Brewers Yeast Consumption

Question
Hi Evelyn,

How much brewer's yeast can I safely consume on a daily basis?  One tablespoon, one cup, etc.?

Sincerely,
Angel

Answer
Dear Angel,

Hello again. I am beginning to wonder what kind of diet you are on!
But I also am starting to suspect your questions might not necessarily relate to your personal situation, which makes it harder to answer succinctly.

Let me start by breaking down one of your assumptions. For some people yeast is not at all beneficial to consume - feeding all sorts of yeast infections like candida and repressing necessary inflammatory conditions (part of natural healing).So to think in terms of safe might miss some other vital points.

In a loaf of bread you would find about 15-20 g of fresh yeast. When bread contains eggs or butter it would be more around 25-30.I guess you could eat a block of yeast without keeling over, but you would not enjoy it! But eating an entire loaf is not recommendable at all.

I would recommend you read the labels on several brands of yeast tablets to find out more about recommended supplementary doses. Tablet or capsule form - not powder or a block of yeast-  would be the way to go for such a prescription - so forget (once again) your trusty table spoon, and thnk in terms of grams/ounces.

Only yeast extract is measured by a TEAspoon, since this can only be used in broths or as a sandwich spread (for those who love it, but many hate it)in TINY amounts, owing to the high sodium content.

You can find capsules up to 500 mg of B supplements made from brewer's yeast predominantly, which claim to provide you with the recommended daily intake; but bear in mind there are other ingredients (including the gelatine coating) which go into making up the weight. There can be no recommended official guideline for any single foodstuff, only the vitamins or minerals it contains. When it comes to calculating the needs for Vitamin B, you need to split this group up into many constituents (also known as B1 -12, but nowadays their proper names like niacin or thiamin, riboflavin etc are more commonly used also to indicate our needs for each one vary radically, making only the "organisational" property a single common denominator of the group. Yeast has six of the B vitamins, some iron, phosophorus and zink.

Whether yeast is ever unsafe, I don't know: perhaps a yeast allergy with a risk for anaphylactic shock exists. You would have to research that further. The oddest allergies are emerging daily. An overdosis of (raw) yeast, otherwise, is not likely, since you'll feel very nauseous when you have taken too much and simply vomit out the excess. Indeed, it is unlikely you can swallow any without gagging. Again, I cannot advocate that ingesting yeast is that healthy, though, since yeast on the whole increases fermentation processes of which we generally h . ave too many going on with our sugary and single carb diets.It must be considered as a medicine when specifically vitamin B is prescribed for health issues

Note also, yeast is amply found in traditionally brewed beer - for which there is a definite recommended daily, safe, ALLOWANCE. Your question begs me to point out that there are various, and good and bad ways to source one nutrient, SAFELY.

Just in case you do require this information for personal use, then let me remind you to look at the total picture of your diet to know what is the RIGHT amount for you personally. Measuring intake in terms of spoons and cups then becomes rather pointless. You will have to consider first and foremost why you should want to ingest (extra) yeast at all. Yeast contains a lot of vitamin B, which is good for your skin, and used to be recommended for acne in teens. Generally, this will not solve the problem much, in practice, since other factors contribute to adolescent skin problems. Other reasons for taking extra yeast remain controversial, and beware that one can take  vitamins in excess. This will tax your system unnecessarily. In weak or poorly people this could even cause health issues.

I often advise people to CUT down on their yeast intake,even opting for sourdough over yeast bread; and becoming mindful of the many sneaky ways we eat yeast (extract) in many processed foods.

If all this gives you more of an answer but less precision than you were hoping for, perhaps, you could context your next question so that I could answer more succinctly? Also, I will have to consider it a homework question, and these I am not allowed to answer for you - only with you, so you would have to provide me with half an answer yourself.

Take care,
Evelyn.

1. Prev:No carbs in the afternoon/evening?
2. Next:refrigerating the raw meat