Hello, I'm Monica Rinegal, and you're listening to The Nutrition Diva Podcast Welcome.

My editor, who is way cooler than me, has been hanging out on TikTok lately, and she says

she's seen lots and lots of videos about cooking with Satan.

Apparently, this meat substitute is having a bit of a moment, but I think there are still

plenty of people who are still unfamiliar with this ingredient.

I mean, what the heck is it? How does it stack up nutritionally, and how do you eat it?

Satan, it's spelled S-E-I-T-A-N, is not a new thing. The word is Japanese, and it was coined

about 50 years ago by one of the proponents of the macrobiotic diet. But the food that it refers to

has been a staple in Asian cultures for at least 15 centuries. I remember seeing it, but not buying

at the food co-op that I belonged to as an undergraduate at Boston University.

Now, that wasn't quite 15 centuries ago, but it was still long before the days of whole food

stores and yoga studios on every corner. Back then, food co-ops and health food in general

occupied sort of a fringe culture leftover from the age of Aquarius.

Today, of course, it's another story. Plant-based and plant-forward diets have become relatively

mainstream, and you're much more likely to run across Satan at your local grocery store.

It's often next to the tofu or the plant-based meat alternatives. If your local grocery doesn't

carry it, you might need to seek out a health food store, a food co-op, and yes, they still exist,

or an Asian grocer. You can even make your own, and I'll have more about that in just a minute.

Satan is most frequently used as a meat substitute in vegetarian diets. It has sort of a stringy,

chewy texture that makes it a fairly good substitute for meat. Unlike some meat substitutes,

however, it's actually a decent source of protein, but the source of the protein might surprise you,

because Satan is made from wheat gluten. Yes, you heard me correctly. This health food consists

...