Auzāne says that yeast is essentially a mushroom – like mushrooms or mushrooms, only yeast, unlike the mushrooms we read in the forest, is microscopic: “It grows like small individual balls. What is important about yeast – usually in the context of food with yeast we mean a specific species of bread yeast or “saccharomyces cerevisiae”.”
There is a lot of yeast in the world, because the word “yeast” refers to all the microscopic fungi that grow in this way – as small, individual balls. There are yeasts that grow on plants, those that “eat” fruit and are found in animals and humans.
Bread yeast contains high-quality proteins, amino acids, carbohydrates, group B vitamins, provitamin D, various minerals such as zinc, selenium, manganese and molybdenum, as well as other valuable trace elements.
However, yeast is more often used in bread making not because of its nutritional value, but because of its function. When we add it to the dough, the yeast starts to “eat” the dough and releases gases, which makes the dough rise and makes the final product, such as bread, airy and gives it a pleasant texture and taste.
It should be taken into account that the yeast begins to die at a temperature of +50 degrees, so also when baking bread, but the added nutritional value of the yeast remains in the product.
“All the same amino acids that make up protein in yeast are preserved. Also minerals. The product may have small losses of vitamins, but it also depends on each vitamin, as some of them are more stable at high temperatures. For example, vitamin B2 is stable, but others degrade slightly, ”says Auzāne.
The fact that the yeast has died is not scary, the expert adds. It can be eaten safely, and after baking it can no longer grow in our body. For example, if a fresh potato is placed in the ground, it begins to grow, but if fried or boiled, then no. And so it is with yeast.
Bread yeast sold in stores is also unnatural. It is the same as found in homemade bread yeast. In the factory, live bread yeast is grown from the beginning, then washed, concentrated, pressed and then placed on store shelves. “Home-made bread yeast must be fed regularly, because microbes are very active in this yeast. Compressed, wet yeast cake – the bread yeast is ready for use, it falls asleep a little and is calmer, ”adds Auzāne.
But if it is dried under certain conditions, then dry yeast comes out.
The expert noted that some people are worried about eating yeast. The main reasons for the negative health effects of yeast are the fact that yeast weakens the immune system, causes allergies and various ailments in the digestive tract. Some even mention that it can promote tumors.
These myths, she said, are due to the fact that the difference between bread yeast and those that can cause various health problems in humans is not understood. These are very different types of yeast. “If, however, a person has some reasons why he does not want to eat yeast, for example, in very rare cases there may be an allergy to yeast that can be diagnosed by a doctor, then you can choose, for example, flatbreads, which can be made without yeast,” at the same time calling attention to the composition of such products, as not all flatbreads are made without yeast.
