuge out the bits you want, mostly like the
(04:40):
yeast cells, leaving most of the fermented behind, and you
wind up with liquid referred to as cream. Yeast the
terms in this episode or just very spectacular. I we
could set up some kind of like vote about whether
news or cream yeast is a worse newts creamy east
(05:05):
I could convince myself as like a cream sherry or something. Okay,
I mean I'd had to do some some mental gymnastics,
but I could do it alright. But creamy east is
a cool thing. Um. It could go on to become
Baker's yeast because it's still active and alive. But in
the case of nutritional yeast production, you're gonna want to
pasteurize this creamy east to deactivate or kill the east cells.
(05:30):
Then you slowly dry and or cook the cream yeast
and um, usually in roller drum dryers, which I just
learned about, and a really cool piece of machinery. Um,
they're these a steam heated drums, and you apply a
liquid to the outside of this heated cylinder. As it's
slowly spinning, it rotates and then creates a sheet of
(05:53):
dried material from the liquid. That sounds cool. It's just
really one of those simple things. Anyway, I can't mix um,
so yeah, yeah, you get the sheet of dried material
and then you mill that sheet to the flake or
powder consistency that you want, and then you package it. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you do. Yeah. It's like, well, I didn't realize all
(06:13):
this stuff went into nutritional yeast, but I probably should have.
It doesn't just like grow on trees. No, okay, well
not yet anyway, science one day, one day. Some manufacturers
will add extra vitamins at some point in this process,
maybe when they're feeding the yeast originally, maybe after pasteurization,
(06:35):
in order to boost the nutritional content of the final product.
Other strains of yeast can be used aside from that
one that I mentioned earlier, and researchers are psyched about
the particular nutrients and a few particular species maybe like
being able to help us feed and cultivate a really
a plus gut microbiome um. But yeah, sacromices Sarah the
(06:56):
Sea is the most common. It also sounds like either
a character in a fighting game, like a pirate ghost character.
I don't know why pirate ghost is what I'm seeing,
or like a demon. A pirate ghost is a surprisingly
frequent fighting character. Yeah. I think it's because a soul
caliber I suspect, so soul caliber is one of those
(07:18):
classics it's one of the ones that me and my
roommates still play. And it has a ghost character, doesn't
it. It It has a pirate ghost. Yeah. Oh my god,
I'm so used to my brain just banking up nonsense.
This is a pleasant surprise. Name is servante is something? Okay?
Well we got to the bottom of that mystery. Okay,
(07:41):
but back to a nutritional yeast. Yes, um, it contains
by the way, as I said earlier, but just to reiterate,
it contains no active yeast. Nutritionally yeast will not grow
in your food or in your body. It's super dead. Okay,
it is an ex yeast, all right. No zombies worries,
(08:04):
not that I'm personally aware of. Actually, that's when you
should be worried about zombie East science. We're giving a
lot of whole work to science in this episode. It
has a couple of other nicknames, apart from nootch um,
hippie dust or yes she yes do you think? Sure?
(08:25):
Yes she? In the US, savory East flakes savory with
a U. In New Zealand, along with rufe facts, Bon
Appetite called it nature's cheeto dust. Oh I like that?
Like oddly magical? Does it's a pretty heavily like man
made product. But so I'm not sure if nature is
(08:45):
the right word, but maybe man's cheeto dust. No, that's
what cheeto dust is. Anyway, woman's We can we can
get to the bottom of this later. Yes, the word
yeast might come from the Old English word gist or
gist in the Indo European word yes, which meant to boil.
(09:05):
And nutrition wise, it's a product that nutritionists and marketers
alike get excited about. A serving is two tablespoons or
about half an ounce, and compared with an equal amount
of like plain roasted chicken breast, nutritional yeast has twice
as much protein and a buttload more vitamins and minerals,
like way over your daily recommended value of several vitamins,
(09:27):
and lots of these are inconveniently bioavailable forms um, as
opposed to many meats where your body has to work
on processing them. So yeah, your body can use them
directly without having to make sure that you're pairing up
other nutrients to create those more other nutrients. Rights. Yeah, um.
It's also a decent source of fiber. It's low and
fat that can be a positive or negative depending on
(09:49):
what you're going for, but it does mean that um
nutritionally used does not provide some of the good fatty
acids and like specific minerals that animal proteins do commonly
contain if you are are using it as like a
nutritional supplement. By the way, it's better to eat that
two tablespoons, serving in like small portions throughout the day
rather than all at once, because your body can only
(10:10):
process so much of a given vitamin at a given time.
Anything over that you'll just excrete. So yeah, spread it out,
sprinkle it on everything, sprinkle it out throughout the rest
of your day. And oh man, side note, probably all
of us could stand to consult a diet ossian about
what we eat. But if you are choosing a vegan lifestyle,
(10:34):
please do your research, y'all. It's a valid thing, and
eating all or mostly plant and fungus based foods has
a lot of benefits. But getting a good complement of
nutrients just takes more mindfulness. So uh, you know, honestly,
if you're a vegan, you're probably into mindfulness and I
shouldn't really worry, but I do. We care about it.
We do. That's why we bring out these old lady
(10:56):
ghost voises. Those are boy system carrying. Oh oh, and
nutritional yeast is light sensitive, meaning that you should store
it in a cool dark place or in the fridge,
which I guess is a cool dark place when you
get down to it. I don't know what goes on
in my fridge. It could be light in their heck,
(11:20):
could be waiting, just waiting. I got a new fridge.
So hopefully if we look at numbers, one million tons
of yeast are consumed per year. That is total yeast
for like baking and beer and pharmaceuticals and biofuel everything.
(11:41):
That total market value, by the way, is expected to
reach five point four billion American dollars by two nothing
to sneeze. That a lot of yeast money. It is
a lot of dough. Oh, thank you, thank you. I
was right off the out of this old hold it
right here. Oh and while I'm talking about different types
(12:05):
of yeast products, I wanted to note that nutritional yeast
is different than supplemental brewers yeast, which is also a
deactivated yeast, but it's usually found in tablet form. Yes,
there's a lot of types of yeast. Oh yeah, that's
a different episode yes. Indeed, on a commercial level, nutritional
(12:26):
yeast can be added to processed foods, fish, meat, vegetarian
protein substitutes, um. It can be in package snacks or
in meals. It can be in dietary supplements. And nutritional
yeast as a flavoring or supplement is getting more popular,
but I am not sure by how much. I couldn't
find any numbers on that. Yeah, difficult to get specific
(12:48):
numbers on nutritional yeast. Um. But as we talked about
at the top, sort of, it can be used for
all kinds of things on toast surfas popcorn pastas, and
that's because of its flavor. Vegans do frequently use it
as a cheese substitutor. I hesitate to use words substitute
because it's more like you're trying to get the flavor right.
(13:09):
It's not right. Yeah, I mean it's nice. It's nice,
and that's what I'm trying to say. And it can
help products that you're making with nut milks or or
bean milks taste more like dairy milk. Yeah. It has
quite a long and interesting history, and I would say
about half of it is marketing and in a good
(13:30):
fun way. Yeah. Yeah, And we'll get into that after
a quick break for word from our sponsor, and we're back.
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, And we're back with
Antoine van numen Hook. Our hook according to rend and Stimpy,
(13:54):
is that which is I think? So? Yeah, that's the
sound reference that I'm working off of. That is so funny,
because didn't I mentioned another episode? It's some episode. It
all gets blurry up in here. But how looney Tunes
the source of much of my cultural knowledge? What was
the petras Eni episode? Anyway? One. Antoine van Lewin Hook
(14:16):
was the son of a brewer and often considered the
father of microbiology and one of the first microscopist, and
he was one of the first to observe yeast under
a microscope in sight ce probably clear, but just in case,
just in case. For a while, a lot of this
yeast did come from beer barm, but it wasn't well
(14:37):
understood and was very unpredictable. This is where the word
barm he comes from. Yeah, I love it. And producers
moved away from this yeast from beer barm. A eighteen
twenty four cookbook called a New System of Domestic Cookery
featured a recipe for Mrs Rundell's yeast, and it goes leslie.
(15:00):
Thicken two quarts of water with fine flour about three
spoonfuls boil half an hour. Sweeten with near half a
pound of brown sugar. When near cold, put into it
four spoonfuls of fresh east in a jug. Shake it
well together and let it stand one day to ferment
near the fire without being covered. There will be a
thin liquor on the top which must be poured off.
(15:22):
Shake the remainder and cook it up for us. Take
always four spoonfuls of the old to ferment the next quantity,
keeping it always in succession. Yeah. Yeah. Beer barm is
the kind of foamy stuff that happens on top of
a Vada beer that's brewing, And as you can possibly imagine,
just taking that can lead to other flavors and a
(15:46):
certain amount of unpredictability in Yeah, the microorganisms involved, not
that they knew at that point all the time, I mean,
you know, yeah, keeping it always in succession is a
great way to inter recipe, just saying. In entry from
the eighteen fifty five Canadian Settler Guide described the process
of getting bruise yeast and using it to make bread.
(16:06):
A story included in the guide tells of a woman
shocked that her neighbors didn't know how to make yeast.
Now she taught them this valuable piece of knowledge. Um,
and from that time they were able to make a lightbread.
The girl quote shrewdly remarking to her mistress that a
little help was worth a great deal of pity. Huh.
(16:29):
Enter Louis pass store in eighteen fifty seven, and he
figured out fermentation, and he believed that yeast were alive,
and we're behind this fermentation thing. Scientist Emil Hansson took
this research and expounded on it in isolating yeast into
its pure form. With the industrial revolution in full swing,
(16:50):
in eighteen seventy six, brothers Charles and Max Fleishman, yes
that Fleishman revealed their manufact yeast at the Centennial Exposition
in Philadelphia, which was attended, by the way by over
ten million people. It was a big hit, and in
nine they added a research lab to their New York
(17:12):
factory and it looked a bit different than we're used
to though, this yeast. At first it was sold in
kind of like these cakes, like yeast cakes. Yeah. Yeah,
they were moist too. And they went bad fairly quickly.
But going back to the Fleishman's for a minute, they
were immigrants. Charles was trained in yeast production and distilling,
(17:35):
and along with his businessman James Gaffe, they started mass
producing yeese at a factory near Cincinnati. After the yeast
ate the starter, it was rinsed, pressed into cakes, and
wrapped into foil. And that's where you get that. Before rinsing,
what they probably had was that cream yeast thing that
we were talking about earlier. Oh yeah, descriptions of the
(17:59):
texture of these yeast cakes remind me of like calin
clay or like some of the powdered like rice flour
cookies or candies that I've had, uh, sort of melt
in your mouth, but also sort of chalky and pasty,
and you know with that sour, stale beer smell that
you get off of a vegemiter marmite. So a lot
of things happening at once. Yeah, and yes, they were moist.
(18:24):
They were made of fresh yeast rather than dried yeast,
which is what you'll find in those little packets today
that you might buy in a store. And because of this,
they attempted to sell them quickly they would go door
to door. Charles and Gaffe also opened Fleishman's Distilling Company
to make gin with the grain alcohol left over from
yeast production. Smart very. While the development of refrigerated rail
(18:49):
cars was a boon for Fleishman's, the development of bread
you could buy in a store was nuts. So what
do they do? Hired a physiological chemistry professor to look
into the health benefits. This professor's article, published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association, claimed that eating yeast
(19:09):
could cure boils, acne and other skin ailments, and all
kinds of gastro and testinal distress, all cards. The association
of yeast with health food really took off in the
nineteen twenties and thirties when folks figured out that yeast
has a good amount of B vitamins. The word vitamin
(19:30):
wasn't coined until nineteen eleven. Yeah, when the word was coined,
no vitamins had actually been chemically isolated UM, and there
was some debate among scientists about whether vitamins existed at all,
But that did not stop food manufacturers like Fleishman's um
from marketing them, especially once they were confirmed to exist
(19:51):
and vitamins were all the age in the US around
this time. I had to include this ad copee. I
had to beer is good for you, but Schlitz the
beer was Sunshine Vitamin D is extra good for you.
I love it. It was. It was from a particular
Schlitz product, us Schlitz Sunshine Vitamin D beer from ninety six.
(20:14):
It's like sunny Delight, but with perfect I'm not sure
why we don't see that anymore. Yeas was touted as
a cure to all kinds of things. One ad for
Fleishman's yeas read this new yeast is the biggest advancement
in treating constipation in a generation. And then it would
help you quote break the cathartic habit, which, by the way,
(20:37):
is not like a nun pun. It is like taking laxatives. Right. Yeah.
Because because sluggish quote sluggish intestines at the time were
considered a serious affliction. Um or we're being called by
some people a serious affliction. I'm one British doctor wrote
in nine I should like to prescribe less feasting and
(21:00):
more yeasting. But can't you feast on yeasts? This is
the point I missed. The point of the ad copy.
It went over my head. And I will say, to
be fair, eating yeast cakes does work as a laxative,
So they weren't lying about that part. No, perhaps exaggerating things,
(21:22):
well exaggerating, I mean, not being entirely scientifically straightforward about
many other things. But the laxative effect they had down.
But there are a couple other things, just a few
that they claimed it would help with headaches, skin, hair loss, cold,
(21:44):
giving you pep. You're advised to consume a yeast cake
at least thirty minutes before eating to keep your digestive
track on track. Three yeast cakes a day, presumably, I
would imagine for three meals a day. A free pamphlet
pushed by Fleshman's was called Yeast Therapy and four million
(22:04):
were distributed. And here's another ad. I love the fastidious,
successful women of today know how to avoid the damaging
effects of clogged intestines. The health effects were said to
take months before anything noticeable happen. That's very convenient. Yeast
(22:25):
cakes were sometimes advertised as creamy, wholesome candy, uh and
that people should try a let's just buy of but
you had. Another ad described the taste as pungent and appetizing.
It was everywhere that fresh food was sold, like soda fountains, grocers, cafeterias.
You could eat them as is, or crumble them up
(22:46):
into water, milk or fruit juice. Tomato juice is the
one that I saw specified. You could also eat them
on crackers or in peanut butter or jam sandwiches. Yeah,
I suppose you could. I mean you couldn't not do that.
There were options and it was everywhere. But this push
to associate yeast with health was not done. It was
(23:07):
not and we will get into that after we get
back from a quick break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back, Thank you sponsor. All right. So this
campaign promoting yeast health benefits it was a huge success.
(23:31):
The marketing firm behind it launched a contest calling for
positive testimonials. Eight thousand responses rolled in like this one.
I am a mail carrier, and it may sound strange
that a man walking twelve miles a day, six days
a week should suffer from constipation. After the first month
of yeast eating, I noticed a remarkable difference. And when
(23:53):
Saturday night came, I still had some pep left Fleishman's
yeast has relieved me completely constipation, and I feel tip
top all the time. The campaign integrated photos of the
writers of these testimonial writers beginning in to be quote
absolutely accurate in every detail. But according to one of
(24:16):
the photographers working on this, that's not really what was
going on. He said he would go door to door
all over the city and would list the ingredients for
a good photo, a good shot, and these were quote ingenuity, tacked, eloquence, endurance,
(24:38):
and he said many of the people he was looking
up had moved, weren't in the city anymore, Many were sick,
many were too old, too young, too fat, or to
quote helplessly, ugly, helplessly that's harsh, sir. It is. Between
nine and nine Fleischman's net profits went up seventy five
(25:02):
cent sales were two point four or five pounds were
capita in the company accounted for almost nine of the
yeast industry in They started radiating their product to get
some vitamin D in there to further their vitamin cash.
A vitamin D was said to prevent quote soft boned,
(25:24):
weak muscled teeth, a prey to decay. Discovery of a
new strain of yeast that contained vitamin A, which reportedly
could help decrease your chances of getting a cold, also
was added in there. Yeah, and if you listen to
our milk bonus, those vitamins DNA were being added to milk.
At around the same time as more and more vitamins
(25:47):
and minerals were discovered, Yeast marketing got even bolder if
you could believe it, claiming it was better for you
than fruits and vegetables. Quote, it supplies protective substances, your
stomach bowles need to work properly, and that no other food,
even fruits and vegetables, gives you enough of them. Who Yeah.
(26:08):
These big claims raised the figurative eyebrows of the US government,
specifically the Federal Trade Commission the FTC. They sent Fleischmann's
a cease and assist letter in and seven years later
the FTC was victorious. Yeah, but at its height before
(26:29):
the crackdown, yeasts could prevent pimple's fairy tongue, fallen stomach, cure,
bad breath, elimination of crying spells, increase of the skins,
self disinfecting power, the sharpening of intellect, so many things
that they claimed it could do. One ad said it
(26:50):
restored a woman's ability to walk. Huh, yeah, they water
into wine. Actually, guess it turns juice into wine after
a while. M Why didn't they go all in on
that right? Missed opportunity. By the nineteen thirties, yeast was
a staple. The first crossbreeds of yeast entered the market.
(27:12):
Fleishman developed active dry yeast as a way to get
soldiers fresher bread during World War Two, and it was
a big deal. It didn't need to be refrigerated and
could be activated quickly. More and more improvements over the
next few decades had the raising time of dough eventually
lead to the corely Wood bread baking process in nine
s one. This is a high volume, continuous industrial process
(27:35):
that many say sacrifice flavor and texture for speed. Yeah,
and these days a lot of dry yeast is used,
but yeast cake or fresh yeast or compressed yeast is
still available. It does still need to be refrigerated and
will spoil even then after about two weeks, but some
bakers prefer it to dried yeast products, and professional bakeries
(27:57):
today often do use it. If you're looking to use
it in home baking, you might not find it in
consumer shops, but it's sometimes available online, or you could
ask your local bakery if you can buy some off
of them. Here in Atlanta, I hear that Star Provisions
will sell some to you from their bulk supply. Oh cool. Yeah,
the public lost access to end interest in eating yeast cakes, which,
(28:21):
as it turns out, is a good thing because after
all this drop off in fresh yeast availability around World
War Two. More recent research was done um by folks
with less of a steak and the results and it
revealed that eating living yeast is not beneficial. It's not
going to cure my crying spells and pimples. I'm sorry, No,
(28:45):
whatever will I do? I feel a crying spell coming on.
That is no substitute. I guess I'll just have to
let it out. Uh. Yeah, it's not good for you.
Don't eat fresh yeast cakes advice of the episode. But
(29:06):
the research community never gave up on yeast at large
as a nutritional supplement. In the late nineteen fifties, research
into the mineral selenium started showing that a it's an
important mineral for mammals like rats and humans, and b
that uh saccara mices Seravisier is a good source of it.
I think modern yeast nutritional supplements started as pills in
(29:30):
the sixties based on research like this, and by the
mid seventies, amid the rising trends of healthy living and vegetarianism,
tasty nutritional yust as we know it today started showing
up on store shelves. It was called out in a
number of cookbooks as a good substitute for cheese flavor
in non dairy recipes like tofu cheese and gravy throughout
(29:52):
the nineteen seventies, and by eighty it was being used
in package of vegetarian and vegan foods like a like
tofu soysage, sostage. Yeah, it was hard to single out
the history of nutritional yeast. Yeah, I oh man, Like
all all of these references that I collected at the
(30:12):
end here we're from like primary sources, like mostly marketing materials,
which I guess most of the research in today's episode
was from as far as I could find known as
really written a comprehensive history of how we got to
nutritional yeast and how I don't know I want to do.
I need to look into it more. Yeah, this is
(30:33):
what we found thus far, and I think it's a
pretty good overview. Oh and so much fun marketing. Yeah,
I love that old ad copy. Um, but that about
brings us to the end of this this episode on
nutritional yeast, and it brings us to listen. That was
(30:57):
an evolution reference that Lauren won't get as as we discussed,
it's one of the few movies she's walked out on.
But Selenium is a big plot point in it. Just
a f y I to anyone out there, all right,
Katie wrote, I recently listened to the gum episode and
quickly remembered a fascinating, albeit slightly disgusting attraction in the
(31:18):
town I currently go to school at. Yes, I attend
cal Poly in San Louis Obispo, California, and in downtown
s o l Are. You probably call it slow, but
I'm not from around there. Um is a place called
Bubble Gum Alley. It's an alley between some shops where
the walls are covered in thousands and thousands of pieces
of chewed gum. I didn't find out about this place
(31:40):
until a day or two after I moved into my
dorm freshman year. A group I was with for orientation
went downtown and Bubblegum Alley was one of the places
we stopped that Unlike some of the people I was with,
I refused to even step into the alley, simply preferring
to observe it from a foot away from the entrance.
But able to see the place in all his scory,
I was both horrified yet mesmerized by the site, as
(32:02):
I could not begin to imagine how many pieces of
bubble gum are on the walls. I recommend looking this
up online to see what it looks like if you dare.
For me. It was a small part of the things
I've experienced at college so far that I'm probably not
going to forget anytime soon. Oh no, I won't forget
that either. I'd be so afraid to touch gum. Oh yeah, yeah.
(32:27):
Both of us like like like retreated all of ours
to us. An Tonia wrote, I am a longtime listener
since your first episode on Champagne. Oh hi, who watched
the recently released film The Favorite It said in England
during Queen Anne's reign, so the very beginning of the
eighteenth century. Late in the film, as Abigail, played by
(32:50):
Emma Stone, revels at her fancy digs at the palace,
she proudly proclaims, my maid is on her way up
with something called a pineapple. I guess most viewers thought
it was just some random joke, as evidenced by this
time article uh explaining the lines historical context. But I
already knew about it having listened to your episode on pineapples.
(33:12):
That episode remains one of my favorites. Yeah. Oh, and
I still I My roommate and I are rewatching True Blood,
which I'm a little bit ashamed about, but man, I
love that goofy show. And uh, we're in the third
season right now where the King of Mississippi comes in
(33:33):
and he has this very fancy dining room that was
designed by his very fancy boyfriend. And uh, and there's
the centerpiece of this dining table is this tower of
fruit with a pineapple right at the top. And I
was like, show designers, you're doing it, you're doing it,
you're feeling it. You're my friends so happy the crown
(33:57):
a top this fruit tower. Well, kudos to them designers
on True Blood and also this movie the favorite um
I've mentioned before on the show. One of our coworkers,
Channeler he's really good friend. He's very excited about things.
He's always very excited. That's one of the things I
love about him. But he's always very excited about getting
(34:17):
me to see a movie. And right now he's trying
to get me to see the favorite. You've seen the favorite.
You've got to see the favorite. I can't believe you
haven't seen the favorite. All right, let's go check it out.
All right, it's got pineapple. Yeah, we'll laugh too loudly
at that part. Perfect. Thanks to both of them for
writing in. If you would like to write to us,
you can. Our email is Hello at savor pod dot com.
(34:39):
We're also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at savor pud. We hope to hear from you.
We have a store online where you can buy like
T shirts and like laptop cases or I don't know,
like yeah, oh man, you can hold liquid in something
with a picture from us, not of of us. We
(34:59):
thought that would be creepy. Possibly, yeah, but it could
be a cup of liquid that says heck in bacteria poopy.
Wouldn't you want to drink out of a Mugga says that,
I know I would. I know you would too. The
store is UM is run by T Public, who helps
us with designs and they're mad geniuses. It's at t
(35:19):
public dot com slash savor. We hope to hear from you.
If you're into buying stuff I don't know, check that
out UM. Thank you as always to our super producers
Andrew Howard and Dylan Fagan. Thank you to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way.
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Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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