It seems to hit everyone at one time or another during the day: the craving for a snack. Maybe it’s a way to deal with the mid-afternoon slump most people have or a way to make up for not eating enough lunch or dinner. For some, it’s a way to combat boredom. Whatever your reason, nooch popcorn is a great way to curb those snack cravings.
What Is Nooch Popcorn?
Nooch popcorn is a healthy, nutritious, tasty mixture of popcorn and seasonings topped with nooch, which is another name for nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast is a specific kind of yeast that has been used for centuries in seasoning foods and for adding significant nutritional value to those foods.
Before making nooch popcorn, you need to know more about nutritional yeast and why it’s so good for you. This kind of yeast is not used for baking and is different from brewer’s yeast. Nutritional yeast is grown on molasses. Then, after it’s harvested and washed, it is treated with heat to stop it from growing.
Nutritional yeast is yellow in color and can be found as flakes, powder, and granules. Often, you can find it with the condiments due to its taste and ability to be added to most foods. Its taste is similar to cheese with a nutty tang. It can be used to thicken soups and sauces or as a substitute for cheese in vegan diets.
Benefits of Nutritional Yeast
Whether you use it in nooch popcorn or as a topping for other foods from pasta and salad to oatmeal and casseroles, nutritional yeast has many benefits for your health.
It is a complete protein and a great source of many nutrients. One serving is about two tablespoons and contains the following:
Roughly 45 calories
About 5 of these calories come from fat
Carbohydrates – 5 grams
Protein – 8 grams
Sodium – 25 milligrams
Fiber – 4 grams
Riboflavin – 570% of daily need
Niacin – 230% of daily need
Thiamin – 640% of daily need
Vitamin B6 – 300% of daily need
Folate – 60% of daily need
Zinc – 20% of daily need
These nutrients have big benefits for your body. Nutritional yeast has been used with success for managing a variety of health problems and for boosting and supporting overall well-being.
It aids in strengthening and preserving your immune system. Several of the compounds contained in nutritional yeast are beneficial in strengthening your immune system. Beta 1,3 glucan, trehalose, mannan, and glutathione help improve your cholesterol levels, reduce your risk of cancer, and boost your immune system.
It contains properties that are antiviral and antibacterial in nature. In Germany, nutritional yeast is frequently used because of these antiviral and antibacterial properties.
It aids in digestion. Nutritional yeast has been used in Germany to deal with diarrhea and loss of appetite. There have been studies conducted regarding its use in benefiting the digestive system as well. Probiotics contained in nutritional yeast have been used with promising results in dealing with diarrhea.
Nutritional yeast has significant levels of protein and thiamine. Nutritional yeast has nine of the 18 amino acids your body can’t produce. This is very beneficial for vegans who have difficulty getting enough protein in their diets. Thiamine and other B vitamins combine to help in the regulation of the cardiovascular, endocrine, and digestive systems.
It aids in developing and maintaining healthy skin, hair, and nails. The multitude of B vitamins in nutritional yeast provides this benefit.
It does not significantly affect blood sugar levels. There is no added sugar in nutritional yeast. It’s high in fiber and low in carbohydrates so it digests slowly.
It contains a high concentration of B vitamins. These vitamins help convert food into fuel to assure you of a continuing source of energy. They are valuable nutrients working for your optimal health.
It’s a good source of zinc. This nutrient aids in maintaining good blood sugar levels. It also aids in strengthening your immune system and helps keep a sufficient level of energy in your body.
It contains magnesium. This nutrient helps your digestive system, your metabolism, and the health of your heart.
It contains chromium. This nutrient helps you maintain good blood sugar levels.
It’s a good source of fiber. This helps with regulating blood sugar and keeping your digestive system functioning well.
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Craving Sweet, Salty Snacks and Chronic Stress
If you have been craving a lot of snacks recently, especially sweet or salty snacks like nooch popcorn, it could be due to the effects of stress on your body. If this is the case, you may want to look for other ways to help your body balance out the rollercoaster ride that stress gives your hormones.
When you are under stress, your body responds with activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The endpoint of this activation is secretion of cortisol, the stress fighting hormone, by the adrenal glands to fight the effects of stress. With continuing stress, the adrenals become overburdened by the demand for more cortisol. Eventually, the adrenals become fatigued and can not produce sufficient cortisol to fight stress. This is when the many symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome (AFS) begin. At first, they are vague and difficult to pinpoint. As the symptoms continue, they worsen and can lead to debilitation.
Conventionally trained physicians often don’t recognize AFS as a “real” condition or don’t know how to adequately assess and remediate it. They focus on individual symptoms or organs and not the underlying issues. A more comprehensive approach is the NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) stress response. This approach says there are six organ systems that interact in the body. What affects one of these systems affects one or more of the others. The six systems are the hormonal, neuroaffect, metabolic, cardionomic, detoxification, and inflammatory systems. This approach allows healthcare practitioners to adequately assess and remediate the underlying causes of adrenal fatigue.
One of the symptoms of AFS is cravings for sweet or salty foods. Part of the reason for the craving for sweet foods is the lack of cortisol in your body. As the adrenals become more fatigued, their ability to secrete sufficient cortisol to fight stress significantly decreases. One of the jobs of cortisol is to regulate blood sugar levels. With too little cortisol in your bloodstream, blood sugar levels fall, leading to hypoglycemia. This triggers your craving for sweets to increase your blood sugar.
Consuming sugary foods does increase your blood sugar and gives you a rush of energy. However, this increase in blood sugar triggers your body to require more cortisol from your adrenals to counter it. This puts more stress on the adrenals, resulting in a lower output of cortisol. This vicious cycle continues as long as you give in to the craving for sweets.
Cravings and the Brain’s Reward Cascade
Meanwhile, the energy rush consuming sugar gives you only lasts for a short while. This desire for more energy also comes from the feeling of fatigue you experience with AFS. The crash that occurs about two hours after consuming the sugar may be worse than the lack of energy you felt before it.
Consuming good foods that raise blood sugar levels slowly and digest slowly to keep them there is a good remedy for stopping this cycle.
Cravings for salt are also a symptom of AFS. This may come as a result of low aldosterone levels with this condition. With low aldosterone, sodium is removed from your body with your urine. A good way to deal with this craving is to indulge in eating nooch popcorn. It gives you the salt your body needs without additional calories.
Nooch Popcorn Recipe
This simple nooch popcorn recipe is a basic version. Feel free to try a variety of different spices and toppings to match you and your family’s tastes. Just keep the nutritional yeast and the salt the same, and add whatever other flavorings you enjoy.
Prep Time: 5 minutes, Cook Time: 5 minutes, Total Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
½ cup white popcorn (will yield about 16 cups, depending on how well it pops)
2 tablespoons of olive oil, rice bran oil, or grapeseed oil
Toppings
¼ cup nutritional yeast, flakes, granules, or powder
½ teaspoon salt or to taste
¼ to ½ teaspoon spices to taste. You might try chipotle powder, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, or others
Method:
Mix topping ingredients together in a small bowl, then set it aside.
Pour the oil of your choice in a medium stock pot with lid. Heat it over medium-high heat.
Once the oil is hot, add the popcorn and cover. As it is popping, shake the pot occasionally to be sure all the kernels are covered with the oil. When the popping slows to about 3 seconds between pops after roughly three minutes, remove from heat. An air popper or microwave can also be used to pop the popcorn.
Pour the popcorn into a large bowl and sprinkle with the toppings. Be sure to mix well to spread the spices evenly.
You can serve the popcorn hot or place in a covered bowl to serve later.
Conclusion
When you need a snack that satisfies your craving for salt and sweets nooch popcorn is a great choice. It fills you up without adding a lot of unneeded calories. It is easy and quick to prepare. You can vary up the spices for different tastes. And the nutritional yeast, or nooch, packs a ton of health benefits including fiber, protein, and B vitamins that can help balance out your energy levels. Eat up!
