Is Sourdough the Right Bread Choice for Your Diet and Lifestyle?

Let's dig deeper and find out

Is sourdough the right bread choice for your diet?

This seems to be a pretty popular question these days. With sourdough bread trending really high right now, everyone wants to get on board and eat the good stuff.

Sourdough has been around for thousands of years. It is not a modern-day delicacy from COVID days like everyone makes it out to be. The Ancient Egyptians made sourdough thousands of years ago. Actually, until commercial yeast was invented in the early 20th century all bread and beer were fermented using wild yeast cultures.

The burning question on everyone’s mind is “should I eat sourdough and is it good for me”?

This is a YES & NO answer

I know, how could I possibly say that eating sourdough is not good for someone. Everyone says it is the best choice. Well friends, sometimes people are wrong. I’ll tell you why here shortly.

Let’s talk about why you should eat sourdough first.

It has many good things going for it including

Benefits to eating sourdough

• usually made with organic grains (no nasty chemicals)

• slowly fermented (easier to digest)

• gluten proteins are partially broken down because of lengthy fermentation

• typically made with stone ground flours (hello nutrition)

• does not contain additives or preservatives (if you purchase from a small baker/bakery)

• has a longer shelf life because of the acidic nature of the bread

• tastes absolutely amazing

To make great sourdough a baker should use organic grains. We do, and there is an important reason why. Organic grains are still alive. There are many cultures of wild yeast living on the grain which lends to high microbial activity in bread. Non-organic or conventionally grown grains are considered dead. The grains have been sprayed with glyphosate which desiccants all living fungi, and microorganisms living on the grain as well as in the soil. Furthermore, conventional flour has been bleached with chemicals. The bleaching is supposed to serve many purposes.

Advantages of bleaching

• Improved appearance

• Extended shelf life

• Stronger gluten network

  
  

The disadvantages of bleaching are

• left over chemical residue

• nutrient loss in flour

• altered flavour

Stone ground grains have beautiful textures and tastes as well as being nutrient dense. With natural aging, stone ground flour contain many of the same attributes as chemically treat flour. You just have to give it a little time to age. We will talk more about grains and flours in another blog coming soon.

Commercially made bread VS Small scale bakers 

Now there is a difference between commercially made sourdough (mass production) and small-scale sourdough production. Larger manufacturers use a percentage of commercial active yeast in their sourdough recipes. This is to control production rates. Sourdough can be a temperamental creature at times. Commercial yeast maintains predictable outcomes. These larger companies are making so much product that they have to cheat and use ingredients that will in turn provide them with identical results each and every time.

Small scale bakers on the hand use traditional and time-honoured methods of preparing sourdough. No shortcuts are taken. The goal of the small-scale baker is not producing mass quantity, rather producing high quality, great tasting and better for you bread.

Read the label next time you purchase a loaf of sourdough at the grocery store. If it says active yeast than you are looking at a loaf of “SOURFAUX”. Put that loaf down and go to your local baker. Ask them how they make their bread.

Having problems eating sourdough? This may be why.

You are still wondering though, why would someone not be able to eat sourdough. Let’s talk about some of the reasons here.

• Celiac disease

• Wheat allergy

• Histamine intolerance

Celiac disease is no joke. Just like anaphylactic shock is no joke for those other allergies. It will not kill you if ingested, but it will deteriorate your gut at a rapid rate and make digestion an absolute nightmare, plus you risk long term complications if you do not remove gluten from your diet. It is incredibly painful for those that have it, and these folks must be extremely cautious about cross contamination.

Those with celiac disease suffer from a chronic digestive and immune disorder that damages the small intestine. This inflammation is triggered by eating foods that contain gluten. Yes, even foods that contain small amounts of gluten can have a serious side effect. Gluten is the protein that is recognized for making big lofty soft loaves of bread. It is the muscle that provides strength and stretchability to dough. Gluten free grains do not have the same characteristics because of the lack of gluten, therefore resulting in tighter crumb structures and denser bread.

Wheat allergies are different than gluten allergies. If you have a wheat allergy, then you are allergic to the plant and grain itself. An allergy to wheat presents itself like all other common allergens.

• hives

• itchy skin

• congestion

• rashes

• upset stomach

It does not affect your gut lining like gluten does if you have Celiac disease. The two are very different, yet many folks consider them the same.

Histamine Intolerance. Have you ever heard of this? Yup, it’s a real thing. Not many folks suffer from this, but it is a problem for some. In our house, a couple of us suffer from eating food high in histamines. Histamine intolerance stems from your body not being able to digest histamines in your diet leading to gastrointestinal and allergy-like symptoms.

If you have a histamine intolerance you will react to foods that are fermented, left overs, and foods that are naturally high in histamines.

Our bodies are supposed to be balanced, but many are not. If you have excess histamine in your gut, there are supplements that you can take to help balance out your levels. The best way to avoid excess histamines for those that suffer from this intolerance is to eat a low histamine diet. This would inherently be avoiding sourdough, plus a few other items

• sourdough

• fermented foods & drinks

• left over cooked meat

• processed meats (cured with curing salts)

• various fruits & vegetables (spinach, strawberries, tomatoes)

• aged cheeses

• smoked meats & fish

There are always pro’s and con’s to any food product. You just have to be a good listener and pay attention to what your body is telling you.  It takes time to understand what your body likes and dislikes. Food journalling is a great tool to help you along this journey.

We hear time and time again that folks have a hard time eating bread. That makes sense because we still eat a lot of mass produced bread. This has been a norm for too long. Mass produced food contains a lot of chemicals and preservatives that our bodies cannot digest. As a living creature our digestive system has not evolved fast enough to keep up to the onslaught of additional chemicals that we consume on a daily basis through food.

Take a step back and look at what you are eating and how it is produced. Try eating food that is prepared in traditional ways, grown in healthy soils, and cared for every step of the way. You will find that your body will digest and tolerate them with little to no repercussions.

In conclusion,

When we take care of our bodies our bodies will take care of us. When we listen to what our bodies enjoy eating, we will live a much more comfortable life. Slow down, listen and learn. Your body will thank you for it.