With Thanksgiving fast approaching, people are looking for ways to wow their friends and families with their mashed potatoes. Traditional mashed potatoes are already fantastic, but you can always count on someone posting a TikTok video about how to make them better. Unfortunately, the advice being given this year could be a big problem for some people. According to several TikTok videos, adding yeast to cooked mashed potatoes is supposed to make them fluffier and give them a savory, bready flavor. When yeast is mixed with milk and added to mashed potatoes, the carbon dioxide bubbles do their magic, changing the texture and flavor of the potatoes and making them rise into a fluffy mass. Unfortunately for some people, adding yeast to mashed potatoes can be dangerous. That’s because neither the mashed potatoes nor the milk gets hot enough to kill active yeast cultures, and digesting active yeast can cause gastrointestinal issues, including bloating, cramps, constipation and diarrhea. It may also increase the risk of fungal infections, especially in people who are critically ill or have a compromised immune system. The dangerous part is that some people may not realize that yeast has been added to the mashed potatoes, leaving them unaware that the fluffy mass might give them more of a surprise than they wanted.
