Bread is a staple of the modern diet. It is a staple in our daily lives and many people eat some type of bread with most of their meals. Years ago, when I realized that bread was actually to blame for my bloating and indigestion, I started investigating if there was a way to keep bread in my diet.
There were many choices in bakeries and markets, but none of them delivered any results for my digestion due to their poor ingredient choices and baking practices. I decided to make the best bread possible at home and the following can serve as a guide to making better health choices for you, your family and friends.
Left: 100% sourdough bread. Right: 100% einkorn sourdough bread.
1. Use only organic flour and grains
I consistently find that my sourdough starter is best when the flour is organic, without any pesticides, preferably biodynamically produced, clean and freshly milled. So your starter is a great indicator of how good your flour is and how stressed the plant was while growing.
I have tested most of the conventional store bought flours that I can get my hands on. In some cases, the flour was so weak in life/processed that it was not even possible to make the beginning of sourdough.
2. Source of ancient grains
Modern wheat has been heavily hybridized, with the aim of increasing yields, avoiding plant diseases and pests, and being more resistant to certain weather conditions.
Plant hybridization has been practiced for centuries and the truth is that most of the plant foods we consume every day are hybridized in some form or fashion. Hybridization usually occurs through the selection of desirable and heritable characteristics that are either dominant or recessive genetic traits. In the case of modern wheat, as a result of hybridization, the structure of gluten has changed significantly, which may have caused the increase in the number of people with gluten intolerance.
Good examples of ancient grains are einkorn, khorasan, emmer (or farro – an ancient type of wheat) or spelt. These grains are naturally lower in gluten content.
You can find the recipe here 100% einkorn sourdough bread AND Sourdough Poppy Seed Bread Cake.
Einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum) is one of the first forms of wheat cultivated by humans. That being said, einkorn is also a husked grain and thus requires an additional processing step called threshing in which the husks are removed. The body has an important role: it can protect the grain from stray chemical pollution and insects, making organic growth easier.
3. Use sourdough starter for bread yeast
Using sourdough starter helps you avoid potentially harmful commercial yeast. Microorganisms in your starter thrive in high-quality flour, producing vitamins and converting the starch and micronutrients in your flour into more available and nutritious food for you.
Even when you don't have an option to use the best possible flour, studies show that pesticide residues are significantly reduced in sourdough. For example, one study found that the concentration of pesticides was reduced by 42% by lactic acid bacteria. Thus, the lactic acid bacteria in sourdough bread may protect you to some extent from pesticide exposure.
4. Take it with a smile
High fructose corn syrup, soybean oil, xanthan gum, maltodextrin, calcium propionate, cellulose fibers, bleaches and other chemical dough conditioners, added sugars, artificial flavors or colors and GMOs and the bread has no taste or harmful effects on our body.
Remember, to make the simplest bread you only need three ingredients: flour, water and salt. And moreover, the use of natural ingredients brings more vitality and joy to our daily life.
5. Knead your dough
No grain comes without its natural ingredients like phytic acid. Phytic acid is the major storage form of phosphorus in many plant tissues, especially in the bran portion of wheat and other seeds. It contains the mineral phosphorus tightly bound in a snow-like molecule. However, present in cereals in such form is unusable for our body and phosphorus is a vital mineral for strong bones and good health.
In humans and animals with a stomach, phosphorus is not readily bioavailable. The “arms” of the phytic acid molecule also bind to other minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc, making them unavailable to you as well. Phytic acid not only traps important minerals, but also inhibits the enzymes we need to digest our food (pepsin, amylase, trypsin).
There is a solution to this.
The key to neutralizing the effects of phytic acid is the enzyme that breaks down the phytic acid and releases the nutrients. This enzyme is called phytase and co-exists in plant foods that contain phytic acid. The solution to activate the phytase enzyme and neutralize the phytic acid in the grains is lactic acid fermentation.
