5 Reasons To Eat Nutritional Yeast & The Best Ways To Add It To Your Diet

If you've heard of nutritional yeast and want to learn more, you've come to the right place. Below, you'll find everything you need to know about this tasty addition to foods: what it is, why it's good for you, and how to use it. 

This nutrient-rich member of the fungi family is a deactivated form of a yeast strain known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It's typically grown from sugar cane, beet, molasses, or another carbohydrate medium. Once it ferments naturally, it's harvested and dried. The process deactivates the yeast, stopping its growth and rendering the nutrients available. Then it's made into flakes, granules, and powder that's sold in supermarkets, health food stores, and online.

Nutritional yeast (informally referred to as "nooch") comes from the same strain of yeast as baker's and brewer's yeast, but it's distinctly different. Baker's and brewer's yeasts are alive but dormant, whereas nooch is inactive, or dead (aka it won't make your bread rise). Also, brewer's yeast tastes bitter, whereas nutritional yeast has an appealing, cheesy flavor similar to that of Parmesan.

Its salty, umami quality and nondairy status have made nutritional yeast incredibly popular among vegetarians, vegans, and dairy-intolerant people looking for a healthy seasoning and alternative to real cheese. Nooch makes some of its own vitamins but is often fortified with B vitamins to help cover your nutritional bases—especially important if you're a vegetarian or vegan. Make sure to seek out organic nooch—it's usually the highest quality. 

This cheesy addition to foods has quite the impressive nutritional profile (hence its name). Check out what you'll get in a 5-gram (about 1-tablespoon) serving:

Here are five of the best health benefits of nutritional yeast:

This essential vitamin is found primarily in meat, poultry, fish, and eggs, making it a challenge for vegetarians and vegans to get enough. It's critical that we get enough B12, as our bodies need it to support healthy nerves, DNA, red blood cells, and our detoxification pathways. In one study1, food and supplement sources of B12 helped vegetarians prevent B12 deficiency.

One tablespoon of nooch provides more than a day's worth of vitamins B1, B2, and B6, along with significant amounts of niacin (B3), folic acid, and other important nutrients. The B vitamins are critical for the body to produce energy and support metabolism, among other functions.

Nutritional yeast is considered a complete protein, meaning that it contains all nine essential amino acids we need to get from food because the body can't make them. (Amino acids are the building blocks of protein.) There aren't a lot of plant-based foods that contain all nine. 

Anyone with celiac disease or gluten intolerance will appreciate nooch for its lack of gluten, the pesky protein found in wheat and other grains that can cause serious reactions in people with these conditions. 

Nutritional yeast is a low-glycemic-index food, so it won't spike your blood sugar levels. High-glycemic-index foods can lead to blood sugar "crashes" and contribute to serious health issues over time, so low-GI foods are the way to go.

You may be wondering if nooch is related to a less desirable type of yeast—candida, which can cause vaginal yeast infections and other unpleasant symptoms when overgrown. Rest assured that nutritional yeast doesn't contribute to candida—it's an entirely different species of yeast.

Nooch is fine for nearly everyone, but Crohn's disease sufferers may be the exception; according to some research2, it can make symptoms worse. Also, some research says that those who suffer from migraines should avoid nutritional yeast.

Nutritional yeast can offer those who consume it a healthy dose of vitamins, and it may help support the immune system in endurance athletes, who can be more susceptible to infection after hard-core exercise. In one study, runners taking the equivalent of a spoonful a day of nutritional yeast following a marathon cut their rates of getting an upper respiratory infection in half compared to the placebo group. They reported feeling better overall, too. 

Nooch's salty, savory flavor and cheesy texture lend itself well to savory foods, from snacks to main dishes. (When you first start adding nooch to foods, use a small amount to avoid digestive upset that could be caused by the fiber it contains.) Here are a few of our favorite ways to use it: 

If you've made it this far, you now know that nutritional yeast is a tasty way to make your healthy diet even healthier, with research supporting many of its benefits. For vegetarians and vegans especially, it's a great source of much-needed vitamin B12 and protein, along with other nutrients. Shake it on, stir it in, and reap the benefits of this buzzworthy, cheesy new friend.