I was looking through my email from Eat This Not That, which you can get too if you simply click on their offer to let them have your email address. In one article about new super-foods, I saw that one of the rising stars is nutritional yeast.
I was transported back to the Sixties, when I read for the first time the pioneering book Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit by the all-time queen of nutrition, the great Adelle Davis.
I am effusive in praising her because she did so many things right. She bucked the trend towards industrializing the food supply—an ongoing disaster—and advocated fresh, raw, certified foods over prepared or processed foods. She went on speaking tours at least every year and also maintained a consulting practice.
I actually saw her once in Evanston, Illinois, when she made a speaking appearance in connection with Northwestern University. Her books, which also include Let’s Cook It Right, formed the framework of the approach that I took towards cooking and eating from my twenties onwards.
Davis was a promoter of nutritional yeast, which is a form of yeast that is stable and does not “rise,” or reproduce itself in such a way that it emits gas which would ordinarily lead to the leavening of bread dough. It is a powerhouse of nutrition and you can find many ways to incorporate it into your diet, but I want to include one thing: Adelle Davis’ Pep-Up.
This is a drink that you can make once you have picked up some rather esoteric ingredients. If you are shopping for them you might want to stop by one of the hard-core nutritional stores that are devoted to supplements and specialty foods rather than the food stores. Oddly enough, you can find them in Tucson’s malls because they are very popular with the workout crowd. But you aren’t looking for bulk-up or weight-loss offerings.
The first thing that Davis specifies is certified raw milk. If you read labels carefully you can find it even in health-food stores, and for the lactose-intolerant goats’ milk would do in this case.
Next you are looking for nutritional yeast. Ask about it at the store to save hunting. It will be in a canister and when shaken it will sound like a fine powder.
The next ingredient specified is Magnesium Oxide. This should be bought loose, in powder form. Don’t get capsules and then be forced to break them down.
Last of the health-store ingredients is Granular Lecithin. You can get lecithin in capsules—I used to take them—but you want a powdered form that will mix into your Pep-Up. Now you are ready for the recipe:
ADELLE DAVIS’ PEP-UP
Ingredients:
1 quart skim, low fat, or whole organic milk, preferably medically certified raw whole milk
1 teaspoon to ½ cup nutritional yeast , depending on whether you are a beginner or a veteran
¼ to ½ cup powdered organic milk (not instant)
1 tablespoon organic soy, peanut, or safflower oil or mixed vegetable oils (not olive oil)
½ teaspoon magnesium oxide
1 tablespoon granular lecithin
1 or 2 large organic eggs
½ cup frozen, undiluted organic orange juice or ½ cup organic apricot nectar or grape juice or ½ organic banana or 3 or 4 tablespoons chunk pineapple or frozen berries or any strong-flavored fruit
Stir or blend together and drink.
This is going to taste pretty much like a smoothie until you start increasing the yeast. Try to add more every week and give yourself time to get used to its peculiar taste. When I first started drinking Pep-Up I thought that I would give it a trial period of two weeks.
Well, in two days I was a rocket ship and I depended on it for years. But unfortunately I also developed my severe resistance to milk and eventually I gave it up. It would be worthwhile to experiment with organic soy milk and soy powder.
If you would like to obtain soy powder, try searching it online and it will come up. Organic soy milk is widely available in Tucson, with or without fruit flavors.
Pep-Up reminds me of a remark that Helen Gurley Brown made about her cupboard of supplements and health food, in that it could probably generate life in a statue. Of course you are going to think that I exaggerate, but I don’t and if you tend to feel poorly and have chronic low energy, pep yourself up with Pep-Up and you will thank Adelle Davis forever.
Comments