Hacker News Reader

Comment by ianai | Hacker News Reader

Want protein? Get some nutritional yeast. You can add it to almost anything and get as much protein as you like. No fuss, no mess, no cholesterol, and cheap. No fat too.

View on HN

It's not cost efficient compared to whey protein.

4.5oz Nutritional yeast from Bragg gets you 50g (25 servings of 2g) of protein in the entire container for $7.29. That's about 15 cents per gram of protein.

ON Gold Standard Whey gets you 1776g (74 servings of 24g) for $55.04. Thats about 3 cents per gram of protein.

An entire $7 container of nutritional yeast is also only 50g total which is actually less than an entire days worth of protein for an adult male.

It just doesn't scale.

I've found I can get nutritional yeast comparatively cheap from the local co-op bulk bin. But full ACK that not everyone has such an option.

But... you can also get it online for fairly cheap! Here's a pound for less then 12 dollars. IME a pound goes a long way. https://www.amazon.com/Frontier-Co-op-Nutritional-Yeast-Flak...

Let’s not forget that dairy is heavily subsidized and created in larger scales.

There’s also ripple-nutritious pea milk. The unsweetened, original flavor has no carbs and factually more protein than really needed for a bowl of cereal.

How do eggs compare with yeast and whey and other protein foods, on your parameters?

Nutritional yeast has very little to no fat. Eggs and whey have large amounts of saturated fats and cholesterol. Yeast has no cholesterol.

Thanks. Whey too? I thought it was a by-product of making cheese (or paneer) and so would have little fat.

The bulk food store two blocks away sells nutritional yeast for $10 per pound. At 454 g in a pound and nutritional yeast about 50% protein, I calculate 4.4 cents per gram of protein.

Plus it's 25% fiber, no factory farming, fortified with B-12 and I love the taste mixed into stews.

I’ve mixed it into spaghetti sauce too.

But a very strong taste, no?

Yes, it's best to use nutritional yeast for savory foods. It really does bump up the umami flavor pretty well, and I think it tastes good, but I actually use it more for the flavor than for any nutritional aspect. Common uses in my kitchen:

- Using it with salt and water makes a kind of chicken broth'y flavor. - Butter or margerine on toast, then sprinkle nutritional yeast on top. Doesn't sound like it'll be good but a friend introduced this to me and it's one of my favorite snacks. - Add to tomato sauce for a "meat drippings" like flavor. For an easy and cheap spaghetti bolognese use TVP, nutritional yeast, a dash of tarmari, and your usual tomatoes and oregano and basil. - Of course, a lot of people use it as fake cheese... you can make a "nacho cheese" type flavor out of it easily

Tons more uses.

I’ll mix it with Hindu/Indian rice and olive oil. It scratches the fried chicken taste/texture.

>- Using it with salt and water makes a kind of chicken broth'y flavor. - Butter or margerine on toast, then sprinkle nutritional yeast on top.

Australians have something called Vegemite which they use like you say, on toast. (British too, with Marmite.) It's even mentioned in a song by the band Men at Work - "vegemite sandwich" or some such phrase - heard it as a kid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegemite

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegemite#In_popular_culture

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmite

There are two books I have found that have recipes for vegan cheese. Nutritional yeast is a common ingredient. Eventually I'm going to try some of the recipes.

Nutritional yeast also has some health benefits beyond the standard nutritional content.

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/nutritional-yeast-to-preven... https://nutritionfacts.org/video/preserving-immune-function-...

That's just silliness.

Why?

While an additional 6-8 tablespoons of nutritional yeast sounds like a great addition to my day, it's going to get old before the end of the week.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com