Benefits of Nutritional Yeast

Just recently I have been introduced to nutritional yeast. One of the families I nanny for use it on toast for the kids, but call it "cheese". After all, what kid wants to eat something called nutritional yeast over cheese? tricky! My mom is extremely limited on what she can eat and last week tried nutritional yeast in a "macaroni and cheese" meal. She can't have grains, dairy, sugars or meat. So the mac n cheese was good, but nothing like real mac n cheese. Moving on... this morning I decided to try the "cheese" on my toast and all I can say is yum! This stuff is good! Not only does it have a cheesy taste, but it also has many benefits. One serving (I believe is 2 Tablespoons- more than enough for 2 slices of toast) is a complete protein! This is tremendously helpful to my mom who is limited in her protein choices. It is low in both fat and sodium, and a great source of vitamins, especially the B-complex vitamin, as wel as folic acid, selenium, and zinc. Some producers of nutritional yeast offer it fortified with Vitamin B12. It is used by many vegans who are looking for additional protein and vitamins. Nutritional yeast can be found in the bulk section of most health food stores. Luckily we have a plethora of them here in Santa Cruz. Even if nutritional yeast didn't have any benefits, it is tasty enough to hold its own. The fact that it includes multiple benefits makes it extra impressive. If you have never tried nutritional yeast, I recommend you get a small bit to try it. There is nothing scary about it, except the thought of running out!

Going Gluten Free

For the past five years or so (maybe even longer) I have been having horrible stomach issues. The Army doctors put me on all sorts of acid reflux meds. When those didn't work they had me try multiple brands of acid relief pills. Those still didn't work. A couple years ago while living in Maryland I had to go to the ER for unbearable back and stomach pain. With one guess the doctors there figured out that I had a rotten gallbladder. It needed to come out. stat! They removed it and although it did relieve my pain, I started noticing horrible cramping (way worse than period cramping) after I would eat. I couldnt figure out what was causing the cramps. They didn't appear only when I ate fried food, or any specific item- so I thought. I would have bad cramps if we ate at home or went out. If we had spaghetti or cereal. It was extremely frustrating, but I thought it was just a byproduct of not having my gallbladder anymore. Since moving in with my parents we have discovered (what I think) is the issue. Wheat. When my dad was young he was allergic to wheat and couldn't eat it. I am thinking I have always had an intolerance to it. According to my research, if a person who has a gluten (wheat) intolerance has any sort of major surgery (gallbladder definitely qualifies) the symptoms can be magnified after recovery. Which would explain why I have only noticed the horrible cramps since my gallbladder surgery. This year my dad (who had grown out of his gluten allergy) has gone back on the gluten free diet. He motioned for me to join him, and figuring I had nothing to lose except pain, I accepted. Its been over a month that I have been gluten free and let me tell you- no cramps! none! The other day I got a bit relaxed and had a cookie thinking there was minimal flour and I wouldn't be able to tell. wrong! Lets just say that I wont be having a cookie for a while again. I am looking forward to starting this gluten free plan in hopes that I will feel better. Already I have more energy than I can ever remember. I feel that so many of my medical complaints over the past 5 years are explained in the gluten intolerance. According to livestrong.com "Gluten intolerance can sometimes manifest as unexplained infertility". Why was this not presented when all the infertility specialists couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting pregnant. I was so tired of "everything looks great" or "we don't know why you can't get pregnant". According to the book The Wheat Belly (which I am currently reading) a symptom of gluten intolerance is "incapacitating cramps" yes! I had been describing my cramps as so bad that if you are driving you need to grip the wheel of the car and hold on. Or if you are walking you need to stop and hold on until the cramps are gong. incapacitating indeed. With so many life changing events going on right now, it is nice to have hope. Hopefully I will not get burnt out trying to find gluten free foods. Hopefully I will be seeing even more benefits than I can see now. I am not sure how it will effect the blog, but I look forward to sharing gluten free successes (and failures) with you. Stay tuned.