Where does nutritional yeast come from?

I was casually sharing a delicious cheese substitute recipe that contains nutritional yeast when I was asked, "What is nutritional yeast?"

I answered with, "Its a type of yeast, but I don't know where it comes from."

Its funny, all those years as an ingredient-conscious vegan and I did't really know the answer. I could tell you all about why you shouldn't eat things with red 40 in it because its made from crushed up red bugs and to avoid using shampoo containing urea because it probably came from horse pee, but I couldn't explain an ingredient that I've used hundreds of times!

All I knew is that its a tasty ingredient that can be added to cheese substitute and other recipes or used as a condiment in order to supplement the much needed B-vitamins vegetarians and vegans sometimes miss from the absence of meat in their diets. I've always known it to be "good for you" even if you're an omnivore so I recently started adding it back into my diet.

It turns out that "Nutritional yeast is a form of deactivated yeast called "saccharomyces cerevisiae." It is made by mixing sugarcane and beet molasses, then harvesting, washing, drying and packaging the yeast."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutritional_yeast

Well, that's simple enough! Although I'm not vegan anymore, I do believe that much of our food is deficient in the vitamins we need. Besides, most of us eat too much dairy anyway, so a good cheese substitute is essential to have in your recipe arsenal. If you'd like to try my delicious cheese sauce substitute recipe that can be used in mac and cheese, broccoli rice casserole, on pizza... whatever!!! Here it is:

Modified from "the Compassionate Cook"

1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 and 1/2 cups boiling water
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari
1 and 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
pinch of turmeric
pinch of paprika
1 cup nutritional yeast flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the margarine in a medium pot over low heat. Beat in the flour with a whisk over medium heat until the mixture is smooth and bubbly, then whisk in the boiling water, salt, soy sauce, garlic and onion powders, turmeric, and paprika. Cook until it thickens and bubbles, then whip in the yeast flakes. Add salt and pepper to taste.