Vitamin-rich nooch reduces calories, and leaves a lingering savoury taste

Nutritional yeast is not a good name. “Nutritional” suggests “good-for-you” which suggests “tastes-terrible” and if we think about the taste of yeast at all — as opposed to bread or beer made with yeast — it is of sour, over-fermented foods, with the added anxiety about yeast infections.

This could be why fans now call it “nooch”. And over-cute as that sounds, there are good reasons for more people to join them. Nooch is richly beneficial, packed with vitamins, proteins and fibre, low in calories and actually tastes good, with a cheesy, nutty flavour that leaves a lingering savoury taste.

And you have tasted it. If you look closely at the ingredients panel on many food products, like packaged soup or flavoured crackers, you often find “yeast extract” or “torula yeast”, which are versions of nutritional yeast used to add a subtle meaty or cheesy flavour. Nutritional yeasts are packed with glutamic acid, which gives that elusive delight of umami, the savoury flavour.


Nooch is made from the Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain of yeast, which is also used for baking and brewing. It is usually grown on molasses and then dried and deactivated —you aren’t risking yeast infections by eating it. Nooch is a rich source of most, but not all, B-complex vitamins and commercial versions are usually extra fortified to provide them all.

It is not a new product. Interest in edible yeast grew in the 1940s when a world at war was desperate for new sources of food. Germany led the way and Nazis experimented on feeding concentration camp prisoners yeast as a food to see if it could supply their troops. It didn’t work, but interest in edible yeast survived this dark episode.

In 1945, The Times of India, published a report about the Indian central government agreeing to build a food yeast plant. An expert was quoted on how it could benefit the poor: “one pound of food yeast will provide enough high-grade proteins and vitamin B concentrates for 45 days.”

The value of yeast had already been shown in Bombay almost 20 years earlier when Lucy Wills, a medical researcher, had studied dietary deficiencies among the wives of mill workers. Away from the leafy greens they would have eaten in their villages, the women’s health suffered — until Wills gave them Marmite, the notoriously strong-tasting food paste made from brewer’s yeast. This led to the identification of folate, or vitamin B9 , as the vital missing ingredient in their diets.

Despite this healthy history, Marmite has never found many takers in India. Its strong taste overwhelms the umami flavour, which the milder taste of nooch does not. It finally became popular for itself in the 1960s, when the vegetarian hippies found it as an easy way to boost flavour in their food. It is available in India now and really worth trying. Try sprinkling nooch on popcorn, in scrambled eggs or making a savoury dip with soaked cashews. It tastes too good to let its nutritional benefits come in the way!