Monday, August 4, 2014

Information On Brewer's Yeast (Saccharomyces Cerevisiae) - Helping Vitamin B Uptake

Information On Brewer's Yeast (Saccharomyces Cerevisiae) - Helping Vitamin B Uptake
Brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is an inactive yeast,
meaning the yeasts have been killed and have no leavening power. It is
the yeast remaining after beer making. It is used as a nutrient
supplement to increase the intake of B vitamins. Brewer's yeast comes
powdered (the most potent form), in flakes (best for health shakes),
and in tablets.


Brewer's yeast and torula yeast are frequently confused with
nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast is a primary grown food crop,
which means it is cultivated specifically for use as a nutritional
supplement. This yeast is dried at higher temperatures than baking
yeast, rendering it inactive. Unlike the live yeasts used in
breadmaking and brewing, nutritional yeast has no fermenting or
leavening power.


Brewer's yeast has been a staple of the health food industry since
its inception. The famous health teachers all advocated brewer's yeast
in one form or another because it is rich in the B-complex vitamins and
other nutrients that were not available as purified nutrients in the
past. Brewer's yeast still may contain nutrients that we have yet to
discover. Just about every ailment imaginable can be cured by brewers
yeast, according to some. There are many who say they couldnt get
through the day without a tablespoon of brewers yeast mixed with tomato
juice. Recently there have been negative claims, as well.


Some say yeast is the cause of a multitude of problems ranging from
chronic fatigue, memory disorders, immunodeficiency, endocrine
abnormalities, irritable bowel syndrome, allergies, cancer and much
more.



Don't confuse this with baker's yeast, which is used to make yeast
breads. Uncooked baker's yeast can rob your body of valuable B
vitamins. Beneficial nutritional brewer's yeast does not contribute to
yeast infections such as Candida albicans. Food yeasts are not
infectious. Nutritional yeasts are not live yeast cells.


Brewer's yeast, which has a very bitter taste, is recovered after
being used in the beer-brewing process. Brewer's yeast can also be
grown specifically for harvest as a nutritional supplement. Beer yeast
are contaminated with beer flavor compounds, most notably hops, and are
limited in their application for yeast extract production. They can,
however, be used in some qualities of commercial yeast extract. These
extracts are used both to provide specific nutrients to human and
animal food, and also to enhance flavor. The nutritional value of yeast
extracts makes a good bacterial growth medium. In some markets,
particularly Australia and the UK, specific human foodstuffs (Vegemite
and Marmite) have been developed from brewer's yeast and have provided
a convenient sink for surplus yeast.



Brewer's Yeast is a good source of Chromium and has been studied
extensively for its medicinal properties. Chromium works to lower
insulin levels and in fighting diabetes. It also has several other
minerals including selenium, zinc, phosphorus, and magnesium. It is
often used for loss of appetite. Supplement for chronic acne and
furunculosis. Symptomatic treatment of acute diarrhea and prophylactic
treatment of diarrhea during travel.


The artificial beta cell (ABC), a closed-loop insulin delivery
system, was used to determine insulin sensitivity. Progressively
increasing glucose loads were administered after initial stabilization
of the blood glucose at euglycemic levels such that the serum C-peptide
was suppressed. The amount of insulin required to maintain euglycemia
was considered a measure of sensitivity to insulin. Six stable maturity
onset diabetics were studied before and after supplementation with
chromium-rich brewer's yeast. All patients demonstrated an increase in
sensitivity to insulin as indicated by a decrease in the fasting blood
glucose concentration and a decrease in insulin requirement during the
glucose challenge (P less than 0.02). The data obtained support the
hypothesis that chromium or some other factor(s) present in brewer's
yeast potentiates the peripheral effects of insulin. It remains to be
established whether this effect occurs at the receptor or post-receptor
level.


Twenty-four volunteers, mean age 78, including eight mildly
non-insulin-dependent diabetics, were randomly allocated to one of two
groups and were fed (daily for 8 wk) 9 g of either chromium-rich
brewers' yeast (experimental) or chromium-poor torula yeast (control).
Before and after yeast supplementation, the serum glucose and insulin
response to 100 g oral glucose was measured at 30 min intervals for 2
h. Fasting serum cholesterol, total lipids, and triglycerides were also
determined. In the total experimental group (normals + diabetics) and
in both the diabetic and nondiabetic experimental subgroups, glucose
tolerance improved significantly and insulin output decreased after
supplementation. Cholesterol and total lipids fell significantly after
supplementation in the total experimental group. The cholesterol
decrease was particularly marked in hypercholesterolemic subjects
(cholesterol > 300 mg/dl). In the control group, no significant
change in glucose tolerance, insulin, triglycerides, or total lipids
was found. Cholesterol was significantly lowered in the nondiabetic but
not in the diabetic group. Thus, chromium-rich brewers' yeast improved
glucose tolerance and total lipids in elderly subjects, while
chromium-poor torula yeast did not. An improvement in insulin
sensitivity also occurred with brewers' yeast supplementation. This
supports the thesis that elderly people may have a low level of
chromium and that an effective source for chromium repletion, such as
brewers' yeast, may improve their carbohydrate tolerance and total
lipids. The improvement in serum cholesterol in some control subjects,
as well as in the total experimental group, also suggests the presence
of a hypocholesterolemic factor other than chromium in both brewers'
and torula yeast.


Epidemiologic observations and laboratory research have suggested
that dietary selenium reduces the risk of colon cancer.
Selenium-enriched brewer's yeast as a dietary supplement reduces the
incidence of and mortality from cancer of the colon in humans. It is
not clear whether the observed inhibitory effect is due to
selenomethionine, or to other forms of selenium, or to a mixture of the
selenium compounds present in selenium-enriched brewer's yeast...This
study suggests that other forms of selenium or a mixture of selenium
compounds present in selenium-enriched brewer's yeast need to be
evaluated for their chemopreventive efficacy.


It is also a good source of protein as has been shown in this study.
The purpose of this study was to increase the protein quality of
tortillas supplementing them with a protein concentrate obtained from
the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) cream from an alcohol distillery.
Rupture of the yeast cell wall was studied, and a procedure for
obtaining a high percentage of broken cells from the yeast was
developed. A protein concentrate was obtained from the cell-wall free
portion. Techniques were developed to obtain the protein concentrate
with a low level of nucleic acids. The latter were reduced 91%, and the
protein increased 55% with respect to the initial yeast. Different
levels of protein concentrate were added to dough made from corn of the
Nutricta variety. The resulting tortillas were submitted to a taste
panel for sensory evaluation, and the results were statistically
analyzed. The highest level of supplementation that did not affect
negatively acceptation by the panel was 18% dry weight. In the
tortillas with the highest acceptable level of supplementation, protein
content increased 60% when compared to the control tortillas, and a
significant improvement in lysine content was observed. Nucleic acid
content was low, having been reduced to levels which did not represent
a limiting factor for the use of yeast in a product destined for human
consumption.


Known Hazards: Not to be used in case of yeast allergies.


Sensitive individuals may experience migraine-like headaches. Some
individuals with intolerance may experience itching, urticaria, local
or general exanthemas, and Quincke's edema. Oral intake of fermentable
yeast may cause flatulence.


May cause an increase in blood pressure with simultaneous intake of
monoamine oxidase inhibitors. Simultaneous intake of antimycotics can
affect the activity of the brewer's yeast.




  • Carolyn J. Lackey, Ph.D., R.D. Yeast, brewer's. The
    Notebook of Food and Food Safety Information, The National Food Safety
    Database .

  • Dr Russell Peel. PAST, PRESENT AND POTENTIAL USES FOR SURPLUS BREWERY YEAST. Carlton & United Breweries Ltd

  • Use
    of the artificial beta cell (ABC) in the assessment of peripheral
    insulin sensitivity: effect of chromium supplementation in diabetic
    patients. Gen Pharmacol (ENGLAND) 1984, 15 (6)

  • Offenbacher
    EG, Pi-Sunyer FX. Beneficial effect of chromium-rich yeast on glucose
    tolerance and blood lipids in elderly subjects. Diabetes 1980
    Nov;29(11):919-25

  • Reddy BS, Hirose Y, Lubet RA, Steele VE,
    Kelloff GJ, Rao CV. Lack of chemopreventive efficacy of
    DL-selenomethionine in colon carcinogenesis. Int J Mol Med 2000
    Apr;5(4) :327-30


  • de Arriola MC, de Zepeda M, Rolz C. A
    protein concentrate from distillery yeast, and its application to
    supplement corn tortillas. Arch Latinoam Nutr 1989 Dec;39(4) :565-75






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